Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1871-10-14
Belisiuus.
SHEPHERDS AND THEIR FLOCKs.

WHtu pHSt'iS p'oplc i''i w NS""'''0h
and maintain between each other II business
relation just us Independent of the spirit
ual us it is possible to make it. The physician
may be- and in multitudcs of instances is.
the dearest friend; but he lives by his pro-
fesson, and his services have n recognized
money value which he expects to receive
without question. He would prefer per-
haps, to render his services without reward,
especially to those whom he loves; but he
has mouths TO feed and provisions to make
for rainy day, and for the days of helpless
ness that come at last to all. So, though love
and sympathy, and sef-denial for love and
sympathy's sake may have actuated him in
all his daily rounds of duty, he goes home at
night, takes down his blotter, and enters his
charges as formally us if he had been selling
farnl-produce or tn-wcar.
There is n feeling in many parishes that it
is gift by whatsoever any pastor may be
profited by them,-that pastor earns moth
ing, and that in all things he is the beneficial
~ of the parish. To make this matter II
thousand times worse, there are pastors not
few who take the position to which the
ting the mistake. They are men whose
hands are always open to receive whatever
comes; who delight in donation parties, and
who grasp right and left, with Unsuitable
greed, at gifts. They become so mean-spirit-
ed that they do not like to pay for anything
and do not really think it right that they
be called upon to pay for anything. They
thar panpla nd no
munity. Wherever they happen to he, they
'lie down" on the brethren. There is moth
ing of value that they are not glad to receive
and there is nobody that they are not glad to
be indebted to for favors. Sometimes they
are extravagant, and have II graceless way
of getting into debt, out of which they are
helped yearly, and out of which they expect
to be helped yearly. The abject meanness
into which n pastor can sink, and the cores
ponding and consequent powerlessness into
which he can descend, find too frequent illus
tration among the American ministry, 1t is
shocking and sickening that there are some
men who seem forced by their parishes
to live in this way. and it is still more dis
gushing to find men who seem tolerably COM
foratable and contented while living in this
way. If II man is fit to preach he Is worth
wages. If he is worth wages, they should
be paid with all the business regularity that
is demanded and enforced in business life
There is no man in the community who
works harder for the money he receives than
the faithful minister. There is no man-ir
whose works the community is interested
to whom regular wages, that shall no cos
him thought, are so important. OF wha
possible use in n pulpit can any man be
whose weeks are FILTERED away in meal
cares and dirty economies? Every month
or every quarter-day, every pastor shoult
be sure that there will be placed in hi
hands, us his just wages, money enough to pa,
all his expenses. Then, without II sense o
special obligation to anybody, he can preacl
the truth with freedom, and prepare for hi
public mnistrations without distraction
Nothing more cruel to II PASTOR or more
disastrous to his work, can be done than t,
force upon him feeling of dependence upol
the charities of his flock. The Office of sucl
man does not rise in dignity above that o
IL court-foo. lie is the creature of the popu