SHORT SERMONS.
Dean Swift, having been solicited to preach a charity sermon, mounted the pulpit, and after announcing his text, “He that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord,” simply said, “Now, my brethren, if you are satisfied with the security, down with the dust.” He then took his seat, and there was an unusually large collection.
The following abridgment contains the pith and marrow, sum and substance, of a sermon which occupied an hour in delivery:—
“Man is born to trouble.”
This subject, my hearers, is naturally divisible into four heads:—
1. Man’s entrance into the world;
2. His progress through the world;
3. His exit from the world; and
4. Practical reflections from what may be said.
First, then:—
1. Man’s ingress in life is naked and bare,
2. His progress through life is trouble and care,
3. His egress from it, none can tell where,
4. But doing well here, he will be well there.
Now, on this subject, my brethren dear,
I could not tell more by preaching a year.