THE ORIGINAL TONGUE.

Western Star, Issue 930, 14 March 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE ORIGINAL TONGUE.

When a party of clergymen get together, with not too many laymen within hearing, they sometimes become as merry a party as so many members of any other profession. T he. clergymen of York, as a rule, are not. to be beaten in the telling of a good story. A number of them were gathered together one evening lately, when one of the party told an anecdote ot a minister in search of a charge that is certainly worth presenting as a good siory, and perhaps as an example of how such things are sometimes done, This minister had been invited to preach as a-candidate iu a little rural church in North Lancashire, where the members, only on a par with most distant country churches, liked to flatter themselves that they “were pretty well posted.” Before starting for the place the minister met an old cl* rlcal triond who had some experience in the same neighbourhood, and who advised him to “ give them some Latin and Greek 5 it will ticHe thoir vanity, and they will set you down for a very smart man.”

There wras a little difficulty in the way of the minister giving his hearers a dose of Latin or Greek, for he knew nc more of either language thau the people he was going to preach to But he was equal to the emergency. He was a native of Wales, and spoke Welsh as well as he did English, though these were the only two languages he. knew anything about. When he got nicely into his sermon, he introduced a little passage of Scripture, and said i “ This passage, brethren, has been slightly altered iu the trauslaiion. It is only in the original Hebrew that you can grasp the full meaning. I will read it to you iu that tongue so that you can comprehend in more exactly and he gave them the passage in very good Welsh. The old deacons nodded approval, as though they would say, “ That’s the stuff, that’s the und ol thing we want. 0 Presently the minister, who saw by the faces of bis hearers that he had made a hit, came upon another Scripture paasage that could not be correctly rendered in English. “This passage,” he said, “ has to be read in ihe original to be appreciated. In all the languages there is none I know in which the meaning can be so well expressed as Greek. 1 will road you the verse iu Greek.” Aud then he gave them a long Welsh sentence. Again the deacons nodded approvingly, and before long the minister found it necessary to read a verse in Latin, “ so that his hearers might understand it thoroughly,” and gave them a little more Welsh. Everything was going along smoothly, and the minister, as be.approached the end of bis sermon, thought he would give them just one more taste of the dead languages. “ I am about to read to you,” said be, “ another passage on this subject But it is another of those passages which has been altered in the translation, aud X will read it to you m the Ohaldaic, in which it was written.” He y/M just about to give them a little

more Welsh, when, casting his eye over the congregation, he saw, seated near tho door a jolly looking man, who was holding his sides tight to keep from bursting into laughter. The minister took in the situation in an instant. Here was a man in the church who understood Welsh, and who was laughing at the trick that bad been played upon the congregation. But not a feature in the minister’s face changed. Fixing his eyes straight on the laughing man, just as the congregation thought he was abput, to give them the Ohaldaic version, be said in Welsh again, “For heaven’s sake, my friend, don’t say a word about this till I have a chance to talk with y° u - r The congregation went home satisfied that they had listened to one of the most learned of sermons; the laughing man never told the story; and the minister was soon settled over the church, the people believing that a clergyman who could read the Scriptures in five languages was just the man for them.