Year: 1859

ceuototy Snoy Woos tSu"oA


lectures aud evening parties by their pre-
sepce; they mustatteud school examinations
and be directors in all kinds of associations
for moral and benevolent purposes. And
by some they are expected to be members of
clamorous conventions of all kinds of re-
forms; and if they decline, they are de-
uouuced by reverend agents and secretaries,
who take to these reforms for living, as
other people do to peddle razor-straps or pa
tent medicines, as dumb dogs that cannot
bark. Indeed, if pastors should yield to all
the demands made on their time by unrea-
sonable people, they would have no time for
the great work of the ministry. Merchants,
and bankers, and lawyers, and mechanics
have their daily hours for business; none
think of interrupting them during those
hours; if any do, they are told to call again
And why should not ministers be left to
their regular hours, and to the full improve
ment of their time? Why should parish
loungers come to their study in the morning
at nine o'clock, and, as they are going away
at twelve, apologize for the intrusion BY say.
ing, 81 hope I have not interrupted you I"


Parishes and people should place right
estimate upon the time of pastor. He has
to study much to give himself to reading;
to write much to visit the sick and the af-
aicted; to call upon strangers; to preach
three or four times week a; to direct the
inquiring; to counsel in cases Of difficulty;
to take his part in the management Of local
and national institutions, all which require
a kind of ambiguity in man, who can be
only in one place at time. A man SO oc-
cupied with important duties should not be
asked to give an hour but for its worth
Ask him for his money, or for his books, or
for his sermons, but do not ask him to squan-
der his precious time. ~ am sorry to have
kept you waiting these fifteen minutes" said
a merchant to minister as he stepped into
his carriage, in which he had left him
"but in those minutes I have transacted bu-
siness to the amount of sevenJy-hve thous-
and dollars" In the hour flched from the
pastor, and for no purpose, he might have
saved SOUL


1t requires time to do anything well and
if people desire pastor to be workman
of whom they need not to be ashamed, they
must spare bis time. If he does not i'm
prove it himself, they should kindly request
him to do so. An idle minister can never
be other than poor pastor and preacher
Idleness in the ministry should be treated
as an immortality. An idle mind is the dev-
IFS workshop, irrespective of positions, pro-
fessions, and trades. For reasons already
given in these pages, it is emphatically so
in the ministry. But when congregation
has pastor disposed to make the best posi-
bic use of his time, they should encourage
and enable him 80 to do, and be as sparing
of it as he himself desires to be; and when
he is in want of books to make the best pos
sible use of it, they should be promptly and
generously supplied. "Send for what books
you want, and have them charged to me,
and make the best use of them," safd a
wealthy parishioner to young minister Of tai
ents and industry on his settlement That
one act made him benefaetor of the world,
as it enabled that young minister to enter
on a course of study whose results are known
and read of all men.


Ordinarily, the mornings Of every day
should be left undisturbed to the pastor
Calls, funerals, all parochial duties, should
be in the afternoon. There should be a
common law, admitting of necessary excep-
tions, on this matter. Some pastors lock
themselves up in the morning; some see
those who call with pen in hand or behind
their ear; some hang card on their door,
with the sentence on it, "Be short !" for the
admonition of intruders; but we like the
honest plan of DR.. Green, who admitted
everybody that called, never asked them to
sit down, asked them what they wanted, and
the moment the business was ended, gently
waved his hand toward the door, saying, "I
am just now occupied" This we consider
an example worthy of imitation. If a peo-
pie will not duly regard the time of pastors,
they should take its protection into their own
hands. This may not satisfy the persons
that like their minister to be s'sociable;"
that is, to spend his afternoons in visiting
and tea drinking; but its benefits will be
apparent to all in his preparations for the
pulpit, and in the masculine energy with
which he performs his duties There can
not be doubt but that the want of empha-
sis in the ministry of many rural parishes is
owing to the way in which the people fritter
away the time of their pastors for no purpose,
or drive them from their studies by their Pc
nuriousness to supplement an inadequate
salary by some worldly employment.


The work of the ministry is great work,
and difficult in its performance, and dill
gence in its prosecution should be in the
proportion of its greatness and difficulty. If
parishes knew what is for their own interest,
they would not squauder the time of their
pastors. They would prefer good sermons
to social visits. The people that want a
parish gossip should hire one for that pur-
pose, aud relieve the minister from the end
less task.


Follow THE RIGHT.-No matter who
you are, what your lot, or where you live !;