, 1842-11-19

"A friend, whose veracity we caEno
question, handed US, a few days since, tn
following erudite theological NUT whic
he said was opened in the midst c
an enlightened community, and no
more than twenty leagues from herea
bouts.
A fox whose tail had been torn off By
a trap, endeavoured to hide his deformity
by representing to his brother foxes tina
tails were not only useless and unneces
sary, but burdensome and disgraceful.
A preacher, or rather a man whose
ambition prompted him to aspire to thai
honorable distinction, but whose educa.
ton unfortunately was too limited to en-.
able him to be either useful to the world
or TO do himself credit in that sacred
calling, found it convenient to resort to
device similar to that which had been
preached by the fox.
In his discourses he invariably made
it his business, instead Of approaching up
virtue and the practical duties of christi
anity, to assail all institutions of benevo-
lence and morality which require either
learning, or pecuniary and personal sac
rifices TO sustain them-and like his pro-
totype the fox, he took special pains TO
convince his hearers that it was not only
useless but sinful for a minister of the
gospel to possess what he did not him
self enjoy-a respectable education.
On one occasion, he took for his text
injunction of Paul, "that there should
be no schisms, Sc and the word
''schisms" he read schemes, and he pro-
ceeded:-"The apostolic evidently fore
seed that in these here latter days the
world would be full of schemes, and now
the prophesy is fulfilled, for we have the
larnin scheme, and this pesky
temperance scheme, and a heap of ether
schemes that | tend TO dwell upon in
another head Of my sarmon. Now BIRTH
rem, do you think it is better for a min
lister to preach from his larnin than to
preach from the spirit? For my part, l
chuse to speak from the spirit, for the
spirit speaks it all so plain that the way
faring man though 4 fool, wont err there
in.
Well, do you think Peter and John
vas larnt men? The scrapter tells us
they was poor fishermen, and didn't
know their a cs; but these college
folks says that Paul was a larnt man
any how; but if they had less larnin
and more Of the spirit, and
was deep in doctrine as they ort TO be,
hey would know better; for we read in
he gaspel of acts, Odd chapter and Sd
varse, | believe it is, that he was Touch
up at the foot of Gammel hill, where the
and must-a-been SO poor that black eyed
peas wouldn't grow on it; and it was
ist materially impossible for his daddy to-
l-made money enough to send him to
college"
Here, a man sitting by, who could en-,
lure this stuff no longer, thought best to
interrupt him. Brother -, said he,
hat word you call schemes, is schisms.
said the preacher, its schemes
'-c-h-i-s-m-s Spelling it. schemes. No,
10, replied a number of voices, that spells
chisms. He looked at it for some time
nd read the context over, and finally.
With an appearance of some little EN-
arrassmeut, he broke silence asain;-
Wall, pom my word 1 believe It's
kismns, arter ALL" and asked a brother
D conclude the meeting with prayer.
So he found from experience, hat the
spirit'' did not learn men TO read; and
is hearers had reason to believe that it
id not always enable them to speak pro-
tably, before a"gainsaying world"
The N, York Sun Of the 9Th inst