Republican Herald

LUCTATORS --A writer in the Salem Landmark, speaking of the great impropriety of clergymen using tobacco, 'what a splendid figure the apostle Paul would have made, had he gone about to proclaim the sublime truths of Christianity, with a quid of tobacco and a long nine in his mouth!'

We have seen the above paragraph going the rounds of the papers, as though there were something extremely witty in it. Perhaps there may be : but, in the whole dullness of our apprehension, we have been unable to discover it. Probably a modern clergyman would consider it equally ludicrous, and, perhaps, ridiculous, and, probably, outrageous, to have to say as the 'apostle Paul' did: 'These hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me,'—

What a 'splendid figure' would a modern dandy reverend make, in his gown and cassock, and his hands gloved in silk, laboring for a livelihood at the vocation of tent maker ?-See Acts, XVIII, 1. ?, 3.-but we can tell the editor of the Landmark when a 'clergyman makes a figure quite as scandalous, if not as 'ludicrous' as he would in going about to proclaim the sublime truths of Christianity, with a quid of tobacco and a long nine in his mouth-'to wit:-when he descends to the baseness of intermeddling in the private concerns of others, and becomes a public slanderer, and libeller of individual character.' What a splendid figure the apostle Paul would have made, had he gone about to proclaim the sublime truths of Christianity, by such means, after having strictly commanded Titus, 'To speak evil of no man, to be no brawler, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men.' For we,' says he, 'were sometimes foolish, &c.' See Titus III. 2. 3.