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Cold Sundays In Old New-england

Cold Sundays In Old New-england image
Parent Issue
Day
15
Month
June
Year
1883
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

An interesting article in the May New-Englander is dcrotedto "the NewEngland nieeting-house. " The f olio wing paragraph mentions some facts that may not be generally known: "The meeting house of New-England was never lightcd, except by the sun, until singing schools made it nccessary to introduce candles and rude chandeliers. Night meetings in tho meeting house wero considereu highly indecorons and questionable even by tho most zealous. No firing was provided for. Stoves wcre utterly unknown and open üre-plaoes were not to be thought of. Even the rude and dangerous devices, which afterwards were matured into the not uncomfortable foot-stovo, were at first unknown. The New-England meeting house was never warmed by artificial heat till from 1810 to 1820 Of a cold winter morning tho breath of the worshipers not unfrequently would ieem like smoke from a hundred urnacei as it camc in contact wilh the frozen atmospherc. The walls which had been almost congealed into ice by the iieree northwesters of the preceding week, would strike a chili of tleath into the frame of many of the congregation. That they should come to such a place as this, on a snowy morning, plowing through unswept walks, and plunging through foarful drifts - man, woman and child- and sit with half frozen feet under long discourses on knotty doctrines, makes us shiver as we think of it, and say from tho heart herein is the patience of the saiuts.-. And yet the writer's memory can distinctly recall the observation and experience of scènes like these. The exüerience was not so cruel as it might seem. Manifold devices aguinst the cold were provided. Some that are novv deemed indispenisble were not needed. The free-handed and openhearted hospitality of the house near the moeting house was freely proffcred and as readily accepted. Enormous kitchenj lires were expressly replenishedfor Sunday uses, before which scores of worshipers from a distance warmed their persons and ate their lunchoons, and at which they replenished their foot stoves. The merchant, the innkeeper, tho squire, the doctor, the retired money-lender, tne vrealthy widovv or Lady Bountiful who lived near the meeting house, all esteemed it their duty and their pleasure to manifest this reasonable hospitality. Slight and natural as it was, it helped to bind and hold together tlio little community by the ties of common sympathy. To provide against all contingencies, adjoining neighborsfrom a distance would sometlmes erect a plain structure upon the meeting house green - a Sabbath-day house, so called - of one or two apartments, with ampie íire places' which relievod somewhat the draft upon the often overburdened hospitality of those who dwelt under the droppings of the sanctuary. These structures have nearly all disappeared with tho occasion which brought them into being. Now and then tho remains of one are identified by some village antiquary, as applied to some baser use -of stable or granary."

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Courier
Old News