The Olden Time Series Volume III Part 5

GEORGE CLEVELAND, GIDEON TUCKER, DUDLEY L. PICKMAN, WILLARD PEELE, PERLEY PUTNAM, NATHANIEL FROTHINGHAM.

The following item is from the "Observer" of Jan. 21, 1829:--

THE REPORT OF THE SENATE ON THE SUNDAY MAILS. The Portsmouth Advertiser has attacked this Report, "tooth and nail," imputing to it an influence as disastrous as that which attends the writings of Tom Paine or Citizen Brisset. The writer states, that the Senate by adopting it, "has virtually declared, that the laws of Almighty G.o.d are no rule for human legislation." We will give one more extract from these remarks, to enable our readers to form a judgment of the writer's character. He must certainly belong to that unfortunate cla.s.s of the community, for whom "strait-jackets and a spare diet," are usually prescribed.

"By this report, Col. Johnson has put weapons into the hands of infidelity to annoy and hara.s.s that very portion of the republican community, which furnishes the only hope, and pledge, that our free inst.i.tutions will continue permanent."

The following account of a Parisian Sabbath we find in the "Salem Observer"

of 1830:

PARISIAN SABBATH. There is little in the appearance of Paris on a Sabbath morning to remind us that it is a day of rest; the markets are thronged as on other days, carts and drays and all sorts of vehicles, designed for the transportation of merchandise are in motion; buying and selling and manual labor proceed as usual; there is rest for neither man nor beast. In the afternoon the shops are usually closed; and labor is suspended, and the remainder of the day is devoted to pleasure. Few of those who go to church appear to have any other motive than amus.e.m.e.nt. They walk about the aisles, gazing at the pictures, and listening to the solemn music of the ma.s.s and go away when they are tired.

Those whom I have seen really engaged in wors.h.i.+p appeared to belong to the lower cla.s.ses; and with the exception of those few, the persons you see in church are merely idle spectators, attracted thither by curiosity, or to pa.s.s an idle half hour before they go to promenade in the gardens.

--_Wheaton's Travels_.

In the "Salem Observer" of Dec. 10, 1829, is the following notice on the Sunday-mail question:--

SUNDAY MAILS. The following resolution on the subject of stopping the mails on Sundays, was pa.s.sed at a recent session of the Salem Baptist a.s.sociation in Kentucky:--

"_Resolved_, That we as an a.s.sociation cordially approve the Report and resolution, as presented to the Senate of the United States, by Col. R.M. Johnson, Chairman of the Committee upon the subject of the pet.i.tion to stop the mail on the Sabbath: and sincerely advise all friends of civil and religious liberty, to refuse to subscribe any pet.i.tion that has the least tendency to influence the legislative powers to act upon _religious matters_; for we consider an a.s.sociation of _civil_ and _ecclesiastical_ power or an union of _Church_ and _State_, as one of the greatest calamities which could befal our country, and that it should be resisted in every possible shape in which it may be presented."

A great change has taken place in some of our towns within a few years in reference to the Sunday mail. Twenty-five years ago it was rare to see a person belonging to one of the Evangelical sects at the post-office at the time of the opening of the mail on Sunday noon; whereas now it is not uncommon to see deacons and numerous other members of such churches hurry from their several places of wors.h.i.+p to get their letters and papers with as much eagerness as "heretics." Sunday papers moreover are now bought by the same cla.s.s. The same change too is observable in the use of horse-cars on Sunday. Few men are governed by the conscientious scruples once held about riding to and from church, especially if the day happens to be hot or stormy. This may or may not be an improvement; it depends upon the point of view from which we look at it.

One of the most radical men we ever knew, one who thought "Sunday should be abolished" and a "new Bible made by men of modern ideas, and reasonable views introduced, and the old one discarded," said he was brought to these views by having been forced when young to attend church and engage in religious exercises, and told that he must conform to the established belief and never ask any questions. It will be said that this man was an exception to the general rule. Perhaps so, for one taking such an extreme view; but we must all know cases somewhat similar. A careful inquiry will show that if we look around among the clergy even, we shall find that the most radical preachers of the day were brought up in the Orthodox ranks.

Who would wish to re-establish the gloomy Puritan Sabbath, with its barren meeting-house, without fires or music, and its tedious, uninteresting sermon, running on to "fifteenthly," gauged by an hour-gla.s.s turned over perhaps once or twice during the discourse?

