Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1894 — Presence of Mind in the Pulpit. [ARTICLE]

Presence of Mind in the Pulpit.

Frederick the Great, being informed of the death of one of his ohaplains, a man of considerable learning and piety, determined to select a successor with the same qualifications, and took the following method of ascertaining the merit of one of the numerous candidates for the appointment. He told the applicant that he would furnish him with a text tlie following Sunday, when he was to preach at the Royal Chapel. The morning came, and the chapel was crowded to excess. The King arrived at the end of the prayers; and on the candidate ascending the pulpit he was presented with a sealed paper by one of his majesty’s aides-de-camp. The preaoher opened it, and found nothing written. He did not, however* lose his presence of mind; but, turning the paper on both sides, he said: “My brethren, hero is nothing, and there is nothing; out of nothing God created all things;” and proceeded to deliver a most eloquent discourse on the wopders of the creation.—[Sala’s Journal. There are a million more men than women in the United States.