They criticise his style, peck at every imperfection,
intellectual and social, and soon put him in a state of siege. If the
Almighty, who it was at first claimed sent him, delivers him, he is
in luck; but the usual end is that the congregation itself effects his
deliverance by giving him the same warm experience that the terrapin
undergoes when it is desired to see him walk. After a persistent
ham-stringing of the ministerial horse, the congregation are astonished
that he cannot pull his load. I am a business man, and in many years
have had many men in my employment, but nothing would have more
astonished me at any time in my business life than to be told that I
was systematically impairing and obstructing the usefulness of the men
that I was paying to work for me and from whose labor I expected some
profit. It is the most inexplicable inconsistency to me in
congregations, which generally include a large percentage of business
men. I have used the word systematically, because it seems to me that
it is a system which pervades to a greater or less extent all
congregations of all denominations, and is confined exclusively to no
one. Nor is it the worst element in a congregation that is guilty of
it; I am sorry to say that it is prevalent among even the best members.
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