The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1881-11-17
oLD-FAsHIONED SUNDAYS.
What They Used to he In Puritanicai Con-
neCtlCut.

necticut.
The prevailing usuages in respect OF an
observance of the Lords day by Christian
people exhibit wide variation from those
which were in vogue in times which the
oldest people remember. In the olden
times there were two services in the sanctu-
airy on the Sabbath, one in the forenoon
and one IN the afternoon, brief recess
dividing the two, and no other services
we're held. as rule. The oldest Sun
day school in this country is said to have
been established since the year 1906, and
Bible-classes and prayer-meetings are OF no
greater antiquity. During the week pre-
cedng the regular administration of the
Lords supper preparatory lecture was
preached, but other weekly lectures or re-
iigious exercises were exceptionally lnire-
by farmers, and each, parish contained q
widely scattered population, with few iacli-
tiles for frequent assemblies. The Sabbath
gave them rest and society. The meeting
house precincts afforded a kind
of exchange for the neighbors, who, be-
fore and between and after meeting" dis
cusscd their crops, stock, politics, and what
folks strove in vain to get through with the
weekly accumulation Of gossip and chit
chat. The boys and girls had high old
times on the sly during intermission, when
haunting the herse-sheds or diminishing in
the field Just over the fence, they
escaped the espionage OF parents
too busy with their tongues to
those motley gatherings on the meeting
house steps, to which the different teams
drive up and discharge their, lovely and
often bfushing freight. Those larks behind
the westinghouse and in the gallery"
and back by the slove, and on the way home
with the girls Those tlirtations in the
choir, behind the red curtains There is no
such Joy in the Sabbath of these days. AT
home the children learned texts of Scripture
and the catechism, and quietly waited
for the lightning of Gods electritfy-
ing grace to strike them if it was so de-
creed, taking the failure of such lightning.
stroke unconcernedly, as it must be all
right either way.
When the Sunday school and prayer,
meeting began to be instituted here and
there opposition was made by many of
the most devout and godly church mem
bers to all such innovations. 1t is a curious
fact that the early church of New
England would not tolerate the 'tplain"
reading of the Holy Scripture--that is.
the reading it without comment. They, Gu
riogsly enough, called it dumb reading.
those sticklers for the word of God. 1t is
not twenty years since in one OF the promi-
nent congregational churches of Hartford,
the reading of Scripture was confined to
the forenoon service. The "long prayer
was a terror to the young. 1t must
have been suffered by adults as
convenient sort of penance. What weari
ness, too, its interminable monoto-
tone! Then came, at long. intervals, the
communion season, after the second ser.
=. Of f1,n nd
the women and all the children would go
sadly out, leaving the elect to their solemn
feast. Tender scenes we have witnessed at
such times in the rude old sane
tuaries scenes never to be for
gotten while memory lasts. The
pastors fearful cheeks and falter-
ing accents, the solemn silence in which tie
holy. embers were received, the weird quaint
music of the old minor tunes sung without
instrumental accompaniment and by their
thin and quaverlng voices. With mute
wonder and often uncomfortable emotion,
the boy at his mothers side would watch
the ceremony, discerning it only as a great
and holy and tender sacrament OF divine
love that could make his mother weep for
ioy and even melt the awful clergyman
down into lovable human being.
Far from the men and women of those
days was the modern notion that laymen
are especially competent to impart biblical
instruction, and the modern usage which
the clergy from almost all respon-
sibility for the working of the machinery
for the religious education of children;
No ruder shock can well be conceived
than that which would be experienced
by sundry of the good fore-fathers,
could they suddenly revisit the regions they
once inhabited, and especially the sanctu-
aries wherein they formerly worshipped.
What with "slips" for the old pews, preach
ing rails and desks for inaccessible pulpits
overhung with sounding boards, stained
glass, steam heat, carpets, organs, chants
and other popish ceremonies, heads bowed
in prayer, and no chance to swap horses"
between services, they would be miserable
indeed, and aghast with horror at our i'm
so
How much are we advanced, after all2 |
Men talk of greater decorum, reverence !
ana so on, but we cannot forget that the |
Sabbath of our boyhood had a simplicity |
and a sacredness that atoned for its occa-
,ional seventies, and certain possibilities Of
,tealthy, honest fun for bright BOYS and
iris, such as the gradual Decentralization
# the day and the decorum Of modern
Worship utterly forbid.