FATHER STANTON'S WITTY STORIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14925, 24 February 1912, Page 5 (Supplement)

FATHER STANTON'S WITTY STORIES.

"A.D.." witirivo in the current i.-sue of the Chesham Commonwealth, describes in interesting fashion a morning (all on the Rev. A. H. Stanton, M.A., of St. Albans, Holborn. ,

According to Dame Gossip, a parishioner once, asked whether the use of incense and processional lights at St. Albans was quite " wise" under existing circumstances, and Father Stanton replied : " There are only two classes of persons who are emphatically termed ' wise* in the New Testament—the ' Wise Men,' who offered incense and the ' Wise Virgins' who carried processional lights."

A still more naughty story, for the accuracy of which I do not vouch, is that a. visitor to St. Alban's having confessed that be liked the service, but objected to the incense. Father Stanton gravely remarked, " I am very sorrv. mv friend." "Why?" asked the stranger." "Well. you .see. there are only two stinks in the next world—incense and brimstone— you'll .have to choose between them." Think what hilarious spirits and susceptibility to the laughable side of things must have meant to a man shut up for life among unwholesome slums and crowded tenements and ugly warehouses ! When the report of the Royal Commission wa.s published. Father Stanton was besieged by journalists. One of them said: They are going to turn you out of the Church, rev. father !" He replied : "I don't care a brass farthing!" • "What shall vou do?" "Sell cat's meat?" "Can I put that in?" "Certainly, if you like I'' .