The Portland daily press., 1883-01-13
THE PURITAN SERMON.
Mr.. Elwelrs Lecture in the Mechanics
Course.


dinsted to the sermon (unless we except the
long prayer) 1t was without competitor in
the estimation of the community. When there
was no theatre, no peripatetic orators no po-
litical campaign, no temperance or civil SER
vice reformers no newspapers, none of the
endless distractions of our day, then the SER
mon was the one commanding interest in the
lives of the people.
An institution so commanding as the Puri-
tan sermon is not to be lightly dealt with
Mr.. Elwell went on to develop it in detail un-
der these heads: First, the men who preached
it. Second, the day consecrated to its deliy-
cry. Third, the Westinghouse in which it was
delivered Fourth, the congregation who lis
tened toit. Fifth, the sermon itself. Sixth
and lastly, its influence in shaping the lives of
those who heard it, and the institutions under
which they lived. Under each of these divi-
sions, Mr.. Elwell gathered mp and set forth
a large amount of condensed history-both en-
tertaining and instructive.
1t is evident, he said, that the men who
were to preach this sermon were held to a
high standard of character and learning
They were picked men. Only the bravest and
the best could have withstood the zealot's per-
secu ton, and go forth to seek in a savage land
that freedom OF utterance which was denied
them at home. These Puritan ministers were
men of birth, education and breeding. Many
of them were prodigies Of learning. OF
one of them, John Cation, it was said that
he was "indeed a most universal scholar, a
living system of the liberal arts, and walking
library" II is sand glass, running four hours,
and turned over three times, measured his
scholars day." Increase Mather, also, by
his learning, logic, eloquence aud tireless en-
Argy, welded a tremendous influence, which
continued sixty years.
The clergy were almost the only learned
men in The community and they bore them
selves as leaders. Their pre-eminence was de-
served, as they had not only high learning and
mental ability, but also philanthropy, devout
conservation and purity of living. They
formed an eccleastcal aristocracy, who not only
sancttied and cementsd the parish, bat found
ed the state, and moulded the soldier and the
statesman. They were regarded wi a rever-
ence not TO say awe, wholly foreign to the
mind at the present day. To speak i'll of min
listers was a species of sedition In 1886 cit
izen OF Boston, who had the temerty to say
that all the ministers but three preached a
covenant of works, was fined $40, and forced
to make public apology Yet, though
they were intolerant, they were conscientious
and sincere, and they were not inconsistent for
they did not come to New England TO estab-
lish religious liberty as we understand it, but
to set up theocracy of united believers
Mr.. Elwell then spoke of their monopolzing
SO largely the functions of the other profess
sions. They formed large proportion of the
early physicians of Massachusetts; Cotton
Mather speaks of the union of the two profess
sons as an "Angelized conjunction" They
were also prominent leaders in the education
OF the people. Beginning at the top they built
downwards. They established the college first
and the common school afterwards. They
builded better than they knew, for with the
universal education of the people thus started
began the decline of the influence of the
clergy. Mention was made of the meagre sal
aries received by the clergy in those days,
ranging from $3.50 to $500 per year and seldom
paid in money. Their poverty made them,
however, self-reliant and original theologians.
The lecturer then gave chapters from the lives
OF some OF the eminent ministers OF that time,
of their struggles to raise and educate their
large families, and of the high courage by
which they were sustained. They had one ad-
vantage though over the ministers of the pres
ent day. They were settled for life, relieved
from the necessity of looking up new parish
every few years, and free from the danger of
being cast out in old age. They were thus en-
abled, from their long continuance, to exert
great influence in he communities where they
lived.
