A Diverting Sermon.

Manawatu Herald, 4 June 1904, Page 3

A Diverting Sermon.

A diverting sermon was preached by a Presbyterian minister in one of the Christchurch churches the other Sunday. His topic was the possibility or otherwise of a man carrying Christian principles into his business. He knew, he said, that it was specially hard for some business men to be Christiana, This applied particularly to auctioneers. He had been at an auction sale when a broken-down old horse had been trotted out, and he had heard the auctioneer describe the merits of the animal in glowing terms in an endeavour to do business. It struck him then how hard it was for an auctioneer to be a Christian j yet, he added, he had known good Christians among auctioneers Lawyers, stated the preacher, were proverbially outside the pale, yet some of the noblest Christian men had been found amongst the lawyers. Lord Selberne might be instanced in proof of this. On one occasion his favourite parrot was lost, and after diligent search at night it was found in the shrubbery. When discovered it said “ Let us pray.” This was an expression it had frequently heard in the Godly lawyer’s house, and he questioned whether a parrot would be found to make use of the same in the houses of any of those "who had little hope for the lawyers. Publicans, too, were thought to be beyond hope, yet in the own experience one of the finest Christian women he had ever been privileged to meet—a member of his congregation—was, or had been, a public house-keeper.