WEIRD TITLES FOR DEVOTIONAL BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13307, 13 October 1906, Page 4 (Supplement)

WEIRD TITLES FOR DEVOTIONAL BOOKS.

" A Most Delectable, Sweet. Perfumed Nosegay for God's Saints to Smell At" ifthe title of a pamphlet published in : 1626. Quaint titles were, the .-.rule in those times, and particularly ;in Puritan writings. Perhaps the sober-faced Roundheads liked • sugar-coating on their spiritual fare. Another title of that period is " A Pair of Bellows to Blow Off the Dust Cast Upon •' ' John Fry," and another is " The Snuffers of Divine Love." Cromwell's time was particularly famous for title pages. A book on charity is "Hooks and Eyes for Believers' Breeches." We also find " High-heeled Shoes for Dwarfs in Holiness;, and "Crumbs of Comfort for the Chickens of the Covenant." Ap.wp'itoned Quaker published "A Sigh for t;?(? gji- jers of Zion Breathed Out. of a HV'k- " > Wall of an Fart hen Vessel, Ktiova i.ur,. Men by the Name of Samuel • Fish." About the same time was also published "The Spiritual Mustard-pot, to Make the Soul Sneeze with Devotion;" "Salvation's Vantage Ground of a Louping Stand for Heavenly Believers," and A Shot Aimed at the Devil's Headquarters Through the Tube of the Cannon of the Covenant." The author of the lirst work speaks directly to the point. then come "A Iteapiu- Hook, Well Tempered, for the Stubborn Juus of the Coming Crop, or Biscuits Baked in the Oven of Charity. Carefully Conserved for the Chickens of the Church, the Sparrows of the Spirit, and the Sweet Swallows of Salvation ; ' and " Seven Sobs of a, Sorrowful Soul ' for Sin. or the Seven Penitential Psalms of the. Princely Prophet David, whereunto are also annexed William Hunniis' Handful of Honeysuckles and Divers Godly and Pithy ' Ditties, now Newly Augmented."