Dodge City times., 1877-10-13
Pulpit Manners.

ference Of Methodists, which has passed
a bill of particulars as to how clergymen
should appear and act in the pulpit, and
how the other party should behave in
the pew. But after the broad grin is
over-after the joke has gone around
and we have all had good laugh-the
sober second thought rather likes that
Conference. Worse resolutions have
been passed. The fact is, conversion,
however genuine, conveys no informa-
ton as to good manners. Even after
man has been called to preach the Cos
pei, he will eat pie with knife and will
spit on a hot stove in railway car
unless the rationalism and worldly wis
dom of the age shall have come to his
rescue. f ~. stFis..r
This Methodist Conference suggested
that the sacred orator :" should avoid a
frequent drinking of water during SER
mon," and should "not finger the
leaves of the Bible nor pound the desk
while preaching" and should not be-
gin his discourse by long apology"
and must not extend his eloqnence be-
yond forty minutes" Splendid ad-
vice is all this, and should the
advice be needed, that obscure
Conference will surpass in good results
for the world the immense Pan Confer
ence of Edinburgh. Prof. PattOn's
article against infidelity will with diff
ficulty surpass in usefulness the dogma
promulgated by this Conference, that
preacher, when plying his calling,
should not drink a gallon of water.
Ne! conversion does not teach clergy
man or layman how to act. There
are doctors Of divinity who pray with
their hands in their pockets, and there
are others who will wear out good ten
dollar Bible each year by pounding it
when they are closing in on sinner or
are demolishing Huxley. t4n7.
The almost fastidious Theodore Til
ton, in his lecturing tour through Texas
last winter, found that many of the
meeting houses and the preachers need
ed neatness more than they needed any
other conceivable thing. The grammar
of the preacher was not half so annoy
ing as the tobacco the. orator had
smoked and chewed.
Blessed be this Conference for sug-
gesting that ''men wear coats to church,
and walk in softly-not like mules over
q bridge" 1t is the first assembly of
the kind that has ever dared meet these
coatless men squarely and tell them to
keep at least linen duster on hand for
Sunday. Indeed, so rare is the cour-
age and wisdom shown by this Metho-
dist body that one, may well fear that
the assembly and resolutions are
myth, and that the age is not yet come
that possesses heroism enough to issue
a theological mandate to half-dressed
men, women, and boys. ~
In Ohio circuit there flourished-
once, like a Green Bay tree, a Methodist
preacher by the name of Burdsell, who
always show his earnestness over q
theme by the amount of clothing he re-
moved during the discussion of the text.
When the Sunday was rather warm and
the text was pretty good one, such as
SHOW can We escape if We neglect so
great salvation?' this brother would
take Off his coat early in the hour of the
elucidation. As the terrors Of
the world, from which man
ought to escape, would open up
70 his rural Imagination, his long black
neckerchief, which was more like IA
bandage for broken limb than for a
clerical decoration, would be suddenly
unwOund and be hung across the high
box in which the elOcution was taking
place, and onward would move the lam
guage if not the thought. BY the time
this memorable preacher had reached
Al