The Best Mode of Working a Parish
Considered in a Course of Lectures Delivered in Denver Cathedral, January and February, 1888,
and in Some Sermons Prepared for Various Occasions.
THIS was the question that was asked by Cain when God called him to account for the disappearance of his brother Abel. He asked it as if the answer must be negative. It was the first suggestion of his sinful heart to deny that he was his brother's keeper. The Cains of this world have ever since, under like circumstances, reiterated the same question. We should scarcely suppose it would be asked by persons of a different class, or that any would deny that we all have a certain responsibility in regard to our brethren. But strange as it would appear, there are professing Christians who ask it with the same incredulous implication when the duty is pressed home upon them of caring for all sorts and conditions of men.
In a most true sense we are our brother's keeper. All men do in their hearts accept the teaching of the parable of the good Samaritan. Not in the Church, not even in the world, can the theory be acted on that each may live and care only for himself. There must be mutual sympathy [108/109] and offices of love between those who come in contact with each other, or the Church would be a nullity and human intercourse impossible. Especially must Christians recognize the universally accepted fact and truth of the common brotherhood of man. They especially whom Providence has favored with the gifts of intelligence, wealth, or social position, must lend the helping hand of brotherly sympathy and kindly service to those who in any respect, by the disposals of the same Providence, have been less fortunate. The Parish or Mission is organized for mutual care and helpfulness among all whom its agencies shall bring into the fold of Christ. It is of primary importance that a pastoral care should be extended over every member. What are some of the modes in which Christians who own that they are their brother's keeper, can render their assistance in this work? The enquiry is necessary, if we would learn how best to work our Parishes.
The Church is God's family. All baptized persons are members of Christ, the children of God, and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven. We all know how necessary it is that parents should exercise the most watchful supervision over their children. Parents are rightly held responsible for such training and care of their offspring as shall guard them against dissoluteness, and prepare and strengthen them to meet the temptations and trials of their growing years. In the present condition of the [109/110] world it is quite as necessary that there should be constant, watchful care on the part of Pastors and people over every member of the family of Christ.
Consider the various classes of people to whom such pastoral care is indispensable, if they are to be kept safely within the fold and nourished unto eternal life.
It is fearful to contemplate the number of communicants who relapse into the world, and still more fearful to reflect upon the reason, that they were not sufficiently watched over and tended when once the vows of God were upon them of their voluntary choice.
Pastoral oversight is exceedingly important when the congregation is composed of intelligent people whose surroundings are favorable to religion. Circumstances are constantly arising when they individually need the Pastor's personal counsel and that of Christians of matured wisdom and experience. The loving Pastor should be ever at hand, so that all in trouble, doubt or any spiritual difficulty may open their griefs to his confiding ear and receive advice, encouragement and consolation. So, too, Christians should bear one another's burdens and thus fulfil the law of Christ.
But when we consider the young, those of both sexes verging upon manhood and womanhood, the poor, the immature, the ignorant and those in untoward conditions of life, the need of pastoral oversight and friendly, sympathizing, thoughtful care and counsel are greatly [110/111] increased. If the Church is awake to the necessity of meeting the wants of such as these, how painful must be the consciousness of past neglect, how fervent the prayer for greater faithfulness in pastoral duty!
If so many communicants are yearly left to fall away, how much greater the number of baptized persons who never become living Christians, or who, at least since their childhood, have been wholly of the world. From defective family training and associations, unfaithful sponsors, evil companionship and godless surroundings, they lose all connection with those who are constituted their spiritual guides, and fall into habits of worldliness and impenitence. In the order of spiritual causes, every baptized person, being in the state of grace and salvation, ought to grow up in faith and obedience and the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, to be pillars of strength and beauty in the Church. Yet many, may it not be said the majority, of those brought within the Christian Covenant, are living as if they were without, practically aliens from the Spiritual Israel, without the Christian hope, without God in the world! What a fearful responsibility rests upon Pastors and Christian people for these redeemed and lost souls! Surely it is worth our best thought and efforts to remedy a state of things so appalling.
