Advice to Young Ministers.
A MINISTER somewhat in years sent the following quaint epistle to a young brother in the ministry. It may do for others:— DEAR BROTHER:—I sometimes write to young men because they are strong. Remember:— 1. That human happiness, like Hebrew verbs, has no present tense. 2. That human friendship, like glass, is easily broken, but not easily mended. 3. When you know not what to do, never do what you know not. 4. Never covet high places, where it is difficult to stand and dangerous to fall. We never find the Saviour on the pinnacle of the temple but once. What company had he there? 5. Be no respecter of great personages as such. Remember the figure 9, though the highest number, owes its consequence, not to its HEAD, but to its curved appendage. Without that it would be 0. 6. Desire no rapid growth. When the clock has struck 12, it does not strike 13 next. The full moon grows no larger. 7. Be not over hasty to combat public opinion without pressing reason. He that spits against the wind spits in his own face. 8. Never scare off a fly with a club, when a feather will do as well; and remember you can take more flies with a gill of molasses than with a gallon of vinegar. 9. Avoid debt. He that pays down will not be called upon to pay up. 10. Ministers must not only eat their bread by the sweat of their brow, but by the sweat of their brains. 11. Let not your sermons be like a serpent, smallest at the last end, but rather like the scorpion, whose sting is in its tail. 12. Have special care of those members who were born in a storm, as they are prone to want a storm to live in. 13. Never forget that a minister's work is to break hard hearts, and to mend broken ones. 14. I began with a verb; I will conclude with a case. May you be found in the ACCUSATIVE, and never come out in the VOCATIVE.—Living Epistle.