Letter From Warm Climate

"Speaking of pulpit jokes," a churchgoer remarked, "I have yet to hear a better one than that on a reverend gentleman of a small congregation in the city. He is a fine preacher, a man along in years, loved and revered by his flock. His pulpit utterances never verge upon levity of any sort. He abhors a resort to humor in church.

"One Sunday evening he was speaking to his congregation about Mrs. Jones, one of the prominent women of his church, who had gone south for her health. In his previous remarks he had, with feeling, referred to Mrs. Smith, who had recently left this world for a better one.

"He startled his hearers by saying: 'I have just received a letter from Mrs. Smith. She says it is very warm where she is now.'

"Shocked at the audible titter in the staid congregation, the good man paused, looked blank and then gasped, 'I meant from Mrs. Jones,' and hastily announced the hymn." - New York Telegram.