Again, we are receiving constantly a large influx of population, of whom many belong by baptism and early education to the Church in England, Ireland, Scotland, [111/112] and in the Eastern States. They are largely of the laboring classes. They leave their native country and their homes for the higher wages and the more equal social conditions of this "land of freedom," or for the fancied opportunities of making or bettering their fortunes in the wild frontier towns of the West. Many of them leave their Church and their religion behind them. We often hear people in and beyond the mountains in Colorado, who have failed in their ventures, talking about "going back to God's country." In these high altitudes, with the stupendous wonders of nature about them, they should feel themselves nearer to God and Heaven, and their righteousness should "stand like the strong mountains." But the nearer God may be to them in nature, the farther they are from God revealed in His Word and in His Church. In this land of their adoption the Church seldom seeks them out. If there be a Church accessible, they do not find it. Their garb seems more becoming to very different associations. Without friends in the Church, all connected with it being strangers, with no friendships to draw them, no ties to bind them to it, except duty; faring hard, perhaps, in their struggle of life for themselves and their families, they are indisposed to seek its spiritual privileges and comfort. Their infidelity to the Church under the circumstances is but natural, and to be expected. Even in the exceptional instances, when they are sought out by some kind-hearted Pastor and by sympathizing Christians, [112/113] and brought home to the old Church of their early love, and their hearts warmed, and for the time responding to Christian truth, prompting the realization of their Christian obligations; soon compelled by the exigencies of their hard life to remove to some other locality, they again relapse into neglect and indifference. There are. thank God, many exceptions even among those least favored by fortune, but abundant facts justify our general statement.
It is scarcely different with the poorer classes of our home population. If they are once brought effectively under the influence of the Church, their frequent removals soon carry them beyond its reach. Apart from the Church's care and the means of grace, there is no power to hold men to Christianity. To attempt to live an inward Christian life without open profession and connection with the Church's corporate and sacramental life, must result in failure. The Christianity of those who are not in the visible organic living Body of Christ, soon becomes invisible, imperceptible and powerless over the life and character.
It is easy to say of all the baptized of every class that they ought to adhere to the Church wherever they are, and under all circumstances, and so to maintain their Christian integrity. But is this to be expected? And is the fault wholly on their side? Should not the Church be what Christ was, the shepherd of her people? Should she not gather them into the fold and tend and feed [113/114] them as the one flock of Christ? Should she not go out into the wilderness, or wherever they are straying, and seek them in whatever perilous places, and take them to her arms and bear them upon her shoulders, and gently bring them back to her safe enclosure, where they shall have plenty, and peace, and rest? Should not these be her special care, because of their greater needs? Will it not be more to her praise and an occasion of greater rejoicing to bring home the wanderers, than merely to keep those who are already safely sheltered? We ought to know well how our Lord would answer such questions as these.
No communicant should ever remove permanently to another place without taking a letter of commendation from his Pastor to the Rector or Missionary in charge at or nearest to his new residence, and presenting it at once on his arrival. The law of the Church requires this. If not asked for, it should still always be given. If this law were observed in all cases, we should have less cause to deplore our losses.
The importance of heeding this requirement of regular transfer and acceptance of Church members, cannot be too strongly urged. It is so easy to postpone religious duties, to break away from the ties of the Church, to neglect Church attendance and sacramental privileges in a new place, under new associations. Every means should be used to prevent it. A letter of commendation [114/115] is a testimonial. It guarantees the Christian character of the bearer. It is the best possible introduction. It wins immediate confidence. It procures admission into Christian society. It gives position and secures opportunities of Christian usefulness.
But it involves reciprocal duties on the part of those who are to receive and welcome the strangers thus accredited. They should immediately call upon them and with open arms adopt them into their fellowship. They should show themselves so friendly and cordial to strangers as to remove all possibility of their feeling that they are in an atmosphere of coldness and neglect. How much room there is for improvement in this regard! Is it not the fact that many a stranger accredited or known to some of us as belonging to the Church, is with us for months without receiving the slightest Christian recognition?
Our duty is the same, whether strangers coining among us bring a letter of transfer or not. We are to show them Christian politeness. We are to give them Christian hospitality. We are so to demean ourselves that they shall feel that they have not left the Church behind in their old home. It is with them still. The same service of prayer and praise invites their worship. The same God and Saviour waits to answer and bless them. The same pulpit instructions afford them the means of increase of knowledge, and counsel and admonition. The same Holy Table offers them, if worthily prepared, the Bread from [115/116] Heaven, the Flesh and Blood of Christ, to nourish their souls and bodies unto everlasting life. They may still feel that they are one in the catholic communion of the Saints. To the old friendships new ones are added. Thus all the embarrassments, all the unfavorable conditions of their new sphere are to be compensated.
