Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-12-16
BeefStake for Ministers.

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/, by the Rev. Dr. Talmadge on this SUBJ
ject. Ministers as class are long sut-
fering. They bury their trials and pri-
vations in their own hearts and tell
them only to God, This may not be
the best, yet they do this praying hop
ing and trusting that help might come.
Many OF them entering upon their
work bravely and cheerfully go on
month after month receiving nothing
but mere pittance from their salaries
while their bills accumulate until they
can scarcely walk the street for fear of
meeting those they have frequently de-
ceived by their we'll intended promises.
Owe no man anything is the apostolic in
junction that they would gladly obey,
but instead they are obliged to owe
every one with whom they have dealt.
1t is not really their fault but they re-
ceive all the blame. No minister can
stand in the pulpit and fearlessly preach
about truthfullness, honesty and up
rightness of life when he remembers the
numbers of promises he has broken and
the load of debt resting upon him.
His church members pay their work
men regelarly except their gospel work
ers and pay their bills promptly except
that of their minister, The real fact
is the churches seem to have but little
conscience about their obligation to
their ministers. Frequently they wait
for months without paying anything,
then dole out their pittance as if the
minister was pauper, illustrating the
old deacon's prayer who asked God to
keep their minister humble and they
would keep him poor, and at the close
of the year they fail to make up the
salary. This is shame and it rests
upon the members of the churches. If
they engage the minister and wish him
to do good work let them pay him we'll
and promptly. !
congregations sometimes mourn
over dull preaching when themselves
are to blame. Give your minister
more beefstake, and he will have more
fire. Next to the Divine JUNCTION, the
Minister needs blood; and he can
not make that out of tough leather
One reason why the apostles pre4shed
SO powerfully was that they had healthy
food. Fish was cheap along Gallee.
and this, with unbolted bread, gave
them plenty of phosphorus for brain
food. These early ministers were new
er invited out to late suppers, with
chicken salad and doughnuts. No
body ever embroidered slippers for
the big foot of Simon Peter, the fisher
man preacher Teaparties, with hot
waffles, at ten clock at night, make
namby-pamby ministers; but good
hours and substantial diet, that furn-
ish nitrates for the muscle, and phos-
pilates for the brain, and carbonates
for the whole frame. prepare man for
effective work The reason our soldiers
failed in some of the battles was be-
cause their stomaches had for several
days been innocent Of everything but
"hard tack" See that your minister
has full haversack. Feed him on
cruel during the week, and on Sunday
he will give you Cruel. Eight hundred
or thousand dollars for minister is
. only slow way of killing him, and is
the worst style of homicide The
damage begins at the college boarding
house. The theological student has
generally small means, and he must 60
to cheap boarding house. A frail
piece Of sausage trying to swim across
a river Of gravy on the breakfast plate,
but drowned at last: ''the linked
sweetness long drawn out Of flies in the
molasses cup, the gristle of a tough OK.
and measly biscuit and buckwheat cakes
tough as the cooks apron. and old
peas and stale cucumbers cut up into
small slices of cholera morbus-are the
provender out Of which we are trying.
at Princeton, and Yale, and New Bruins
wick, to make sons of thunder. Sons
of mush From such depletion we step
gasping into the pulpit, and look so
heavenly pale that the mothers in israel
are afraid we will evaporate before we
get through our first sermon. Many
OF our best young men In preparation
for the ministry are going through this
martyrdom. The strongest mind in
our theological class derished, the doc
tors said afterward. from lack of food
Tie only time he could afford a doctor
was for his post mortem examination.
The inertness you complain of in the
ministry starts early Do you suppose
that if Paul had spent seven years in a
cheap clearinghouse, and the years
after in poorly-supplledpar sonage, he
would have made Felix tremble 4? No
The first glance Of the Roman procua-
tor would have made him apologize for
intrusion. Do not think that all your
eight hundred dollar Minister needs is
Christmas present Of an elegantly
bound copy of Calvin's Institutes.
He is sound already on the doctrine Of