The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1901-07-02
A DISCOURSE
By a "Tater-HoIe Preach
err" Middlesex
County.
SUBJECT. THE WORLD IS SQUARE
SUBJECT; THE WORLD Is SQUARE


lNoTE. The following sermon by the
Rev. job Nuggs would make compan-
ion-piece To the Rev. John Jasper sun
do-Move" sermon, and shows the ab-
surdity Of taking literally all unimpor-
tant and irrelevant matters OF the Bible.
In making this statement no intention IL
had to speak irreverently Of the Book
of books" for in matters OF morals and
right worship this Book is God = revealed
code 10 man. AZ to whether the sun
moves or stands still. or IA To whether the
earth is round or square. do not seem to
be matters that God thought necessary
To communicate to man.
The ante bellum negroes had no regular
houses Of worship, so their dwellings
were used for their prayer and eXhorta-
tion meetings Ninety per cent OF these
houses were without floors, so Mother
Earth " had to serve as floor.
A potato-hole, or cellar-calied by them
"tater- r-hole"-covered on top with plank,
was a necessary adjunct to every house.
Upon this plank (potato-hOle top stood
theexhorter OF unordained preacher when
he delivered his discourses-andi from this
custom sprang the waggish epithet, TIA
terhole preacher "-THE REPoRTER.l
Following is the sermon verbatim:
NV dear friends, when you see Job
Nuggs appear before you please do not
expect to hear anything high up in gram
mar and dictionary, for never had over
ten months schooling In all my lie, and
wha; little / know is nothing in this
world but mother-wit. To besure, have
done a great amount of reading. thereby
getting nv head stored with much valu-
able information. am what you might
term book-wOrm, for there Is scarcely
mo- kind OF n book have not read, ex-
cepting only the devils tales, or novels.
As to the hieroglyphics that grammar
folks call puntuation marks, | have al
WAYS until lately thought newspaper
men put them down in their papers for
the sake Of ornament. | am not one 10
break nv jaw-bones in order to get things
talked up so proper, but think that II the
essential things are there such, for in
stance, as a pure heart that people will
put up with much bad grammar, though
the college bred chap may laugh. One more
thing | want to say before announce
my text, and that thing is this, that,
whereas. these college fellows poke all
manner of fun at us poor roughs, still they
never let an opportunity pass to, Frank
Unlike, steal our crude lightning, tame
and polish it and palm it off as some
great original idea of their own.
am belated in giving you my text,
but here it comes, from Revelations, 9TH
chapter and 1st verse, and reads as fol
lows: "And after these things ! saw four
angels standing on the four corners OF
the earth, holding the four winds OF the
earth, that the wind should not blow on
the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any
tree"
In order to properly understand the
Bible when reading any part OF it four
things must be constantly borne in mind,
namely: LIST, Who is talking; 2nd, Who
is being addressed; Bird, When and where
was the address made or written, and,
4th. For what reason was it made or
written. In this case John the Divine Is
the writer or the talker, he having been
banished about the year 96 to the dreary
Isle of Patmos by the Roman Emperor
Domitian. There, on that lonely island,
God saw fit to reveal to him past mys-
teries and to foreshow to him future
events, commanding him to write down
what he saw and send the writing to the
seven churches of Asia and through them
to the world.
My hearers, you know my mission today
is to show you that the world is square
so hold on to what have given you un-
til can show up the cOgitations and ex'
periments of scientists and philosophers
after which | will come back to where
left off, You know Columbus thought
the world was round, and his idea start
ed philosophers to observing ships depart
ing from a shore and coming in from sea
to shore. The departing ships had been
observed to gradually sink below the ho-
rizon until nothing but the tops OF the
masts could be seen, and the incoming
ships first showed the tips of their masts
Sailors said the earth was round because
that when they neared land they first saw
the neede-like SUBMITS of the mountains
While vet the huge masses OF land beneath
Law concealed from view. Then in 1918
Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailor
claimed he had sailed all around the
world. He might have thought so, but
he didn't all the same. Many a time
have thought myself rich, but my
thoughts on the subject did not add one
penny to the few cents already had in
my money-purse. Later on came astron-
omers, who said the earth was certainly
round--iust as round as an orange or an
apple for when the earth came in be
tween the sun and the moon, so as to
eclipse the moon, it cast shadow upon
the moon as round as the shadow east
upon the wall by an orange or an apple
Oh, yes; all this sounds mighty plausible
but j have in store for you, my hearers
proof to the contrary that will knock
into the middle of nexs week all thiames'