succeed. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal." It will never do for a minister to keep his check-book, and mark off one after another as personal enemies, the moment he tions of hostility or dislike. discovers any indicaNo pastor, however popular at first, or however commanding his talents may be, can hold his place with any sort of comfort for three years, who, when he sees a known or suspected opposer coming on the same side of the street, either meets him with a kind of perpendicular defiance, or, to avoid him, passes over to the other side. Most of your salary will be expended, as you go along, for the support of your family, and of course you will have occasion to purchase many things of farmers, market-men, merchants, &c. I would advise you to buy of your friends, when it is convenient, and when you can get the article at a fair price. They will rather expect it, and will often put their goods lower than you can get them elsewhere. If any, however, should show a disposition to take advantage of you, either in the sale of goods or in the settlement of accounts, because you are a minister and cannot contend, take care how you put yourself into their power a second time. It may not be prudent to make a word of complaint, but it will always be right to protect yourself against future impositions, by not wanting any thing they may have to sell. Let me advise you rarely to "beat down the price" of any article you wish to purchase, particularly from one of your own congregation. It will expose you to the reproach of being sharp and screwing in a bargain. Better to lose a few dollars in a year, than to get such a name. If you think the article too dear, leave it, and purchase where you can trade to better advantage, or contrive to do without it for the present. In this way it will soon be known that you understand when you are unfairly dealt by, though you do not choose to notice it. Be economical in your dress, in your living, and in all your family expenditures. Some ministers, as well as other individuals, purchase things which they could very well do without, because they are cheap -as when a merchant is selling off his goods at cost, or when old household furniture is sold at auction. If you could have access to their garrets and back sheds, you would find not a little rubbish stowed away here and there, which cost money, but which is of no use whatever. It was a great bargain, and that is all the good it will ever do them. Live, if possible, within your income. It is not right for ministers any more than other men, to contract debts, when they have no reasonable prospect of being able to pay. If their salaries are inadequate, and their people able to give them more, and will not, it may be a good reason for going where they can be supported, but not for throwing the burden upon creditors, nor for embarrassing their own families, after they themselves are dead. Better to live on very plain food, and to deny themselves many conveniences. But while I strongly recommend economy, there are limits beyond which a minister cannot go without exposing himself to the charge of parsimony, and in this way impairing his usefulness. There is a style of living, of dress, of furniture and the like, in e.ery parish, which is regarded as respectable, and it will not do for the clergyman and his family to fall below it. He must wear a decent coat, and live in a decent house, and set a decent table, and entertain his brethren decently, when they call to see him, or he will lose the respect of his own people, and with it the power of doing them good. I call that minister economical, who makes the most of his income within the limits of convenience and respectability; who brings up his children in habits of industry and economy; who is saving without being parsimonious, and generous at the expense, not only of superfluities, but of some conveniences. If he is known to have other considerable sources of income besides his salary, he may indulge himself more, always maintaining a conscientious regard, however, to the effect of his example, and taking care rather to fall below the amount which he might annually expend and keep within bounds, than to exceed it. But I must hasten to another topic. Use hospitality. In genuine hospitality there is nothing inconsistent with strict economy. Here you must be an example to your flock. As long as you have a loaf to divide with your wayfaring brother, make him welcome to your table. "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." I know it may be said, that this is laying a heavy tax upon the ministry, and opening a wide door for imposition. Drones, we shall be told, there are among preachers, as well as other classes of men-candidates whose services nobody wants, and who will be sure to tax your hospi This I tality beyond all reasonable endurance. cannot take upon myself to deny, nor that in soliciting subscriptions for their own benefit, the publishers of religious books and their agents may sometimes make themselves inconveniently welcome in the families of poor clergymen. But you must not make too much of cases like these, lest it should be ascribed to covetousness. Some of the very men who complain that their pastor impoverishes his own family, or taxes his parish by keeping a great ministerial tavern, would be the last to commend him for closing his doors against such customers, and setting a smaller table. Indeed, who is there that does not, after all, love to see his minister hospitable; and how reproachful to the clerical profession would be the contrary example. Better to wear and brush your coat a few months longer; better to make the well worn furniture or family vehicle do for another year, better, when you have no company, to content yourself with rather plainer fare than you could wish, to eat coarser bread and use less coffee, butter, sugar, &c. than not to have a plate and a bed always ready for a friend or a respectable stranger. Ministering to the necessities" of the virtuous and pious poor, is another duty which devolves upon you as a christian pastor. Benevolent members of your church and congregation will sometimes make you the almoner of their bounty, but not often enough to excuse you from laying aside something from your own income. When you are going to visit an indigent family, particularly in sickness, try to think of some little comfort to carry along with you. If you find that anything is wanted, which they have no means of getting, leave them something to purchase it with, or else send it by a trusty hand, as soon as you get home. It is impossible to specify the amount which you ought annually to give to the poor, or how much at any one time. This must depend partly upon your ability, and partly upon their characters and necessities. The virtuous and industrious poor have the first and highest claim; and it will depend on circumstances, whether the idle and vicious have any claim at all. Every dollar you lay out judiciously in this department of benevolent action, will be better invested, than if you had lent it upon bond and mortgage, at a hundred per cent. I must not omit to add, that those great christian enterprises, which are the glory of the present age, will have imperative claims upon you as a minister and a christian. You may not be called upon by your Divine Master to go and set up the standard of the cross on a heathen shore, and the utmost you can give will be but a mite in comparison to what is demanded for the conversion of the world. But remember, my dear son, that God will hold you responsible for whatever influence you can exert, to bring up the church to the standard of her duty. The ministers of that glorious gospel, which they are commissioned to preach at home, and which must be preached to all nations, before they can be converted, have it in their power to do more towards raising the necessary funds, than any other class of men-might I not add, more than all other classes |