Speaking of the change of habits in New England, even, it is noticeable how much more prevalent colds and other slight indispositions are now to what they used to be on Sunday. The very thought of going to church makes some people cough or have a headache. Theatres or concerts never seem to affect these people in the same way. Even the weather, which keeps people in-doors on Sunday, never keeps them in on other days.

Our own view of the subject is that while we should be glad to see more interest taken in public wors.h.i.+p than there is at present, we think people should have the right of spending their Sundays in their own way,--always, of course, provided they do not interfere with the rights and feelings of others. It seems to us that the only way to have Sunday properly observed is for those who are influential to make some little personal sacrifices, if need be, to attend the Sunday services, and do all they can to promote the most cheerful views of religion and make the services interesting.

Let those people who lament the decay of religious observances read the following quotation from the "Salem Gazette" of 1830. Those who can recollect how it was at that date must see that notwithstanding a perhaps much smaller attendance now upon public wors.h.i.+p, there is every reason to believe that, at least as far as the native population is concerned, Sunday is really more quiet than it was then. After reading this article we shall perhaps be prepared to say that "tythingmen" may have been needed just after the Revolution.

THE TIMES WE LIVE IN. The dreadful tragedy performed in this town last April, and the subsequent arrests, developments, confessions, trials, &c., by keeping the thoughts and conversation of the community continually directed to that enormity, have led to the general but very erroneous notion, that there must have been a great deterioration of the public morals.--If the words of the aged are to be received as true, the very reverse is the fact. The revolutionary war left the whole country as well depraved in morals as exhausted in resources.

This was particularly the case with such towns as Salem, which had been largely exposed to the irresistibly corrupting influence of privateering.

At that time, when the population of Salem was not half so great as it is at present, more riot, debauchery, and vice, obtruded themselves upon the sight in a week, than could now be discovered by diligent search in a month. The corruption of manners was so general, that almost none escaped from its contaminating influence. Mechanics and other laboring men would leave their business in the day, and their families in the evening, to spend their time, dancing and drinking, in the dens of pollution which then abounded in "Naugus-Hole" and "b.u.t.ton-Hole." Merchants, professional men, &c. pa.s.sed a great part of their time in taverns, drinking and gambling. Quarrelling and fighting there were not uncommon, and well-worn packs of cards were always lying about the bar-room tables, (though seldom long unemployed,) ready for the use of visitors,--the common game on these occasions being All-Fours, and the common stake a bowl of punch or a mug of flip. Pastimes like the above named, were current in every cla.s.s of society. When the regular hours of drinking approached, the workmen left their labour to play at cards, the loser "treating the shop's crew." In a large establishment a boy would be kept running with his jug nearly the whole time, the contents being freely shared amongst master, journeymen, boys, and numerous visitors.

At this time, and long afterward, infamous houses were kept open day and night, in the quarters of the town named in the preceding paragraph. The fiddles were kept in constant motion, and if any thought of stopping them they did not dare to attempt it. The most flagrant disorders and outrages were continually occurring, so that a timid man would go far out of his way to avoid pa.s.sing near those places. The churches on Sunday were not nearly so well attended as they now are. The proportion of persons who made the Sabbath a day of recreation, was much greater. The time was spent in riding into the country, walking about the fields and pastures, and visiting friends in town. But little order was preserved in the streets on that day. People in pa.s.sing to meeting thro' Prison Lane, (as County-street was then called) and its environs, encountered frequent and large groups of men and boys, noisily engaged in gambling with props, pitching coppers, &c. occasionally enlivened by the uproar of a quarrel.

The doctrines of Tom Paine and his French coadjutors, were much more in vogue then than now. Infidelity stalked over the land with a giant stride, to which the mincing pace of the fooleries of f.a.n.n.y Wright can bear no comparison; and virtue and good order were almost put out of countenance. Intemperance, habitual or occasional, was so common, as to be hardly considered a matter of reproach; and the kindred vices abounded, which usually follow in its train.

The state of society has been continually improving since. The bad habits of that time have been discarded one after another, by all who would maintain a reputable standing; and open immorality now places a man at once in the lowest rank of society.

Intemperance has been diminished in a surprising degree.

Debauchery has been compelled to retreat to lurking holes and corners, instead of obtruding its "horrid front" to the public gaze. Education has been improved, and universally diffused; and public wors.h.i.+p is more generally attended.--Terrible crimes have indeed been committed amongst us, and may be again, but the habits and manners which lead to crime, are less prevalent at the present time than they have been for fifty years before.

