Sermons on Evil-Speaking by Isaac Barrow
page 5 of 130 (03%)
page 5 of 130 (03%)
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the light triflers of the court of Charles the Second. It is of him
that the familiar story is told of a playful match at mock courtesy with the Earl of Rochester, who meeting Dr. Barrow near the king's chamber bowed low, saying, "I am yours, doctor, to the knee strings." Barrow (bowing lower), "I am yours, my lord, to the shoe- tie." Rochester: "Yours, doctor, down to the ground." Barrow: "Yours, my lord, to the centre of the earth." Rochester (not to be out-done): "Yours, doctor, to the lowest pit of hell." Barrow: "There, my lord, I must leave you." Barrow's mathematical power gave clearness to his sermons, which were full of sense and piety. They were very carefully written, copied and recopied, and now rank with the most valued pieces of the literature of the pulpit. He was deeply religious, although he had, besides learning, a lively wit, and never lost the pluck that taught him how to man a gun against a pirate. He was "low of stature, lean, and of a pale complexion," so untidy that on one occasion his appearance in the pulpit is said to have caused half the congregation to go out of church. He gave his whole mind and his whole soul to his work for God. Mythical tales are told of the length of some of his sermons, at a time when an hour's sermon was not considered long. Of one charity-sermon the story is that it lasted three hours and a half, and that Barrow was requested to print it--"with the other half which he had not had time to deliver." But we may take this tale as one of the quips at which Barrow himself would have laughed very good-humouredly. H. M. |
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