Miss Elliott and Mary, accompanied by their brothers and Strale, left home at the usual time for public worship. As they passed along on their way to the South Church, they were deeply impressed with the state of feeling so obvious around them; to see their fellow beings enslaved by a superstition so unnatural and absurd; to be unable to break the fatal spell which had fallen upon nearly all, and to mark in the dim future those undefined yet assuredly fatal consequences, of whose nature and extent the worst apprehensions might be indulged, filled their minds with anxiety and sorrow. But they endeavored to turn from these sad meditations to the hopes and consolations of the Gospel they loved, and which they firmly believed would deliver the mind from its debasing thraldom, and give to its emancipated powers 'the glorious liberty of the sons of God.'
The South Church occupied the ground on which the present edifice stands, and its site was then called 'the Green.' It was constructed of cedar, and for those times it was an imposing and beautiful edifice; its tall spire, rising from the midst of a grove of buttonwood trees, and far above all surrounding objects, was gazed at with an interest and reverence which in these days is not often bestowed on those significant emblems which point upward to a 'house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'
The pulpit was located, as now, in the northeast side of the building, and directly in front was a row of seats designed for and occupied by the elders. A small enclosure, still further in front, and facing the congregation, was occupied by the deacons, and before them was a platform, on which the leader of the music stood and conducted the psalmody, in which all who were able to sing, and some who were not, were in the habit of uniting.
On the present occasion, the service was commenced as usual by a prayer occupying about ten minutes, and followed by a psalm from the New-England version then in use, which was first read by Mr. Willard, and then given out by the ruling elder, line by line, to the congregation. The selection for the morning was the fifty-first psalm, and its penitential character was strikingly adapted to the time and circumstances of their worship. Many a charming voice united in the simple melody, and many a contrite heart mingled its confessions and prayers, in the true spirit of devotion, with those of the pious psalmist.
As we wish to bring into view the principal features of Sabbath-day worship in those times, we give the following version of the psalm, in the words in which it was sung:
'Have mercy upon me, oh God!
According to thy grace;
According to thy mercies great,
My trespasses deface.