A QUAINT SERMON ON MALT.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 711, 9 August 1870, Page 4

A QUAINT SERMON ON MALT.

Mr Dodd was a minister who lived, many years ago, a few miles from Cambridge ; and having several times been preaching against drunkenness, some of the Cambridge scholars (conscience, which is sharper than ten thousand witnesses, being their monitor,) were very much offended, and thought he made reflections upon. them. Some little time after, Mr Dodd was walking towards Cambridge, and met some of the gownsmen, who, as soon as they saw him at a distance, resolved to make some ridicule of him. As soon as ho came up, they accosted him with, " Your servants, sir •" He replied, ' ' Your servant, gentlemen !" They asked him if he had been preaching very much against drunkenness of late ! He answered in the affirmative. They then told him they had a favor to beg of him, and it was that he should preach a sermon to them there from a text they should choose. He urged that it »vas an imposition, for a man ought to have some consideration before preaching. They said they would not put up with a denial, and insisted upon his preaching immediately (in a hollow tree which stood by the road side) from the word MALT. He then began : " Beloved, let •me crave yonr attention. I am a little man — come at a short notice — to preach on a short text — to a thin congregatioD — in an unworthy pulpit. Beloved, my text is Malt. I cannot divide it into sentences, there being but one ; nor into words, there being but one ; 1 must therefore, of necessity, divide it into letters, which I find in my text to be these four— M ALT. M— is Moral. A— is Allegorical. L— is Literal. T — is Theological. The Moral is, to teach you rustics good manners } therefore M — My masters, A — Ml of you, L — Leave off T — Tippling. The Allegorical is, when one thing ia spoken of and another meant, The thing spoken of is Malt. The thing meant is the spirit of Malt, which you rustics make ; M, your Meat ; A, your Apparel ; L, our Liberty j and T, your Trust. The Literal is, according to the letters,. M— Much, A — Ale, L— Little, T — Trust. The Theological is, according to the effects of work— in some, M—Murder ; in others, A — Adultery ; in all, L — Looseness of life; and -.in many, T — Treachery. 1 shall conclude, the snbject, First, by way of exhortation : M — My masters, A — All of you, L - Listen, T — To my text. Second, by way of caution : M — My masters, A — All of you, L— Look for, T — The truth. Third, by way of communicating the truth, which is this — A drunkard is the annoyance of modesty ; the spit of civility ; the destruction of reason ; the robber's agent ; the ale house's benefactor ; hi 3 wife's sorrow ; children's trouble ; his own shame ; his neighbor's scoff; a walking swill-bowl; the picture of a^ beast ; the monster of a man?"