A SERMON SPOILED, AND YET IMPROVED.
An anecdote told of the life of a dissenting minister has a fair claim to the admiration of every priest who is in earnest. There was a minister who it appears, had obtained no small reputation among his brethren for his eloquence generally, and more particularly for the logical sequence and the “impressive conclusions” of his sermons. On some great occasion he was appointed to preach in the open air, and he had deeply interested his auditors through a long discourse. Just before the conclusion he was observed to hesitate, and then in a rambling manner he recapitulated part of what had been already said until he reached a very lame and impotent finale. At the subsequent dinner, when the preacher’s health was proposed, “Brother,” said one of the ministers present, “we must all, I am sure, have been charmed by your discourse; but, if I may hazard the observation, I thought that at the conclusion you lost the thread of your argument, and hardly equalled your ordinary eloquence.” “If I must tell you the reason,” was the reply, “thus it was. Just as I was about to conclude, I saw a poor man running up to the place, hot and dusty, and eager to hear. ‘Speak a word to him,’ said conscience. ‘You will spoil your sermon if you do,’ said pride. And I did spoil it, I know; but I may have done him good.”