Tales of an Old Sea Port: A General Sketch of the History of Bristol, Rhode Island, Including, Incidentally, an Account of the Voyages of the Norsemen, So Far as They May Have Been Connected with Narragansett Bay: and Personal Narratives of Some Notable Voyages Accomplished by Sailors from the Mount Hope LandsMunro, Wilfred Harold
History
Tales of an Old Sea Port: A General Sketch of the History of Bristol, Rhode Island, Including, Incidentally, an Account of the Voyages of the Norsemen, So Far as They May Have Been Connected with Narragansett Bay: and Personal Narratives of Some Notable Voyages Accomplished by Sailors from the Mount Hope Lands
Munro, Wilfred Harold
Alaska -- Description and travel; Bristol (R.I. : Town) -- History; Fort Oyapoc (Guyana); Northwest Coast of North America; Potter, Simeon, 1720-1806; Siberia (Russia) -- Description and travel; Yankee (Brig)
From that day the revival became general. Through the town it spread,
until the minds of all were turned to thoughts of the life that was
to come. The sound of the workman’s hammer was unheard for a season,
the horses stood idle in their stalls, the noise of merry laughter
ceased as the crowds of serious worshippers poured onward to the
churches. For days these remarkable scenes were to be witnessed;
their effect could be observed for years.
The second revival came in 1820. Like the first it began in Saint
Michael’s Church. It lasted for about three months. The first meeting
was held in a private house. The Rev. Dr. Stephen H. Tyng, writing
sixty years later, said: “It was with unbounded surprise that I
went into the house at the hour appointed. It was crowded in every
room, staircase and entry, as if some unusually crowded funeral were
there. But for ministering to this people, hungry for the bread of
life, I was there alone. They had placed a Bible and Prayer-book
on the first landing of the stairs. The people were crowded above
me and below me, as far as my eye could reach, in the most eager
attention to the Word. It was the most solemn assembly I had ever
seen, and its impression upon my mind and memory was overwhelming
and abiding. But this was the commencement of months of work of a
similar description, and from this day we had a similar meeting
appointed for every evening. These were held in various rooms and
houses throughout the town. The evening meetings were usually held in
the Academy Hall. My whole time for about three months was given up
to this one work. Three times every day I was engaged in addressing
different assemblies in different parts of the town and of the
surrounding country, and in conversing with awakened and anxious
persons connected with these meetings. Such a scene in human society
as Bristol then displayed, I had never imagined. The whole town was
given up to this one work. The business of the world was for a time
suspended. The stores were in many instances closed, as if the whole
week were a Sabbath.”
As in the former case the work spread through all the churches.
Crowds came from surrounding towns to gaze upon the remarkable
spectacle the town afforded. Such revivals would now be impossible.
The busy manufacturing town of today would pay slight attention to
exhortations to which the ears that were accustomed to tales of
horrible disaster upon the ocean lent ready attention. Moreover,
the descendants of the old colonial stock are comparatively few in
number, and the new foreign element which forms the great majority of
the population is not to be moved by religious appeals as were those
whose lives were dominated by Puritan traditions.
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