About Preachers And Religion

'I Ilute to see a woman with rings in her ears," exclaimed the good deaccn ; "they ain't natural. If it was intended for woman to wear thein she would hav8 been boni with holes in her car. Tho first woman didn't wear earrin gs, DI be bound!" "No," iemarked the quiet little man in the córner, "nor nothing else." The dlscussion was brougiit to an abrupt close, and the house adjourned without delay. Tho words 'immortal soul,' 'deathless soul,' 'un'lying soul,' 'deathless spirit,' or 'disembodied spirit,' 'eieroai torment' 'eternal suffering in couscious misery,' 'unending misery,' 'unending torment,' 'everlastiug woe.' never dying soul,' and all their kindred word are words that never, in a single instance are found in the bible. Bat trom the copious manner in which those words are passed to U3 from the pulpit and through the press, we should, without reading suppoáe the whole bible to be full of them. The word 'immortal' occurs but once in the whole bible. ïhere is a touching legend of why the Jewish women preserve their beauty, while that of the men has somewhat departed. An ancient writer tells the story quaintly: "When ye Christus was driven to Golgotha ye uien of Judea Him execrateo, woundêd and derided, but ye women, oh ye moij, uuncu iucn ueautcuur iieaus ana veiled their eyes in tlieir raven haii, aud wept salt toars of grief to see ye ianib s tortured and slain; and ye Christus decreed that henceforth, yea and forever, ye eyes that wept should retain their beauty, ye foreheads that bowed should shine as ye moon, and ye hair that was wet with ye dew of pity should grow thick and lustrous or ye beads of their children and their children's children to ye last goneration." A little serai-pagan, who fortheflrst time was receiving sorae sort of religious instruction from a female friend whom ho was visiting, found some difflculty in uuderstanding that Sunday had anything remarkable in it over any other day. At lasi by dint of "line upon line and precept upou precf-pt," he was madeto comprehend somewhat the nctity of the day. Unfortunately, however, soon after he began to understand things, coming froni church one Suuday he noticed the apothecary sliop3 open. His ne wly acquired moral sense received a terrible shock, ind he entered into a very orthodox denunciation of the uneonscious cotnpounders of simples. ' But" he wa8 told, "the druggists must keep open on Sundays, so that the sick people can get medicine." "Why. do people get sick on Suuday?" "Yes, just as on any other day." "Well, good people don't die on Sunday do they?" "Certainly!" "How caj that be ? Does heaven keep open on Sunday ?" It is needless to say that all f urther grave conversatiou on the subject was impossib'.e. I f the story which comes f rom Alexander. in Texas, is true, a Texas revival Í3 hardly more to be desired than an earthquake. The statements is made that a noi3y man disturbed the meeting which Evangelist Penn was holding in hopes that he might be able to convert soine of the wicked Alexanderites. Penn prayed for Divine punishrnent on the disturber of his peace, whereupon the man is said to have dropped dead. Froni Alexander, Penn went to Lambasas, where a giddy girl giggled and disturbed the devotions. Penn prayed that the Lord would punish her, whereupon she upset a kerosene lamp, and according to the veracious Texan vcho senda the count, was burned to death. The next judgment which followed in the wake of the evangehst's ruaren was ;i sudden and unexpected tornado. This overturned the gospel tent and overwhelmed the affrighted congregation being almost as destructivo as a railroad disaster in its resulta of maiming and killing. The panic is described a3 having been dreadful in the extreme. As the place where the tent stood was flooded to the depth of two feet, most of thé congregation became as wet as if they had been baptized by immersion. Such an evangelist as Penn must be-more of a terror than a blessing lo the commumty he invades.