ON THE SALARIES OF MINISTERS

SIR,

To the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine,

VERY good minifter of Chrift is continually caring

able that the people fhould, with a correfponding anxiety, care for the temporal welfare of their minifter. But it is to be lamented that there are many good people, who never fpend a thought about the matter. Eafy themfelves, and enjoying many comforts, they never once enquire, "How "does the paltor live in thefe hard times? While he labours "with unremitting zeal for our eternal happiness, do we "communicate to him a fufficient portion of this world's "goods, for the fupport of himfelf and his family?"

In what way minifters fhould live, perfons of any liberality of fentiment will in general agree. Confider what ideas people in this country entertain of the character of a minifter, and of the appearance he should make in fociety: fome regard is due to it. All thow and fplendour are entirely out of the question: they neither fuit him nor his of fice. The other extreme is equally improper. As Christ's fervant fhould not be a gaudy fop, fo neither ought he to be a fqualid beggar. His drefs and that of his family should be decent. His habitation fuch as a perfon of the middle, rank in fociety might enter, without thinking himself degraded thereby: and he should be enabled to procure himfelf and his family not only the bare neceffaries, but the conveniencies of life in frugal moderation. To thefe his talents, his education, his application to ftudy, and the labour of office, lay an unanswerable claim. Ordinary attention to bufinefs in mechanics or tradefmen, with a moderate fhare of abilities, will procure him more. Where there is a large congregation of fix or feven hundred persons, he fhould receive a fufficiency to be able to give his children a good education, to put them out apprentices and Tupport them during that time; and likewife to be forward in contributing to every good work in favour of religion and benevolence. If he fhould likewife have it in his power to

leave behind him to his wife and children a few hundred pounds for their fupport, is it too much? He must be a man of talents, prudence, and labour, to raife, and keep up fuch a congregation: and the exercife of thefe talents in any other employment would have bidden fair for opulence. It is hard indeed, if fix or feven hundred people cannot do all this without laying any unreasonable burden on themfelves.

Such are the claims made in behalf of the ministers of the Gofpel. Are they unreasonable? Let the principles of equity decide. I plead not for favour, but for juftice.

But it will be proper to enquire what provifion is actually made for their fupport. The writer is grieved to state that the enquiry will prefent a very painful view of things. Some may be furprifed to hear him affert with confidence, that there are not thirty minifters among the Seceders or Diffenters from the church of England, at the prefent time (according to the rate of the articles of living for the last three years), who have a wife and four children, that can lay by one penny of their annual falary. More than one half of the minifters who have fuch a family, cannot live upon their income; and if they have no private property, or do not follow fome other employment, muft run in debt. Whether this be the provifion which is fuitable for the laborious and faithful minifters of Jefus Chrift, let every man of a liberal, nay, of an equitable mind, feriously confider and judge. I am confident that I fpeak to a clafs of men who need only to have matters fairly reprefented in order to produce a change for the better.

But as I cannot do juftice to the fubject in a fingle letter, I fhall referve my farther obfervations to a future opportu nity, in the mean time I hope thefe hints, and those of your other correfpondents on the fame fubject, will excite the attention and fympathy of the religious public.

Yours, &c.

B. G.

THO

ON DEATH.

HOUGH the certainty of Death is univerfally acknowledged, the generality of men think no more about it, than if they expected to live forever! Were our confciences penetrated, as they fhould he, with a fenfe of

it's eventful confequences, it would furely become the fabject of our more frequent and ferious confideration. Every thing connected with death is calculated to imprefs our minds with an awful folemnity. It is the fhipwreck of all our earthly poffeffions. Like bufy merchants, men toil hard upon the fea of life, to enrich themselves with worldly ftores: but just as they enter into the port of eternity, their veffel dathes upon a rock, and all their goods perish; their for tunes, their titles, their dignities are irrecoverably loft. The inward thought of men is, that their houfes fhall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; but foon they die, and leave their wealth to others. "Be not "thou afraid," fays the pfalmift, "when one is made rich, "when the glory of his houfe is increased: for when he "dieth, he fhall carry nothing away; his glory fhall not de"fcend after him."

Saladine the renowned Turkish Emperor, when he lay upon his dying bed, commanded that a fheet fhould be borne before him to his grave, on the point of a fpear, with this proclamation: "Thefe are the glorious fpoils which Saladine carrieth away with him; of all his victories and his triumphs, of all the riches and the realms that he poffeffed, nothing now remains but his winding fheet."

