When he was baptizing a child privately, the name
Thirza was given to the child, which he did not recognise as a Bible
name. He consulted Evison, who said, "Oh, yes, it is so; it's the name
of Abel's wife." On the next day Evison bought a book, Gesner's _Death
of Abel_, a translation of some Swedish or German work, in which the
tragedy of the early chapters of Genesis is woven into a story with
pious reflections. This is not an uncommon book, and the clerk said
these people believed it was as true as the Bible, because it claimed to
be about Bible characters.
Evison was a diligent reader of newspapers, which were much fewer in his
day, and studied diligently the sermons reported in the local Press. He
was much puzzled by the reference to "the leg end" of the story of the
raising of Lazarus in a sermon preached by the Bishop of London,
afterwards Archbishop Tait. A reference to Bailey's Dictionary and the
finding of the word _legend_ made matters clear. Of course he miscalled
words. During the Russian War he told Mr. Hemmans that we were not
fighting for "territororial possessions," and he always read "Moabites
and Hungarians" in his rendering of the sixth verse of the 83rd Psalm.
After the resignation of Mr. Yard in 1859 a Low Churchman was
appointed, who restored the use of the black gown.
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