Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1906 — HUMOR IN TEXT OF CLERGY. [ARTICLE]

HUMOR IN TEXT OF CLERGY.

Amusing Remark* Which Were Most fteriooetv Intended. Part of the humor which one occasionally meets with, even in the sedate incloeure of the pulpit, is due to the queer texts which are sometimes —often unconsciously—chosen by the preachers. No doubt there are many stories told under this head which owe their origin not to actual fact so much as to the invention of; the rag. Tor example, a minister on the Sunday before his marriage“~ll~ said to have chosen as his text, “And he went -on his way rejoicing." and. on the Sunday after his honeymoon to bate eloquently discoursed on the words. “Remember my bonds.” These instances are probably, apocryphal. but the following are true sad have all come within the experience of the writer. It was in the north of England that the first incident happened. It was a country church where oU lamps were used Instead of gas. One night in the late summer when the !&m.>s had not yet been resumed after ‘he long days. It got suddenly overeat and before the sermon it was deemed necessary to light the pulpit lamp. During the hymn the old sexton repaired to the onlpit, and. having cleaned the glass ch'mney with a duster lit it up. but nnlv' a feeble light struggled through .Vrd then the clergyman took hfs text, which was this: “And now we see through a glass darkly."

A few vears ago a well-known bishop married his second wife, and. returning home after his boneymooh. anrmineod a series of sermons, the tie of the series being “The Penltenfs Return." This was obviously unintentional.

There is & church In one of our larg? cities which boasts of n very high pulpit. A aho*i. time a pro a ate-"*,. ;«reacter who was of a nervous temperament "occupied” this pulpit, but, as- the sequel will show, only 'or a short time, for hating taken his t-xt and said about a dozen ifjbrds, he startled the congregation by saying: "I am not used to pulpits as high as this; you wij] pardon me, I know, if I come down and preach my sermon from the lectern. And this was his strangely appropriate text: "He that ecalteth himself shall be aliased, and be that humble! h himself shall be exalt'H." One more instance: N'" many months ago a clergyman preao yt one Sunday evening from the text. “My words shall not pass away." Exact ly a fortnight later the same clergyman preached the same Bermon from the satne text In the same church, to Wfe wonderment of practically tbs same congregation. Evidently It was his determination that at say rate his words should not pass away tram *h# memory of hi# hearem