Death is the commencement of a new existence, or rather, of a new state of existence. We have an immortal part that furvives the fhock of diffolution. When death has done his office, our fouls will then exift in a difembo died flate, with all their powers in full expanfion. Here we are furrounded with fenfible objects; but death will introduce us into a world of fpirits; here our fensations are confiderably blunted; but there they will be exquifitely keen indeed. Here we are fubject to various changes; but after death our condition will be immutable. We should not forget to confider that death is the messenger that fummons us to appear before the bar of God. As there will be a general and public judgment at the last day, fo there is likewife a particular and private fentence paffed on individuals at death. When the foul is feparated from the body, it ftands before its Creator, and is folemnly adjudged to Heaven or to Hell. Death is, in every refpect, the moment of infinite importance. It is the point in which all the promises, or all the threatnings of God will meet our fouls; the period in which we muft plunge into unmixed mifery, or rife to perfect blifs; the moment that opens

*Heb. ix. 27.

eternity to view, and that brings us into a fate of endless happiness or everlafting woe! But it is impoffible to con ceive what death is, in all its confequences and effects. We muft die to know it fully. But furely we may know fo much of it as to teach us the wifdom of living in the habitual expectation of it. We are too frequently promifing ourfelves days, and months, and years to come. This is our folly. "Boaft not thyfélf of to-morrow," fays Solomon,, "for thou knoweft not what a day may bring "forth." "What is your life? it is even a vapour that арpeareth for a little time, and then vanifheth away." Death pays no refpect to the regular courfe of nature. It feldom waits 'till a perfon has filled up his three-fcore years and ten. The bloom of youth and all the vigour of health, are no fecurity against its stroke. It often aims its fatal blow at the most unfeafonable and unexpected moment. Sometimes it furprizes the youth in fcenes of diffipation, as the handwriting did Belfhazzar. Sometimes it fnatches him away as he is entering into the bufinefs of life, blafting all his fchemes and expectations. It demands the foul of one, whilft involved in earthly cares, as it did the worldling's; and tears another, like the rich man in the gospel, from his affluence, his pride, his gluttony and drunkennefs.

The habitual and impreffive expectation of approaching death, might produce many happy effects. it would folemnize our minds; it would moderate our defires of worldly things; it would difpofe us to ferious enquiries refpecting the way of falvation, and the present state of our fouls. A ferious confideration of the probable nearnefs and fuddennefs of death, fuggefts the great neceffity of an habitual readinefs for it. It was the fad exclamation of one upon his dying bed " I had provided, in the courfe of my life, for every thing but death; and now I muft die, though entirely unprepared for it." "Tis to be feared that many purfue the fame courfe, and die in the fame condition. Let us beware of this fatal infenfibility. Let us be cautious, likewise, left we delude ourselves with miftaken hopes. We are not prepared, for death except our fins be pardoned, and our natures changed. Our fins cannot be pardoned, but through the blood of Chrift. Our natures cannot be changed, but by the regenerating influences of the spirit of Chrift. To the blood and Spirit of Christ, should we apply for these purposes; and whether we have already experienced them, fhould be a matter of ferious enquiry. If we have not, Death is our enemy; but if we have, we need not dread the monster or its fting. At whatever period, or in what

ever form, Death meets the pardoned and renewed foul, it proves a bleffing. To fuch an one, fudden death is nothing lefs than fudden glory. How defirable it is then to have a well-grounded affurance of victory, fuch an affurance will enable us to triumph over death! This is experienced by fome.* When a perfon enjoys a perfuafion of an intereft in the favour of God through Chrift; when he is favoured with realizing views of that intereft which remaineth for the people of God; he is not only delivered from the flavith fear of death, but rejoices in the profpect of it. This is the frame of mind, which we should especially covet.' It is pleafant and profitable in life; and it is especially need. ful, invigorating, tranfporting in the hour of nature's diffolution: bleft with this triumphant hope, as Mr. Hervey remarks, " you fhall enter the harbour of eternal reft; not like a fhipwrecked mariner, cleaving to fome broken plank, and hardly escaping the raging waves; but like fome stately veffel, with all her fails expanded, riding before a profperous gale,"

MANCUNIENSIS.

PHYSICO-THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE FIRST DAY'S CREATION.

God said, let there be light, and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. Gen. i. 3-5.

HE felf-existence of the world is one of the abfurdest

THE

lofophy: human reafon, depraved as it is, fufficiently proves the existence of a First Caufe, an eternal intelligent agent, from whom all things have originated; but how, or when, is a matter of pure Revelation; "by faith," it is, "understand that the worlds were framed by the word of "God:" and but for this discovery had been left, as the

* 1 Cor. xv, 55, &c.—2 Cor. v. 1, &c.

we