rength. It includes such
duties as performing the ceremonies at baptisms, marriages and
funerals; organizing the work of the congregation; attending church
courts and sitting on committees; serving on school boards and the
boards of benevolent societies; preaching from home and addressing the
meetings of neighbour ministers; writing official letters; raising
money; receiving visitors; writing for the press. It would be easy for
ministers in positions of any prominence to spend their whole time in
duties of this description, none of which might appear useless; so
great is the multitude of the claims which pour in from every side.

I have said nothing of the time required for keeping abreast of the
literature of the day or for cultivating an intellectual specialty. It
is extraordinary what some of the busiest men achieve in this respect;
but it is only managed by an economy and even penury of time for which
a kind of genius is requisite. Of course there are seasons of the year
when the pressure of public engagements is not so great; and ministers
are allowed longer holidays than other professional men. A couple of
hours a day given from a holiday to great reading may shoot threads of
fresh colour through the whole web of a season's work. Nor have I said
anything of the time necessary for thinking over the devotional
portion of the service of the sanctuary, though in our churches, where
free prayer prevails, this deserves as careful attention as the
sermon.

The glimpse which I have given you into the details of a minister's
week will help you to realise that the life which lies before you is a
labourious one. Of course the labour may be shirked. Ministers have
their time in their own hands; they have no office hours; and, I
suppose, a minister's life may be more ignobly idle than any other
professional man's. That is, if he has no conscience.

How far a man who is conscientious and works hard may be justified in
devoting himself to one branch of ministerial work for which he has
special aptitudes or predilections, it is difficult to judge. Perhaps
the Protestant Church has failed in making use of special gifts. Some
eminent preachers, for example, neglect pastoral visitation;[57] and
there are, I suppose, many ministers who keep out of more general
public work, because they have no taste for it. There may be some gain
in this; but there is also loss. When a preacher does not visit, he is
apt to become an orator, who da