He obtains but meager pecuniary reward for his preaching.

He therefore provides for his own sustenance and that of his family by the labor of his own hands.

For this reason he must needs go to his appointments on Saturday, and return on Monday morning, and is therefore comparatively a stranger to the greater part of his four several flocks.

He can not know their daily life.

A few preachers among the old Baptists preeminently godly, self-sacrificing, and devoted to the Lord's cause, have left their families to suffer poverty and want, and have spent their lives in looking after the stray lambs of the flock; but this is not the general rule.