Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1869-02-26

How to Make your Pastor Dishonest.
BY REV. VIM. M'KEE.

.osS
lation service, the Rev. +. NJ. Ellis said
"You will make your minister dishonest if
you don't support him"
/ Churches want good ministers. They de-
sire mon of learning talent influence, picty.
This is we'll. But they oftce treat their
preacher as if he could live on gTracc and air.
They pay him the %soanticst possible salary,
and, as if they were not humiliation enough,
they dcnominate this pittanco a gift,>ead the
pastor q bcggar.
The first evil growing out of this practice
is that it cripplcs tho energies of the preach
or. Either he and his family must consume
evcry cent of HIS salary to supply their phys
ical wants, and he thereby be deprived of the
books and periodicals which he 80 greatly
needs, and without which he can not long sat
isfy the demands of his congregation, or he
must spend a part of his time in some bust.
ness other than his profession, in order to
procure his living; and this saps his time and
energies to such a degree that he is not able
to do the work his Master and his congrega.
ton require. Here is tho temptation to bo.
como dishonest. Wanting bread he buys on
credit, hoping his flock will pay him his just
dues, and he will soon be able to satisfy his
creditors. But they do not pay. So he Dor.
rows money. His congregation he thinks
will surely pay him toward the close of the
year. But the year closes; closes alas too
often with one or two hundred dollars. Of his
salary unpaid! and, what is worse, it never
will be paid
Now, what will no do7 Ho is in debt for
flour, in debt for rent, in debt for clothing.
He bcgs his creditors to give him timc-hc
will pay all soon as he can. Some grant it;
others will not. So, if he have credit, he
borrows again and again. But borrowing
from one to pay another does not relieve him
from debt. Still he hopes his congregation,
or circuit will como to his help. But no !;
they leave him to be pinchcd by the hand of
want; to be tormcntcd by repeated and ur.
gent duns for money; to make this, that, the
other effort to c~xtricate himself from the dill
emma; to become a kissing aud by.word in
the community, and a disgrace to them, because
he can not live on half a salary. What won
dor if the pastors conscience should become
lax on the question of paying debts, when SO
Tow of his flock seem to make conscience of
paying him What wonder if after n long
experience of this kind of perplexity, he
should become careless in his business habits,
going in debt wherever he can get credit,
without considering whence shall be obtained
the money to cancel tho obligations?
If now he becomes actually dishonest, as
some perhaps have, though I think the mum
Der remarkably few, who are chiefly to blame?
Tho congregation. Had they paid him as
they did their tailor, blacksmith, butcher, and
grocer, he would have paid his debts with the
most scrupulous cxactncss; or, perhaps he
never would have made any debts. And thus
it is literally true that a church may make a
pastor dishonest, and in doing so, they incur
no small share of the guilt themselves. The
laborer is worthy of the hire. If he be a hod
carrier, it is dishonest to withhold it; if he
a vessel of the Lord engaged in carrying the
bread of life to the souls of mon, it is the most
arrant hypocrisy to cheat him out of his just
ducs.-Rcltgious Telescope.
.. --AR- D.
GEMS OF THoUGnT.-Dr. johnson used to
say, "Hc who waits to do a great deal of
good at once, will never do any"
When the heart is pure, there is hardly
anything which can mislead the understand
ing in matters of immediate personal con-
cernment.
Weigh every step that you are about to
take; whenever passions become involved
How often do things assume n different as.
pect when they arc fairly considered.
How often we sigh for opportunities Of do.
ing good, whilst we neglect the offerings Of
Providence in little things, which would fire..
quently lead to the Accomplishments of most i'm
portant usefulness.
1t is much easier to think right without do.
ing right, than to do right without thinking
right. just thoughts may, and often do, fail
Of producing just deeds; but just deeds are
sure to beget just thoughts.
We should be careful to practice, and treat
the humblcst mental with courtesy as delicate
as We would show the children of ahluence
and honor. So shall w t~ransfusc in them q
corresponding refinement, which will tend