But perhaps you will ask, "How is it that we see some of the clergy leading evil, or even immoral lives?" Reader, I understand your difficulty; it is one I have often felt myself. But just ask yourself this question. Is there any profession on earth, of which it can be said, that _every single member_ is living up to what he professes? I do not for one moment defend immorality or evil-living among the clergy. It is terrible indeed to think that they to whom we might most reasonably look for example should be setting a bad example, and poisoning instead of curing the souls that Jesus died to redeem. But these men are few and far between. And thank God, there is another side to the picture. The greater number of the clergy of the Church of England, are men leading high, noble Christian lives; many of them men who have given up wealth, comfort, and a happy home, to serve Christ and His poor in our crowded cities, or in our country villages; men who have learnt Christ as "the truth is in Jesus[#]," and whose one desire is to give that precious truth to others also. [#] Eph. iv. 21. As to the others, it is not for us to pronounce their doom; we may safely leave them in the hands of that God Who has said, "Woe be to the shepherds that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks[#]?" [#] Ezekiel xxxiv. 2. And I am quite certain that if we do not help God’s ministers in this work, God will require a reason from us for this. How many of us I wonder ever pray for our ministers, and yet the prayers of the people are one of the greatest helps the ministers of God can have. Then again we can help him in his choir, and in many other ways besides. The young men of a parish especially can help the parson. He looks to them as having been trained in his schools (baptized it may be by him), to fill up the gaps in his church, and above all to set a good, manly, Christian example when they are out of his sight. There are a great many people, especially in country villages, who are always speaking against God’s ministers, and do all they can to hinder their work. But the day of sickness comes, and they are laid by for a time, and money and victuals get scarce, the very first place they send to is the Vicarage, and the man from whom they ask help is the minister they have abused. And very rarely is this help refused. For though it is often given with a heart, heavy at the thought of the little thanks he is likely to get, and the little good it is likely to do his Master’s cause, it is yet given ungrudgingly, for he remembers his Lord’s words, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me[#]." [#] S. Matt. xxv. 40.