It seems to us to be clearly a mistake for those of ultra-liberal notions to suppose that all who cannot a.s.sent to their views of Sunday must of necessity be either Pharisees or hypocrites,--quite as great a mistake as that of the ultra-conservatives, who condemn as wicked all who do not believe in a puritanical observance of Sunday.

Whatever we may think or say or do, people nowadays will not be forced to attend church. Among all denominations the services are more attractive than they once were, and every year there is less and less of the repulsive kinds of doctrine preached. But in spite of this, while many men regard attendance on divine service as both a pleasure and a privilege, there are others, and they not few, whom no influence or persuasion can induce to attend Sunday wors.h.i.+p. Such persons must be left to spend the day as they please.

A very large proportion of those who do not attend church services are people of culture and character, from whom church-goers have nothing to fear as regards a disturbance of their wors.h.i.+p. Generally this cla.s.s are interested in having Sunday kept as a day of quiet and rest, and their non-attendance at church is no evidence that they have any desire to secularize Sunday.

An eminent writer has said: "We live in a transition period, when the old faiths which comforted nations, and not only so, but made nations, seem to have spent their force.... There is faith in chemistry, in meat and wine, in wealth, in machinery, in the steam-engine, galvanic battery, turbine-wheels, sewing-machines, and in public opinion; but not in divine causes.... A silent revolution has loosed the tension of the old religious sects, and in place of the gravity and permanence of those societies of opinion, they run into freak and extravagance.... In creeds never was such levity: witness the heathenisms in Christianity,--the periodic revivals, the millennium mathematics, the peac.o.c.k ritualism, the retrogression to popery, the maundering of Mormons, the squalor of mesmerism, the deliration of rappings, the rat-and-mouse revelation, thumps in table-drawers, and black art ... By the irresistible maturing of the general mind the Christian traditions have lost their hold."

If these statements are true, we have a sufficient answer to the question so often asked: "Why do not people go to church as they once did?" They do not go because they have lost their faith in churches and wors.h.i.+p,--at least such have as are appealed to from those holding liberal and reasonable views. There are no doubt men who consider the too often expensive ways in which churches are supported as altogether beyond their means. The demands of civilization upon individuals in these restless times, when there are so many organizations, secret, secular, and religious, are indeed too great for small incomes, especially as the cost of food is continually increasing, and as society in other ways makes so many secular demands upon them. Public wors.h.i.+p is after all, in the view of many persons, not a necessity, but only a luxury which can easily be dispensed with. It might perhaps have been better for the whole community if churches had undertaken to do the work which is now in the hands of many charitable and secret societies; then those who take so much interest in these outside, often expensive, organizations would have had all their interest in the churches. But the latter were for years so divided on doctrines of belief that their whole attention has for the most part been directed to other matters than their legitimate work, which has thus been thrown into the hands of outside agencies. In these times it seems difficult to maintain religious societies except where the element of fear is dominant in the creed, where some remarkable preacher takes the attention, or where the ritual or fas.h.i.+on attracts. Do not the papers often speak of "fas.h.i.+onable" churches?

One thing which prevents many people from attending public wors.h.i.+p on Sunday is the increasing tendency towards ritualism,--or perhaps, we should say, making the services less instructive than formerly, and more devotional or emotional. This is seen not only in the Episcopal Church, but also among many other denominations. Even Congregational Orthodox--descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers--introduce prayer-books and responsive services, and make their church buildings more ecclesiastical in appearance, to look as much as possible like Episcopal churches. All these things to many minds are not edifying, to say the least, and consequently such persons absent themselves from service. Those too who are impressed by emotional religion join the Episcopalians, so that for the time there is an apparent increase in the attendance at the Episcopal churches, gained from churches of other denominations; and especially too as fas.h.i.+on decrees nowadays that "it is the proper thing to do" to go to the Episcopal Church, whether you believe in its doctrines or not. So that at length there are a great many people who think when church-going gets to be a matter of fas.h.i.+on, there is quite as much real religion to be found outside as inside the church; consequently they lose their interest. All these causes must be taken together; of course no one thing alone accounts for the change in regard to church attendance.

