The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-26
QUEER THINGS IN CHURCH

| When l left Cambridge the question was
Where shall l go?' says the Rev. Dr.
| w. S. Rainsford. of st. Georges Protest
ant Episcopal church, in the second IN
stallment of "A Peacher's Story of His
| Work" now running in THE Outlook =
About this time a man had never heard
of offered me a curacy in Norwich-the
| Rev. Within Nottage Ripley. Norwich
was a city of S5o00 people, in the center
| of the shoe trade. If / were to describe
to you the religious state of that town
you would scarcely believe it. There
livings-very poor livings, but enough for
a man to live on. The holders of some
| of these livings did little-some had sunk
into a spiritual slough. 1 did not know
them, as a rule: they looked upon me
as a wild firebrand, and had nothing 10
say to me.
One church. very old church. was
held by a don of Cambridge, a remark
able scholar in his day. That man was
curiosity. On certain occasions he used
10 have, comparatively speaking. a fun
church. because he introduced certain
things into the service that amused peo-
pie. Among other things, when he came,
in the Psalter for the twenty-fourth day.
to the tenth verse of Psalm cxvi. where,
you remember, it reads, Il said in m'
haste, all men are liars he would in
variably stop ard say; -"David; IF you had
Lived in these days yeu would have SAID
it at your leisure" And in the lesson
for the twenty-first Sunday after Trinity
occurs the passage: AT what time We
H. &c n,,ta rar,
psaltery dulcimer, and all kinds Of mu-
sick, we fall down and worship the golden
image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath
set up" This list of instruments is
peated, you recall three times in the
course of the chapter. The first time he
would read it as it Is written. but the
other three times he would substitute for
il the phrase. THE aforesaid gentleman
with the brass band" He had other &C.
centricities that he would indulge In on
stated occasions. These things came to
be known. and on those Sundays the
church would be full.
Once n year there was collection for
the choir. and he got some one else IN
the pulpit to address his people and draw
a crowd After l had been about a year
and a half in Norwich he asked me to
preach. The feature Of that church was
its music. The wife of the old don had a
beautiful voice: they had gathered to-
gether a good choir. The pulpit was tiny
black oak box, with a small desk for the
Bible or sermons. This desk sloped down.
My Bible slipped and 1 had to stoop to
get it. In STOPPING l leaned against the
pulpit door; il split open. and | nearly
fell out of the pulpit After / had been
preaching for a time / looked down into
the choir which was in great box pew
in front of the pulpit, after the old-fash-
toned way. shut off from the congrega-
ton by a curtain. and l saw one fellow
put his arm around the waist OF the girl
next to him and draw her head down &c
his shoulder: and he kept it there: then
he looked straight into my face and wink
ed And il broke me all UP.
walked out Of the pulpit. went TO the
rector and said: DIR. -. your choir
members are behaving outrageously; !
cannot preach until this IS stopped"
He walked up TO the square pew where
the choir set. tore the red baize curtain
down with jerk. and exposed them. dis
concerted and ashamed. 20 the fun view
Of the congregation. and then sat down
again. / returned TO the pulpit and went
on with my sermon.
in the midst Of II looked NJ and saw
walking UP the middle isle. in solemn
procession. a hen with twelve or fourteen
chickens, When the sexton tried TO drive
them out. he was SO drunk that he fell
trial