St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-10-15

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essary to them"
"But why, my husband, do you think
things have changed? What reason
have you to believe you may not stay
here to work and to sympathize and to
sufferr-this last was said slowly and
DISQUALIFICATION as you have for SO
many years Z"
"Well, something in the very air
seems to whisper to me of the end,
said her husband. "Church cleaning is
much like house cleaning; there seems
to be no end to the castings-off and the
freshenings-up in either case, after the
first steps are taken. 1 have so often
noticed that repaired church means
discarded minister. and I-I-have
been here twenty-five years."
sit was your first, and has been, thus
far, your only pastorate, James"
Then they Ielapsed into silence, and
perhaps both were thinking, it might be
at the same moment, of the little
mounds upon which the grass was again
starting, two little graves that held a
part of twenty ars':experience.
As an out-growth of the business
meeting, work was begun at the old
church, and one Improvement suggest
ed another, until at the end, with the
new seats, new pulpit, new carpet,
with the frescoing and the organ, you
could never have recognized it as the
old "First-church" of N.
In the congregation there was Mr..
Spruce, who was a leader. His ances-
tors had been leaders and autocrats,
why should he not be ? He owned a
business in an adjoining city, but had
his home in N. He had his city
friends who came summering to his
town home.
took his place in the new pulpit, it was
suggested to Mr.. Spruce's mind-and
perhaps others might have experienced
the same feeling that there was an in
congruity between the two. Mr.. Spruce
thought of it all through the week that
followed, and when the next Sunday
came he carried his mental criticisms
so far that they amounted to dissatis-
faction. And when, on Monday morn
ing, he went to the city, he was deter
mined upon his course of action. He
had a friend-a merchant-who in turn
had friend who was theological
graduate, unsettled and unfettered. He
would ask the merchant fIienu. 90 visit
him, and give him the privilege of in
viting his theological friend to accom-
pany him. And of course the minister
would ask the young man to preach.
1t turned out according to his hopes.
The young man stood in the new pull
pit, and the eyes of all seemed to look
sit is fitting the new with the new"
From that hour the doom of the min
lister who had for so many years occu-
pied the pulpit, was sealed. He did
not wait for any one to intimate to him
that resignation would be in order.
He went home and had his trial with
his own heart, and then laid it before
his God, from whom alone he expected
consolation. And his God directed and
comforted him, and enabled him to use
wisdom and forbearance in his last min
istry with people that he loved better
than he did his own life.
They never told him that his years
were too many for efficient service, but
he OWNED what they thought, and said
to his wife, Gam l losing my mental
powers Do 1 seem enfeebled 2"
And his wife answered, mo, my hus-
band, but minister, in one sense, is an
old man when others are in their prime.
You are no older than Mr.. Spruce, and
l heard him say, only a few weeks ago,
that his business capacity was never
greater than now, and that he was
looking forward to years of active life"
And so they left the old town, and
went to a new place, not without the
tears and prayers of hundreds whom
they had blessed.
One old man said in one of the meet
ings preliminary to the settlement of
the new pastor, ~ can't somehow get it
out of my mind that we've treated our
minister as some men do a faithful
horse; when we imagine he's too old to
do his usual amount of work, we turn
him out to die"
The new charge was a smaller one,
the people were kind and generous, but
it was beginning all over again, and
somehow his thoughts would turn to the
old people whom he had served for
twenty-five years, the dear people still.
His wife began to notice the change
in him. Tue earnest manner was there,
the devotion, the careful preparation,
but somehow his heart seemed to have
untold lOngings, and his vision to pene-
trate other scenes. And it happened
that toward the close of his fourth year
of service in the new place, he came
home one day from church to feel that
he had stood for the last time in any
pulpit. His earthly work was done.
And toward the last of his hours upon
earth, he said to his wife who bent over
him, "Twenty-five years l could have
done many more years of good service
with them if they would have allowed
me to, but the change killed me. 1 was
always thinking of them, always
preaching to them in Imagination, Won
dering if they missed me-"
He died jOyfully, believing that the
pearly gates and golden streets were
not too new and bright for minister
who had lived beyond the years of
youth and freshness.-Church and
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