Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-05-01
BEHIND THE E N
A Not Uncommon and Little Susno,.,
Cause of Clerical Annoyance.

A Not Uncommon and Little suspeo.,.
Cause of Clerical Annoyance.
A not uncommon, and perhaps lita.
suspected cause of clerical worry ans
annoyance, sometimes even Of perl
lies in the vagaries of people who an
mentally unsound. Religious mania il
a very frequent form of such unsound.
ness, and this often leads to the clcrr
being objects of attentions far mosa
marked than agreeable. E%ztravapant
devotion to, OIL equally cxtra7asantd do.
testation of some special clergyman. !.
very common. The former once j..
our own experience, gave rise to what
considering all the accidental circnm
stances and surroundings, was proba
bly, the most ludicrous scene ever W.T.
messed in a church. In a city boastins
the possession of one of the finest ca.
federalism England. there lived a spins-
ter lady somewhat weak in intcIlcct
one whose state, however, did not
render further supervision necessary
than the constant attendance of
trustworthy companion. The rector
of the parish in which she lived was
the object of her most ardent devotion
10 her great despair he resigned his
living and went abroad. Some few
years later, on returning to England
he happened to be in the neighbor,
hood, and having been intimately ac.
quaintcd with many of the chapter, he
went, one afternoon, to the cathedral,
in order to see some of them. The
service was Just over, and he was stand.
ing in the nave, to which there We're
always many visitors in the afternoon
waiting to greet his old friends when
they should have disrobed.
Just at the moment when choristers
and clergy We're coming in procession
down the nave, this poor little woman
entered at the west door. She instant
ly espied her former rector, and before
her companion could interfere, rushed
toward him. She was extremely small:
he a very tall man. Fearing that in
her excitement her greeting would be
rather more noisy than was seemiy ua-
der the circumstances, he bent down,
as she drew near, to speak to her in a
whisper. Rash man! In a moment she
clasped him round the neck with both
arms, and bestowed upon h a pain
fully audible apostolic sanitation. The
magnificent cathedral nave echoed to
strange sounds that afternoon. Not
even the %portentous solemnity of a Ca
thedral verger, in the very presence OF
the canons in residence, was proof
against the trial; and the w%hite-robbed
procession disappeared from the sacred
r,.n1N,,nf, W. 80, .--.l
ity. The victim of this astounding re-
ception, a man possessed of remarkable
power over the muscles of his face, was
the only person in the cathedral who
preserved an unmoved gravity of de-
pertinent.
A very common form of religious
craze is a desire to argue out privately
with a clergyman some question he has
touched upon in preaching. We once
heard a clergyman preach on the text:
"All Scripture is gwen by inspiration
of God" and he CHANGED to make some
remarks upon the occasional value of
apparently un important portions of the
Scriptures. For some time afterward
he was sorely besieged by a hearer
who wished to insist on having proved
to him the Importance of verse 9,
chap. ill.,, Song of Solomon, '.Kine
Solomon made himself a chariot of the
wood Of Lebanon" Fortunately, the
clergyman in question had only been
otliclating for a friend. Had he been
vicar of the parish, | able to be button
holed as he. walked about the streets,
his fate would have been pitiable.
Worst OF all, and often absolutely
dangerous to the clergy, is the craze OF
a MISSION, either to insist upon, or pre-
vent the PRONUNCIATION of some par
t'cular doctrine. We remember, some
years since, seeing the vicar of a large
London parish officiating for several
Sundays under protection of the police.
n OF these crazy enthusiasts had
taken it into his head that he was to
prevent some part of the service being
performed, and had chosen that par
tlcular church as the field for his OPP
eratlons. His threats against the vicar
We're sufficiently vehement to cause it
to be deemed advisable, pending meas
ures LOT some restraint be ng placed
upon the man, that a policeman in
PLAN clothes should be on duty in the
chance during the services. The pos
slblllty that the church might become,
at any moment. the scene OF a sudden
Struggle between a stalwart policeman
ana an excited l%unatic, conld not be
held one likely to aid a calm devo-
tlonal spirit on the part of either the
vicar or those of the congregation who
were aware Of the circumstances
Scottish RcuieW.