r study of the Word satisfied
him that, though there is no direct _command_ so to do, the scriptural
and apostolic _practice_ was to _break bread every Lord's day._ (Acts xx
7, etc.) Also, that the Spirit of God should have unhindered liberty to
work through any believer according to the gifts He had bestowed, seemed
to him plainly taught in Romans xii.; 1 Cor. xii.; Ephes. iv., etc.
These conclusions likewise this servant of God sought to translate at
once into conduct, and such conformity brought increasing spiritual
prosperity.

Conscientious misgivings, about the same time, ripened into settled
convictions that he could no longer, upon the same principle of
obedience to the word of God, consent to _receive any stated salary_ as
a minister of Christ. For this latter position, which so influenced his
life, he assigns the following grounds, which are here stated as showing
the basis of his life-long attitude:

1. A stated salary implies a fixed sum, which cannot well be paid
without a fixed income through pew-rentals or some like source of
revenue. This seemed plainly at war with the teaching of the Spirit of
God in James ii. 1-6, since the poor brother cannot afford as good
sittings as the rich, thus introducing into church assemblies invidious
distinctions and respect of persons, and so encouraging the caste
spirit.

2. A fixed pew-rental may at times become, even to the willing disciple,
a burden. He who would gladly contribute to a pastor's support, if
allowed to do so according to his ability and at his own convenience,
might be oppressed by the demand to pay a stated sum at a stated time.
Circumstances so change that one who has the same cheerful mind as
before may be unable to give as formerly, and thus be subjected to
painful embarrassment and humiliation if constrained to give a fixed
sum.

3. The whole system tends to the bondage of the servant of Christ. One
must be unusually faithful and intrepid if he feels no temptation to
keep back or in some degree modify his message in order to please men,
when he remembers that the very parties, most open to rebuke and most
liable to offence, are perhaps the main contributors toward his salary.

Whatever others may think of such reasons as these, they were so
satisfactory to his mind that he frankly and promptly announced them to
his brethren; and thus, as early as the autumn of 1830, when just
completing his twenty-fifth year, he took a position from which he n