compliment of stealing his sermon, in which he stoutly denied that the fall of the Brunswick Theatre was a divine judgment on the particular sufferers, and applied it to the visitation of the cholera.

Andrewes, of St. James's, Piccadilly, "had the merit of preaching not his own sermons; he used to preach Paley;" and when asked to publish his sermons, "declined, saying he could not publish his manner with them."

When, in 1764, the Duke of York's remittances were stopped, and he was ordered home on account of the Prince's extravagance abroad having made a public clamour,—a popular preacher delivered a sermon on the following text: "The younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living."-St. Luke xv. 13.

Irish divines have ever been noted for their eccentricities. None but a clergyman from beyond the Channel would, on being appointed to preach a "condemned" sermon, have selected an old University discourse, and have promised the unfortunate criminal, who was to be hanged on the morrow, that the remainder of the homily should be given on the next Sunday. None but a son of Erin would have divided his sermon into two parts, first addressing those who were present, then those who were absent. We doubt not that the dissenting minister, who declared that "God takes care of all his living creatures-animate and inanimate," was of Celtic origin, and own brother to him who said that "the heart of man is an empty vacuum, full of tigers and unclean deceits." The history of misquotation would form a goodly volume. Two instances must suffice. 66 'My dear friends," said a female preacher of the sect Trembleurs, never forget those beautiful words of Holy Writ, All's well that ends well." An unlucky párson intended to take for his text, "We shall not die, but be all changed;" but, reading it from an old Bible, where the c was rubbed out, he made it not die, but be all hanged!"

Dr. Parr preached the Spital sermon, at Christ Church, on the invitation of the Lord Mayor, Harvey Combe, and, as

they were coming out of the church together, "Well," said Parr, "how did you like the sermon?" Why, Doctor," replied his Lordship, "there were four things in it that I did not like to hear." "State them." "Why, to speak frankly, then, they were the quarters of the church-clock, which struck four times before you had finished." Yet Parr's Spital Sermon, in 1799, occupied nearly three hours in its delivery! Richard Baxter preached a sermon before Charles II., which is supposed to have occupied an hour and a half in the delivery; and, though the title-page states it to have been preached contractedly," certain "enlargements" are stated to have been made. The length of Barrow's Sermons has been alluded to at page 200. He is said to have once preached three hours and a half. (Pope's Life of Bishop Ward, quoted in Abraham Hill's "Life of Barrow," prefixed to the Oxford edition of his Works, 1830, i. xxi.)

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A Correspondent of Notes and Queries observes: "Very respectable precedents might be urged on this head. The Apostle Paul, as Eutychus knew to his cost, on one occasion, at least, was "so long preaching" as to keep his hearers until midnight. The Puritans were remarkable for the wordy and elaborate way in which they "opened even a very simple text; and many of Bunyan's discourses would form a goodsized pocket volume. Hogarth has represented a clergyman preaching by the hour-glass, with the witty accompaniment of a copy of Warwick's Spare Minutes-a conceit that tells its own story very pleasantly. But what is the length of the above sermons compared with the test of a man's religious earnestness as suggested by some Puritan in Old Mortality : "Can he sit six hours on a wet hill-side listening to a sermon?"

Mr. Canning was once asked by an English clergyman how he had liked the sermon he had preached before him. “ Why, it was a short sermon," quoth Canning. "Oh, yes," said the preacher; "you know I avoid being tedious." "Ah, but," replied Canning, "you were tedious."

Speaking of a popular preacher, Lord Brougham once said: "His style is so inflated that one of his sermons would fill the Nassau Balloon!"

A woman in humble life was asked one day, on her way back from church, whether she had understood the sermon, a stranger having preached. "Wud I hae the presumption!" was her simple and contented answer.

"Well, Master Jackson," said his minister, walking homeward after service, with an industrious labourer, who was a constant attendant; "Well, Master Jackson, Sunday must be a blessed day of rest for you, who work so hard all the week! And you make a good use of the day; for you are always to be seen at church!" 'Ay, sir," replied Jackson; "it is, indeed, a blessed day; I works hard enough all the week; and then I comes to church o' Sundays, and sets me down, and lays my legs up, and thinks o' nothing."

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Robert Hall was once rebuked by Matthew Wilks of the Tabernacle, for "talking nonsense "at a private party, after having just before preached an eloquent sermon. "Matthew," replied Hall, "the difference between us is this: I talk my nonsense in the parlour, thou talkest thine in the pulpit."

Dr. Arnold once preached a sermon against taking in the monthly numbers of Nicholas Nickleby. The sermon was not very effective; but the protest against uninterrupted excitement, which was the pith of the discourse, was not unneeded.

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A friend accused another of sleeping in church, which he flatly denied, insisting that he had been awake all the time. Well, then," said the accuser, can you tell me what the sermon was about ?" Yes, I can," was the answer, “it was about half-an-hour too long."

