The daily gazette., 1880-02-17
"In the original.

A good story is told Of q parson who
was preaching as candidate In Q little
town in the northern partof this State
The church folks were q somewhat
pretentious people, by no means learn
ed, yet puffed up with an unwarranted
idea of their own attainments. They
wanted scholarly pastor. Before
starting for the place, the candidate
met an old clerical friend who had
some experience in the neighborhood,
and who advised him to "Give them
some Latin and Greek; it viii tickle
their vanity, and they'll set you down
for u very smart man." There was q
little difficulty in the way Of the minis
ter's giving his bearers dose Of Latin
and Greek, for he knew no more Of
either language than the people he
was to preach to. But he was equal
to the emergency. He was native Of
Wales, and spoke Welsh as well as he
did English, though these two were
the only languages he knew anything
about. When he got nicely into his
sermon, he introduced little passage
of Scripture, and said "This passage,
brethren, has been slightly altered in
the translation. 1t Is only in the
original Hebrew that you can grasp
its full meaning, will read it to you
in Hebrew, SO that you may compre-
hend it more exactly" and he gave
them the passage in very good Welsh.
The old deacons looked at each other
and nodded approval, as though they
would say, 'That's the stuff that's
the kind Of thing we want" Present
ly the minister, who saw by the faces
of his hearers that he had made hit,
came upon another Scripture passage
that could not be correctly rendered in
English. "This passage" said he,
''has to be read in the original to be
appreciated. In all the languages
there Is none / know in which the
meaning can be so well expressed as
in Greek" and again he gave them
long Welsh sentence. Again the dea-
cons nodded approvingly, and before
long the minister found it necessary to
read a verse in Latin, $50 that his
hearers might understand it thorough
ly," and gave them o little more
Welsh. Everything was going along
smoothly and the minister, as he ap-
preached the end of his sermon
thought he would give them just one
more taste of the dead languages. II
am about to read you," said he, "an-
other passage ON this subject. But it
is another Of those passages that have
been altered in the translation, and !
will read it to you in the Chaldaic, in
which it was written. He was just
about to give them little more
Welsh, when, casting his eye over the
congregation. he saw seated near the
door a jolly looking man, who was
holding his sides tight to keep from
bursting with laughter. The minister
took in the situation in an instant.
Here was a man in the church who
understood Welsh, and who was
laughing at the trick that had been
played upon the congregation. But
not a feature in the minister's face
changed. Fixing his eyes straight
upon the laughing man, just as the
congregation thought he was about to
give them the Chaldaic version, he
said again in Welsh "For Gods sake,
my friend, don't say word about this
till l have a chance to talk with you"
The congregation went home satisfied
that they had listened to the most
learned of sermons the laughing man
never told the story, and the minister
was soon settled over the church, the
people believing that clergyman who
could read the Scriptures in five Ian
guages was just the man for them.