Claims of the Gospel Ministry to an Adequate Support [pp. 180-201]

-T an.dequate Situpoirt.
and not distracted by other avocations. It is almost the ineviable consequence of the inadequate support of the clergy,
that they should become worldly men. What can they do?
They must live. If the people do not support them, they
must support themselves. Hence one becomes a teacher, another a farmer, another a speculator. It is the people that, in
the great majority of cases, drive the ministers to those expedients. This is evident from the fact that it is rare to see them
resorted to except where the salaries are insufficient to sustain
and educate a family. It is amatter for thankfulness that
those ministers, who, not having the excuse of inadequate
support, from mere love of money, engage in worldly pursuits, are pointed at by the world as mercenary men, and
mourned over by the pious as bringing a reproach upon their
profession, and a disgrace upon religion. This shows that
public-sentiment is not yet entirely perverted on this subject;
that it is felt to be inconsistent with the sacred office that
ministers should be greedy of filthy lucre; or have their attention diverted from their appropriate work for the sake of
making money. With regard to this class there is little diversity of opinion. It is not of them, however, that we are
now called to speak. There is another and much larger class,
who are more or less engaged in worldly business, who have
been forced into this course, from the incompetency of their
salaries. The blame, therefore, whatever it be, must rest
mainly on those who create the necessity of their pastors
being distracted by worldly cares and avocations. It is
those who refuse an adequate support to the ministry who
are in a great measure responsible for this evil. In the days
of Nehemiah we find the same cause producing the same effect.
'I perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been
given them; for the Levites and the singers who did the work
were fled every one to his field. Then contended I with the
rulers, and said why is the house of God forsaken? And I
gathered them together and set them (the Levites) in their
places. Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn, and
the new wine, and the oil, unto the treasuries.' It was because the portiondue to the Levites, was not given them, that
they fled every one to his field. The great reformer in Israel corrected the evil of a worldly priesthood by contending
with the people, and inducing them to support the ministers
of religion. Surely the people in our day, and in our country,
have no right to complain that their pastors give so much of
their time to wordly affairs, while they refuse to sustain them.
is'ag.]
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