To meet all these requisitions for pastoral oversight of all these classes of people, in this land and this age of worldly engrossments, is surely of the greatest importance. The communicants, the baptized and unconfirmed, children and youths, the poor, the toiling masses of the people, strangers of every condition, must be visited, cared for, shown the most loving sympathy and interest, kept within the fold, or if wandering away, brought back, helped in every way, as Christ aided all with whom He came in contact, by bearing their infirmities, to lead them to the Source of Healing for their sins.
The greatest responsibility rests upon Pastors. They are to have something of the pastoral heart that was in Christ. They are to be good under-shepherds. They are to know and call each one by name, and lead them together and individually into the green pastures and beside the still waters of refreshment. They are to seek the lost till found. If the work required by the Canons of the Church, of keeping accurate lists of families, baptized persons, the confirmed, the communicants--in order to an individual acquaintance and influence over each and all, and that he [116/117] may often, as he looks through his list of people, pray for each one--be of great difficulty in large towns, and among shifting populations, nevertheless, it should be done, even though other and less important duties be neglected. How can one be a true Pastor to people in the mass? The pastoral relation is with individuals. It is a heart to heart relation. The power of the Ministry is not in pulpit oratory, not in learned discourse to congregations; it is in house to house and heart to heart teaching. It is in personal influence. It is in preaching Christ by word and example, in His mercy and beneficence to soul and body, by going about healing all manner of diseases and infirmities among the people.
But the Pastor can not do all this alone. His office as Pastor is not exclusive. If he is to have no help in the work of pastoral oversight and care of his flock, all that is demanded of the Church in our times can not be done. She must confess her inability to apply the Gospel effectively to all classes and conditions of men. She must yield her claim to actual catholicity. She must be a class church, a sect among sects, a mere denomination. For it is utterly impossible for the clergyman, without assistance from his people, to afford that care and attention in sickness and in health, and under all the varying circumstances and conditions of life, that is indispensable to permanent benefit to all rightfully belonging to his cure and for whom he is responsible. He must invoke lay [117/118] co-operation in this as in all his work. The success of a Pastor is largely determined by his ability to interest and gather around him workers, to call out and develop their several capabilities, and to gain their confidence in his judgment in directing them what to do and how best to do it. The people must respond to his appeals for help. If they do not co-operate with the Minister they are counteracting his influence. The more indifferent they are, the harder they make his labors. Our Lord's saying is as true here as anywhere: "he that is not with Me is against Me." The Minister must have the earnest prayers, the hearty sympathy, the active, zealous co-operation of his people, or great success is not to be expected. His lay workers should, as far as possible, be organized. Their work should be on a plan. Their combined efforts should be directed to the bringing of the people who are without, of all ages and conditions, into the Church, and holding them with cords of love, that they may be built up and edified in Christ and be living stones in the spiritual temple of Christianity.
In initiating such work the following hints may be useful: The Pastor, knowing intimately all his people, has upon his hands some who are ill, some bed-ridden persons, some very poor and wretched, some suffering in bereavement and some in loss of property, or other misfortune. He will know the fit persons to go and minister to all these according to their needs, to read to them, to [118/119] pray with them, sympathize with them, to sit with them, in silence and tears sharing their sorrows, or to take to them little delicacies and tokens of love and sympathy. Here is a street whose denizens are unknown. And here are two women who are bidden to visit every house and tenement and report their condition in temporal and spiritual things. Some children will be found for the Sunday-school; some members for the congregation; some in affliction who need and will be brought to receive the consolations of the Gospel. There is a family or a sick man or woman to whom daily or weekly visits will bring comfort; and there is a good woman who shall make such visits, with readings and prayers, and kind words and acts of sympathy. Here in the suburbs of the place, or near a manufactory is a neighborhood that ought to be visited. It will not do to take it for granted that all who live there are Roman Catholics or Methodists, or of any or all of the denominations. There may be Church people there. There may be recruits for the Sunday-school. It may be found that a Mission school, or a sewing-school, or a mothers' meeting, or a cottage lecture, should be established. And here are two or three young men of good sense and Christian purpose, and here are two or three women, qualified in like manner, who may be appointed and induced to look carefully through the whole district, and by house to house visitation find out and report just who and what all the people are who [119/120] inhabit it. There will always be some outcome to such work. Some good results will follow. It will be found necessary that the visits be continued. They will bring to many a wholesome and a religious influence. They will bring to some the Gospel of Christ with all its priceless blessings.
