Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1883 — Advice to Intending Ministers. [ARTICLE]

Advice to Intending Ministers.

My dear young brother, if you prefer it, if you honestly feel that you have something to say that people must hear, then preach. *But: If you can’t do anything else; if you can’t plow or reap; if you know not how either to fish or cut bait; if at anything else you would starve, then, in Heaven’s name, keep out of the pulpit. God never yet established a church as a pension agency for anybody. If you have made up your mind that you’ll have to preach or starve, you will confer a great favor by starving. Or,- you can edit a newspaper, which is a respectable way of doing the same thing. Anybody can edit a paper. Except the editor. He doesn’t know the first principle of his business. Any man whom he has had occasion to bring into the dissecting-room for demonstration will tell you that.— E. J. Burdette.