p. 123 | A Distinction

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 19, 1857

A Distinction.

MANY years ago, when new sects in New England began to break the good old Congregational barriers, and make incursions into the sheepfold of the regular clergy, a reverend divine whom I well knew—a man at once of infinite eccentricity, good sense, and good humor—encountered one of these irregular practitioners at the house of one of his flock. They had a pretty hot discussion on their points of difference, and at length the interloper, finding more than his match at polemics, wound up by saying:

"Well, doctor, you'll allow that it was commanded to preach the gospel to every crittur."

"True," rejoined the doctor, "true enough, but then I never did hear that it was commanded to every 'crittur' to preach the gospel."