ASLEEP IN CHURCH.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 36, 2 June 1876, Page 2

ASLEEP IN CHURCH.

[" Daulmry News."] Did yon ever go to sleep in church ? We don't menu to ask if you have done so deliberately. Of course you haven't. You put your head on the back of the seat in front just to rest it,. and to think of the sermon. The words of the preacher are very distinct to you at first. They present somot.hirg foe your mind to take hold of, and to wrestle intellectually with. Then they calm you. and suudie you. They become a iliac .lo,its through your brain, gem-ly filling in the crevices, and giving j'ou a blissful sense of rest. They merge themselves so imperceptibly with yi .ur m<>st distant thoughts as to lose their identity. Farther and farther away they sound, until they have disappeared entirely. The scene suddenly changes. You are in the midst of a maddened mob. There is a struggle on your part to save yourself from their violence. You strike out ami l'ick out, and squirm and wrench youiself. It is is a desperate struggle. Every muscle in your body stands out like whip-cov.ls ; every nerve is stretched to its utmost. Yon succeed in getting free from the mass. Then you start on a run, with the pack running after you. You cry out for help. You shriek at the top of your voice for succ >ur. Blindly galloping ah >ng you come unexpectedly to a precipice. You make a herculean effort to save yourself. "Jut it is to late. With a scream of terror you go over its edge and are hurled headlong into fcl:e dreadful abyss beh>v.-. Then you awake. You have hit your head on the back of the pew. For a moment there is a dreadful vaguenesss as to your whereabouts. 'Che next wmte"?. brings with it the realisation that you are in church. The words of the j-'T-.i.ifet'T awaheyou to this consciousness wit 1 ' awo-1 - ' oeiH. Wiuvt did you. do in ihjvi d > ( is a finery that takes 3" ld of you w ..'i frightful force. Did you thi-. >w yoiu- aims in the air I Did you kick the bench ? D>d y»u scream fiut I Tlie perspiration gathers in great drops on your face, and sharp flashes of heat shoot ah.ng youv spine, while there is sinking enough i". the nit of your stomach to start a shaft in a gold mine. You dare not look up. You can imagine every eye in the assembly is turned upon you, waiting to confront you face to face. It is a dreadful feeling—so dreadful that it finally becomes unbearable—and finally you slowly raise your head, and gradually, but furtively, glance about you. The congregation is as you left them. Not an eye is turned towards you, and you might believe that you had n- >t been asleep at all were it not for the awakening of one leg, accompanied by all the poignant sensations of that operation.