REV. DR HOWARD'S WIG.

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burning of the Whig meeting-houses, that of Burgess did not escape. Hence probably the following pun :-When delivering a sermon one day, he asserted that the reason why the descendants of Jacob were called Israelites was, that God would not have his chosen people called Jacobites.

TEMPLE AND THEATRE.

HE story of the Rev. Rowland Hill preaching against the first Surrey Theatre is very characteristic. The building of his chapel in Blackfriars Road, was going on simultaneously with that of the theatre. In his sermon, he accordingly addressed his audience as follows:-"You have a race to run now between God and the devil; the children of the last are making all possible haste in building him a temple, where he may receive the donations and worship of the children of vanity and sin! Now is your time, therefore, to bestir yourselves in the cause of righteousness, and never let it be said but what God can outrun the devil!"

REV. DR HOWARD'S WIG.

ASSING by a peruke-maker's shop in Leicester Fields one day, the Rev. Dr Howard saw a canonical wig in the window, which took his fancy, and entering the shop he gave orders for one in the same imposing style and of the same colour. In order to obtain credit, he informed the master that he was rector of St George's, Southwark, and chaplain to the Princess Dowager of Wales, which he really was. Happy in the acquisition of such a customer, the hairdresser finished the peruke with the utmost despatch; but before he sent it home, he had heard some whispers about the reverend doctor which did not perfectly please him, and therefore

ordered his journeyman, whom he sent with the wig, not to deliver it without the money. "I have brought your wig, sir," said the journeyman to his reverence.-" Very well; put it down." "I can't, sir, without the money."-"Let me try it, however, to see whether it will fit me." This the man thought so reasonable a request that he consented to it. The conse quence was that the doctor ordered him instantly out of the room without the peruke, protesting that if he touched it after he had sold and delivered it, he would prosecute him for a robbery ; a regular transfer had been made, and it was now his property. Poor Strap was constrained to depart without payment.

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BURGESS AND THE CHEESE.

URGESS was much courted and caressed in private society, and a wide latitude was allowed even to his practical jokes. While dining one day with a gentleman who occasionally attended his chapel, a huge Cheshire cheese was brought on the table uncut, and placed before the preacher. "Where shall I cut it?" said he. "Anywhere you please, Mr Burgess," answered his host.

Upon this, without

more ado, Daniel handed it to the servant, desiring him to carry it to his house, and he would cut it at home.

BISHOP BURNET'S BENEVOLENCE.

NE of Bishop Burnet's parishioners, who was in execution for a debt, applied to him for assistance. The bishop requested to know what would serve him and reinstate him in his trade. The man named the sum. Burnet instantly called his servant to give him it. "Sir," said he, "it is all we have in the house."-"Well, give it this poor man ; you do not know the pleasure there is in making a man glad.”

AN OUT-OF-THE-WAY REPROOF.

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REV. ROBERT HALL'S MARRIAGE.

HE history of this celebrated preacher's marriage was a very singular one. It has been related in a dozen different ways, but I believe the following account of it to be correct :-One day, whilst alighting at a friend's door for the purpose of dining with him, he was joked on his life of single blessedness. He said nothing, but whilst at table was observed to take particular notice of the servant girl who came in to replenish the fire. After dinner, as he was sitting alone in the study, the young woman again entered with the coal-scuttle, when Mr Hall, who in her eyes was scarcely less than a king, said to her, "Betty, do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?" The girl replied that she hoped she did, taking the question merely as an accustomed one from a minister. To her utter surprise and consternation, however, Mr Hall immediately followed it up by falling on his knees, and exclaiming: "Then, Betty, you must love me,” and asked her to marry him. In her astonishment she ran away and told the family she believed Mr Hall had gone mad again (he had been once deranged). Her master, like herself, was surprised, and on his speaking with Mr Hall on the subject, the latter declared his intention of marrying the girl, who, he said, had taken his fancy by the manner in which she put the coals on. They were married and lived happily together.

AN OUT-OF-THE-WAY REPROOF.

|ING JAMES I., hunting one day in the North, a violent tempest burst loose, and a church being the nearest building, his Majesty took shelter there, and sat down in an obscure and low seat. The minister had just mounted the pulpit, and soon recognised the king, notwithstanding his plain hunting-costume. He commenced his sermon, however, and

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went on with it logically and quietly, but at last, suddenly starting off at a tangent, he commenced to inveigh most violently against the habit of swearing, and expatiated on this subject till the end of his discourse. After the sermon was ended, the king had his dinner, to which he invited the minister, and when the bottle had circulated for a while : Parson," says the king, "why didst thou flee so from thy text ? ”"If it please your Majesty," was the reply, "when you took the pains to come so far out of your way to hear me, I thought it very good manners for me to step a little out of my text to meet with your Majesty.""By my saul, mon," exclaimed James," and thou hast met with me so as never mon did." It will be remembered that James I. was notorious for cursing and swearing, in a manner almost verging on blasphemy.

AUDIBLE APPROBATION.

ORD DUDLEY was one of the most absent men in the

world, and one day very nearly overset Sydney Smith's gravity in the pulpit. "He was sitting immediately under me," says Mr Smith, "apparently very attentive, when suddenly he took up his stick, as if he had been in the House of Commons, and energetically tapped on the ground, in approbation of what he had heard."

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SYDNEY SMITH'S SHYNESS.

H! I see, you are afraid of me," said the Rev. Sydney Smith one day, to a young lady who sat beside him at dinner. "You crumble your bread, and that is an undeniable proof of shyness. I do it when I sit by the Bishop of London, and with both hands when I sit by the Archbishop."

CANT, FATHER AND SON.

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CURE FOR A TEE-TOTALLER.

HE parsonage-house in Langdale, Westmoreland, was formerly licensed as an alehouse, because it was so poor a living that the curate could not otherwise have supported himself. Such cures were at one time by no means uncommon."

ROBERT HALL'S MOUTH.

HIS reverend preacher had a very large mouth.

He was

as well aware of this as any one else, and one morning at a breakfast-party at Bristol, on the occasion of family prayers, a young minister, referring to a sermon about to be delivered by the distinguished divine, prayed that the Lord would 66 open his mouth wider than ever." When they rose from their knees, Mr Hall said, "Well, sir, did you pray that my mouth might be opened wider? It couldn't well be done, sir, unless it

was slit from ear to ear, sir."

CANT, FATHER AND SON.

NDREW CANT, the Presbyterian minister of the times of the Civil Wars, was so enthusiastic a Puritan, that his party gave him the title of an Apostle of the Covenant." His son, Andrew, after distinguishing himself by Christmas and Thirtieth-of-January sermons, lived to become a nonjuring bishop, and is accused of being one of the chief authors of that scandalous work, "The Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Displayed." The relative character of the sermons of father and son is described in an anecdote related by that excellent scribbling-pedlar, Patrick Walker, who tells us that Mr John Semple, having heard "the old worthy Mr Andrew Cant