Sunday, November 9, 2014

New England Sunday, 1840s

In "The Story of A Bad Boy", Thomas Bailey Aldrich gives a rather grim description of how Sunday was observed when he was a boy.  I'll just share this little bit:



"People who were prosperous and natural and happy on Saturday became the most rueful of human beings in the brief space of twelve hours. I don't think there was any hypocrisy in this. It was merely the old Puritan austerity cropping out once a week. Many of these people were pure Christians every day in the seven -- excepting the seventh. Then they were decorous and solemn to the verge of moroseness. I should not like to be misunderstood on this point. Sunday is a blessed day, and therefore it should not be made a gloomy one. It is the Lord's day, and I do believe that cheerful hearts and faces are not unpleasant in His sight."

Of course, I agree with him!  



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