One early duty of the deacons which was religiously and severely performed
was to watch that no one but an accepted communicant should partake of the
holy sacrament. One stern old Puritan, having been officially expelled from
church-membership for some temporal rather than spiritual offence, though
ignored by the all-powerful deacon, still refused to consider himself
excommunicated, and calmly and doggedly attended the communion service
bearing his own wine and bread, and in the solitude of his own pew communed
with God, if not with his fellow-men. For nearly twenty years did this
austere man rigidly go through this lonely and sad ceremonial, until he
conquered by sheer obstinacy and determination, and was again admitted to
church-fellowship.
A very extraordinary custom prevailed in several New England churches.
Through it the deacons were assigned a strange and serious duty which
appeared to make them all-important and possibly self-important, and
which must have weighed heavily upon them, were they truly godly, and
conscientious in the performance of it. In the rocky little town of Pelham
in the heart of Massachusetts, toward the close of the eighteenth century
and during the pastorate of the notorious thief, counterfeiter, and forger,
Rev. Stephen Burroughs, that remarkable rogue organized and introduced to
his parishioners the custom of giving during the month a metal check to
each worthy and truly virtuous church-member, on presentation of which the
check-bearer was entitled to partake of the communion, and without which he
was temporarily excommunicated.
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