53'2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



and labor for the salvation of his soul as well 

 as his body. Shame on the doctor who would 

 say that he followed his profession only because 

 of the money there might be in it! Why, a 

 doctor is expected to do a large amount of doc- 

 toring without any pay or thought of ever get- 

 ting a copper for it. It is a part of the business. 

 If he has not a genuine honest love for his fel- 

 low-men, so that he can work for nothing, 

 when the saving of life demands it, he is not tit 

 to be a doctor, and he would not long be toler- 

 ated in any community. 1 appeal to my medi- 

 cal friends as to the truthfulness of what I say. 

 Now. the doctors and teachers are employed 

 to look after the physical and mental welfare 

 of the children of the people. What shall we 

 say of the minister? In the first place, good 

 friend B., you are making a fearful blunder 

 when you take it for granted (or, at least, you 

 seem to take it so) that the minister earns his 

 money by the sermon he preaches on Sunday. 

 Sometimes, where they can not do any better, 

 they employ a minister to come In the middle 

 of the day and stay just long enough to preach 

 a sermon, and then go away, not seeing 

 during the week the people he preaches to, 

 knowing little or nothing about them. I be- 

 lieve, however, that such kind of preaching, as 

 a rule, does very little good; and the preacher, 

 again, as a rule, gets very little pay for It. But 

 perhaps it Is better than no preaching at all. 

 In our place of worship we pay our pastor 11400 

 a year. and. of course, he preaches to us every 

 Sunday. He was engaged with the under- 

 standing that he was to preach one sermon on 

 Sunday; but he commenced almost immediately 

 giving us an evening sermon ijesides. And 

 then he presides over at least two prayer- 

 meetings; makes it his business to be on hand 

 promptly at every religious gathering; hunts 

 up, gets acquainted with, and exhorts toward 

 rightousness, eyery person belonging to his 

 flock; looks after and finds out who lives in 

 every house in town; and If there is a family 

 or person who does not attend church some- 

 where else, he makes It his business to give 

 such person or persons an earnest, faithful 

 exhortation In the line of our text. Besides 

 this, if anybody In his whole parish is in trouble 

 he expects to be consulted. If he finds out 

 about the trouble, many times he does not wait 

 to be invited to lend a helping hand. Not only 

 Is he a spiritual adviser, but he has at least 

 excellent wisdom and judgment concerning 

 medicine, law. finance, and altnost every thing 

 else that concerns ourselves and our neighbors. 

 I do not mean that he meddles with what 

 naturally belongs to law. medicine, or banking; 

 but he is always ready to give you his sym- 

 pathy and kind brotherly advice In all these 

 matters. 



Just after my conversion I became firmly 

 persuaded that there was not another pastor in 

 the whole world so helpful and kind as my 

 good brother Reed. When God called him, 

 however, to wider fields, another faithful mes- 

 senger of righteousness took his place, and I 

 soon began to feel that brother Reed had almost 

 a duplicate. As the y(iars passed by, some- 

 thing like half a dozen ministers of the gospel 

 have presided over us, and I should almost feel 

 hurt if any of my friends should compare them 

 and call one better than another. My opinion, 

 after very close and intimate acquaintance 

 with these friends I have spoken of. is that they 

 have fully earned every cent of their salary. 

 In fact, for most of them we have voluntarily 

 advanced the pay while they were with us. 

 Two or three were offeied more pay if they 

 would stay, and they did not go away either 

 because they could get better pay somewhere 

 else. I knevv them well enough, and knew the 



circumstances well enough so that I could state 

 very positively that they were not working 

 for the money there was in It. My good friend 

 A. T. Reed, whom I have mentioned above, cer- 

 tainly did not expect to make any money In 

 laboring with me as he did at that memorable 

 time 18 years ago. He was not hired, to do it, 

 and I ijresume most people would have said at 

 the time that he was wasting his breath and 

 his prayers. In fact, he rather went out of his 

 way; but in so doing he gave you the Home 

 Papers, which so many of you tell me have 

 been helpful to you. 



Now. then, good friend, what do you think of 

 the sort of men who often say, " Well, the world 

 Is about all alike; when we get right down to 

 It, they are all after the almighty dollar'"'? 

 Somebody, perhaps, gently suggests, by way of 

 remonstrance, "Are ministers and teachers all 

 after the almighty dollar?" But the one who 

 makes the proposition very often says, "Yes, 

 sir — every last one of them. When you get 

 right down to it, the preachers — the whole of 

 them — are preaching for the dollars and for 

 nothing else."* God pity the man who believes 

 such a doctrine as that. Yes, God pity the man 

 who is so hardened and bitter that he can even 

 give voice to such sentiments, even if he does 

 believe them. My answer, then, to your first 

 paragraph, is this: 



It is right for the preacher to preach, or work, 

 if you choose, on Sunday; for God has said. 

 " Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy;" 

 and our good friend the pastor is kind enough 

 to exhort us to holiness on that day, when he 

 can have us all together, even if he does work 

 during the week harder than many of us. One 

 day In seven, we as a people have consented to 

 lay aside business and week-day cares, in order 

 that we may better consider matters pertaining 

 to the kingdom of God and his righteousness. 

 Under such circumstances it is eminently fitting 

 that the pastor of the church should lead us and 

 teach us, and exhort us to follow godliness dur- 

 ing the week. 



Your second paragraph calls for a little more 

 attention. Is it right that ministers' children 

 should wear better clothes and have a better 

 education than the children of his flock? My 

 opinion is, that It would not be exactly the 

 thing for ministers" children to wear better 

 clothes than any of the other children in the 

 parish; and my experience is, that such is not 

 often the case. We should expect, however, 

 that ministers' children would be as well 

 brought up. and that they would certainly take 

 as good care of their clothing, etc., as any of 

 the others. In point of education, we should 

 be rather ashamed to permit the minister's 

 children to be behind the general run. We 

 might say the same of clothing and manners. 

 Friend B.. you would not want God's holy 

 house to be very much poorer than the business 

 places In your neighborhood. In fact, it ought 

 to be the other way. The man who has not 

 sufficient reverence for God's holy place to 

 want it neat, tasty, and orderly, ought to be 

 ashamed of himself; and the same would ap- 

 ply to the minister. In a neighboring town the 

 minister was so poorly paid that he used to 

 work at almost every thing during the week. 

 One day he was plastering his house, and a 

 spruce young fi^llow came for him in order that 

 he might be married to his girl. When he 

 found that the chap covered from head to foot 

 with mortar was the preacher, he went away 

 ofi'ended. He did not propose to have so sacred 

 a ceremony, so far as he was concerned, per- 



* People who make remarks like the above ouffht 

 to remember that people are likely to conclude they 

 judg-e others by tliemselves. 



