, 1884-08-02

Saturday market was their burial ground,
well to be observed, for the Romisl inhabi-
tants. But the ROmish church vas too in
tolerant TO allow Professionals to he buried
there Or anywhere in the island, wherefore
all corpseS of PrOtestantS had to he re.
moved from the place, and were carried to
the small rocky key in the harbour, which
up to now keeps the name which it derived
from the use that was made Of it then, and
is called Protestant Key.
Well that old French town had a church,
of course a Romish church, for no other
church was tolerated. And that church
building stood there still, but all in ruins,
when the island became Danish in 1874.
And there it stood for many years, but was
neither used for a church nor for any other
purpose, only that occasionally the Luther
an minister buried a corpse there, as our
old records show. There are many aud
weighty reasons to presume, that our first
church was JUST this very same old French
church, which, accordingly when it was con-
ReCrated for our Use, was from the proceed
ing century. There is at present no other
building here known to me from the French
time. For our use it was repaired very
simply, but however plain it was, it was
bette than any room in the fort. What
now distinguishes the building and re
mlnds you Of Il church is the steeple. But
this was not there then. An ever so
curSory' glance at the steeple will suffice to
convince you that i is in quite another
style than the chureh, which indeed has no
style at all. Let me add, that when we in
1853 moved into that church, the Dutch
reformed congregation had had their own
church, most likely for not less than 4
years, even just on the spot where we are
nnW HSSnmhInI Won n1V II ASipn fN know
what our Old church was like. Well, in
size it was as Won see it now, extending
from HOSpitalSg1de TO Kirkeglde, about
81 feet by 20, outside me .Sure. and the walls
looked az now only the windows had no
lronbarS nor were they walled up, hut their
shape was az now. The roof of the build
ing is now divided in two. hnt at THAI time
the whole was under one roof. After all,
we can form u sort of idea of it by what
Government itself says about il in 1777,
when it had been in use for 81 years.
Government writes home complaining, that
the church has no appearance of a church
at all and Cannot Stand comparison with
the meaneSt village church at home, while
all the other c0n9res CATIONS have churches
OF the cOnSpIcuOuSneSS such buildings
ought to have t. distinguish them from
private dwellings or warehouses. 1t is
HdIu 10 bbdt our OIu CnufCn spoken Oh III
that way, but correct the words have been
dare say, The shutters may, as usually at
that time, have been hinged on top SO as to
serve Az screens when opened, for glass
windows the church did not get until 1852
and j~alOusieS were unknown then. When
1t rained, the congregation must have been
rather much in the dark, but people were
accustomed to it, for the finest houses in
the island were not better of. The in.eri.
or too of the church was very plain. How
ever an organ is mentioned as far back AZ
l16S, All altar picture, represen ing a cru
cltxiOn WAS there at all events f. Om 1869,
but u baptiSmal font we got already in
100. The organ is broken up, the altar
picture together with its old frame was
moved to this place, but was in 1852 tlken
out of the frame AMI the one that is there
now put instead oft The bnptiSmll font
however | am able to show YOU, it in the
very one i'll which our children are baptiz-
ell up to now. On that font [ shall no. de-
liver any lecture, for it can do it itself.
The inscription il in D tnlsh, but [ shall
translate it to Won in Il igliSh: "ThiS font
with its marble stand WIS given to the
church of the Lord of Sabl0th in st. Croix
by Councillor JOhlmneS S0b0i ker in me-
mortal of his son Adam Levin S6b6tker,
having been the first child blptizel in the
church in 1760. Glory to God alone" By
the W y: a. L. S6b0tker was bo.n thu
same year the church was cnuSaer1tpl.