In South Carolina. 189 



walking with him to church, said to him in a timid 

 yet persuasive tone, " Now, Brother Humphreys, rec- 

 ollect you are to preach to tow r n folks ; it will not do 

 to be too plain." Mr. Humphreys made no response, 

 but the good sister felt encouraged to hope for a dis- 

 course in full accordance with town culture. In preach- 

 ing, however, the speaker, after enforcing for some 

 time, with great earnestness, the duty of repentance, 

 said, with full emphasis, " If you do n't repent, you '11 

 all be damned." With the air of sudden recollection, 

 and very great alarm, he jumped back in the pulpit 

 and began to apologize: " I beg your pardon; you are 

 town folks." This he repeated several times during 

 the discourse, in each instance suiting the action to 

 the word, and adding at the last, "If you are town 

 folks, if you do n't repent and become converted, God 

 will cast you into hell just as soon as he wall a piney- 

 woods sinner." There sat the timid sister with head 

 bowed down in disappointment and mortification, but 

 with mind well made up to waste on the incorrigible 

 Humphreys no more lectures on pulpit aesthetics. On 

 another occasion he was sent for to visit a church 

 where there had been some time before a revival of 

 religion. A dancing-master had come into the neigh- 

 borhood to make up a school, and some of the young 

 professors had been persuaded to enter it. Mr. Hum- 

 phreys, in his sermon, described in a graphic manner 

 the wiles of the devil, and traced out in minute detail 

 his multifarious ways to ruin souls, all along develop- 

 ing lines of resemblance between Satan and a danc- 

 ing-master, until at length the latter could stand it no 

 longer. He accordingly took up his hat and started 

 tow r ard the door; just as he approached it, Mr. Hum- 

 phreys said, with loud and impressive voice, " But, 



