Thus he spent the
Sabbath continually." Just fancy the Cotton children and servants listening
to his long afternoon sermon a second time!
All the New England clergymen were rigid in the prolonged observance of
Sunday. From sunset on Saturday until Sunday night they would not shave,
have rooms swept, nor beds made, have food prepared, nor cooking utensils
and table-ware washed. As soon as their Sabbath began they gathered their
families and servants around them, as did Cotton, and read the Bible and
exhorted and prayed and recited the catechism until nine o'clock, usually
by the light of one small "dip candle" only; on long winter Saturdays it
must have been gloomy and tedious indeed. Small wonder that one minister
wrote back to England that he found it difficult in the new colony to get a
servant who "_enjoyed catechizing and family duties_." Many clergymen
deplored sadly the custom which grew in later years of driving, and even
transacting business, on Saturday night. Mr. Bushnell used to call it
"stealing the time of the Sabbath," and refused to countenance it in any
way.
It was very generally believed in the early days of New England that
special judgments befell those who worked on the eve of the Sabbath.
Winthrop gives the case of a man who, having hired help to repair a
milldam, worked an hour on Saturday after sunset to finish what he had
intended for the day's labor.
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