I
cannot say he is childish exactly. Children talk nonsense plenty
sometimes, but no child could talk the kind of nonsense Mr. Batty talks.
Last night his text was, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and
with fire." But he forgot the Holy Ghost, and talked only about fire.
His object seemed to be to prove that fire would _burn_. He mentioned
several fires spoken of in the Bible that _did_ burn, such as the fire
that consumed Sodom and Gomorrah; the fire that formed one of the
plagues of Egypt; &c., but he came at length on the fire in the bush
that Moses saw, and, poor man, he was obliged to acknowledge that that
would not burn. The bush was unconsumed. He got away from that fire as
soon as he could, and found a number of other fires that _did_ burn. By
and by however he came upon the burning fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar.
This would burn _some_ that were thrown into it, but it would not burn
others. Then he talked about the fire of Moscow, and said, that _that_
fire gave as much light to the moon, as the moon gives to the earth, and
he added, that the flames of the burning city made such a blaze, that we
might have seen it in England, if it had not been for the hills. And
this is the talk that sensible people are expected to go and hear.
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