History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

and individuals their places in iLe house of God in
reference to their dignity, rank, siandiog, or merit,
bnt at the same time witJi the charge that ther
" were not to degrade anv.'- The pews were built
around the house, adjacent to the walls, and some-
times one or two ranges were permined in the
vacant space, nearest the entranc-e doors. The
bodj of the house, or •''
vacant space," was occq-
pied mainly by long seats, the older persons being
nearest the pulpit ; the galleries were devoted on
one side of the house to the boys, on the other to
the girls. Permission was given to a few persons
of note to build pews in •'•
the vacant space " at
their own cost ; but this privilege w^ held to be
very precious, and sometimes, permission, being
asked, was refused, in spite of the wealth and
standing of the peritioner. The deacons' seat was
raised above the door in front of the pulpit, and
on the railing in front of it stood the hour-glass,
which one of the deacons tamed at the beginnin g
of the sermon ,: and if it was not necessary to turn
it again before the close, the minister was thought
to be deficient in duty to his c-ongregarion.
The worsliippers in early times anended public
worship conscientiously, or, imder the pressure of
public opinion, with great regularity, though some
of them were obliged to travel c-onsiderable dis- >
tances from remote pans of the town. Xever-
theless, in winter the comfort of a stove in the
meeting-house was a thing miknown. It was not
idl a hundred and thirty -two years after the forma-
tion of the First Church that the parish voted •'•'
to
have a stove to warm the meeting-house"; and
when stoves were introduced, it was formally dis-
cussed and voted in town-meering where the stove
should stand, and through what window the smoke-
pipe should make its egress ; and in the contract
with the sexton it was made a matter of express ;
stipulation that he should take care of the meeting-
house and ih< jU'Ve.
In the deficiency of other means of warmth, two
or three "noon-houses," so called, were erected
near the meeting-house, where, seated around a
blazing fire, the worshippers could warm their stif-
fened limbs in the rest at noon between the ser-
\-ices, and enjoy their homely lunch and a mug of .
cider ; for it is said that some of the farmers found
pleasure in rolling a barrel of cider in the fall into
the celbr, to add to the good cheer of the Lord's
Day. Here, too, the people replenished their foot-
stoves from the glowing coals on the hearth, to
add to tlie ix»mfort of the women and chiKlten
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