Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-10-21
Published by Request
Duties Of the Churches to the Min
istry.
from the New York Observer.]
BY REV. NICHOLAS MURRAY, D. Z

perhaps, sufficiently set forth the i'm
portance of the Christian ministry to
all the institutions Of men, civil, NOR
al, Intellectual, social, as well as relig-,
ious. Other professions are important
rightly to adjust and to keep a-going
the great machinery of society, but the
Christian ministry is indispensable. 1t
is that powerlin the absence of which
the entire machinery becomes derang-
ed. 1t is ordained of God for the very
highest purposes, and has its divine
and just claims on the Church and peo-
pie Of God. e.
1t is the duty of the Church to sus-
tain its minister. There is scarcely
any need Of discussing this point, as it
is not questioned by any who admit the
ministry to be of divine appointment,
or by very few such. It is the law Of
the Church, and of its head, that "they
who preach the Gospel should live of
tho Gospel" To Hve Of the Gospel
does not mean support up to the point
of merely living-the point just above
that of starvatien-it means kind and
liberal support, such as other men get
in the service of communities or of men,
and suited to their place and position.
A minister should be placed above want;
his support should enable him to be
honest, hospitable, charitable-to edu-
cate his children, and to make some
provision for old age, so that when
voice, and energy, and strength fail
him, he may not go forth penniless,
dependent on the cold charities of even
good men. When the Saviour sent
forth his apostles, he told them to
"provide neither gold, nor silver, no:
brass in their purses nor scrip neith-
er two coats, neither shoes, nor yet
staves." These were to be provided
by others, and for the all-suficient rea
son that the workman is worthy of his
hire. And Paul, in writing to the Cor
inthians, devotes a large part of the 9th
chapter of the First Epistle to an argu-
ment on this very topic. The God who
has instituted a Church and minis
try, has also, from the beginning, Or
dained for that ministry an adequate
support. And so, with few exceptions
the Church universal believes. Nor is
there church in the land, however
small, which, in securing the services
Of minister, does not promise some
thing in the way Of an "adequate
worldly maintenance"
Nor has church a right to defrauo
their minister Of what they promise, OIL
to be careless in meeting their engage
ments with him, more than they have tt
defraud any body else, or to be careles;
in meeting note in the bank. True
there is no penalty annexed to failure.
but God usually Furnishes it in his owr
way. A people mean toward theil
minister-that screw him down to the
last crust-that fail to meet his wants
and their promises punctually, break
down his spirits, and are usually as the
heath in the desert. They are a NEAR
people on whom, as on the sandy des-
ert, all culture is bestowed in vain
Every church owes an adequate sup
port to it's minister, and they have nc
more right to withhold it than they
have to steal, or to worship idols
"Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth Of
the OK that treadeth out the conn., is
command which no people can VIC
late without injury to all the interests
involved.
And yet to what an extent are thu
obligations Of the Church to sustain
the ministry violated As rule, thu
ministry is a starving profession, es-
pecially in these United States. Ii
those branches Of the Church which re.
quire an educated ministry, a young
man in the pursuit Of lucrative bus
mess is converted; he feels that he i:
called to preach the Gospel; he spends
six or eight years in training for thu
great work. All the time he has beer
rising in thoughtfulness, in knowledge
in sensibility, in character, in fitness
for any Of the higher positions in life
and yet when prepared to be pastor
he is offered stipend which retail
Broadway merchant would be ashamed
to offer to a clerk, and often not ;
fourth or fifth Of what a jobber in dry
goods gives to a salesman Or book
keeper! Two pious young men were
clerks in the same store. One, by fa1
the most gifted, entered the ministry
the other kept on measuring tape anc
calico. The minister is useful, beloved
but poor and obscure /; the other is g
good man, and useful in his way, and
millionaire. A young minister, Al
the age Of seventeen, gave up a salary
Of five hundred year to study for the
ministry. He went through regular
academic and theological course, and
was then settled on four hundred 8
year! And his misery congregation,
that could better afford to double the
sum than to starve him, think they give
him too much! Of what use can a
minister Of the Gospel be to such PEG
pie? Their souls are not large enough to
receive the truth. A massing priest
would do them as we'll.
Many congregations 60 for cheap
preaching; and hence. when about to
settle a pastor, they ask as to his fathers
circumstances whether he possesses, or
expects, patrimony; whetAe his wife
has fortune or expects e? If
answered in the affirmative, Other things
being equal, he is the successful can
didate. He can live on smaller sal