KEEPING THE SABBATH HOLY. 271 A SERMON BY THE POPE. IS a rule, the head of the Roman Catholic Church does not ascend the pulpit. One single exception in three hundred years tends to illustrate the rule: that exception was supplied by the present Pope, Pius IX. While yet a cardinal archbishop, he occupied the pulpit one day in an unexpected manner: the officiating priest was taken ill during his sermon, and the cardinal, who was present, at once took his place, his text, and his line of argument. It was equally an unforeseen incident which caused him to preach as Pope. On the 13th of January 1847, the celebrated preacher Padre Ventura was prevented from addressing a crowded meeting attracted by his eloquence. The disappointed congregation was just on the point of retiring, when the bells rang and the sovereign Pontift ascended the pulpit in his stead, and deeply edified his enthusiastic hearers by a simple, good, plain sermon, easily intelligible to all. KEEPING THE SABBATH HOLY. N the 27th of September 1631, "being Sabbath-day," "Midsummer Night's Dream" was performed in a bishop's house, by order of the right reverend prelate, and for the amusement of himself and divers knights and ladies. The play commenced at ten at night, and ended about two or three in the morning. Collier thinks this story may have been a malicious invention of some of the many enemies of John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln; but he prints an order for the punishment of the offenders, which decrees, amongst other things, that a Mr Wilson (who evidently had supported the part of Bottom the Weaver), “because he was a special plotter and contriver of this business, and did in such a brutish manner act the same with an ass's head, shall upon Tuesday next, from six o'clock in the morning till six o'clock at night, sit in the porter's lodge of my lord bishop's house, with his feet in the stocks, and attired with his ass's head, and a bottle of hay set before him, and this superscription on his breast: "Good people, I have played the beast, And brought ill things to pass; I was a man, but thus have made "SESQUIPEDALIA VERBA." N the seventeenth century, the Rev. John Hamilton, curate of South Leith, and his vicar, Mr Andrew Cant, strove to outvie each other in bombastic language. An instance of Hamilton's talent in that style has been preserved. Preaching one day on the text, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself,” he commenced in these words: "I shall not nibble at niceties, nor ingeminate prolixities, but with the sword of brevity shall cut the Gordian knot of obscurity, and so proceed to give you the genuine purport of this mellifluous and aromatical subject, calculated allenarly [only] for the meridian of that microcosm, man." And in this manner he preached to the uneducated congregation of shipmasters, sailors, artisans, and small tradespeople, of which his audience was composed. STRIKING ARGUMENTS. HE cushion-thumping propensities of Bishop Burnet often excited the profane merriment of Charles II. He told him, on one occasion, as he descended from the pulpit,after preaching at the Chapel Royal: "If my doubts were not removed by the force of your arguments, my lord, I should be instantly silenced by the weight of your fist." CHARITY WITH A VENGEANCE. 273 OVERCOMING BASHFULNESS. N the Church of England the theory is, that every one has a right to approach what is called the "Table of the Lord." In the Church of Scotland we presume it is the same, at least it may be inferred from an anecdote told by Mr J. Haldane. That gentleman stated that once he was present at a Highland parish church on a sacramental occasion, when there was a pause, for none of the people seemed disposed to approach the tables: on a sudden he heard the cracks of sticks, and, looking round, saw a cudgel descend on the bald head of a man behind him. It was the ruling elders driving the poor Highlanders forward, much in the same manner as they were accustomed to pen their cattle. CHARITY WITH A VENGEANCE. JAMUEL ROE, a Bedfordshire clergyman in the last century, and vicar of Stotfield, in that county, was a specimen of that inconsistent, but not uncommon character, an enthusiast against enthusiasm. Without any extraordinary capacity or attainments, he might have lived without notice, and have died without remembrance, had he not signalised himself by a proposal for preventing the further growth of Methodism,—a proposal as full of genius as it was of humanity. But this amiable and benevolent man shall be heard in his own words: "I humbly propose to the legislative powers, when it shall seem meet, to make an example of the tabernacle preachers, by enacting a law to cut out their tongues, as well as the tongues of all field teachers, and others who preach in houses, barns, or elsewhere, without apostolical ordination or legal authority." S T A TAR-AND-FEATHERS BISHOP. N the year 1623, the Bishop of Halberstadt invaded the territories of the Elector Palatine, the unfortunate King of Bohemia, son-in-law of our James I. Having plundered and burnt two monasteries, the bishop gave particular directions to his soldiers to secure the persons of the nuns and friars unhurt, as they rushed from the flaming edifices. Then ordering them to be stripped naked, their bodies were smeared with tar, after which each individual was tumbled into a featherbed, ripped open and prepared for the purpose. When the terrified cenobites had been thus re-clothed, they were hunted out of the camp toward the interior parts of the country, the prelate in the meantime exclaiming: "Let us see if the shepherd will recognise his own flock." WARBURTON'S HORSE-PLAY. T was the fate of John Wesley, the apostle of the Methodists, to come under the lash of Dr Warburton, who, in his "Doctrine of Grace," after what has been called horse-play, says, that the devil acted as midwife to Wesley's new-born babes. In this and other works of the Bishop of Gloucester, there is too much levity for a bishop, and too much uncharitable abuse for a Christian. D "TIT FOR TAT." JR YOUNG, the author of the "Night Thoughts," in the early part of life was fond of music, and played the German flute with much taste. Being once in a boat on the river with some ladies, he played them several tunes, REV. AUGUSTUS TOPLADY. 275 and then put the flute in his pocket. Some officers rowing by, just as he ceased playing, one of them rudely asked him why he left off. "For the same reason that I began," replied Young,"to please myself." One of them thereupon told him, that if he did not continue playing, he would immediately throw him into the Thames. Young's female friends began to be much alarmed, and the doctor, therefore, on their account, played till they reached Vauxhall, where both parties spent the evening. The doctor had marked his man, and took an opportunity, in one of the dark walks, to tell the son of Mars that he expected him to meet him at such-and-such a place in the morning, to give him a gentleman's satisfaction, and that he chose swords for the weapons. The next morning the officer was surprised, on their meeting, to see Young advance towards him with a large horsepistol, with which he told him he would instantly shoot him through the head if he did not dance a minuet. After some difficulties, the officer complied, and reflecting on his own impertinent conduct of the night before, acknowledged the justice of his treat ment. REV. AUGUSTUS TOPLADY. F this learned enthusiast and popular preacher, it has been remarked by one of his biographers, that his devotion was governed by the ebb and flow of fancy and affection; that he was one day in a land flowing with milk and honey, the next famished in a barren wilderness; now tiptoe on Mount Pisgah, in all the transport of enthusiasm, and anon groaning in the valley of the shadow of death. In Mr Toplady's "Spiritual Experiences,” or what he calls a "Journal of God's Gracious Dealings" with him, these irregular fits are singularly described by himself. "Before I left my chamber, I held sweet converse with the Father of Spirits, and for a few minutes my comforts were of the most exalted kind; but in less than an hour, I was grieved with the bubblings up of indwelling sin, |