MIRACULOUS ESCAPE AT PAISLEY. 21 



burst, and such was the terrific force that the fifty-six 

 pound weights with which they were loaded were whirled 

 through the air, wrecking and destroying everything in 

 their course. 



Mr. Boyle was rendered momentarily unconscious, but on 

 recovering his senses he was astonished to find himself, 

 instead of being blown into the body of the building, as 

 might have been expected, stretched out at full length on 

 the front seat of the gallery. His head and face were 

 slightly scorched, and his hair was singed, but he sustained 

 no other injury. He naturally considered his escape as 

 miraculous, and, falling on his knees, offered up thanks to 

 God for mercifully preserving him in so great a peril. Had 

 the accident happened but ten minutes later the church 

 would have been crowded with people, and the loss of life 

 through the effects of the explosion, and the panic which 

 must certainly have ensued, would have been too terrible to 

 contemplate. The church-keeper, who happened to be 

 under the gallery at the time, received such a shock to his 

 nervous system through the fright he sustained, that he was 

 confined to his bed for a considerable time afterward. 

 There is but one step from the sublime to the ridiculous. 

 A Sunday-school teacher, on entering immediately after- 

 wards, innocently enquired if it always did that. 



Robert Boyle studied social problems with an excep- 



