The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1874-07-01
Salary for Ministers.

IL AdJ uO ooiOiy oeiS
or even occupation in this country, requiring
like amount of intelligence and acquired
knowledge, or exacting an equal expenditure
of time and effort, is SO ill-paid as that of
the minister of the gospel. While he is de-
barred by duty, by public opinion and his
own conscience from every gainful pursuit
outside his profession, and is as absolutely
prevented from engaging in efforts for the
increase of his income as if statute made
it criminal of'ense, he is restricted, in the
great majority of instances, to salary which
would be scornfully rejected by men of like
abilities in almost any ordinary business call
ing. And the people who are benefited by
his ministrations, to whom he devotes all his
time, and talents, and sympathy, take ad-
vantage of the fact that he has no choice of
occupations as men in every other calling
have, but must remain permanently in the
one profession to which he has consecrated
his life
If men were magnani.aous this could not
be so. If they were merely generous, it
would be different If true magnanimity or
generous feeling prevailed, men would be
everywhere prompt to see not only what is
due to the dignity of the ministerial calling,
and the eminent intellectual and moral force
which itrequires for its prosecution, but they
would recognize its claims upon them by rea-
son of the peculiar self abnegation which it
demands, and the isolation from all other
pursuits which it absolutely necessitates.-
And in response tie this noble dedication,
self-surrender, and exclusion from all those
opportunities which are open to other men,
if Christian congregations were magnani-
nous, or generous, or even just, the hire of
their faithful minister would no longer be
suffered to remain on the mean and INSULT
cient scale which now rules in 80 many parts
of our land.
There is another consideration. People
wrong themselves when they stint the salary
of their minister to scant pittance scarce
sufficient for his mere subsistence. OF all
professions in the world that of the minister
of the gospel most requires frequent and
prolonged intervals of calm withdrawal for
contemplation, reflection, and study of the
hearts and tempers of himself and other men.
If he is insuffciently paid, this is impossible; !
and his peopleyere the real losers. By just
so much as their minister is absorbed in the |
consideration of the gnawing of his neces-
sites, they are excluded from the benefits of
his searchings into the deep things of God
and his Investigations of the nature and
wants of man. 1t cannot be expected that
minister will be profoundly learned in all
the minutie of the diseases which affect the
soul of man, or ready with the cures which
he may find by study of the works of the
Great Physician, if the bulk of his time is
diverted from these studies by the carking
and grinding cares of his own instant and
ever recurring necessities. We are not only
mean and ungenerous to our minister, but
are "penny wise and pound foolish, toward
our families and ourselves if We forget the
divine maxim, "The laborer is worthy of his
hire" The nobler and more bene6cent the
labor, the reader should men be to rate and
compensate it at its true worth. And cer-
tainly there is none nobler or more benefcent,
than that which is exclusively devoted for
life to the service of God and the salvation
of souls Christian Intelhgencer.