Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1877 — A Startling Scene in a Church. [ARTICLE]

A Startling Scene in a Church.

A painful scene appears, by the account given of it in the Stirling Journal, to have occurred, on Sunday last week, in a church near Gartmore, in that county. The minister, who is in the habit of warning his congregation on special occasions against tbe machinations of the Evil One, was delivering a discourse on his favorite theme, when suddenly a large window-blind and roller behind the pulpit lost its hold, falling right over the preacher, and completely concealing him tor a time from his flock. In its descent the roller smashed a number of windowpanes, and the clatter of the falling glass added panic to the already terrified condition of the enshrouded preacher. Ignorant of the cause of the sudden darkness and horrible noise, he thought he might have exceeded the bounds of discretion in his denunciations of the Devil, who had thereupon arrived hastily in person, bait on retaliation. A frightful shriek of “I am gone!” echoed through

the church, and the maddened preacher with one bound cleared the pulpit, nor even stopped until /he reached the extreme corner of the edifice. It taay be well imagined that the suddenness of this alarming incident and its dramatic nature exercised a most powerful effect on the nerves of all who witnessed it. Fortunately there was no general panic, or the consequences might have been serious; but the story should be a lesson to ‘hose ministers who touch upon the delicate Question of the persdnahty of the Devil to retain tlieir relf-possession under any circumstances, and not to leave the pulpit unless absolutely ejected from it by force.— Pall Mall Gaeette.