So, while those who call to me from behind may inspire me with energy, if not

with courage, I ask an indulgent hearing from you. I beg that you will bring

your full faith in American fairness and frankness to judgment upon what I shall

say. There was an old preacher once who told some boys of the Bible lesson he

was going to read in the morning. The boys, finding the place, glued together

the connecting pages. The next morning he read on the bottom of one page: "When

Noah was one hundred and twenty years old he took unto himself a wife, who

was"--then turning the page--"one hundred and forty cubits long, forty cubits

wide, built of gopher wood, and covered with pitch inside and out." He was

naturally puzzled at this. He read it again, verified it, and then said, "My

friends, this is the first time I ever met this in the Bible, but I accept it as

an evidence of the assertion that we are fearfully and wonderfully made." If I

could get you to hold such faith to-night, I could proceed cheerfully to the

task I otherwise approach with a sense of consecration.

 

Now and then a speaker will plunge without introduction into an anecdote,

leaving the application to follow. The following illustrates this method:

 

A large, slew-footed darky was leaning against the corner of the railroad

station in a Texas town when the noon whistle in the canning factory blew and

the hands hurried out, bearing their grub buckets. The darky listened, with his

head on one side until the rocketing echo had quite died away. Then he heaved a

deep sigh and remarked to himself:

 

"Dar she go. Dinner time for some folks--but jes' 12 o'clock fur me!"