HOW TO DISCOURAGE A MINISTER.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 338, 13 July 1878, Page 4

HOW TO DISCOURAGE A MINISTER.

1. Hear him “ now and then.” Drop in a little late. Do not sing ; do not find the text in. your Bibles. If yon talk a little during the sermon so much the bet ter.

2. Notice carefully any slip he may make while you are awake ; point out the dull portions to your children and friends ; quote what is in bad taste ; mark all neglects of your advice; find all the fault you can ; it will come round to him.

'd. Censure his efforts at usefulness; deplore bis want of good sense ; let him know that yon won’t help him because A. B. does, because yon were not first consulted, or because you did not start the plan yoursell. 4. Let him know the folly and sins of his hearers. Show him how ranch he overrates them, and tell him their adverse criticism on himself. 5. Tell him when ho calls what a stranger he is : how his predecessors used to drop in for an hour’s chat, and bow much you liked them.

G. Never attend the prayer meetings ; frequent no special service. Why should yon be righteous overmuch ? 7. Occasionally get up a little gaiety for the young folks. This will be very effectual about the communion season. “ There is time to dance.”

8. Require him to swell the pomp of every important occasion, unless,however, there arc prudential reasons for passing

him over

9. If he is always in the pulpit, clamor for strangers; if lie lias public duties, and sometimes goes abroad, complain that he is never at home. 10. Keep down his income. Easy means are a sore temptation, and fullness of bread is bad for every one but Hie laity.

11. As he will find it hard to be always at borne to receive cabers, and always running among the people, and always well prepared for pulpit and platform, yon will be sure to have just cause for complaint one way or the other. Tell it to everyone, and then lament there is no general dissatisfaction with him. Patient continuance in courses like these, modified according to circumstance, lias been known not only to discourage, but to ruin the nselulncss, and break the spirit of ministers ; to send them off to other charges, and even to their graves. — Advance.

The Wellington Church Chronicle says ; * —Writs have been issued by the Right Rev the Bishop of Wellington directing the Returning Officers of the several electoral districts of the diocese, to proceed to the election of Lay Representatives to sit in the next diocesan Synod. The returns arc to be sent in to the Bishops on or before September stb. Afi Lay-men above the age of 21 years, who shall have signed, at least two months before the day of election, a declaration that they arc members of tiie Church of England, will be qualified to vote.

The Hawke’s Bay Herald, in an article refers at some length to the question of subsidies, and saj's it is probable that in the coming session some change in the existing system of subsidising local bodies will be proposed. It says that “ there can he little doubt that the system of subsidies is objectionable,” but concludes that in the case of sparsely populated highway districts, or where the population is largely of the small farmer class, a sudden change would be objectionable and that “if they are loft to depend wholly upon the revenue they can raise by the rates they levy, there is but too much reason to fear that they will bo unable to carry out properly the works required. There is also this to be considered—that if Parliament should agree to impose a property tax, the country dial riots will be doubly taxed if they are required also to raise by local taxation all the revenue they want for local works. The same argument applies to the counties. Such revenue as they can at present raise by rates is quite inadequate to the works devolving upon them, and the only result that could be expected from the withdrawal of the subsidies would be left undone ami would eventually have to be undertaken by the General Government. The best course would be, if a change in the system is absolutely needed, to merely reduce the amount of the subsidies, at present, and, at the same time, to give some indication of their probable duration.” J