As was said in a former lecture, the Christian layman can often reach laymen who shun the clergyman--whom the clergyman cannot approach. The Pastor cannot get so near many of the men of his charge as to know intimately their thoughts and feelings, what they converse about, what their attitude towards spiritual things. The godly layman may mingle among them, win their esteem, confidence and friendship, draw them out, get at the secrets of their hearts, so far as they have any, in relation to God, to Christianity and the Church of Christ, and thus gain a position in which to have great influence for good to their souls. The clergyman is thought to be an official, to do what his office requires, to speak perfunctorily, and not to understand the men who are not of his own class, or who move in other spheres. This estimate is altogether wrong concerning most of the clergy. But it tends to hinder or weaken their influence. They ought to go down among the people, and learn to sympathize with them in all their labors and trials, and speak to them in their own language. Yet however near they may get to them, they must have helpers in their work to make their work effective. [120/121] Their laymen must learn, under their training, to be missionaries, preachers, evangelists, visitors, under or assistant pastors. Surely this Church of ours, bringing into effect all her latent forces in her lay membership, might win back the many who are alienated from Christianity and make herself as catholic in practice as she is in theory and of right. May God hasten the time.
We might learn many a valuable lesson from those bodies of Christians in this country who seem most thoroughly to have won the confidence of the working classes. The Roman Catholics and the Methodists do not undervalue the prerogatives of their clergy, while they call forth to the fullest extent the co-operation of their laity. You will find the devoted Sisters of Charity wherever there is suffering: in the hospital, the tent, the prisoner's cell, the lonely garret, the crowded, filthy tenements of the poor. You will find them soliciting contributions in remote hamlets, and mining camps, among men whose exterior appearance must cause heart-sinking and fear; schooling themselves to courage and boldness in their cause, and thus gaining the means to build and support great institutions of charity: wholly self-forgetful, anxious only to do good, angels of mercy to the sick and dying, more helpful to strengthen their church in strong foundations of beneficence, than all the wealth of the rich--an arm of power the greatness of which is beyond human estimate. You will find brotherhoods of men and [121/122] sisterhoods of women giving their lives to teaching and controlling religious education far beyond their own communion. You will find lay organizations of every sort and for every purpose adapted to hold the people to the faith and order of the Church.
So, too, among our Methodist brethren. It is well to study their practical system, and learn what is the secret of its effectiveness. We shall doubtless find some things that we must account as evils both in Romanism and Methodism, that make for popularity. As in the former, the easiness with which peace of conscience may be gained, and the weakening of the sense of responsibility in belief and conduct, so in the latter, the excess of emotionalism, the confounding of regeneration with conversion, and of conversion with personal assurance of acceptance with God and a sense of sinless perfection, like the doctrine of the indefectibility of Grace in another school, may lead to antinomianism, and the practical denial that sin is sin in the believer. These things do unquestionably tend to win large favor and acceptance with many people who are not theologically well informed. But there is much to approve in Methodism, much retained from the Anglican Church that belongs to the very life of Christianity; much that it is our duty to hold and practice, that we are too apt to leave in abeyance, and that gives the system a hold upon religious minds, especially of the middle and working classes. The founders [122/123] of the system were Churchmen, who were resolved to the last never to leave the Church. It was the leaders in the Church in a cold and barren age who knew not how to approve and encourage what was good in them, and thus prevent a schism. We do not want their sensationalism. But we do want their warm-heartedness, their zeal in lay instruction and the conversion of souls, their devotion to good works, their watchful care of their members, their esprit du corps, and unity and co-operation in everything that can help to prosper and extend their cause. God grant that the time may soon come when they shall acknowledge the sin and evils of schism, and the inefficacy for permanent good of human arrangements so far as substituted for the Apostolic and Divine, and return to the Body they confessed to be Christ's, and left with reluctance, bringing with them their warm and earnest life to vivify the Body and be its ornament and glory.
Let us learn to imitate them in the good they do, and in so far as they imitate the Saviour. Our own people will not then fall into their ranks for the sake of the confidence and sympathy they find among them. We shall gain more fully than they have done and be able to bless with far greater and more enduring spiritual benefits the common people; and Christ's intention will be fulfilled in the new proof of the divinity of His religion, that "the Gospel is preached to the poor."
