The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1880-12-01
Balraiialt Gazftte.
WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER /. lssO.
How the Welch Preacher read the Scrip
+ures Am Five Languages,

A minister had been invited to preach as q
candidate in little rural church in Northern
Pennsylvania. where the members, although
on par with most distant churches, liked 10
flatter themselves that they were "pretty well
posted" Before starting fer the place the
minister met an old clerical friend, who had
had some experience in the same neighborhood,
ard who advised him to "give them some
Latin and Greek; it would tickle their vanity,
and they'll set you down for a very smart
man"
There was little difficulty in the way of
the minister's giving his hearers dose of
Latin and Greek, for he knew no more OF either
language than the people he was to preach to
did. 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 the 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 to you in Hebrew. so
that you may comprehend 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.
Presently 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 Ian
guages there is none know of in which the
meaning can be so well expressed as in Creek"
and again he gave them long Welsh sentence
And again the deacons nodded approvingly,
and before long the minister found it necessary
to read a verse in Latin, " so his hearers might
understand it thoroughly, and gave them
little more Welsh.
Everything was going along smoothly, and
the minister, as he approached the end of his
sermon, thought he would give them just one
more taste OF the dead languages.
" am about to read you, said he. :" an
other passage on this subject. But it is an
other of those passages that have been altered
in the translation, and l will read it to you in
the Chaldaic, in which it was written
He was just about to give them a little more
Welsh when, casting his eye over the congre-
CATION he saw seated near the door jolly
looking man, who was holding his sides fight
10 keep them 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 feature upon 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 have chance to talk
with you"
The congregation went home, satisfied that
they had listened to one of the most learned of
sermons; the laughing man never told the
story, and the minister soon settled over
the church, the people believing that clergy
man who could read the Scriptures in FIVE
languages was just the man for them.-
~ Y Tsnnes