Whether newly ordained or nearly retired, every pastor will benefit from the wise counsel of this book. Based in part on his experience as a pastor for over twenty-five years, and in part from his notes from ArchibaldAlexander’s Princeton Seminary class on pastoral ministry, Thomas Murphy sets forth the duties of the pastor in expansive and practical detail. Though written twelve years after the end of the US Civil War, this work remains relevant. The chapters on the pastor in his closet and the pastor in his study are alone worth the price of the book.