Our Church is fast gaining the realization of her catholic [123/124] heritage. We have already our sisterhoods and orders of deaconesses, without objectionable features and abuses. We have our Church schools of acknowledged superiority in the completeness of their secular and religious training, so that there is no shadow of excuse for those who would place their children under training that would by insensible degrees educate out of them their Church principles and pervert them from their faith. We have our hospitals and other like institutions of charity in the Church for the care and relief of God's poor and afflicted ones, and for conferring the blessings the Saviour came to bestow upon the bodies as well as the souls of men. These works are growing among us. They bring honor and strength to the Church. They are helping her influence with the people. By ministering to men's sicknesses and infirmities, as did our blessed Lord, we get access for the Church to the hearts of men. So the love of Christ brings to all salvation. In all these works the ministry of the brethren to individuals is secured and gives success.
The principle contended for is generally acknowledged. Sunday-school teachers are expected to visit their scholars regularly at their homes, to care for them in sickness, to enlist the interest of their parents in the services of the Church. So also the instructors of Bible classes, those who are at the head of guilds and industrial schools, or who conduct cottage lectures. We must carry out the principle fully. All must be led to feel that it is part of [124/125] their "vocation and ministry" as Christians, to show the proofs of their love and obedience to Christ by doing all the good they are able to individual souls, and thus aid in the pastoral work of the Ministry.
God grant to us all new zeal in His service. God bless to us the improvement of our advantages for gathering in, sheltering, feeding, nourishing in the fold of Christ the poor sinners who are perishing for lack of the knowledge of the Gospel of the kingdom of Christ, which it is our work to give to them. God grant that with the life of Christ in our heart, following in His blessed footsteps, in the lanes and alleys, and byways and highways, in the haunts of publicans and sinners, wherever there are souls feeding on husks and starving for the Bread of Life, or imperfect Christians needing to be nourished to the full stature of Christian manhood, WE MAY GO ABOUT DOING GOOD.
As Mothers' Meetings have been recommended, in the foregoing lectures, there is here appended from a "Manual of Mothers' Meetings," published by the author in 1871, now out of print, the following
DIRECTIONS FOR MOTHERS' MEETINGS.
l. In a large, compactly built city, it may be best to have one central Mothers' meeting connected with each Parish [125/126] or Mission, under the charge of a lady with her assistants. But there are generally in and about a small city or large village, separate neighborhoods, growing up in consequence of manufactories or other local interests, being in some cases quite distant from each other and from the Parish Church or Churches, each having a community feeling of its own. In each of these districts, Cottage lectures and Mothers' meetings should be established, as a means of winning the people to the Church, adding to the strength of the Parish and opening the way, with God's blessing, to new Missions and Parishes. In the territory embraced in St. Paul's Parish, there are five or six such districts. Most of the Mission stations in our home field would be greatly strengthened by the use of one or both these instrumentalities. Sewing or industrial schools for girls and night schools may also be added with the best results.
2. The lady appointed to take charge of a Mothers' meeting may begin by visiting to bring people to the Cottage lectures. Let her also, if able to do so, increase her practical knowledge by visiting an efficient Mothers' meeting already in operation. She should embrace every opportunity made for her by the Minister, or which she can find for herself under his sanction, to visit, read to and pray with habitually some sick person or persons, and thus learn to aim directly to bring the Gospel home to them, to convert them and help them to grow in grace. Such methods of gaining knowledge and experience will be effectual in every Parish if faithfully used; and it is to be hoped that opportunities will be afforded ere long to perfect the instruction thus obtained, in training-houses for parochial work in this and in many other dioceses, in connection with Church Homes, Hospitals and Sisterhoods.
3. Having become familiar with the district and acquainted with the women to be most relied on, let the meeting be appointed at some convenient private house, and visit thoroughly, inviting attendance. The meeting may be held weekly at different houses according to convenience, or regularly in the mission school, if the Church has one in the district.
[127] 4. The service to be as hereinafter [in the Manual referred to] appointed. If the conductor of the meeting does not sing, an assistant should be secured who can. That which is read should be furnished or approved by the Rector. Any exposition of Scripture, if attempted, should not be doctrinal, but entirely practical. Children and even babies may be present and work may go on, e. g., sewing, being only suspended for the worship, in which all should be taught to join with intelligence and heartiness. Sometimes it may be desirable that all should work in common for some charitable or missionary object.
