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    which is acceptable to many other sects . The minds of Unitarian ministers are , therefore , more severely tasked than those of most other preachers * But the o » ly hours they have for the composition of sermons ( and it is usual with them to compose , not , as D . Z . unjustly insinuates , to compile ) are those in which they are released from the drudgery of their

    schools , some of which must be devoted to bodily exercise and relaxation of mind , as well as to an occasional intercourse with their families and society . The time , then , which they can call their own , or devote to the proper busiuess of their profession , is contracted indeed : in this brief space it is as impossible to crowd all the duties of that profession as for

    any one , but the metaphysician , to enclose the poems of Homer in a nut-shell . The " clerical leisure "—the " quiet days and unbroken nights" of Unitarian ministers , exist only in the imagination of D . Z . ; his arguments all proceed on the supposition that they are " an order of men set apart to minister to the mental and moral wants of the people , " with no

    interfering pursuit , forced upon them by circumstances , to distract their attention and paralyse their exertions . Unhappily , they are not set apart to the business of their profession , but are compelled , in many instances , in order to maintain themselves and families , to resort to other business y yet it seems they are expected to do all the work of the ministerial

    profession , at the same time that they have to obtain , by incessant exertions of a very exhausting nature , the common necessaries of life . It is , however , objected , apparently in anticipation of the statement of this important fact , by D . Z , " Neither ought we to yield too readily to the plea of

    incessaut labour for the supply of bodily wants and personal comforts . " But why ought not this plea to be admitted ? Bodily wants , if not personal comforts , must be supplied ; the daily task of providing for these will necessarily interfere with ministerial duties . The present low salaries of ministers will not furnish them

    and their families with common food , clothing , and habitation ; and were they not to increase them by scholastic or literary employment , many of them would be reduced to actual want . It may be philosophical , but it is certainly not benevolent nor conclusive reasoning , to argue , iu reference to ministers thus employed , " Unless a man be fully impressed

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    with a sense of the duties he has to discharge , unless he has taken pains to establish the habit of performing them , added comforts and pecuniary advantages will do nothing for him . " A man may hate a deep sense of the duties he has to discharge , and take all the pains possible to perform them , yet be placed in such a situation that he cannot with his utmost

    efforts perform them ; and such is the unhappy situation of many Unitarian ministers , compelled to have recourse to other employments , besides that of their profession , to obtain common sustenauce . D . Z . has said much in praise of the practical habits of men of business , placed by him in disparaging contrast with the sedentary habits of ministers ; but were

    the merchant or the tradesman prevented from attending to the business of the shop , the counting-house , or the mart , by the necessity of procuring a livelihood elsewhere , the concerns that now so strongly engage his attention would be neglected—the shop would be closed , the counting-house abandoned , and the thronged Exchange be converted Into an unpeopled solitude . Gladly would Uuitariau ministers devote all their time and

    talents to the business of their ministry , both in and out of the pulpit , if the societies whom they serve would exempt them from the necessity of having recourse to other occupations . To the unjust charge , urged against the members of the clerical profession , in the service of Unitarian churches , " Ye are idle , ye are idle , " it may be replied , with a strict adherence

    to truth , The Unitarian minister is not only a labourer In the vineyard of the Lord , but , also , in the thorny field of a more exacting master , the world : hence he not unfrequently lives a drudge and dies a martyr to his profession . Under these circumstances , however depressing , he strives , amidst incessant and exhausting labours , to be content . But the virtue that does not murmur may feel justly indignant at censures which imply a total

    obduracy to the evils it patiently sustains , and an oppressive exaction of labours greater than human nature is able to perform * The persons who utter these censures , and make this exaction , may , perhaps , be taught to feel sympathy for the situation , and exercise justice towards the virtues , of ministers , by being reminded that they are human beings and subject to human necessities . By .

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    Occatiorfal Correspondence . 57

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 57, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/57/