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Untitled Article
? o some very particular cases ; but it is surely most desirable that measures should be taken for providing some more permanent
relief ; something to which the sick or infirm minister may bring forward a regular claim , and not receive as the humiliating pittance of charity .
The ministers of the gospel , it may be s presumed , are not in general so liable as others to many of those diseases to which the human frame is subject ; such , for instance , as are the consequences of irregularity and excess . From
these , their well-established religious principles , their desire to instruct their flocks by example as well as precept , and the lower motives of mere decorum and
propriety of character , ( not to speak of the necessity of frugality and temperance , which their limited incomes generally impose , ) may be expected to preserve them . But there are others to which learned
and sedentary persons are peculiarly liable ; and these are also generally of a chronic nature , and
ver y distressing m their effects : their office , too , of necessity leads them to be much with the sick
and in this way to be exposed , not only to contagious diseases , but also to others , the consequences of vitiated air , and of those ngitations and depressions of the spirits , which are often necessarily endured in the very attempt to cairn the troubled mind with the
consolations of religion . Now when a it | inister from whatever cause begins to feel the debility of sickness or natural decay , becomes languid in his public services , and less capable of discharging his private duties ; or if , by some sudden stroke , he is intirely inca-
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pacitated ; it is too well known for how short a time the most in * dulgent congregation remains contented . . Occasional supplies are not often successful in
satisfying the various tastes and humours of a mixed assembly ; the older , more attached , and considerate members , may , perhaps , be inclined to a longer forbearance , from recollection of past character and services ; but the bulk will
presently grow impatient , seek out for other connections , and the congregation will thus by degress dwindle away . If the case from the first is hopeless , and an assistant-minister u is procured , how soon the public attention and
respect of the majority to the man who had devoted his best days to their service , and sacrificed his all for their advantage , is apt to sink into carelessness , and even contempt , is seen in too many instances .
All these inconveniences and hardships might be prevented by an institution for the relief and support of sick and decayed ministers . The people would not then be so liable to be scattered , and the congregation to decline , during the latter years of a minister under whom it had formerl y
flourished ; and the minister himself would not have to experience the combined miseries of dependence , neglect , and , perhaps , contempt , at a time when he stands so much
in need of support , both in body and mind , against the natural calamities of sickness and old age . The necessity of such an institution has long been obvious : but whether from the number of benevolent associations , which have been formed during the last twenty
Untitled Article
Relief of Aged and Decayed Ministers 395
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1811, page 395, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2418/page/11/
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