Among pertinent texts is that which Paley had chosen to preach on Mr. Pitt's visit to Cambridge University, when he was Prime Minister: "There is a lad here who has two loaves and five small fishes-but what are they among so many ?"

MIND YOUR FIGURES.

On the occasion of the death of the Duke of York, in 1827, funeral sermons were preached in the various churches in London, and amongst them, at St. Andrew's, Holborn; where the following mistake arose in giving out the psalm to be sung. The rector, the Rev. W. Beresford, had directed, "three verses, from the 62d Psalm, beginning at the 5th verse;" when his curate, the Rev. Mr. Hoole, as was his custom, wrote down the number of the Psalm, &c., and handed it to the clerk. Hoole had written the figures badly, and the clerk gave out three verses from the 52d Psalm, beginning at the 5th verse" (Brady and Tate, New Version):

God shall for ever blast thy hopes,
And snatch thee soon away, &c.

and the three verses were actually sung by the congregation, greatly to the annoyance of the rector; and of poor Hoole, who was not much relieved upon being shown his own handwriting by the clerk in explanation of the circumstance.

SCOTTISH PREACHERS.

The experiences of the Scottish ministry are chequered with more oddity than the habitual gravity of the people might lead us to expect. Here are a few instances.

A Scottish betteral (beadle) proud of the performance of his clergyman, said, in a triumphant tone to another beadle : "Eh, our minister had a great power o' watter, for he greet and spat, and wat like mischief." A beadle of one of the large churches in Glasgow, criticising the sermon of a minister from the country who had been preaching in the city church, characterised it as "Gude coarse country wark."-Dean Ramsay's Reminiscences.

The greatest scholars are not invariably the best preachers; indeed, the reverse appears to be common. Dr. MacKnight, the profound commentator, was, nevertheless, a heavy, dull preacher. His colleague, Dr. Henry, the author of the History of England, with all his pleasantry and abilities, had himself as little popularity in the pulpit as his coadjutor: he had been remarking to Dr. MacKnight what a blessing it was that they two were colleagues in one charge, and continued dwelling on the subject so long, that Dr. M., not quite pleased at the frequent reiteration of the remark, said that it certainly was a great pleasure to himself, but he did not see what great benefit it might be to the world. "Ah,” said Dr. Henry, "an it hadna been for that, there wad hae been twa toom (empty) kirk this day."

A lengthy discourse is often provocative of a repartee. A preacher of an-hour-and-a-half discourses, being asked, as a gentle hint, of their possibly needless length, if he did not feel tired after preaching so long, he replied, "Na, na, I'm no tired;" adding, however, with much naïveté, "But, Lord, how tired the fouk whiles are.'

The old Scotch hearers were very particular on the subject of their ministers preaching old sermons. A group of parishioners was observed to be somewhat merry on their way home. The minister asked the cause of this. "Indeed, sir," replied

the beadle, "they were saying ye had preached an auld sermon to-day, but I tackled them, for I tauld them it was no an auld sermon, for the minister had preached it no sax months syne.' ."-An old elder of Dr. Cook's said to him one day: "Now-a-days people make a work if a minister preach the same sermon over again in the course of two or three years. When I was a boy, we would have wondered if old Mr. W had preached anything else than what we had

heard the Sunday before."

A dull sermon has often proved soporific. Dean Ramsay relates that the Earl of Lauderdale was alarmingly ill; one distressing symptom being a total absence of sleep, without which the medical men declared he could not recover. His son, who was somewhat daft, was seated under the table, and cried out, "Sen' for that preaching-man frae Livingstone, for he aye sleeps in the kirk." One of the doctors thought the hint worth attending to. The experiment of "getting a minister till him" succeeded, and sleep coming on, he recovered.

An old Fife gentleman had been to church at Elie, and listening to a young and perhaps bombastic preacher, who happened to be officiating for the Rev. Dr. Milligan, then in the church. After service, meeting the Doctor in the passage, he introduced the young clergyman, who, on being asked by the old man how he did, elevated his shirt-collar, and complained of fatigue, and being very much "tired.” "Tired, did ye say, my man," said the old satirist, who was slightly deaf, "Lord, man! if you're half as tired as I am I pity ye.' There is an eye to the economy of human life in the following. The Rev. Walter Dunlop, of Dumfries, while making his pastoral visitations, came to a farmhouse where he was expected; and the mistress, thinking that he would be in need of refreshment, proposed that he should take his tea before engaging in exercises, and said she would soon have it ready. Mr. Dunlop replied, "I aye tak' my tea better when my work's done. I'll just be gaun on. Ye can hing the pan on, an' lea the door ajar, an' I'll draw to a close in the prayer when I hear the haam fizzin."

A parish minister was not only a long preacher, but, as the custom was, delivered two sermons on the Sabbath-day, and thus saved the parishioners two journeys to church. A young girl, who accompanied her grandmother, was sufficiently