The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1889-07-06
ONE OF THE GUSH FAMILY.

| met him on the street to day.
He grasped my hand with both of
his and cried out. with characteristic
efusiveness: "My dear friend, | am
delighted to see you again. 1t seems
an age since | had the pleasure of
looking upon your face, which is
always radiant with intelligence and
goodness" After | had been liter
ally deluged with compliments, l
asked Gamaliel how they were get
ting along in his church, for he is
Baptist. He drew close to me, and
replied in low, confidential tones: 81
tell you Old. school, just between our
selves, that new preacher of ours
won't do. Why, he gave us yester-
day two of the driest sermons l ever
heard. Half the people we're asleep
before he finished his drawl."
replied that l was sorry, for
had hoped that Mr.. A. would prove
to be the right man in the right
place. We talked on few minutes,
and just as | was trying to get away,
a stranger with white necktie came
along. | had not yet seen Mr.. A.,
the new Baptist preacher, but guess
ed at once that it was he, and | was
not mistaken AS soon as Brother
Gush saw him he disengaged one OF
his hands from mine, and with it
seized the newcomer and cried:
Nov this is Providential! | have
longed for the pleasure of making
you two noble men acquainted with
each other. know that you will
appreciate each other, for you are
congenial spirits
After a fulsome dose of similar
compliments he turned to Mr.. A.,
and in a stage viii, per, which he
pretended | was not to hear, but
meant that | should, he said: NV
dear brother A., want to tell you
how delighted we all were with those
excellent sermons yesterday. You
expositions of Scrip pture we're so able,
and your illustrations so graphic, that
/
| could have listened an hour longer
without getting weary. | believe
that the Lord has sent you here to
do great work. | hope he will
spare you to our church for many
years. But | am afraid some of the
other churches in the association will
try to steal you from us"
| was so disgusted that | tore my
self away from the clingir G grasp of
Mr. Gush and left him soft soaping
his minister. The poor man seemed
to enjoy the operation, and to bel eve
that he really had warm friend and
ardent admirer in the fulsome flat
terCr.
A few hours after, meeting Mr..
Gush again. | button, holed him and
said, "See here, Gamaleil, how could
you talk SO to Mr.. A, about his
sermons, when you had just told me
how dull and uninteresting they
were?" "Why, my friend Obadiah"
he replied, without even the SEM
blance of blush, "you know that
had to say something to Mr.. A. OF
course could not 'ell him what
told you, so told him what ] knew
would please him | want to be on
good terms with him as long as he is
our minister.
"And in order to please him you
told him a mess of lies. Do YOU
think that is right!-And how about
what you said to me? Were you as
sincere in that as in what you said to
him? When you saw me coming did
you tell somebody else conhdentially,
that | was miserable old fogy-that
it was a great bore to meet and talk
with me, and then rush up and de-
clare that you were delig ghted to meet
me? Do you always say to people
just what you think will please them,
not caring whether it is true or false?"