The Hawaiian gazette., 1872-09-11

! Will CeulcuN Ou tue OuNeiNS+
The low entrance-way, with its wooden door
black and emaciated flor it is actually worn thin
BY age. and its queely fashioned lock ard hinges
of rusted iron, opens into passage seemingly
of only depth corresponding to the thickness oil
the wall, and thence into the one room of the in
tsrior.
The auditorium has seats for FIVE or six hun
( dred worshippers, arranged closely in two side
rows and one middle row separated by narrow
aisles. The floor Of the pews is six inches lower
than that of the aisles and high combiug around
this pit gives it the appearance OF ships hatch
way. All is of wood, from floor to ceiling. black
! ened by age and worn benches with narrow seats
and straight backs that admit Of no compromise
between the position of attention and the loss OF
position. The floors under the seats are made
lower than the aisles with the design probably OF
shielding the feet of the stters from cold draughts
of winter wind; for there is provision for heat
ing the place, nor for lighting it.
Around the walls are two galleries, the lower
one unbroken and the upper one in two side gal
leres. Fresco paintings in this church. II not oil
great artistic merit, are very numerous, and tur-
nish abundant occupation for half hour in dis
covering their meaning and hunting their beau
ties. The last process is somewhat like fishing
for trout off Block Island trout do not ap-
pear, but other kinds of fish do.
Painted on the panels of the lower gallery are
fifteen pictures representing the Bible history
from Eden TO the Golden City seen by st. John
the Evangelist. On the upper gallery are smaller
pictures taken at random from Bible record, and
the fiat ceiling is covered with small pictures of
houses and landscapes which must be never
ending source of amusement to the younger por-
ton of the congregation
In the rear is the half-round nave for the altar,
with the ordinary representations of figures of the
Apostles and the Last Supper and on the right
of that the pulpit is fastened to the wall, with
soundiug-board above and dove OF peace.
1t is impossible to tell how much of the orig-
nal building remains, but there is no apparent
reason to doubt that the general form, with the
exception of the spires, is the same The walls,
doors curious hOod-shaped window places and
the architecture in general, are the work of men
who lived thousand years ago. Indeed, there
is no need to doubt the originality OF anything
but the roof and the pointed spires.
1t is doubtless something less than thousand
years ago that people procured the church clock
that tells off the quarter hours so persistenty, and
perhaps still later that the chime of bells first
swung in the old tower but these are no more to
the house than buttons are to a coat, and who
was ever deceived into the belief that new set
of buttons made an old coat new? The form OF
worship was at first Roman Catholic, for nothing
but that and Judaism existed here in those days
One has to look back good many years to
see what Luther accomplished in changing the
peoples faith in and practice of religious pre-
cepts and forms that were unquestioned and
universal until his day. That was great re-
forming, and under God the world has to thank
Martin Luther for initiating the movement, and
Saxony's people and rulers for its success.
Within these old walls thirty generations of
men and women have worshiped God-at first as
Catholics, and later as Lutherans. The first to
hear the voice of man lifted up IN Prurso aud
PRAYER to the true God, where all worship before
had been idoatry; the witness of ten centuries,
during which the land has experienced pestilence,
famine and wars has been overrun by the armies
of Russia. Prussia, France, and by the Hustle
hordes ont of Bohemia, being three times in the
absolute possession of foreign powers. No coun-
try has been more trampled over, burned, desc
lated, tortured and taxed by war than this; and
to-day the old church looks over all this valley
full of peace, prosperity, and happy homes
Fortunate in its position and its obscurity,
away from the great highways, and offering no
temptation to the marauder, it has remained un-
scathed from the very beginning, and its dead,
who lie thickly under its shadows, have rested in
peace.
What long succession OF babes baptized
in its font have been taught the Word within
these walls and from here have been borne away
empty clay Think, too, of the gossip of its
assembled worshpers Of the changes of fashion,
timidly ventured on at first by forward girls, and
in full sway by the time other forward girls have
dared new departure; think of the sum OF all
the pfennigs and groschens that have been drop
ped into its four pallocked boxes for free-will
offerings to help the poor, who were always with
them. Now, there is another padlocked box
larger than the Others for contributions to i'm
prove the house" They will make the old church
new one before long. Even now, the men are
at work putting up an organ and tuning the pipes,
making such sounds as the old walls never echoed
before.
The only trustworthy date that l could find
was on the metal baptism font, where an inscrip-
ton recorded in grateful terms that it was given
TO the church in 1854. While | was searching
the tablets that proclaim the worth of departed
pastors, or the protection and benefits received
from high mightinesses of past centuries, troop
of schoolboys born in 1860 something, brought
me to present time again by gathering along the
narrow aisle and up the steep stairway of the
tower to where the clock was just getting Its
noisy machinery in readiness to strike eleven
After that, my thoughts would not go back be.
yond the time when had cambered in the same
way into the clio K tower Of village church in
Connecticut, and been terrified by the whirr and
clatter of the great machine as much as if it had
been big animal. used TO think that church
was very old. d. A H.
A CuRIosIrY.--We have frequently heard oil
l -. .L,.k H., .,-orr,a1 and 6ndinC M hive