1. _Make no debts:_ "Owe no man anything" (Rom. xiii. 8). In all
purchases for personal and family purposes the pastor should pay as he
buys. It cultivates a just economy and avoids debts, which often prove
a heavy burden on a minister's life and a most serious drawback to his
usefulness. No man is thoroughly independent in the pulpit who is
facing a number of unpaid creditors. Ordinarily, this avoidance of debt
is entirely feasible, and when understood to be a rule with the pastor
it has a beneficial influence in promoting promptness in the payment of
his salary. The people will respect such a course in their minister. At
the very outset of life, then, let him fix it as a principle never to
run in debt. A strict adherence to this will sometimes involve
inconvenience and self-denial, but these are more than compensated in
the exemption from the anxieties and humiliations of debt, in the sense
of independence, in the respect and confidence of the community, and,
above all, in the clear conscience which observance of this rule
secures. Only the most absolute necessity should ever set aside this
rule, for the neglect of this is too frequently a cause of failure in
the pastoral office.
2. _Use great care and all the proper forms in making business
engagements._ The pastor is tempted to neglect business forms on the
supposition that as a minister he ought to rely on the honor and
consideration of those with whom he deals, and as the result, even
where there is no dishonesty, there is often misunderstanding, out of
which grow heartburnings and disputes. All business transactions,
therefore, should be conducted in a business way, leaving no room for
misapprehensions, and then all engagements should be met with
promptness and honor. A pastor should be delicately sensitive to his
reputation in this, for any failure, though it be only an apparent one,
in fulfilling a business obligation is sure to provoke unfavorable
comment and militate against usefulness.
3. _Live within your income._ A pastor may not be reckless in regard to
the probable future needs of himself and of those dependent on him.
Such a course is justified neither by Scripture nor by Providence. "The
Lord ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live of the
Gospel" (1 Cor. ix. 14). A minister, therefore, should find a
life-support in his income from his work, and should so use his salary
that a part be laid aside for coming days of need. If the salary is
small, he should rigidly cut down expenses that some of it may be
reserved. Special exigencies in life, will, indeed, sometimes prevent
this, but ordinarily it is feasible, and in the case of the head of a
family it is plainly a most sacred duty. The neglect of care to make
provision for those dependent on us is not faith, but recklessness.
Here, however, a pastor must beware of covetousness. Instances
sometimes occur in which this just and necessary regard for future need
degenerates into a selfish greed for accumulation which narrows and
belittles the minister of Christ. He compromises his dignity and
independence by seeking in various ways gifts from his people, and thus
the man is sunk in the mendicant, or he degrades his office by
descending to petty meannesses, driving close bargains in business and
shirking his just share in the contributions for church-work and
benevolence. Nowhere is the love of money more offensive than in the
Christian minister.