Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1880-01-24
NORTHERN CHURCHES.


Mr.. VIM. C. Prime, a writer and
author of some celebrity, and who
seems to be familiar with the subject.
made SO by personal observation, in
= recent letter to the New York |
Journal of Commerce, used the fol- !
lowing language:
81 confess that year after year !
grow more and more to wondering |
why it Is that New England country
people do not seem TO have much in
terest in their churches. Whatever
| the denomination, we always find
| empty churches on Sunday mornings
ana very small groups OH Sunday
| evenings. In villages of considerable
/ size. with surrounding farms on
| which the population is not small, il
never happens that we find morn.
ing congregation of more than 40 or
so persons at church, and usually the
number is much less than that while
at evening service it is almost in
variable to find only 10 or Is females
and rarely more than two, three or
! four men. In large towns the at
tendance is proportionately small.
The proportion of the people Of
parts of Northern New England who
are regular church goers would seem
20 be small, even smaller than in our
large cities, if one can judge from
personal observation during the past
few years on pleasant September and
October Sundays.
1t was not so once. know country
: churches which once gathered in OH
Sunday morning pretty much ali the
population around, and which are
now full of emptiness. | See plenty
! of churches behind which are sheds
for horses and wagons, which: by
their extensive size, indicate that
they were once used by many families,
and which are now not only empty,
, but root1ess, shabby and useless /; nor
= could l learn that the building of
, other churches had led away the con-
gregations.
Probably the same is true of parts
of New York and other states"
| New England is a peculiar country,
has rather peculiar people, and i'll
some respects it is fortunate for the
liar, as it would be q pity for any one
d else to be like them. Among them
! there are many truly noble men and
. women, yet, perhaps, none more
: noble than they esteem themselves to
r be. Taken as whole, they are All
l. indus trious, enterprising, energetic,
- persevering people, and i'll their way
an intensely religious people. They
= were so when the "Pilgrim fathers
/. landed the Mayflower, had prayers
a formed constitution, then went or
shore and appropriated four bushels
of corn the Indians had hid away fol
seed were SO when they made wal
against the Indians, took prisoners
@ and sold them as slaves, and wher
afterward they sent their slave ship:
to Africa, brought negoes to this
country and kept or sold them al
slaves, favored slavery as long as il
was profitable, then sold their slavei
to people farther south, vested the
proceeds in something more profit
i able, and soon after began to de
n neunce slavery as the vilest crime
t. under the Subtitle sum of all viii
A. lanies." True, the states there, one
by one, enacted emancipation laws
10 the operation of which was muci
g after the fashion of some "truly
ts loyal" men here i'll Missouri, during
q the late war between the states who
sent their slaves south and sold then
shouted themselves hoarse for al
IN emancipation proclamation.
y These exemplary New Englanderl
were intensely religious when they
~ banished Baptists, hung Quakers ant
v burned witches when Inev framed
II the "blue laws" which made non
o. attendance at church. a penal offens,
and punished a man with fines if h,
- kissed his wife any time during tn,
er Sabbath day. Intensely religious il
in their way-and although their wa,
/, may seem i'll the eyes of "benight
ed" southern 'corn cracker or west
y ern "hOOsier" to be very odd ant
10 often inconsistent way, still it is thei
Sc way, and their zeal is ever at feve
pr heat to persuade, press, abuse or com
. pei every body else to adopt and pur
~ sue it because it is their way.
e. In its intensity their religion ha:
d, assumed different shades at ditferen
10 times. AT first it was intensified,
:, unadulterated, undiluted and un
mitigated-out and out Calvanisti
ct redestination-then. afterward i
ne partook largely of UnitarIanisln an,
lv Universalism, thence branched OF
into more iSn,s than there are point
~ OF the compass or were color
d III JOseph's coat. Or late 1T seems t,
a be Il compound of materialism
II. rationalism, liberalism, women
,h rightism, free lOveism, Delsm ant
- Atheism, with here and there tine
3D. ture of evangelism, and if we recollec
10, Alright, Mr.. Joseph Cook once pro
a claimed there was more lnfidelity i
New England than in all the countr
beside, and more III Massachusetts
Oh than i'll the rest of New Englanc
nd and more i'll Boston than i'll the res