Wayne
Tempus faciendi, Domine.
From Richard Webster's History of the Presbyterian Church in America (1855):
CHAPTER IV.
The methods in use in Ireland and Scotland were all introduced on the erection of congregations. They were so generally accustomed to modes closely similar, that no solicitation was needed to secure the acquiescence of the people in them. The emigration brought over many schoolmasters, and few Presbyterian settlements were without schools during most of the year. It was rare to find one, (except among the servants, and even among them it was very rare,) who could not read and who did not possess a Bible. The Shorter Catechism was learned at home and recited at school; and the Psalms in metre were largely treasured in the memory; they were the lullaby of the babe, and the song at the loom and at the wheel. They formed universally a part of family worship. That precious privilege was regarded as an indispensable duty.
Inquiry was made concerning the observance of it, on the occasion of asking baptism for their children. Family instruction was not neglected; the Catechism was “gone through” on Sabbaths by parents, children, and servants; sermons were repeated, and the points of doctrine duly compared with the Scripture.
The congregations were divided into portions called “quarters,” each of which was committed to the charge of an elder, and the people in each quarter were gathered at suitable and oft-recurring seasons at some convenient point,—it might be a kitchen or a barn, to accommodate large numbers,—and old and young were solemnly, carefully, and at length, catechized. The seed sown in the sanctuary was harrowed in by the catechizing. The minister knew the state of the flock and how they profited by the word preached.
The presbyteries visited the congregations, taking first the minister by himself, and asking him how he performed the duties of preaching, visiting, and catechizing, how the elders discharged their office, and how the people hearkened to the word and submitted to godly discipline.
He being put forth, the elders were called in and questioned concerning their minister’s doctrine, life, diligence, and faithfulness; as to the extent to which they laboured in their quarters, and how the people deported themselves toward those who were over them in the Lord. Lastly, the people were called in, to answer by their representatives,—who were strictly what their name imported,—representatives. These were chosen to act and speak for the people, to sign the call and be the responsible agents in all secular matters. They were asked how the people were satisfied with their minister and with the elders, and how they performed their stipulations for his support.
Each of the three parties was asked if any cause of complaint existed, or of dissatisfaction, and the presbytery proceeded authoritatively to investigate the alleged matter and to remove
it or rebuke the offenders.
The Lord’s Supper was celebrated, according to the usage “at home,” twice in the year. It was preceded by a day of fasting: several of the neighbouring ministers attended, and sermons suitable to the approaching solemnity were preached on the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday previous. Ordinarily, a large body from adjacent congregations came with their ministers, and were on the ground before the Sabbath. Tokens were distributed, and those from a distance received them on the testimony of their minister and his elders. Often they brought written requests from their pastors that they might share in the feast. Commonly it was in the open air that most of the sermons were preached; a covered stand, called a tent, being an appendage to every meeting-house. The tables were spread and reached across the house and from the pulpit to the door. The action-sermon was long and full of the marrow of the gospel; the fencing of the tables was scarcely less solemn and even more heart-searching.
“Then, in the simple music
Of the old glorious days,
The hearts of pious thousands
Gush’d forth in streams of praise.
The Psalms in metre, the work of Francis Rous, an English gentleman, of Cornwall, were hallowed by innumerable pious and tender associations. Plain of speech, our fathers stumbled not at the roughness of the verse nor sighed at the lack of melody. The same words and the same tunes charmed unholy thoughts from the mind of Burns, as he sat, of a Saturday night, by the cotter’s ingle-side. The same words, and the
same tunes harmonized with Brainerd’s devotions, and thrilled Whitefield like the songs of heaven, at Cambuslang and White Clay. Our fathers were not virtuosi, charmed even in God’s house with rubbish if rare, and trifles if tasteful:
“And surely God was praised,
When David’s words to David’s tune
Five hundred voices raised.”
When the sacred symbols were uncovered, how many hearts broke as if in bitterness for a first-born! And, as they rose to take their places at the board, it was reverently, as though seeing Him that is invisible; even as though before their eyes Christ had been set forth evidently crucified among them.
The Lord’s Supper was, in its fullest sense a monument of the great facts of redemption—a memorial of the necessity of atonement, the glorious Deity of the Son of God, the freeness
of justification, and the fullness of the promises. The mode in which it was administered rendered it necessary that the highest truths, with loftiest themes, should be preached, and with unction. Every circumstance conspired to invest even the most lifeless preacher with such a feeling of the greatness of the occasion, as made him surmount at least for the time the narrow limits of his talents, and speak in the demonstration of the Spirit and with power. The closing service of thanksgiving prepared the way to return home, pondering in their hearts the great things which had been told them. Those were golden days, when souls were enlightened with such a knowledge of Christ, as if the light of the sun had been seven-fold, as if the light of seven days had poured at once on the worshippers, with healing in every beam.
Many of the congregations furnished their ministers with a house and farm, or else promised him in the call a sum of money to buy a plantation. The salaries were mostly paid in kind, wheat, Indian corn, hemp, and linen yarn being frequently specified in the call; and, from a riddle to a squire’s “publishment of a marriage” or an “estray,” every imaginable article is entered on their surviving “count-books” as being received in payment of stipend.
