MIN'ISTRY, noun [Latin ministerium.] The office, duties or functions of a subordinate agent of any kind.

1. Agency; service; aid; interposition; instrumentality.

He directs the affairs of this world by the ordinary ministry of second causes.

2. Ecclesiastical function; agency or service of a minister of the gospel or clergyman in the modern church, or of priests, apostles and evangelists in the ancient. Acts 1:17. Romans 12:7. 2 Timothy 4:5. Numbers 4:12.

3. Time of ministration; duration of the office of a minister, civil or ecclesiastical.

The war with France was during the ministry of Pitt.

4. Persons who compose the executive government or the council of a supreme magistrate; the body of ministers of state.

5. Business; employment.

He abhorred the wicked ministry of arms.