The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-01-06
PuLPIr I-NrERRupTIoNs
EoW the Force Of Many q Sermon HR5
Been wholly shattaEsd.

evening service att a small chapel in
Keyingham, Yorkshire, when the
minister was expatisting on the life
Of st. Paul, who, Reclaimed, was the
oremostpreacheramon the apostles,
q gentleman, we'll known nthe town,
arose and exclaimed al the top ofhis
voice: OTIS not right. 1t wasn not
Paul, but Solomon" Other inter-
ruptions ensued to such an extent that
the clergyman was P%erforce obligedtos
stop his sermon and demonstrate with
the speakers. The original interrupt
er was at length prevailed upon to
leave the building, and the preacher
then resumed, evidently much Jul
prisd at this extraordinary demon
stration in such a place.
To interrupt a minister on a point
of grammar would seem to the or
binary observer a rather u%nceFemoni-
GUS and even aggressive action, yet
the writer himself witnessed such an
episode when attending a Divine serv-
ice at a fashionable church in New
York. The preacher, a famous cleric,
noted for his eloqugnce, had occasion
to use the sentence: "Neither myself
nor any other man. etc, andnosoon-
er had the words left his lips than a
tall, solemnfaced gentleman rose
from his pew and said: pardon me,
but should it not be orr"
A loud storm Of 'Sh's'' followed
his extraordinary, and of course, err
roneous> comment, and the minister
very properly took no notice of the
interruption beyond pausing untilthe
critical gentleman had sufficiently re-
covered his self-possession to resume
his seat. He then calmly and delib-
erately repeated the sentence that had
given rise to the interference, accent
ing the word "nor' in manner which
was as significant as it was pro-
nounced. It is to be hoped that the
gentleman in question on arrival
home consulted his Lindley Murray
had he done so moreNssiduously be-
fore attending church the Interrupt
ton named would evidently not have
occurred.
A rather humorous interruption to
some pulpit u~tterances at a certain
church in the north of England was
caused by the loud and continued
sneezing Of a person who sat just be-
low the preacher, and who was OBJ
viously afflicted with a violent cold,
Time after time the worthy minister
paused to allow thu. sneeze to take its
course, but at length, finding that his
sermon was being absolutely muti-
lated by the prolonged outbursts, he
stopped short, and mildly limited that
, he would not resume the discourse un-
!, til the sneeze or the sneezer had taken
his departure. The hint was taken
and an instant later the gentleman re,
: sponsible for the violent explosions
, glided down the aisle, amidt the stiheG
mirth of the bulk of the cOngregya'
I ton.
Pastors who indulge in quotations
from secular writers should be care
q full to make certain of their refer
ences, and thus avoid the pitfalls
which await the unwary, whether il
, church or elsewhere, The negligence
Of a Welsh cleric in this direction
. caused a peculiar interruption in
. South Wales chapel not so very lon|
: ago, when the officiating minister
having occasion to quote the well
known line: ''The air is full of fare
wells to, the dying and lamentation
for the dead" from Longfellow, re
= ferred to it as being by that grea
= poet: 'Alfred Tennyson."
!. Up jumped an indignant parish
Toner, who, in a loud and assertiv
tone, pointed out to the astonishe,
: preacher his mistake, and then wen
. on to quote the complete verse forth
delectation of the amused congre
3 cation. The minister listened hum
bly, enough, and then admitted that j
was quite possible he had erred in tn
manner suggested; but he added, an
very rightly, too, that in his opinio.
! his critic might have chosen anothe
and more fitting opportunity for max
ing the correction, and thus have Oh
: waited an unseemly and irritating il
7 terruption-London Tit-Bits.
r. Birmingham's Weekly Output