78 A METHODIST SERMOX. 



A Methodist preacher, who, obeying the precept of the 

 apostles, went from village to village, and hamlet to 

 hamlet, exhorting his Christian brethren to think of 

 eternity, was pronouncing, one evening, a diffuse inter- 

 minable discourse, when, desirous of enforcing his ad- 

 vice to his hearers to remain constant in good works, he 

 compared the true Christian to an opossum suspended 

 by his tail to the summit of a fir-tree shaken by a violent 

 tempest ! 



" Yes, my brothers," he cried, " such is your image : 

 the wind, whose violence might tear you away from that 

 Tree of the Gospel on which you rely for salvation, is 

 formed by the gathering of the corrupt breath of the world, 

 the passions, and the devil. Do not let go ! Hold firm, like 

 the opossum during the storm ! If the fore-feet of your 

 passions abandon their mainstay, hold on with the hind- 

 feet of your conscience ; and, finally, if this support should 

 fail you also, there remains one last grappling-iron which 

 shall be your safety, and by whose means^ you may join 

 the saints of heaven, who have persevered to the end." 



Considered as game, the opossum is esteemed by many 

 people a dainty dish. In taste it is not unlike tender 

 pork, except that it has a somewhat wilder flavour. 



To cook it, the Indians suspend it by its long tail to a 

 stick, and take care to keep it constantly turned. 



Although the flesh cannot be pronounced uneatable, I 

 must confess that when I first tasted it, I found it im- 

 possible to eat anything afterwards, I had been so over- 

 come by the odour and savour of musk. But the second 

 time my teeth came in contact with opossum meat, I was 

 less fastidious. The dish had been prepared, I must own, 



