" Sadly down
through the centuries is ringing in our ears the gloomy rattle of that
frozen sacramental bread on the Church plate, telling to us the solemn
story of the austere and comfortless church-life of our ancestors. Would
that the sound could bring to our chilled hearts the same steadfast and
pure Christian faith that made their gloomy, freezing services warm with
God's loving presence!
Again Judge Sewall wrote: "Extraordinary Cold Storm of Wind and Snow. Blows
much more as coming home at Noon, and so holds on. Bread was frozen at
Lord's Table. Though 't was so cold John Tuckerman was baptized. At six
o'clock my ink freezes, so that I can hardly write by a good fire in my
Wives chamber. Yet was very Comfortable at Meeting." In the penultimate
sentence of this quotation may be found the clue and explanation of the
seemingly incredible assertion in the last sentence. The reason why he was
comfortable in church was that he was accustomed to sit in cold rooms; even
with the great open-mouthed and open-chimneyed fireplaces full of blazing
logs, so little heat entered the rooms of colonial dwelling-houses that one
could not be warm unless fairly within the chimney-place; and thus, even
while sitting by the fire, his ink froze. Another entry of Judge Sewall's
tells of an exceeding cold day when there was "Great Coughing" in meeting,
and yet a new-born baby was brought into the icy church to be baptized.
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