The day consecrated to the delivery Of the
Puritan sermon was the Jewish Sabbath inten-
sified; as it obtained among the Puritans q
very different institution from that relic OF pa
ganism, Partisan or Roman Sunday. This
Puritan Sabbath began at O'Clock on the eve-
ming of Saturday, and lasted until sunset Sun
day. No labor could be performed on the evening
which preceded the Lords day. The time
was devoted to preparation for the Sabbath
Religious exercises began at o'clock in the
morning, and occupied from six to s hours,
divided by the intermission of an hour for
dinner. There was no travelling, and no
traveller could be entertained. The atten-
dance of all at meetings was compulsory, and
the order maintained in them was of the
severest kind. A luckless maid servant of
Plymouth who in the earliest days smiled in
church, was threatened with banishment as a
vagabond.
Nh. Elwell quoted the poem Of Longfellow's
Tragedy of New England Of John Endicott, as
best illustrating the spirit of the Puritan Sun
day. The first meeting houses erected by the
colonists we're built OF logs, and had cannon
on top. They were temporal as well as spiritual
strongholds. The powder was often kept i'll
small closets within the sacred desks probably
because it was the dryest spot in town. Sinners
who attended preaching in such strongholds
stood double chance of getting a blowing
up.o Later, meeting houses were constructed
of brick, with clay plastered over the courses,
and covered with clay-boards, whence comes
our word cEdpbOdTdS. The roofs were Ghatch-
cd, and upon the outer walls were fastened
the heads of all the wolves killed during the
season. Still later came the representative
meeting house, some specimens of which have
come down to our times 1t was a huge I'M
calmly block, two-storied, furnished within
wi9h galleries, and without with stunted
tower. Sometimes it had hipped roof,
small cupola in the center, snrmounted BY a
pole, on which perched rooster. No bell
rung from the steeple. In early times the
blowing of horn called the people together:
at times flag was hung out as Eth9 signal of
worship, and again drum was beaten in true
military style. The first charch bell in Maine
was rung in 1903 over the First Parish church
in what Is now Portland. No common heat
was provided inwinter, the ludividualhoot- tove
being the only source of warmth. Itseems in
credible that men, women and children could
leave their warm, comfortable hearthstones
and travel six or seven miles in the severity
of winter, to sit in the meeting house two or
three hours, envel0ped in a rigorous atmos-
phere, untempered by any artificial warmth.
One can sympathze with that preacher who,
on one stormy Sunday, when the wind was
rafting the twenty or thirty windows and the
snow sitting through the cracks and crannies
of the building, announced as his text " " no
can stand before this cold,'' and Immediately
dismissed the congregation with the usual
blessing.
And yet the more staid members of his CEN
gregation, who had come through furious
wintry storm, were little dissatisfied. These
good people had come to think that the severer
the trials and endurances to listen to the word
of God, the more acceptable and profitable was
the attendance on the same.
The Saba Day houses were an interesting
feature These were rude structures for the
accommodation of families of those who could
not return home at noon to tbeiI dinners be-
cause of the great distance. The houses were
warmed. and here at the noon intermission the
owner OF the cabin and his family partook of
the refreshments brought in saddle-bags. The
| truth OF history compels the admission that be-
| tween Sabbaths they occasionally furnished
| the wild young men of the parish with secure
| haunts for unseemly carousals. The raising of
| the frame OF new meeting house made gala
| day, the whole population OF the town assist
| ing. Liberal supplies of rum, sugar, cider and
| other refreshments to give spirited assistance,
| were voted. In the bill of expense returned
to the town of Topsfield in 1859 for raising the
| church in that town, are the items of "a gal
| Ions of rum and 100 wait" of sugar, and
| eleven barrels of "sider."
| Mr.. Elwell then gave at lenkt tn an interest.
| ing account of the elaborate preparations for
| church. The bag TO eucase the husbands feet
| while he listened to the long sermon, II il be
winter, while the wife had also to provide q
heated stone for her muff and look out for the
| dinner. The good man must take with him his
| musket, for Indians might be lurking around
| At the church door stood the armed sentinel
| Entering, the people take seats according tC
| their rank and importance in the community
the negroes, slaves or free, perched in 'swal-
| low-nests" in the tower, high above the gal.
| leries. One sits apart, prominent before the as
| semblV IL ia some wretched male or female