Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-17 00:00:00

INSOLVENT PETITIONERS

' William Mason, Foregate-street, Chester, boot and shoe
maker; Charles Booth, Ferrate-street, Chester, dyer.

A SERMON FOR THE TIMES.—BY A II
BAPTIST.—My Beloved Brethering,—l am an unlarnt
hard-shell Baptist preacher, of whom you've no doubt
heern afore, and I now appear here to. expound the
Scriptures and pint out the narrer way which leads from
a vain world to Juroosalcm, and my text, which I shall
chose'for the occasion, is in the leds of the Bible

ID-SIIELL

where between the be, .4 last chapter
of Timothy Titus, and when you find it, you will find it
in these words :—" And they shall gnaw a file and flee
unto the mountains of Ilepsidam, where the lion roareth,
and the wan;-doodle mourneth for its first-born." Now,
my brethering, as I have before told you, I am an
unedicated man, and know nothing about grammar talk
and collidge hiafalootin, but I'm a plain unlarnt preacher
of the Gospil, what's been fore-ordained, and called to
expound Scripter to a dying world, and prepar a perverse
generation for the day of wrath, " for they shall gnaw a
file, and flee unto the mountains of Hepsidam, where the
lion roareth, and the wang-doodle • mourneth for its first-
born." My brethering, the text says they shall gnaw a file.
It don't say they may—they shall. And now ther's mor'n
one kind o'file. There's the handsaw file, rattail file, double
file, and profile ; but the kind of file.spoken of here isn't one
of them, neither, for it is a figger of speech, my brethering,
and means going it alone and getting ukered, "for they shall
gnaw a file, and-flee unto the mountains of llepsidam, where
the lion roareth, and the wang-doodle mourneth for its
first-born." And now there be some . hero with fine
close on their backs, brass rings on their fingers, and
lard on their headi, what goes it when they're young,
and thar be others here what, as long as thar constitu-
tions and forty cent whiskey last,• goes it blind; and
thar by

d Cronikils and t

isters here what, when theT get sixteen years'
old, cut their tiller ropes and goes it with a rush ; but
I say; my dear brethering, take care you don't find,
when Gabriel blows his trumpet, that you've all went
it alone, and got ukered, for " they shall gnaw a file and
flee unto the mountains of Hepisdam, where the lion
roareth and the wang-doodle mourneth for its first-born."
And, my brethering, there's more dams besides Hepsidam.
There's Rotterdam, Amsterdam'-Haddam, milldam,. and
don't care a dam —the last of which,' my clear brethering,-
is the worst of all, and reminds me of a circumstance I
once knew in the state of Illenoy, than was a man what'
built a mill on the east fork of Agur Creek, and it ground a
sight of grain ; but the man that built it was a miserable
sinner,. and never gave anything to the church ; and,
my bretlieving-, one night there came a mighty storm
of wind and rain, and the fountains of the
great deep was broken up, and the waters
rushed down and swept that man's mill-dam into kingdom
come ; and lo! and behold ! in the morning when he
dear
brethering, when the storms of temptations overtake ye,
take care you don't fall from grace, and become like that
man's Mill, not worth a dam ; for " they shall gnaw a file,
and flee unto the mountains of Hapsidam, where the

lion roareth, and the wang-doodie mourneth for
its first born." " Whar the lion roareth and the wang-
doodle mourneth for its first-born." This part of the
text, my brethering, is another figger of speech, and
isn't to be taken as it says, it dosn't mean
the howling wilderness, where John, the hard-shell
Baptist, was. fed on locusts and wild asses? but •it means,
my brethering, the city of New Orleans, " whar corn is
worth six bits a bushel one day, and nary red the next ;
whar niggers are 'thick as black bugs in a spoiled bacon
ham, and gamblers, thieves, and pick-pockets go skitting
about the streets like weasels in a barn yard ; whar they
have cream-coloured horses, gilded carriages, marble
saloons, with brandy and sugar in 'em ; whar honest
men are scarcer than hen's teeth, and a strange woman
once took in your beloved preacher and bamboozled him
out of two hundred and twenty-seven dollars in the
twinkling of a sheep's tail, but she can't do it again,
hallelujah! for " they shall know a file and flee into the
mountains of Hepsidam, where the lion roareth and
-doodle mourneth for its first-born." My

brethering, lam captain of the flat boat you see tied-up
thar, and I've got aboard of her flour, bacon, and oats,
and as good Monongehaly whiskey as you ever
drunk, and I am mighty apt to get a good price for it all,
but what, oh my brethering, would it all be worth if I
hadn't relidgin.? Thar's nothing like relidgin, my bre-

thering, it's better nor si
can no more get to heaves