tempted." There is no telling how soon the most popular preacher may seem to be no longer useful and acceptable. Nevertheless, if a support is to be insured to an accredited ministry at every stage of its existence, great strictness and strong nerve are necessary to rid the Connection of unworthy or sponging members. These must be removed by a proccess that will be just to those who retire, as well as to those who remain. After an unsuitable person has been retained in the itinerant ranks for a great length of time, and thereby hindered from engaging in the more remunerative callings of life, it would be unfair to peremptorily remand him to temporal pursuits. He should be dealt with, when he first betrays signs of decline in spiritual power, or the Conferences must accept the legitimate consequences of their timid forbearance. The heroic course is kindest to those whom the Church cannot afford to perpetually maintain. If they are likely soon to become wet logs," it is better at once to direct them to more profitable employments in secular life, or they will be equitably entitled to continued place and benefit in the work. On this account the doors to the itinerancy must be jealously guarded, and admission on trial must not practically signify, as it often does, reception into full connection. The proposition of the Bishops, at the last General Conference, to extend the period of probation to four years, is worthy of renewed attention. On the same principle it may be urged that the annual examination of character is usually passed over with perfunctory and unbecoming haste. An arrest of character in open Conference, without premonition, would now be a anomalous procedure, yet our forms imply that such an action is possible. Discreet, conscientious, and nervy sentinels are needed all along the line.

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An objection is urged that, when the means of livelihood are secured to all ministers indiscriminately, many would be reckless in their expenditures and unthrifty in the management of their estate. The force of this statement must be acknowledged, but the Church is not thereby prevented from making a partial provision for the superannuates, or dependent widows and orphans, whose business affairs were never conducted with proper economy. Some preachers, like many other people, do not take the requisite precautions for old age,

living, perhaps unnecessarily, to the full extent of their means; yet very few, at the best, can save much from their salaries, while many have shown more than ordinary skill in rearing and educating their families on the meager pittances allowed. The pastor usually is expected to spend, in one way or another, about all that is doled out to him. Those who receive the largest stipends frequently have no greater margin, at the year's end, than others whose claims are stated in three of the lower figures. If a minister secures a worldly fortune, it is either by inheritance or marriage, unless he speculates in realestate or stocks, and this we have been taught is to be always deplored and avoided. Granted, however, that a fortunate disposition of clerical assets is possible, the assurance of a few beneficiary dollars years hence, if needed, will not cause a truly sensible man to be heedless or rash in present property concerns. Daniel Drew lost none of his commercial shrewdness because he commanded a pension for services in the War of 1812. A true minister shrinks from being a sponge or an object of charity. Training others to consecration for the sake of Christ, he himself learns the lessons of unselfishness, and will not draw on the common ecclesiastical fund for more than is accorded to be his by right of service or actual need. If the contrary spirit is disclosed, it ought summarily to be rebuked. The offender is no longer entitled to countenance.

Again, it may be charged that absolute provision for all recognized ministers is pushing community of interest to extreme and dangerous limits. The spur to individual exertion is blunted, and the relative value of talent and application to business is not properly appreciated. For this reason the old system of uniform claims has been abandoned, and now preachers with two or no children may receive twice or thrice as much as the struggling circuit-rider with a family of nine. Yet inequalities of condition were common under the former régime. Our variable lots in life are largely dependent on those who manage them. Some pastors are sent to comparatively unfertile fields, and not only feed themselves well, but also add largely to all the resources of the Church. Others are appointed to charges that customarily pay liberal salaries, but under an inefficient, unwise, or ill-adapted administration, fall behind in every interest, both spiritual and temporal. There

are pastors who will receive about so much, no matter where they are placed. Still, in the Methodist system, the law of averages must to some extent obtain. We confess to embarrassment in dealing with the difficulty, but the fact is analogous with our polity in other respects. If we provide for the worn-out preacher at all, why not systematically?

Here some one may inquire, Why, then, raise a fund at all? And if so, why not make the aged in all the walks of life beneficiary claimants? The answer suggests itself. A preacher, for the sake of the Gospel, has been required to stand aloof from the scramble for earthly riches. Even if he would strive for gain, the limitations of his calling thwart his efforts. Others take their chance of poverty or riches. He, strictly speaking, must accept only the former. Then, if he gives a life's work, he is entitled to a life's pay. "The laborer is worthy of his hire." In other denominations, single churches often make competent provision for emeritus pastors, without respect to any general plan which the Church at large may adopt. Surely, where the connectional bond is so strong, as with us, and where the individual yields, even in choice of fields for labor, to the ecclesiastical entity, he is entitled to a dividend of the wages that are offered, and under favorable circumstances may be sufficient, for all in the vineyard.

