aries, but when the letter of the Scriptures
presses too closely on the genteel Christianity of the nineteenth
century, let him use his spiritualizing alembic and disperse it into
impalpable ether. Let him preach less of Christ than of Antichrist; let
him be less definite in showing what sin is than in showing who is the
Man of Sin, less expansive on the blessedness of faith than on the
accursedness of infidelity. Above all, let him set up as an interpreter
of prophecy, and rival Moore's Almanack in the prediction of political
events, tickling the interest of hearers who are but moderately spiritual
by showing how the Holy Spirit has dictated problems and charades for
their benefit, and how, if they are ingenious enough to solve these, they
may have their Christian graces nourished by learning precisely to whom
they may point as the "horn that had eyes," "the lying prophet," and the
"unclean spirits." In this way he will draw men to him by the strong
cords of their passions, made reason-proof by being baptized with the
name of piety. In this way he may gain a metropolitan pulpit; the
avenues to his church will be as crowded as the passages to the opera; he
has but to print his prophetic sermons and bind them in lilac and gold,
and they will adorn the drawing-room table of all evangelical ladies, who
will regard as a sort of pious "light reading" the demonstration that the
prophecy of the locusts whose sting is in their tail, is fulfilled in the
fact of the Turkish commander's having taken a horse's tail for his
standard, and that the French are the very frogs predicted in the
Revelations.

Pleasant to the clerical flesh under such circumstances is the arrival of
Sunday! Somewhat at a disadvantage during the week, in the presence of
working-day interests and lay splendors, on Sunday the preacher becomes
the cynosure of a thousand eyes, and predominates at once over the
Amphitryon with whom he dines, and the most captious member of his church
or vestry. He has an immense advantage over all other public speakers.
The platform orator is subject to the criticism of hisses and groans.
Counsel for the plaintiff expects the retort of counsel for the
defendant. The honorable gentleman on one side of the House is liable to
have his facts and figures shown up by his honorable friend on the
opposite side. Even the scientific or literary lecturer, if he is dull
or incompetent, may see the best part of his audience quietly sli