sermon preached in New England and the corner-stone of American literature." They had no Sunday-school and even the custom of holding a prayer-meeting in the middle of the week was unknown among them. 18

As has been suggested already, the version of the Bible in use among them, although they may have had copies of any one of several, the Bishops' Bible, or Coverdale's translation or even Tyndale's or Wyclif's, is by far most likely to have been the Genevan. Either of these sounds rugged and quaint to modern ears, but, whichever they had, it was a great comfort to them. We know that they sang out of the even more quaint, and positively uncouth, contents of the Book of Psalms, compiled by Henry Ainsworth, the former friend of some among them in Amsterdam, a book in which the psalms are arranged for metrical use. But it was the best they had, if not also the best book of the sort then in existence.

It would be of great interest if we knew the order of public worship which the Pilgrims followed at this time. But we can only infer what it was from what we know that it had been a few years earlier. in Holland, and what we also know that it was in their own colony only a few years later.

In a book written by Rev. Richard Clifton after the Pilgrims had removed from Amsterdam to Leyden occurs an outline of the order of service in the church of which Francis Johnson was pastor in the former city. It is as follows:

19

1. Prayer and thanksgiving by the pastor or teacher. 2. Reading of two or three chapters of the Bible, with brief explanation of the same, as the time may serve.

3. The singing of some of the Psalms of David. 4. A sermon that is, the pastor or teacher expounds and enforces some passage of the Scripture.

5. The singing again of some of the Psalms of David.

6. The Sacraments are administered—that is, the

Lord's Supper on stated Sundays, and baptism

whenever there might be a candidate.

7. Collection is then made, as each one is able, for the support of the officers, and the poor.

There is much probability that this order was that customary for substance in the early Congregational churches, and that it was followed by the church of the Pilgrims in Leyden and also after their settlement at Plymouth.

Additional light is thrown upon the subject by a passage in Governor Winthrop's famous journal in which he is describing a visit made at Plymouth by him in 1632. He says: 20

On the Lord's day [in the forenoon] there was a sacrament, which they did partake in; and, in the afternoon, Mr. Roger Williams, (according to their custom) propounded a question, to which the pastor, Mr. Smith, spake briefly; then Mr. Williams prophesied; and after [ward] the Governour [Bradford] of Plimouth spake to the question; after him the Elder [Brewster]; then some two or three more of the congregation. Then the Elder desired the Governour of Massachusetts [Winthrop]

and Mr. [Rev. John] Wilson to speak to it, which they did. When this was ended, the Deacon, Mr. Fuller, put the congregation in mind of their duty of contribution; whereupon the Governour and all the rest went down to the deacon's seat, and put into the box, and then returned.

It hardly is to be understood that prayer, singing, and the reading of Scripture were omitted upon this occasion because Governor Winthrop does not specify them. Doubtless they all were given place as usual and his neglect to record them must have been because he knew that any probable reader of his diary would perceive that they were to be taken for granted, mention being made only of the more striking portions of the service. Apparently they gave more prominence to the sermon than we give it and used it for the explanation and enforcement of Scriptural doctrine more than is now common, although they certainly did not neglect due consideration of Christian virtues and practical duties. Sometimes also they

seem to have listened to several successive speakers during a single service.

Such, evidently, were some of the char- · acteristic features of the early life of the colony. Compared with our modern. usages, or even with their own life a generation or two later, it seems monotonous and confined, to say the least. But the Pilgrims had won their freedom, for which to them no sacrifices were too great, and after their own quiet manner they must have taken much substantial enjoyment in their new home, in spite of their sometimes hard conditions. The common impression that they were stern and morose, destitute of the sense of humor and always inclined to gloomy views and indifferent to the graces of life, is exaggerated. Certainly their history and circumstances were such as would have rendered any thoughtful men or women who ever lived grave and sedate, more intent upon the realities. of this life and the life to come than upon comparative trivialities, however innocent