On the principle that some sort of provision must be made for a disabled ministry, great care and discretion are to be used in fixing the claims of beneficiaries. Previous habits of life have much to do with present needs, but no encouragement or countenance should be given to wastefulness. Hardly so much should be expected as is allowed for an equal number in the effective ranks. Probably no aid ought to be given to a family that can be comfortably maintained without ecclesiastical subsidies. On this question there is difference of opinion, but the Church cannot assume to pension all her faithful servants. The only guaranty to be offered an itinerant minister is, that he or his shall not starve while he is duly accredited. Many enter the work in easy circumstances, or, because of their calling, effect marital alliances that are esteemed fortunate in a worldly sense. Much of their wealth may have accrued indirectly from advantages obtained through the ministry, and perhaps their services already have been sufficiently

compensated. The parochial life is so happy and honorable that no one who has enjoyed it ought to grumble if it alone has furnished him no more than a bare subsistence. Therefore every claimant should be willing to make a full and clear statement of his assets, income, and probable outlay to the authorized committee, in order that an intelligent and relatively just appropriation may be recommended. An apparent showing of accumulated property need not operate unfairly, if the proper explanations are made, since the principles of making the estimate are not ruthlessly invariable.

Term and character of service should weigh something in arranging for the distribution; not time alone, but also efficiency, for some may accomplish more in five years than others in twenty. Yet it is a fair presumption that, the longer a man has been at work, the more good he has done. Relative merit, however, cannot be a very prominent factor in this calculation. Distinctions of this sort are painfully invidious, and often inaccurately drawn, and the conditions of the ministerial contract imply the right to an equitable share in the beneficiary proceeds. Still, the moral responsibility of claimants is subject to the most rigid scrutiny. It would ill befit one who rails at the Church to accept its proffered aid. Ministerial respectability is steadily required. The disabled preacher who cripples his superior in office, or is troublesome in the congregation where he worships, ought not to be surprised when the same result follows that would have happened had he, while in charge, been so unwary or unwise.

It cannot be expected that the claims of those on the retired list will be placed at as high a figure as are those allowed to effective pastors. The expenses of the latter are necessarily greater. More clothes, food, fuel, light, literature, and expense of travel are required for those who are active and growing in the wearing duties of the Church. Elderly persons can live comfortably on less than the young and middle-aged. Besides, the superannuate has more leisure for saving or turning an honest penny, by attending personally to home chores, caring for cow, chickens, or other stock, and cultivating the garden, which will relieve the painful tedium of increasing seniority, and will contribute much to the luxury and comfort of the patriarch's home. None can be supported in idleness.

The time of an aged preacher is just as sacred as that of the pastor, and the Conference claimant is expected to supplement his stipend, as far as practicable, by preaching, writing, colportage, manual labor, or other useful and elevating employBut when a claim has been once established it should be scrupulously settled. All these conditions are of similar force in their application to the widows and orphans who depend on the Church for subsistence.

ment.

For this very considerable undertaking large sums of money must be obtained, and the question naturally arises, How are they to be raised? Methodism so far has proved equal to emergencies, and if this ideal is accepted as obligatory, the means will be forthcoming.

Two methods are possible, taken together or separately. (1) The claim of the Conference beneficiaries may be pooled with the estimates for pastor, presiding elder, and bishops, and collected in the general expenses of the charge. (2) A direct collection, as is customary now, for this specific purpose may be taken, a course which has been adopted in many places to secure the quotas of the district and general superintendents. The first has the argument of analogy in its favor. The second is the more popular, and possibly more practicable. At any rate, a public appeal for this cause should be made annually. For this many are inclined to give when they would refuse to contribute for other purposes. A sense of gratitude prompts them to remember some of the beneficiaries as having ministered unto them in spiritual things, breaking the bread of life, and leading them into the knowledge of that truth which has been the source of great earthly as well as heavenly good. It is universal testimony that the "fifth collection" is raised with less embarrassment than any other fund, benevolent or beneficiary.

Endowments, from either the Book Concern or the various preachers' aid societies, may serve to supplement the work, but should not be allowed to displace the annual presentation. The case of the superannuates, both for the sake of the people and their own sake, should be submitted directly to the consideration of the Church. Our aged preachers and lonely widows endure a hard lot at the best, and it would be all the more trying if they should seem to be lost sight of in the