Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1901-08-28
Correspondence.
The Country Church; Why IL Has Lost
In Influence and Numbers?

In Influence and Numbers
ELLSWORTH, ME, Aug. 81, 1901.
To the Editor of The american:
How many OF us remember the church
of our youth, and the sabbath which, in a
way, 1t created, of twenty-five or fifty
years ago In the country towns of New
England--of Hancock county and vicinity,
even?
There was the week of toll, the entire
thought given to the getting of living, to
planning and working to this end from
sun to sun, especially true in all have to
say during the SIX months that included
| summer; every muscle and nerve force
alert and alive to one end for the six days,
and that object daily bread for present or
| for present and future-hard unremitting
| toll, with no thought of consequence out
| side OF this end. Then came Saturday
| night, and the thought of 1t hours before
| 1t was at hand changed the whole ten
| dency of thinking and even of deeds.
The atmosphere all around partook OF
Saturday night. The OK was unyoked
and turned loose for his holiday in
the pasture; the pillow stopped in the
| furrow; the tools of the farm were gathered
| to their accustomed places when not in
use; the scattered mem bers of the family
gathered for the Saturday night reunion.
| Then came Sunday morning with its
| dignity and calm that 20 one has ever
even explained. The manifold things of
| the morning hour. the getting ready for
| church, the Sabbath quiet that pervades
everything, and then the service at the APP
pointed hour. The hymn, the reading of
scripture, the prayer, the service in which
sometimes the preacher would forget the
training Of his school, would lose sight of
| his duty to teach just what one should
believe to escape eternal punishment, and
would speak in simple, direct way of that
sweet life, whose sublime teaching and liv-
| ing, far back in the ages when such things
were not otherwise known, are yet to con-
troll and direct the life of the world.
Even the outside world loaned its in
| fiuence to the service, as through the open
| windows came the perfume of flowers or
| of new mown hay, the sound of birds or
the hum of insects only heard in such
| quiet bush as the Sabbath brings; all these
| things made the closing hymn and the
| benediction fuller still of that peculiar
grace and charm, strong in its influence
for good on the lives of all who felt it.
There are thousands scattered into city or
| on the sea, over the prairie or into urban
life with its rush and its conflict, who,
consciously or unconsciously, are of finer
grain because of these things.
- "a
passed away. Why? II the influence of
the Sabbath, of the church in the country,
has gone or deprecated greatly, what are
the reasons2 Assuredly, except in coast
towns in which the summer visitors have
| brought new life, the thousand and one
country towns have lost their church alto
gether, except in name, all over Maine and
New England.
| The reasons are plain. We need only to
| discuss the paramount, the very few rea-
sons. Primarily the reason lies in the
schools, the theological academies, the in
structors of the ministers sent into these
townsville creeds, the beliefs, which they
were sent out to teach.
In all of these towns, strange as it may
eSClh W tnOcS WIZ w hot hhOW Wttt
men, young men and women, varying in
mum bers, who had the power of thinking,
of observation-young men who accepted
of no fiat teaching. They were, or could
have been, the life and vigor of every
church, the men of power and strength in
every community-of decent morals, of
some attainments, with regard for things
| fnIi ~ nd oil
capa BILE, ready to do with the enthusiasm
of youth whatever could be done to
further the interest of their town and
home. What were they taught? Creed
Doctrine. Belief.
| The schools had loaded these ministers
with what they should teach, and they
faithfully kept to it in the main. The
schools, these theological seminaries, are
to my mind more to blame than anything
else for the empty and delapitated
churches in our and other country towns
in New England.
The schools, these teachers, cIogged by
the everlasting idea that the fiat conven-
tions and confession of faith, were the
only things to save souls, worked harm
| in two ways. First, 1t could not be 'ac-
| cepted by the young men in these coun-
try communities, who were rugged think
| ers, who accepted of nothing because some
one simply said so, who were the bright
high school scholars, taught to find rea-
sons for things, trained to think. Most
men do not stop to know, as they would
II they investigated, that vast proper
ton of sea captains, engineers, physicians,
lawyers, teachers, the strong men of this
world, come out of just such commune
ties as am talking about. They could
not accept the teachings of the pulpit.
Long years of absolute authority on the
part of the Church bred lot only bigotry,
but arrogance. The Church, in the time
of which am speaking, had condemned
most accepted scientific instruction in
stead of doing what it always ought to do,
open its door to all truth. In its arrogant
| assumption of being the source of all truth,