New England -- Religious life and customs; New England -- Social life and customs -- To 1775; Sunday
Nor did the parsons hesitate to be personal even in their prayers. Rev. Mr.
Moody, who was ordained pastor at York in the year 1700, reproved in an
extraordinary manner a young man who had called attention to some fine new
clothing which he wore by coming in during prayer time and thus attracting
the notice of the congregation. Mr. Moody, in an elevated tone of voice,
at once exclaimed, "And O Lord! we pray Thee, cure Ned Ingraham of that
ungodly strut," etc. Another time he prayed for a young lady in the
congregation and ended his invocation thus, "She asked me not to pray for
her in public, but I told her I would, and so I have, Amen."
Rev. Mr. Miles, while praying for rain, is said to have used this
extraordinary phraseology: "O Lord, Thou knowest we do not want Thee to
send us a rain which shall pour down in fury and swell our streams and
carry away our hay-cocks, fences, and bridges; but, Lord, we want it to
come drizzle-drozzle, drizzle-drozzle, for about a week, Amen."
They did not think it necessary always to give their congregations novel
thoughts and ideas nor fresh sermons. One minister, after being newly
ordained in his parish, preached the same sermon three Sundays in
succession; and a deacon was sent to him mildly to suggest a change. "Why,
no," he answered, "I can see no evidence yet that this one has produced any
effect."
Rev. Mr. Daggett, of Yale College, had an entire system of sermons which
took him four years to preach throughout. And for three successive years he
delivered once a year a sermon on the text, "Is Thy servant a dog that he
should do this thing?" And the fourth year he varied it with, "And the dog
did it."
Dr. Coggswell, of Canterbury, Connecticut, had a sermon which he thrust
upon his people every spring for many years as being suitable to the time
when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love. In it he soberly
reproved the young church attendants for gazing so much at each other in
the meeting. This annual anti-amatory advice never failed to raise a smile
on the face of each father and son in the congregation as he listened to
the familiar and oft-repeated words.
The Puritan ministers gave advice in their sermons upon most personal and
worldly matters. Roger Williams instructed the women of his parish to wear
veils when they appeared in public; but John Cotton preached to them
one Sunday morning and proved to them that veils were a sign of undue
subjection to their husbands; and in the afternoon the fair Puritans
appeared with bare faces and showed that women had even at that early day
"rights."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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