of an extemporaneous discourse delivered by me this morning, I used, I believe, a most atrocious expression. That expression I have already withdrawn in the sight of God; I have, I trust, made my peace with him; and I now beg to withdraw that expression in the sight of this congregation, and to make my peace with you. I will not repeat the expression which I have referred to; for those who heard it will sufficiently well remember it; whilst I will not grieve (or indict pain upon) those who did not hear it by repeating it." |source = |align = left |width = |border = |fontsize = 80% |bgcolor = |style = |title_bg = |title_fnt = |tstyle = |qalign = |qstyle = |quoted = |salign = |sstyle =}} In 1851, these events were also presented as a classic example of "the dangers of extempore preaching" (Gilbert, 1851, p. 10). M‘Neile's "Satanic Agency and Mesmerism" sermon On the evening of Sunday, 10 April 1842, M‘Neile preached against Mesmerism for more than ninety minutes to a capacity congregation.See Yeates (2013), pp.273–308. He began, speaking of "latter days" – following which, Christ would return to Earth, and peace would reign for 1,000 years – and how, as the second advent neared, "satanic agency amongst men" would become ever more obvious; and, then, moving into a confusing admixture of philippic (against James Braid and Charles Lafontaine), and polemic (against animal magnetism), where he concluded that all mesmeric phenomena were due to "satanic agency". The sermon was reported on at some length in the Liverpool Standard, two days later. Once Braid became fully aware of the newspaper reports of the conglomeration of matters that were reportedly raised in M‘Neile's sermon, and the misrepresentations and outright errors of fact that it allegedly contained, as well as the vicious nature of the insults, and the implicit and explicit threats which were levelled against Braid's own personal, spiritual, and professional well-being by M‘Neile, he sent a detailed private letter to M‘Neile accompanied by a newspaper account of a lecture he had delivered on the preceding Wednesday evening (13 April) at Macclesfield, and a cordial invitation (plus a free admission ticket) for M‘Neile to attend Braid's Liverpool lecture, on Thursday, 21 April. Yet, despite Braid's courtesy, in raising his deeply felt concerns directly to M‘Neile, in private correspondence, M‘Neile did not acknowledge Braid's letter nor did he attend