We quote the following remarks from a recent English paper ("The Unitarian Herald"); they have a direct bearing on our subject, and are worthy of consideration by those who neglect public wors.h.i.+p or favor a more secular Sunday. Among other things, the speaker (the Rev. John Page Hopps) says:

"So far as we can see, the old orthodox believers were right when they called public wors.h.i.+p 'a means of grace;' and if human experience is of any value, it is an undoubted fact that a great mult.i.tude which no man could number _have_ felt the grace-giving influence of it. It is as true as ever that man cannot 'live by bread alone,' but that he needs also the 'word that proceedeth from the mouth of G.o.d;' and if it is true, as we believe, that the word of G.o.d does come home with special force and pathos when wors.h.i.+p is joined in by kindred souls, the argument for public wors.h.i.+p, from this point of view, seems complete. And yet, half in jest and half in earnest, and sometimes altogether in earnest, we hear it said that a man can wors.h.i.+p G.o.d in the fields quite as well as in the church. 'Perhaps he can,' said a wise man once, 'but _does_ he?' I wonder whether we shall go on in this direction until we hear it said that a man can wors.h.i.+p G.o.d playing at lawn-tennis as in attending public wors.h.i.+p? Thus there may actually come into existence a cant of the absentee which shall be as really cant as the cant of the devotee; for the use of the word 'wors.h.i.+p' in such instances is a glaring case of exaggeration tinged with self-deception, which is the very essence of cant. Besides, one of the surest notes of the wors.h.i.+pping spirit is an increase of sympathy and love,--sympathy that suggests fellows.h.i.+p, and love that suggests anything but selfish isolation.

"The irregularity also of attendance upon public wors.h.i.+p might be cited as an instance of neglect or levity which 'personal consecration' alone can cure. In days gone by, attendance upon public wors.h.i.+p was a habit, and nothing that could be avoided was allowed to interfere with it. Twice on the Sunday, too, was the rule, and not, as now, the decided exception. But with many it is now becoming once every other Sunday, or scarcely that; with so little of 'personal consecration' in the matter that the need for an umbrella may decide the doubter not to go.

"Do we not, again, listen too much merely for delight? and does not the question, 'How did you like the sermon,' or 'How did you like the service,' indicate that we join in the service and listen to a sermon in an entirely wrong spirit? The critical or self-regarding spirit has its uses, but it may be fatal to 'personal consecration' in public wors.h.i.+p. How often does an entire service depend upon our own temper, our own mood, our own spirit? And how often is it true that a congregation has as much to do with the making of a minister as the minister has to do with the making of a congregation?

"'If I neglect public wors.h.i.+p, then,' a man should say to himself, 'the community is injured, the brotherhood is weakened, the young are confused. It is a grave responsibility.'

"But now we must not shrink from the question: How far or how long ought these considerations to hold the man who has lost delight in public wors.h.i.+p or faith in that to which it bears witness? When should doubt make wors.h.i.+p impossible, or unbelief make wors.h.i.+p wrong for the honest soul? When should 'personal consecration' say to a man, not _stay_, but _depart_? It is a grave question, and every one must shape his answer for himself.

All I would say is: Give wors.h.i.+p the benefit of the doubt: ay!

give fellow-wors.h.i.+ppers the benefit of the doubt. Continue with them as long as you can; if not as a full believer, then as a devout inquirer, a gentle seeker, a sympathetic friend. Why not?

That is possible with us; for the very bond of our union is sympathetic regard for one another's freedom. It is also specially possible with us because our teachings do not, at all events, outrage the reason and shock the moral sense. Even an agnostic might listen to us and hope that our Gospel is true.

"Special dangers call for special safeguards, special consideration, special wariness. It is an age of splendid advance in science, of restless energy in business, of stupendous activity in politics, of daring questioning everywhere. All that makes against public wors.h.i.+p; and yet all that makes public wors.h.i.+p a greater necessity and demonstrates 'the pressing need of personal consecration' to it. G.o.d only knows what we should do without it and the blessed Sunday!

"'Dear old commemorative day, For weary man designed To help him on life's troubled way, To give his spirit freer play, To soothe his hara.s.sed mind!

"'A day of wors.h.i.+p and of grace, One calm, sweet day in seven, To grant a little breathing s.p.a.ce To strengthen man life's work to face, And lift his life to heaven.'"

In conclusion, let us add to the above speech the following remarks, which we heartily approve,--

"Mr. Preston (London) testified to the falling off of attendance at public wors.h.i.+p, and he attributed this largely to the parents not taking their children with them in early years, as of old times. He deprecated the going to public wors.h.i.+p to have the brains tickled in hearing a particular man, and maintained that this was in no sense 'public wors.h.i.+p.' He emphasized strongly the fact that those who say they can wors.h.i.+p in the fields do not, in fact, wors.h.i.+p at all. He urged that in wors.h.i.+p the musical and devotional services should become more prominent, and the sermon become frequently but subsidiary."