A SLIGHT MISTAKE.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2778, 9 January 1878, Page 2

A SLIGHT MISTAKE.

The London Figaro i* indebted to the Newtonards Chronicle for an account of what that Hibernian print not inappropriately calls "an amusing baptismal incident." A few Sundays ago, it seems, it fell to the lot of a distinguished Presbyterian professor to preach in a church said to be not a hundred miles from Jtandalstown—wherever that may be. . After the sermon a child was to be baptised, and the eloquent divine, cognisant of this fact, dilated on the benefits of baptism, and. having exhausted the general aspects of the rite, proceeded to make particular reference to the impending infant. Warming with his subject, the good man went on substantially to this effect:—" There is no saying, my Christian brethren, to what position tho little one now before us may rise Taken iv: hand by some family of eminence and high social condition, it may, in due season, and when properly educated, become an oi&ccr in one of Her Majesty's regiments. It may attain to the honorable position of a member of Parliament; it may even win a seat in the House of Lords ; or, better than either, in my opinion, it may live to preach the Gospel from the very pulpit which I now so unworthily ocenpy." Then stooping down to the baby's father, the perspiring presbjter said, "Name this child," and as the paternal response "Eliza Jane," distinctly permeated the building, the reverend gentleman grew apoplectically rubicund of visage, and registered a mental vow nerer again to prophecy unless he knew. As for the ill-natured congregation, they tittered.