4. _The salary should be adequate for a comfortable support, and should be fairly proportioned to the pecuniary ability of the congregation._ The minister will be expected to live in a manner at least equal to the average style of life among the people, and the salary should enable him to do so. A "donation," as a part of the payment of ministerial service, is to be avoided if possible. It is perhaps a necessity in some localities from long-established custom; but it is essentially unjust to the minister, because it calls that a gift which is really a debt, and its effect is to foster in the people false ideas of ministerial support. The New Testament declares that "the laborer is worthy of his hire" (Luke x. 7), and it is injurious alike to the self-respect of the pastor and to the respect of the people for his office to make his support a matter of gratuity. It is better, in my judgment, to accept a smaller salary, the payments of which are fixed and regular, than to insist on a larger one, a part of which comes in the uncertain form of a "donation." In the matter of salary, however, a true pastor will always tenderly regard the circumstances of his people; and in a congregation composed chiefly of the poor, or in times of financial depression and disaster, he will be ready to suffer with them, cheerfully accepting a smaller stipend and practicing a more rigid economy. A selfish, niggardly, parsimonious spirit is nowhere more offensive than in a Christian pastor. 5. _All business arrangements with a church should be made with business definiteness._ It may not, indeed, be necessary or desirable to insist upon a formal written contract, but it would save many a painful misunderstanding if the chief features in the agreement were always in writing. Properly, the call of the church should specifically state the chief points agreed on; but, whether this is done or not, the letter of acceptance should specify them distinctly. The points to be thus specified are: the time at which the pastor will enter on his work, the amount of salary and the times of payment, and the vacation to be allowed. This should ordinarily not be less than four weeks and should be understood as fully releasing the pastor during that time from all responsibility for the pulpit and from all pastoral service. 6. _The minister, in all his relations with a church, should exhibit a delicate sense of honor._ He may not encourage a call when there is no serious probability of its acceptance. A church call and its declination may gratify a man's vanity and give him a temporary publicity, but such ministerial coquetry is destitute of Christian honor, and in the end reacts disastrously on him who practices it. It is no light thing thus to trifle with a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to dishonor the ministerial office before the world. II. OBLIGATIONS ASSUMED IN BECOMING A PASTOR.