New England bygones . g-houses were eagerly watched, and all the details of the housesthemselves accurately scanned by them. They grew wise asto the habits and haunts of meeting-house spiders and luigs,and noted every bird-nested tree which could be seen from thepews. Eveiv ol)ject within range of vision thev knew well bvsight. Nothing escape(l them but the doctrines of the ministerslong discourses. What country-bred person will not recall with pleasure suchunwitting Sunday studies of art, wdien he or she learned aerialperspective through the upj)er windows of a village church, amithe best sty
New England bygones . g-houses were eagerly watched, and all the details of the housesthemselves accurately scanned by them. They grew wise asto the habits and haunts of meeting-house spiders and luigs,and noted every bird-nested tree which could be seen from thepews. Eveiv ol)ject within range of vision thev knew well bvsight. Nothing escape(l them but the doctrines of the ministerslong discourses. What country-bred person will not recall with pleasure suchunwitting Sunday studies of art, wdien he or she learned aerialperspective through the upj)er windows of a village church, amithe best style <_)f lawn-gardening from the landscajte whichstretched out from their lower ])anes to the horizon? All thenatural beauties of the neighborhood Avere revealed : manv secretsof form and sound and color were searched out luitil, through SUNDAY 173 these primary dealings with nature, a ghmpse was given of thefuhiess and richness and glory of the universe. The old-time country pastors were greatlv loved and respected. by their people. They were treated with |ieculiar were accosted with humility and entertained with were poorly paid, but, like their parishioners, their habitswere simple and wants few; and many of them eked out their 23 174 ^V^TF ENGLAXD BYGOXES. living by the use of land lent them liy tliriity farmers. TheCongregationalist ministers were the most learned men of thetimes; generally close students, rigid in doetrine, stern in dis-cipline, and given to long, many-headed sermons. Other de-nominations believed less in especial training for the pul|)it andmore in Avhat was termed a call to j)reacli. Laymen left theirploughs and became exhorters; and the genuine call oftendeveloped rare power to control minds. The eloquence andsuccess of some of these called preachers of my grandfathersneighborhood have passed into tradition. They showed an acute-ness in the selection and adaptation of texts which often provedthe seed of great Ievivals. Sai
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