REALISM IN THE PULPIT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2320, 18 February 1892, Page 3

REALISM IN THE PULPIT.

The Rev. Dr Tyndall, preaching in New York recently, took for his text the role played by the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and snakes constituted the main feature of the entire discourse. When commenting on the snake which Aaron produced in Pharoah's presence the rev. doctor threw down on the platform a big blackthorn, and then, stooping down, rose again with a serpent about five feet long dangling from his fingers. It appeared alive and squirming, but it was merely an imitation one. The sensation which it created among the congregation, composed of the very lowest classes of the of the city, was electrical. Then leaving Biblical snakes the clergyman grappled with the hideous imaginary serpents produced by inemperance. Portraying a man in the throes of delirium tremens, and who was convinced that he had snakes in his shoes "he would reach down like this," and the clergyman suited the action to his woids, " and then straightening himself, he would wave an imaginary snake above his head with a maniac's yell of triumph." As Dr Tyndall said this he waved with a wild shriek about his own head another imitation serpent which he had pulled from his shoe. The effect on audience was again very marked, and two men, who had evidently enjoyed personal experiences of delirium tremens, hastily arose and attempted to leave the church, but much to their dismay found, that, by the doctor's orders, the doors were locked. " The glasses in the liquor saloons you frequent, my brethren," continued the preacher, " may be of cut glass or crystal, with a cheery sound when they clink together, but there is an invisible snake at the bottom of everyone of them." As he uttered these words in the most dramatic tones, the reverend gentleman placed upon the pulpit a glass, apparently filled with wine ; while the congregation watched breathlessly, he struck a match on his leg—nut a light to the contents of the glass* which were chemicals especially prepared for the sermon, and suddenly a hideous, writhing, snake-like thing, several feet long, arose out of the glass and squirmed over its edge into the pulpit. As this was going on, Dr Tyndall stood on one side, and, pointing to the snake, cried, " The next time you feel like getting drunk, think of that!" He then pronounced the Benediction, and the faces of the majority of his congregation were blanched and terrorstricken as they bent their heads to receive it.