5. The aim should be to cultivate personal religion in the members, their husbands and all connected with them; to bring them to the open confession of Christ, regular attendance at Church and the Holy Communion, and earnestness in all religious duties; to make their homes attractive; to encourage and help the Christian training of their children, and to promote thrift and industry, and mutual love and helpfulness. All should have Bibles, Prayer Books and Hymnals, and be taught how to use them. The Rector should often attend, and when present will, of course, conduct the devotions and teaching. He will thus be able to give much encouragement and assistance. Coming in near the close, he may give a five minutes' practical sermon or instruction.
6. Visits should be frequent to all within the district who will receive them, and especially to those who are sick or in affliction, not neglecting to propose reading and prayer before leaving, if there be opportunity and it can be done unobtrusively.
The visitors will be at no loss for topics of conversation, even when strangers are called upon, if it be remembered that the first object is to awaken interest and win confidence by showing real interest in them, in their children, and in their pursuits, and to ascertain their spiritual condition and religious habits; to remove hindrances to their attendance at Church and taking their children to Church and Sunday-school; to [127/128] bring them under personal instruction and the social influence of the best who attend the meeting, and to help them to self-consecration to Christ, and a life of faith and prayer.
7. Those who conduct the meetings should point out the ways in which the women can do good for Christ's sake: such as taking care of the sick; "minding" a child for a little while; helping a feeble neighbor wash, or do some household work; and such other little offices of kindness as a Christian's common sense will readily suggest.
8. Let the conductor of the meeting lose no opportunity to win the affections of the women, not only by visiting in sickness, but by carrying to them, when they are sick, hospital stores and taking books or playthings to amuse their children when they are ill; by helping those who are poor to help themselves, rather than giving them too much and thus creating a dependent spirit; by assisting to obtain work, and a good place for their children as they grow up; by securing seats for them in Church and a courteous Christian welcome and friendship; by expressions of sympathy when they lose any friend, such as furnishing a few flowers for the funeral, and asking Church people to send their carriages to a funeral to save expense.
9. A union Mothers' meeting is desirable occasionally, if there is more than one. Also, a children's meeting should be held once or twice a year, which should be in the chapel or Sunday-school room of the Parish, or in some other central place, that the women connected with all the meetings and their children may attend. The women themselves will provide the refreshments. Before these are served, the service will be said; the text given and learned, to be recited by those remembering it at the next meeting, to whom Prayer Books and Bibles are given, and an address made by the Rector, or by the Bishop, if present. A similar general meeting held annually for the men as well as the women, at which there may be refreshments, music, and addresses, will be of great social advantage.
10. She who undertakes such work must not be discouraged, however few attend the meeting, and very little seems to be [128/129] accomplished. The benefits are not simply to the constant attendants, but to their families and even their neighbors. It is not in vain, if some are elevated socially and improved in their temporal condition. But if any, however few, are strengthened in good habits and spiritually enlightened and learn to love the worship and service of God, and to use diligently the means of grace, though the world gives little recognition of the good done, we know that the angels in Heaven rejoice. And there is this incidental result, of inestimable value, that the Church wins the respect and ultimately the love of the masses of the people, and proves that she is catholic in her adaptability to minister effectually to all sorts and conditions of men.
11. Some organization of those employed in such work will be almost a matter of course, but should be very simple and informal and unincumbered with many rules and by-laws. Thus they will meet from time to time for mutual consultation and such advice and instruction as the Rector may desire to give. Each should report the number of visits made and the number belonging to and in attendance at the meetings, of which there will be kept a permanent record. Besides action to increase the usefulness of the Mothers' meetings, plans for various kinds of charitable effort may be matured and carried out according to the wants of the several districts and the circumstances of the Parish. A. Hospital or Church Home, growing up as the need becomes apparent, will give to the workers a centre of operations, and they may become practically associated in a sisterhood. THE RECTOR WHO GIVES HIS WORKERS WHO DESERVE IT HIS ENTIRE CONFIDENCE, AND WHO SHOWS THEM THAT HE TRUSTS THEM WHILE HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE, WILL ALWAYS BE REWARDED WITH THEIR LOYALTY AND DEVOTION.