I Wonder...

Mallary and I are using a literature based history program this year which has been so much fun and highly enjoyable. The following is just a small portion of what we read together on Thursday and I was quite captivated by it. To be honest the book has stayed on the coffee table, and more than once I have picked it up, reread the excerpt below and pondered... Many would think the ideas and convictions of the time represented here are/were harsh, and I would admit, that I somewhat agree, yet I wonder if we went back to some of these ways and disciplines if we would take our faith and our Sabbath less for granted and more seriously. I wonder...


For the puritans the Sabbath began at sunset on Saturday, and no child might play after the sunset gun was heard. The evening was spent in reading the Bible and learning verses from it.

When the children reached home, Hope ran to her bed to get Mary Ellen (her doll baby). Presently her mother came in and said, "This is the Sabbath now, Hope. You must not play with your doll on the Sabbath."

So Hope kissed her baby and carried it into the bedroom to find a safe, warm place for it to stay until the next evening. There lay her father's Sunday coat; what cozier nest could she find for Mary Ellen than its big pocket?

Early Sunday morning, Mistress Brown came to the children's bed and awakened them, "Get up, little girls," she said. "This is the Lord's Day, and we must not waste it in bed."

After breakfast the family had prayers, after which they did such work as must be done, and then dressed for meeting.

Master Brown filled the little tin foot stove with hot coals from the hearth. Then he took down his gun from its hook and looked to see that it was ready for use. In those days no man went anywhere without his gun, not even to church, for the Indians were likely to come at any time.

Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!

Is that the call to arms? Are the Indians about? Oh, no, that is only the drummer calling his people to church.

There were no bells on the first meetinghouses in New England. Sometimes the firing of a gun was the call to worship. More often a big drum, beaten on the steps of the meetinghouse, told the people it was time to come together.

At the sound of the drum Master Brown and his wife, with Elizabeth, Hope, and Aunt Faith, started to church. From every house in the village came men, women, and children. They were always ready when the drum began to beat. It was not the custom to be late to meeting and, as for staying away, one had to be very ill indeed to do that.

Elizabeth saw her dear friend, Mary, just ahead of her. Do you suppose she skipped along to speak to her, or walked to meeting by her side? No, indeed. "The Sabbath day is not the time for light talk," her mother told her.

When the meetinghouse was reached, Master Brown led his family to their pew. He opened a little door to let them in. The pew was much like a large box with seats around the sides.

The church was very cold, for there was no fire; but the children warmed their toes and fingers by the little foot stove their father had brought from home.

The boys were not allowed to sit with their parents. They all sat together at one side of the church or on the pulpit stairs. When all the people were in their seats, the minister climbed the steps to his high pulpit.

Only very few people had hymn books. The minister read two lines of the hymn, and they all sang them to some well-known tune. Then he read two more lines, and all sang them, and so on until they had sung all the verses.

The sermon was always very long, three hours at the least. The children could not understand what it was all about, and it was very hard for them to sit up and listen quietly.

Elizabeth was four years older than Hope, so she felt quite like a little woman. She sat up beside her mother and looked at the minster almost all the time. But sometimes she had to wink hard to keep awake.

When she thought she could not hang her feet down another minute, she would slip onto the footstool to rest.

But she was often much ashamed of Hope. Poor little Hope could not sit still ten minutes.

Hope enjoyed singing the hymns. She stood up on the footstool at her father's side and sang with all her might. Then she sat down and tried to listen to the sermon. When she began to stir about a little, her mother shook her head at her. She tried to sit still, but was soon restless again.

Then Aunt Faith gave her a sprig of some sweet, spicy plant. This kept her quiet for a while, but at last leaves, stems and all were eaten. Hope folded her hands and for a few minutes looked straight at the minister. She was trying hard to be good.

Presently, she began to be sleepy and nestled her head upon her father's arm for a nap. But now she felt something in his pocket she was sure she knew. A happy smile came over Hope's face. She was wide awake now.

Slipping her hand into the wide pocket, she drew out Mary Ellen and smoothed her wrinkled gown.

Master Brown's thoughts were all on the sermon, and even Mistress Brown did not notice her for a little time. When she did, what do you suppose she saw? Hope standing up on the seat, showing her doll to the little girl in the pew behind her!

Oh, oh, how ashamed her mother was! She pulled her little daughter down quickly and whispered, "Do you want the tithingman to come with his rod? Well, then, sit down and listen." Then, taking Mary Ellen, she slipped the doll into her big muff.

Little Hope did sit down and listen. She did not even turn around when the kind lady behind them dropped a peppermint over the high-backed pew for her.

Hope was very much afraid of the tithingman, who sat on a high seat behind the people. He had a long rod with a hard knob on one end and a squirrel's tail on the other.

When he saw a lady nodding during the sermon, he stepped around to her pew and tickled her face with the fur end of the rod. She would waken with a start and be, oh, so ashamed. She would be very glad the pew had such high sides to hide her blushing face.

Perhaps you think the boys on the other side of the church had a good time with no parents near to keep them quiet. But there was the tithingman again. When he saw a boy whispering or playing, as children sometimes do when so many are together, he rapped him on the head with the knob end of the rod.

The whispering would stop at once, for the rod often brought tears and left a headache. But the tithingman and his rod could not always keep the boys in order. We read that in one church the boys were fined for cutting the seats with their knives. In another, whips were placed here and there, and certain persons chosen to use them when they thought the boys needed to be punished.

"What shall we do with our boys?" the fathers often asked each other. At last someone thought of a plan which worked very well. What do you suppose it was? Simply this: to let each boy sit with his own father and mother.

Besides keeping the boys from playing and the grown people from going to sleep, the tithingman must turn the hourglass. In those days very few people could afford clocks, but everyone could have an hourglass. It took the fine sand just one hour to pour from the upper part of the glass through the tiny hold into the lower part.

When the sand had all run through, the tithingman turned the glass over and the sand began to tell another hour. When the glass had been turned three times, the minister closed the service. Then the men picked up their muskets and foot stoves, the women wrapped their long capes more closely about them, and all went home.

Often there was another service in the afternoon. At sunset the Puritan Sabbath ended. Then the women brought out their knitting or spinning, or prepared for Monday's washing, and the children were free to play until bedtime.

*I wonder if we set aside a specific 24 hours for Sabbath, if we would respect it more reverently...

*I wonder if all work had to cease at the beginning of Sabbath, if we would plan better so that we could actually rest on the Sabbath...

*I wonder if no work, play or idleness was permitted during the Sabbath hours if we would desire the truth of God's written Word more...if we would look forward to digging deep into the meat of His Word knowing that commodity was our only option for that 24 hour period...if we would learn what stillness before God truly is...

*I wonder if our Worship Services lasted for three hours, if we would grumble less when the pastor's sermon went over by 10, 15 or even 20 minutes...

*I wonder if we revered the Sabbath in the way that God intended it to and we devoured the spoken Word that was being put forth, if we would be so engulfed in the instruction of the pastor, that we would be oblivious to all that was taking place around us...

*I wonder if even half this much discipline was implemented in our churches today if we would have a fraction of the distractions that veer us away from the Truth that God had us to hear and receive...

*I wonder if our children would be more spiritually grown and if they would have a deeper reverence and love for God if they were expected and disciplined to sit and hear the Truth of His Word spoken...

*I wonder if we revered the Sabbath as the Puritans did, if we would start our work weeks intently focused on God, our Maker...with a deeper desire to do His will...

*I wonder if we implemented just a few of these things if God would become first priority in our lives...

I wonder...