Jealousy has led the Rev. John R. Scott, the prominent southern negro preacher, to shoot fatally the Rev. Obadiah Adams, another colored preacher. When ministers commit crime, the last plea that should be entertained in their behalf is the nature of their profession. Violators of law should be tried, acquitted, or condemned, without distinction of creed, cassock, or race. Ministerial crimes are certainly increasing in number, and it behooves all denominations to co-operate for the purity of the ministry. All organized communions should exercise a strict discipline; and conscientious laymen should allow no scandal to arise concerning their pastors, and no suspicious conduct to pass unnoticed. Whatever be the true translation, the English version of the passage, “Abstain from all appearance of evil,” is the safe and the only safe rule for the Christian’s practise; and it is vital to the minister’s influence, not only that he should be above suspicion, but that he should be able to resist that subtlest of all temptations, “No one will believe evil of me”—a suggestion as beguiling as, “Ye shall not surely die.”—N. Y. Christian Advocate.