A Man Preaching His Own Funeral Sermon.

Evening Star, Issue 7643, 20 June 1888, Page 3

A Man Preaching His Own Funeral Sermon.

Three thousand persons assembled recently at a little church near Athens (U.S.A.). where the minister, the Rev. Nathaniel Pridgeon, who is eighty-four years old, was to preach bis own funeral sermon. His rca-on for doing so was this :—" Eighty-four years," he raid to a reporter, " have passed over my head. I have heard sermons preached ovei people that were not true. I have beard bad men praised and good men half praised. I preached the Gospel for fifty years. I know my own faults and my own good points. I havo determined not to have men talking over my dead body about things they do not know. I have made up my mind to preach my own funeral sermon, and to-day I will whip the carnal Pridgeon, and I will extol the spiritual Pridgeon. When at Jast my eyes are closed in death, I want mv body to be put away quickly under the blessing which I will pronounce over myself to-day." A coffin had been ordered, and this was placed in the church ; Mr Pridgeon rising early on Sunday and examining it critically and testing it by placing himself in it. At noon he ascended to bis pulpit; the members of the family being in mourniDg. In his sermon he denounced the custom of holding funeral observances ; but since custom had forced them, he proposed, he said, to attend to his own funeral himself. "The sermon," a reporter says, "was a curious medley of foolish sayings and good sense, many observations causing laughter. Hymns were sung frequently.'and altogether the affair was as ludicrous as it was novel. Before he got through with his discourse many began to leave the church. Mr Pridgeon, after the sermon was over, gave a sketch of his life. He was born in North Carolina, but has been living in Georgia seventy years. He has preached in eleven States, to all of which the Lord called him, except Alabama, and he stoutly declares that only the Devil could draw a man to that State. He has been twice married, and declares that no man ought to live single for a single moment when so many good women are anxiouß to get husbands."