Arizona republican., 1903-05-06
As Seen From the Pulpit.

lA ldhfS very nlllc lHlDS lO hlS- concert a minister, even though he has had years of training in his profession. From his perch in his pulpit he has q good view of nearly every person in the congregation, not only of their faces. but of their hands and often of their feet when they are very near him.
 The rector of large and fashionab ble church recently told how he had been upset in the middle of a sermon on some abstruse theological subject by q young man in front pew who, when the minister's eyes happened to be on him. took out his watch looked at it and began to wind it slowly in an ab- sent minded sort of way. On another occasion this same minister had just completed his text:
 And another commandment give unto you, that ye love one another'
 He was in the middle of his first sen tence when his eye chanced to fall on a young couple sitting well back in the shadow of post. affectionately hold ing hands. He stopped. stammered and finally had to begin the sentence all over again.
 Another clergyman explains how he has been cured of gesturing. He used to pound the pulpit railing occasionally to emphasize his points. until one Sun day he noticed that every time he pounded an old gentleman near the front would vlciously pull a hair from out one eyebrow or the other. He spoke to the man after service and no- ticed that at least one-half of each eye brow was gone. Fearing lest the poor man should in time become eyebrow less, the divine set out to break him. self of the habit of sending his truths home by a vigorous punching of the pulpit railing.
 There is at least one minister in town who favors short sermons. He says that he limits himself to eighteen min utes, and times himself by one of his practitioners, who sits far enough in front for the minister to observe him well. The good man breaches without notes. While this particular member of his flock listens to the sermon he slowly and carefully turns his gloves wrong side out and puts them on. First the left glove. then the right. Then he takes them off and turns them right side out again.
 By the time he gets them all turned and strengthened out with the palms together" said the minister, II know I have been talking just eighteen min utes and I quickly draw to a close. This member of my parish has occu- pied the same pew every Sunday morn ing for three years. and always goes through the same performance while am preaching"
 There seems always to be something to annoy the preacher, too. For in- stance. the woman who continually pulls and arranges her skirt over her knees and thus makes her silken underskirt rustic. This always causes at least a dozen feminine heads to turn in her di- rection. and diverts a dozen feminine minds from the lesson he is trying to teach. Again, there is the man who coughs nervousy. and the small boy who rustles the pages of his mothers prayer book. or the baby girl who will persist in standing on the seat with her back to the minister and try to see how far she can lean over the back of the pew without falling on her head. Such incidents as these bother the preacher, and often cause him to lose the thread of his argument.
 Often, too, a preacher sees funny things from his place in the chancel. He notes the disappointed look of one or the other Of the deacons after the ushers have placed the contribution plates in the seat of some brother dea- con with some whispered word or two. He sees the choir boy smiling surrep titiously at the little girls in the front pew. He sees the little girls big sister listening with rapt attention while the young curate reads the lessons. He knows just which ones will come rush. ing Tn later, and he sees the ever-pres- ent woman who consistently sticks to the end of the pew and forces people to struggle past her.
 And so he learns a great deal about each individual in the congregation by using his eyes while they are uncon- scious of being observed.
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