4-133 (Raw)

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I feel in a difficulty when I try to tell you everything in the way of advice. In the first place I fear you should not feel at home or happy in any other calling then the one you are in, so long as you are able to discharge the duties pertaining to it. 
And I also see the difficulty of combining it with any other so as to make both contribute to your support and that of your family. Then again supposing that you decided that it is your duty to abandon the work of the Ministry in order to make better provision for your family, the most promising thing for you, and that which you could best do, would be to go back into the country and purchase or select a block of land 2 or 3,000 acres or more, on which you could do a little cultivation and graze on the remainder. But would that be the kind of life you would chose for your family or would they like it. 
You might be within an hour's ride of your nearest neighbour and 3 or 4 times that distance from the nearest school, and that not much good if there was one in the district at all. You might have no church unless you made it in your own house and as to society you can judge. 
Accepting these drawbacks (as most people would reckon them) and have a fair amount of capital to start with, success financially is pretty certain. 
I have often thought such a life much more natural than the way we do live packed together in large towns. It is certainly more patriarchal. 
But are there no other modes of living open to a man like me beside going and getting buried alive in the bush? There are, and some of our ministers here who have become unfit for the active work but who have physical strength and mental energy are going well as insurance agents and in business [...] that sort of thing would allow you to live in the heart of the community near to the best schools and colleges and where you could preach as often as you liked for nothing. And you might get something for preaching too; it often happens that a new district wants developing and a circuit does not wish to take the responsibility of going to conference for a young man which means a married man after 4 years but to pay £100 or £150 to a good local man or superannuated man for doing the work. And besides there would be opportunities for the young ladies, if so disposed, to earn some money by teaching either privately or in some of the schools or colleges. Or another way which I suppose most people would call best of all if you had sufficient money to invest you could live on the profits and just do as much good as you could and in any way you pleased. 
There is a very much better return for money invested or lent here than in your country. Banks give from 5 to 6 per cent and building societies which are as safe as banks give 7 per cent for money deposited for 12 months. But capitalists can often find customers for money at 10 or 12 per cent with ample security. 
I do not know if I can say anything more that might assist in deciding as to your course. I do not know what amount of capital you could bring with you nor do I know if you have any right conception of the character of a new country like this or America. I know that the whole thing was a surprise to me [...] 
I am glad I came for several reasons and I still believe it to be in many respects the best country under the sun. [57] Yet when all that is said many come here and are disappointed, not finding a niche into which they can fit themselves and where they have the means, sometimes after wasting time and money, return to the old land. 
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