The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-12-30
For general family cathartic we con-
tidently recommend Hoods Pills.
ANEM EN,iLAND hoYHOOn.


We went to meeting" morning and
afternoon always, and so, L am apt to
think, did all respectable people; GER
tainly in the earlier part of those years.
l know that l never observed any dis
tincton between the size of the congre-
cation in the afternoon and that of the
morning. know that any person who
had been seen driving out of town on
Sunday, either in the morning or in the
afternoon, would have lost credit in the
community. Frequently, Mr.. Palfrey, the
minister, would say, at the end of the
morning sermon, 81 shall continue this
subject in the afternoon" He did so
with the perfect understanding that he
would have the same hearers. | wonder,
in passing, whether that phrase my
hearers" is as familiar to young people
now as it was then. 1t was bit of pull
pit slang, such as one never hears in a
lecture-room or in a political meeting
The people, instead of being addressed as
''you," or as Friends" or as members
of the Church of Christ" were spoken to
as hearers" | doubt if / ever hear that
word now without giving is a certain
ecclesiastical connection.
1t was wonder TO me then, and has
been ever since, why the hour an quar-
ter spentin meeting" of Sunday morn
ing seemed as long as the four hours
spent in school every other morning. l
was early aware of the curiously interest
ing fact, which nobody ever explained to
me, that the afternoon service was ten
minutes shorter than the morning ser
vice; but why that hour and five minutes
should seem as long as the three hours
spent in school of an afternoon have
never known, and do not know now
Besides these two services, we had the
Sunday school. 1t seems to me il was
always after the afternoon service; |
know it was, in the earlier days. A Sun
day school then was very different
thing from what it is now. Then you
were expected to learn something, and
you did. For my own part, | have often
said, and l think it is true, that fully one
half of the important information which
| now have with regard to he Scriptural
history of mankind, with regard to the
history of the Jews, for instance, or the
travels of Paul right and left, or any
thing else which can be called the intel
lectual side of the Bible-was acquired
in Brattle street Sunday School before
was thirteen years old. We had little
books which contained facts on these
subjects. We had to study these books
as we did any other school books, and
we recited from them as we recited any
other lesson. do not think there was
much said or thought about making
Sunday school agreeable to the children.
We were told to go, and we went; we
were tod to learn lesson, and we learn
ed it. AS | observe Sunday schools now,
this has been driven out; and driven out,
| believe, by the pressure of the week
day school system,-a pressure which |
am fighting against in every quarter with
out success.
OF the advantages of the New England
lecture system as a system of instruction
can say hardly too much. OF course
the instruction given was superficial.
nave llyed seventy years in the world,
ana have never found any instruction
that was not superficial. But it was
Instruction; it was instruction given by
hrstrate men, who knew how to teach:
and 1t was systematic instruction. The
lecturer of to-day takes an epigrammatic
phrase for his subject, as he calls it; it is
the Philosophy of Mathematics, or it is
the Mathematics of Philosophy. lie
speaks well, he brings in interesting
stories, he gives little information, and
the public which sees him and hears him
is amused. Some one asked James Rus
sci Lowell once whether he supposed that
the average audience of an interior town
in New York cared much for Beaumont
and Fletcher. He said very frankly, 81
do not suppose they care for Beaumont