THE PARSONS AND THE REPORTERS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 276, 12 March 1877, Page 4

THE PARSONS AND THE REPORTERS.

TK£#lpr*Gtic* of tKe 3»ew York journals reporting the Straday sermons of Che varififlUk preachers seems in one case Co have led to some amusing consequences. Th* Tvibwrw reports a trial of the JRev. ©. R, Smith, minister and pastor of tto Eleventh-street United Presbyterian Church, before the first United Presbyterian Church Presbytery of New Yorfc, the Be*. Br. Ftndiay, moderator. The ywr. gentleman wwt charged with having, alter his sermon on a previous Sunday, the six reporters who were there »»<t aafeed them to drink. The charge, after stating; that he took the reporters to * refreshment hottse, went on to say:— M Foaxth, that beefsteak an el oysters listing been ordered he tamed to the reporters and asked them what they would drink j fifth, that orders having been gj Even, he himself requested the barkeepers to bring him some of! the same; sixth, that this turned out to be gin and milk, of tli« former of which liquids he took £t( lingers ; seventh, that he swallowed th# dose with evident relish ; eighth, that the viands having been disposed of, all rose to» leave, and Mr. Smyth turned to the barkeeper carelessly requesting htm to "hang that up." The prosecution tMnk that the facts mentioned in the foregeing allegations involve a breach of the Fourth Commandment, as obtained by Baodus 20, v. 8 to 11, and that if they prove to be true Mr. Smyth ought to bo censured. It is sud to record that for this laudable hospitality to a deserving class, Mr; Smyth was visited with the censure «f the Presbytery.