Parson West, as a young man, had
been notoriously affected with Arminian leanings, and although his
conversion to Calvinism by Dr. Hopkins of Great Barrington, had been
deemed a wonderful work of grace, a tendency to sacrifice the logical
development of doctrines to the weak suggestions of the flesh, was
constantly cropping out in his sermons, to the frequent grief and
scandal of the deacons.
At length the service was at an end and the hum and buzz of voices
rose from all parts of the house, as the people passing out of their
pews met and greeted each other in the aisles. The afternoon service
came in an hour and a half, and only those went home who lived close
at hand or could easily make the distances in their carriages. These
took with them such friends and acquaintances as they might invite.
Others of the congregation spent the brief nooning in the "noon-house,"
a shed near by, erected for this purpose. There, or on the meeting-house
steps, or maybe seated near by on the grass and using the stumps of
felled trees, with which it was studded, for tables, they discussed the
sermon as a relish to their lunches of doughnuts, cheese, pie and
gingerbread. To converse on any other than religious subjects on the
Sabbath, was a sin and a scandal which exposed the offender to church
discipline, but in a public emergency like the present, when rebellion
was rampant throughout the county, it was impossible that political
affairs should not preoccupy the most pious minds.
Pages:
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225