How to Encourage the Messengers.
By J. Clarke
PRAY for them. Defend them from the tongue of calumny and envy. Be interested in their efforts. Inquire often after their welfare. Rejoice in their success. Sympathize in their sorrows. Look to their usefulness. Help them to plan. Go to them for assistance in understanding scripture. Value their prayers and advice. Find places and opportunities for the exercise of their gifts. Instead of picking flaws in their lectures, pray for grace to strengthen them, for the Spirit to enlighten their minds, to dictate and to set home the word by them spoken. Inquire into the wants of their families, and if they reside in your vicinity, visit them often, and with a cheerful heart, and pleasant words, cheer their hearts. Look to the spiritual condition of the young of his household, not to calumniate, but to advise, to warn, to instruct, to teach. Be to his children a protector, a guardian, a chosen friend, and overlook as a father their weaknesses, and youthful and willful errors, until you can bring them to the right. Make the labors and self-denials of his companion as light as possible. Bear in mind that her companion is separated from her, and think how lonely and sad is her lot, exiled as it were from her dearest friend, often for months together. See to the condition of the flour and meal-chest, the wardrobe, the garden, the rent, the fences, the windows or doors that perhaps need repairing, or put some hay in the barn, and when you dress a fat ox or sheep, send a good piece to his house, and a few dollars to bear his expenses in new places, if possible. Then keep doing, don't tire. Persevere.