They are so wise and so watchful; they are so inoffensive,
unprovoking, and conciliatory; and even where they are not always all
that, they have around them sometimes a people who are so patient and
tolerant and full of the old-fashioned respect for their minister that
they do not attempt to interfere with him. Then, again, some ministers
preach so well, and perform all their pastoral work so well, that they
make it unsafe and impossible for the most censorious and intolerant of
their people to find fault with them. But all our ministers are not like
that. And all our congregations are not like that. And those of our
ministers who are not like that must just be left to bear that which
their past unwisdom or misfortune has brought upon them. Only, if they
have profited by their past mistakes or misfortunes, a means of grace,
and an opportunity of better playing the man is again at their doors. I
am sure you will all join with me in the prayer that all our ministers,
as well as all their people, may come well out of the approaching
election.
There is yet one other class of public men, if I may call them so, many
of whom come almost worse out of an election time than even our
ministers, and that class is composed of those, who, to continue the
language of Vanity Fair, keep the cages of the fair.
Pages:
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284