A SERMON ON THE WORD MALT.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1788, 25 September 1874, Page 3

A SERMON ON THE WORD MALT.

(PUEACHJED IN A HOLLOW lEEE).

The Eev. Mr. Dodd a very worthy minis fcer, who lived a few miles from Cambridge, and rendered himself obnoxious to many of the cantates by frequenty preaching against drunkenness. Several of these, meeting him on a journey, determined to make him preach in a hollow tree, nenr the road side; Accordingly addressing him with great apparent politeness, th»y asked him if. he had not lately preached against drunkenness. On replying in the affirmative, they insisted he should now preach from a text of their choosing. In vain did he remonstrate on the unreasonableness of expecting him to give them a discourse without study, and in such a place. They were determined to take no denial and the word malt was given him by way of a text on which he immediately delivered himself as .fol lows:— .

"Belov'd l|> r ime crave ycur attention. I am a little man co'mo at a short warning, to preach a short sermon from a small subject, in an unworthy pulpit, to a small congregation. Beloved my text is malt. I cannot divide it into words it being but one ; nor into syllabus, it being but one :• I must therefore of necessity divide it into letters which I find to be these four M,-A,-L,-T. M, my beloved, is moral ; A, is allegorical; L is literal, and T theological. The moral is set forth to teach drunkards good manners, therefore .M masters A all of you L listen Tto my text. The allegorical is when one thing is spoksn and another thing meant. The thing spoken of is malt, the thing meant is the price of malt, which you cantabs make Myoxxr maslcr, A your apparel, L your lberty, and T your 1 rust. The literal is according to the letter, Mmnoh. a Ale, L little T trust. The theological is according to the effects that it works, an 1 these I find to be of two kinds : First, in this world; second, in the world to come. The, effects th'rl it works in this world are in some .Murder, in others A&ultry, in all L looseness of life, anri in some The effects that it works in the world to come are — M misery, A anguish, L lamentation, T torment, and so much for this time and text. I shall improve this. First by way of exhos taticn— M masters A all of you L leave off T tippling, or secondly by way of excommunication, M masters A all of you L look for T torment ; thirdly by way of caution take this —A drunkard is the annoyance of modesty, the spoil of civility, the destruction of reason, the brewers' agent, the alehouse's benefactor, his wife's sorrow, hiS children's dread, his own shame* his neighbours scoff, a walking swill-bowl, the picture- of a beast, and the monster of a man. Now to &c., &c. He then concluded in the usual way, and the young men, pleased with the ingenuity, sincerely thanks him and profited more by this whimsical than by any serious discourse. McGowan's system is a lesson of facts try the Ready' Cash Store.