AN EXTRAORDINARY LECTURE AT THE TABERNACLE.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 81, 14 August 1863, Page 3

AN EXTRAORDINARY LECTURE AT THE TABERNACLE.

(From the Saturday /ieviezo.)

A novel entertainment was provided a few evenings apo, by Mr Spurgeon, at his tabernacle. The programme which had been issued proved attractive enough, and the doors were thronged by an eager crowd. There were to be seven ladies in Eastern costume, a black servant, or eunuch, to attend upon them, a number of whirling and howling dervishes, some donkey-boys of Egypt, and a quantity of dead stock, such as the hands and feet of Egyptian ladies, gold bonnets, stomachers, ladies' girdles, and other similar curiosities. The whole was to be introduced hy a traveller from the East, of the name of Gadsby. The entrance of a procession, of deacons and eiders did not awaken enthusiasm. The black eunuch, the dervishes, and the don key-bo>s were much more to the taste of the audience; while the persons who represented women in Eastern costume were greeted with slfouis of laughter, renewed again and again, when the audience saw Mr Spurgeon surveying the group with a broad grin on his countenance. The stride of the Eastern ladies, their height, and the general demeanor, gave rise to a suspicion that they were not women at all, and long before the lecture was over there were many murmurs that they were only "men dre.ssed up." Mr Spurgeon advanced to the front, and said they had better begin their exercises, as they always did, with prayer. Directly ibis was over, the black man, who appeared to think that a little of that serious work would go a long way, waved before e;ich mufSed lady a huge fan, and the audience relaxed the rigidity of countenances produced by the pastor's exercises. Then Mr .Spurgeon sat down by the side of the ladies, and laughed heanily fit the fair creatures and their obsequious servant. A thin man, who eyed the troupe as a manager eyes his company when ou the singe, proved to be Mr Gadsby. He mado the audience, particularly the ladies i;tu»h over anecdotes of men who had got divorced from their wives, and of others who had "licked" their spouses. This was Mr Gadsby's own expression, and the women present seemed to know what it meant perfectly. This attention to the ladies' t-istes was one great feature of the lecture. The other was the pains taken to satisfy any scruples that might be left in the minds of pastor or deacons by quoting passages of Scripture in '• illustation" of the performances of the Merry Andrews in the mir. One after the other the muffled ladies were turned round for inspection amid i he roars of the audience. One, whose eye only was exposed, exemplified the passage, " Thou hast ravished mo with one of thy eyes." and so with others, it was not till the lady wearing the horn came forward thai the delight of the audience reachedits climax. Mr Gadsby, as his be^t "' illustration,' 1 said that the horn vias only an exaggeration of a lady's bonnet of the present day, and to prove it, he put one with a high peak on bis own head, and strutted about the platform. The audience fairly shouted with laughter, and it seemed as if Mr Spurgeon himself would never leavo off. He clapped his hands with great glee, and was evidently satisfied with the efforts of ihe new man. This ex'raorilinary exhibition concluded. as it had begun, by the revet end pastor with prayer.