MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VIEW. 191 



" I do not, however, object to a quiet discussion 

 of the subject in ministers' meetings, if the major- 

 ity are smokers and are very witty. I am a Con- 

 gregationalist, from conviction and early training : 

 but I have seriously thought of joining the Pres- 

 byterians, as I have heard that, while they are 

 strict in doctrine, they are more liberal than we 

 are in the non-essentials of practice. If The 

 Advance would use its influence to have all the 

 public or printed allusions to this trivial and 

 entirely personal matter abated, it would be a 

 great relief to me and many brethren, in the 

 ministry and out. Indeed it might save us to 

 the denomination." 



It is stated on good authority that a well-known 

 divine, on arranging to give a lecture to the young 

 ladies of a certain academy, agreed to take in pay- 

 ment for his service a box of the best Spanish cigars. 

 The lecture was delivered ; the cigars were made 

 over and the debt was thus squared. 



I am tempted to give a few humorous but very per- 

 tinent passages from a letter purporting to be written 

 by a zealous deacon to his offending pastor : — "I 

 don 't know the Hebrew for terbakker, but I know 

 what terbakker is, to my sorror ; and I 'm agin 

 it ... In the space of six years grandfather took 

 over three hundred cuds out of Parson Hawker's 

 pulpit. He thought he would collect 'em as a sort 

 of ecclesyasticle curiosity. Sometimes he found 

 'em on the floor, sometimes on the seat or cush- 

 ion, sometimes on the Bible, and now and then, 



