The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1908-11-30

smile. His gestures are decorous, he
does not sweat and mop his face, in
dulges no oratorical quirlecules, Is
distressingly proper. he would never
shed his cuffs. peel off tie and collar
shuck his coat, as Sunday does, and
run round the platform and hit the
corner of the desk lick with the
| palm of his hand and make the old
/ piece of walnut furniture Jump three
inches off the floor and leak puffs of
dust | got nervous, fearing Sunday
would skin off his breeches, and go it
III his union suit or pajamas. Your
prim pastor does none of these uncon-
Venuonal things, but William runs
/ and jumps, gestures and sweats like
an indian in witch dance; leaps from
the stand and runs like squirrel
over the tops of benches. shakes a
hand, darts back, gives one foot to his
assistant and is back on the stage.
gets off something manly or funny that
makes the crowd laugh, yell and spat
hands, 1t is as exciting as a chariot
race IN circus. His slang. flowing
along in the discourse. does not seem
outlandish, nor does he strike one as
vulgarian, but, somehow, this fam
tastic movement gets hold of YOU in
spite of yourself; you made oath to
yourself. maybe. that you'd not let him
grab you, but he does all the same.
Not so, your sedate pastor: he never
says or does anything that adds a
single beat to your pulse or jostles
the red corpuscles in your blood and
makes them crash and jingle in the
veins and arteries, but the first thing
any one knows is, Billy has got one
going licketysplit, and one laughs,
claps, cries, Amen That's the
stuff and it is as jolly and contag-
ious as such play as "Charley's
Aunt"
OF course, it would seem absurd for
preacher to jump and cavort around
in that way if you did not see that it
is natural in this man, and flows
directly out of his temperament. He
thinks when he is preaching, that he
is playing ball. and acts accordingly,
and the way he hustles from base to
base is caution. and not infrequently
he slides to spiritual base on his pad
ded belly, and they do not put him out.
Sunday works his passage" as
sailors say. That is. he does not need
to saw wood, or go to the gymnasium
to get needed exercise, He works at
preaching like day laborer. In an
hours talk he sweats gallon or two
And right in the middle of sentence
that is as violent as paroxysm, he'll
sing out in a theatrical aside. if he
feels cold draught, shut that tran
som, III take cold in minute or
''douse that CLINT shines in my
eyes, or keep your hats on, men, the
sun will pass over the skylight in
few minutes" and then he will grab
the dropped cable again and rush on
in his discourse
Usually only mechanics and day
laborers necessarily take physical
exercise in their work. Professional
men do not. Lawyers sit for hours
in stuffy court rooms as still as il
they We're made of brick clay or ter
ra Gotta nor in addressing iuries do
they get bodily exercise. They are
nearly as torpid and inert as frogs
and snakes in Information. Doctors
take little exercise-they ride to see
patients. Ministers are just as bad
they sit in their studies and bore and
gnaw like other book-worms, and the
delivery of their sermons gives them
no exercise. Accordingly. the salient
things about those three classes
and editors, teachers, authors, musi-
clans, artists. lecturers may be In
snaiI-slow livers, bad
stomachs. colons that yield rotten
breaths. mouths that taste as if dogs
slept in them, dyspepsia and head
ache. But Sunday is an athlete. has
the build exactly. and no gymnast
gets more exercise every day than
he takes in his professional work. It
is prodigious. the bodily stunts he
does in an hours sermon. If he
should swim an hour. or saw wood,
or run races and leap fences, or can
ter heavy draft horse, or skin cats
and turn somersaults, he would not
use his muscles more than he does
in every preach. l. is both faith and
works" in his case, all right. There
is not dull second after he begins
to talk. YOU are interested from the
first word. and watch his motions
and can no more take Your eve off
from him than from string Of NOV
ing pictures IN a five cent show
Whatever your estimate Of him, you
never take him for a Dryasust. or old
poke, or bore.
He has another big advantage over
the trained professional ministers
he is not mortgaged to theological
seminary. Look over your clerical
acquaintances; how many of them,
even in twenty years after gradua-
ton have got their feet out of the
bear trap of theological education
Very, very few. 1t takes the averag
collegian a dozen or score of years to
undo the twists knots and bias of a
college course; he must be man Of
unusual force of character and ind o.