This passage about the privileges of full-time pastors is my favourite from the book:

Others are glad of the leisure of the Lord’s day, and now and then of an hour besides, when they can lay hold upon it. But we may keep a continual Sabbath. We may do almost nothing else, but study and talk of God and glory, and engage in acts of prayer and praise, and drink in his sacred, saving truths.

Our employment is high and spiritual. Whether we be alone, or in company, our business is for another world. O that our hearts were but more tuned to this work! What a blessed, joyful life should we then live! How sweet would our study be to us! How pleasant the pulpit! And what delight would our conference about spiritual and eternal things afford us!

To live among such excellent helps as our libraries afford, to have so many silent wise companions whenever we please – all these, and many other similar privileges of the ministry, bespeak our unwearied diligence in the work.

– Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor

HT: A Common Place Blog

Piper, graciously as always, has made the book freely available on his website in PDF format. For all of those who haven’t read the book yet, there is now no excuse!

While you’re there, you might note that there are many other free books from Desiring God. This what Piper says about giving books away:

Should ministries offer their online media for free?

Yes, I would try to persuade ministries to do what we do at Desiring God. And what we do is say that if you can hold an item in your hand, we’re going to sell it. And we’ll try to sell it at a margin that is as low as possible, so that our ministry can be kept solvent. (You can hold a CD in your hand. Same with a shirt.)

But if you can’t hold it in your hand—if it’s electronic—we give it away. So if you can download it from the internet, then we give it to you. That’s the way we’ve tried to draw the line, instead of requiring people to pay a dollar for each download, or whatever.

As the unofficial motto of Desiring God has it: “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8, Acts 20:35)

Grace from first to last.