Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 21, 1896 - Miscellanies, Volume IV

TO THE CLERGY
aid ; you will seek, by some new endowment scheme,
to preserve for them their ecclesiastical status. That
they have no claim will be their strongest claim on
your consideration. Many of you, if not all, will
set apart some share out of your slender livings for
their assistance and support ; you will give them
what you can afford ; and you will say to them, as
you do so, what I dare say to you, that what you
give is theirs — not only in honour but in justice.
For you know that the justice which should rule the
dealings of Christians, how much more of Christian
ministers, is not as the justice of courts of law or
equity ; and those who profess the morality of Jesus
Christ have abjured, in that profession, all that can
be urged by policy or worldly prudence. From
them we can accept no half-hearted and calculating
generosity ; they must make haste to be liberal ;
they must catch with eagerness at all opportunities
of service, and the mere whisper of an obligation
should be to them more potent than the decree of
a court to others who make profession of a less
stringent code. And remember that it lies with you
to show to the world that Christianity is something
more than a verbal system. In the lapse of genera-
tions men grow weary of unsupported precept. They
may wait long, and keep long in memory the bright
doings of former days, but they will weary at the
last ; they will begin to trouble you for your creden-
tials ; if you cannot give them miracles, they will
demand virtue; if you cannot heal the sick, they
will call upon you for some practice of the Christian
277