SECULAR TOPICS.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3127, 25 February 1879, Page 1

SECULAR TOPICS.

(FROM THI NEW YOBK XUKS.)

In one of the frontier towns of Texas, near the Mexican border! the regular Sunday afternoon bullfights have latterly been varied by combats between a lion and a bull. There were two of these fights, and they, attracted spectators from [all the surrounding country. When it was first announced that a real lion, said to be of an unusually fierce disposition, would be pitted against a bull, the sympathies and money of the local public were rery largely on the side of the lion. It was believed that he would kill his adversary before the latter would have time to begin to make up hit mind to fight, and as the day of the battle drew near, the betting was seven to two against the bull. The result of the fight was a great surprise. The lion, after a brief combat, in which the advantage was very decidedly with the bull, slunk back to his cage, and his seconds threw up the sponge. At least 18,000 dollars changed hands in consequence of the lion's defeat, and several leading citizens were financially ruined.

There is a small Eighth Day Baptist Church in the town where the melancholy event just mentioned took place. It has not hitherto maintained a regular pastor, hut, whenever the Texan Eighth Day Conference had a supernumerary preacher on its rolls he was sent to supply the church in question. On^ the Sunday morninp after the first defeat of the lion^ a young and unsophisticated minister was to hold a morning^ervtßftrCaiLnearly all the people in the town went to meeting,in order to calm their minds and fit them to bet with coolness on the second match between the bull and the liou, which was set down for the afternoon of the same day. During the proceding week ' the lion had nearly regained hit place in public favour. It had been rumoured, and was generally believed, that his defeat had been due to the treachery of his keeper, who had been bribed by the backers of the bull to drug the lion. As the keeper had been promptly hanged it was generally considered that the charge against him bad been virtually proved, and the lion party were encouraged to bet five to six on their favourite beast.

The young preaoher was totally unconscious of the absorbing topic of public interest, and was hence unaware that, in innocently selecting a text in - which allusion was made to a roaring lion, he was touching upon a delicate subject. The marked attention with which his text was heard greatly encouraged him, and he introduced his sermon with an eloquent description of the lion. He said that it was universally conceded that the lion was king of beasts. What other animal, he asked, could withstand the fierce monarch of the desert? Ue then went on to praise the 'strength of the elephant and the rhinoceros, the ferocity of the tiger, and the boldness of the bull: bat he asserted that not one of these animals could successfully encounter the lion. «***

Now, the bull party was creatly in the majority in the church, and-resented as an intolerable outrage this attempt—as they regarded it—to depreciate the bull i and to affect the'betting on- the afternoon fight. The lion party, on the other bund felt that the minister's remarks were sarcastic and insulting, and that it was Jit tie better than sacrilege for him to get ißjp in the pulpit on a beautiful Sunday mining, and jeer at their confidence iv ! fche&on, by which they had recently lost so much money. Both parties felt that tke Loaor of Texas required that _an^ example should be made of the offending minister. When great interests arc at stake, men's jninds act rapidly. There was a brief aed whispered conference between the leading deacon,' who had invested nearly all his money on the bull, and Judge Salter, who still ventured to back the lion ; and then the judge andthe ascended the pulpit stairs, seized Mia m :*»ister, and followed by the entire cm^n*" *"• led him out »nd hanged him £?£?•«. aza? after which the toa tree on the % eQ practiße d a t him Sunday school chuu ■:{ the ringin|? o f with their revolvers unc. ery body to the church bell summoned t -ment of the arena. Once more the judge A g those who had bet on the bull . justified. The lion was whipped in 13 minutes by the. watch, and died a few minutes later, while the bull was uninjured, except by a few unimportant scratches. The disgust of the backers of the lion knew no bounds, and had they not been able to partially relieve their minds by a raid on the Mexican quarter of the town, which they burned, after having shot a few Mexicans, they might have been betrayed by their indignation into acts of violence.

On the next Sunday a veteran preacher, who was as much celebrated for his tact and geniality as for'his eloquence and learning, filled* the Eight Day Baptist pulpit. On the preceding evening he had learned the fate of his predecessor, and had. remarked that though the brother might have meant well, he had made a grave mistake in trifling with the feelings of his hearers, and that his fate was a warning against the introduction of secular topics into the pulpit. When this astute person gave out his text, his audience' noted with pleasure that it contained a reference to the strong bulls of Bashain, and felt that they, had before them a mini* ter whose head was, as they expressed it, particularly level. The preacher dwelt at much length on the pre eminent strength and bravery of bulls. He asserted that Satan went about like a roaring bull seeking whom he might gore, and that nearly all the passages in the Hebrew Scriptures which in the English translation mention the lion in terms of praise, are erroniously translated, and that they really refer to the bull. ,As tho lion had by this time not a single partisan in the whole town,.this sermon was received with great enthusiasm. A subscription wa« immediately taken up in order to pay the excellent minister a regular salary, and he

is now installed as pastor of the Eighth Day Church, and preaches every Sunday with constantly increasing popularity. This shows us that it is wrong for a Texas minister to preach on secular topics unless he fully expresses the views of his hearers, in which case no. reasonable man can find fault with him. A somewhat similar opinion as to what constitutes preaching on secular topics is said to have prevailed at one period 1 elsewhere than in the state of Texas.