lege your minister
was always reckoned the smartest of the two, and went ahead in every
thing they undertook. Now, you see Mr. Lennox, out of his talents and
education, makes say three thousand a year. Mr. Stanton had more talent,
and more education, and might have made even more; but by devoting
himself to the work of the ministry in your state, he gains, we will
say, about four hundred dollars. Does he not, therefore, in fact, give
all the difference between four hundred and three thousand to the cause
of religion in this state? If, during the business season of the year,
you, Mr. C., should devote your whole time to some benevolent
enterprise, would you not feel that you had virtually given to that
enterprise all the money you would otherwise have made? Instead,
therefore, of calling it a charity for you to subscribe to your
minister's support, you ought to consider it a very expensive charity
for him to devote his existence in preaching to you. To bring the gospel
to your state, he has given up a reasonable prospect of an income of two
or three thousand, and contents himself with the least sum which will
keep soul and body together, without the possibility of laying up a cent
for his family in case of his sickness and death. This, sir, is what _I_
call giving in charity."

THE ELDER'S FEAST.

A TRADITION OF LAODICEA.

At a certain time in the earlier ages there lived in the city of
Laodicea a Christian elder of some repute, named Onesiphorus. The world
had smiled on him, and though a Christian, he was rich and full of
honors. All men, even the heathen, spoke well of him, for he was a man
courteous of speech and mild of manner.

His wife, a fair Ionian lady but half reclaimed from idolatry, though
baptized and accredited as a member of the Christian church, still
lingered lovingly on the confines of old heathenism, and if she did not
believe, still cherished with pleasure the poetic legends of Apollo and
Venus, of Jove and Diana.

A large and fair family of sons and daughters had risen around these
parents; but their education had been much after the rudiments of this
world, and not after Christ. Though, according to the customs of the
church, they were brought to the font of baptism, and sealed in the name
of the Father, and the Son, and Holy Ghost, and although daily, instead
of libations to the Penates, or flower offerings to Diana and Juno, the
name of Jesus was invoked, yet the _spirit_ of Jesus wa