The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-05-21
Religious Habits.

In Brooklyn, not long since, Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher preached upon the diff
Guilty of acquiring correct religious hab-
tanning them when once they have be-
come second nature.
Many may look upon religion" he
said, las an insurance policy against final
loss by fire." He described that kind of
religion 80 funnily that the congregation
laughed outright. "They 60 to church
every Sunday" he said, pulling his coat
close around him, drawing his face down
dolorously, and rolling up his eyes. "The
hymns are doled out to them, a good,
sound, dry sermon is preached to them,
and the most eloquent passage of all is
their going out. They attend prayer
meetings, toO---inost dismal prayer meet
ings." Here his lowerjaw dropped, more
of the whites of his eyes showed, and his
hands were clasped before him. "There
are some comfortable things in Green
wood, but none in one of those prayer
meetings. They 90 through the exer-
cises solemnly, and the brethren try to
say something they do say the same
things they have been saying twenty
years. Then the services are mercilessly
cut short, and they go gloomily home.h
After describing true religion as some.
thing independent of forms and cate
chisms, Mr.. Beecher illustrated the pro-
cess of its practical requirement. He
held an invisible fiddle, lingering the
strings with one hand, drawing the bow
with the other, and adjusting the imag-
mary instrument under his chin, while he
said,---
"Have you ever seen boy trying to
learn to fiddle? don't wonder they call
those strings catgut. l should say that
the spirits of all the dead old cats were
in them. But when the boy masters
it."
Stopping short, he commenced to fiddle
gracefully like good violinist. Then he
showed how man learns to set type, the
desk furnishing the case, from which he
slowly and awkwardly carried the letters
to a suppositious composing-stick, spelling
out audibly s-h-a-d. When the congre-
CATION had stopped laughing, he gave the
rapid motion of the same man after his
trade had been learned. 81 was taught
elocution," he said, although yOn might
not think it. Twas drilled in all the ges-
lures" He made the prescribed gestures
and struck the attitudes in awkward but
rapid succession, and then did them
gracefully, in the style of speaker to
whom they had become habitual and un-
restrained. "When we try to be grace
full" he said, eve can't be. All those
things come by long and persistent usage,
and then without thought. In the coun-
try where board six inches wide is laid
in the mud, man will walk it without
effort and never step off" Taking his
place Mt one side of the platform, he
walked easily in an exact line to the
other side, with his hands in his pockets
and his eyes wandering carelessly. "NOw,"
he went on, "put that board at height
of fifteen feet, and not one man in a
dozen can walk the length of it without
falling off," Taking his position as be-
fore, he fixed his eyes in front of him as
though on the elevated board, look scared,
and commenced the imaginary passage.
Wavering and balancing, with his arms
extended, he with difficulty got halfway
cross, and stumbled as though falling.
The people laughed out loud at the elab-
orately perfect pantOmime.
The greatest hit, however,was the drOll
mimicry of miser, who resolved upon
reform, and began by releasing mort
gage on a poor mans farm. The counter
felt severity of the miser in demanding
payment, the fright of the debtor, the
bandness of the miser in presenting the
cancelled document, and the joyous antics
of the debtors wife and children, were all
produced with the skill of trained
comedian. Finally, when Mr.. Beecher as
the reformed miser, with a benevolent
smile on his face, mounted his horse and
rode Offending his parted knees and
swaying his body in exact imitation of
rider, and cutting behind with an imag
mary whip---everybody laughed until the
tears game