[Granville-Hough] 29 Aug 2009 - Quiet in Church

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Old-Time Country Religion.

In the old country churches, we had our customs and prohibitions. People 
worked hard during the week, and came to church to rest, relax, and be 
sociable, and perhaps to worship a bit. If the church service were long, 
some people would just start nodding as they relaxed. Before church 
service began, we had Sunday School. Sometimes in good weather we would 
go outside and sit under a tree on the grass and have our lesson with 
our teacher, one of the mothers in the community. Other times, we would 
be in a small meeting room in back of the church. And, sometimes, we 
would just partition off portions of the church with curtains. Whatever 
way we did it, we could talk and discuss the lesson and ask questions. 
We also just enjoyed meeting our friends and being sociable. At the end 
of high spirits in the Sunday School class, we would be cautioned to be 
quiet when we went into the church service. One Sunday school teacher 
asked her charges, “And why should we be quiet in church service?” to 
which one observant little girl said, “Because people are sleeping.”

CD Collins quotes St Teresa of Avila: "Let nothing disturb 
thee, Let nothing affright thee, All things are passing, God changeth 
never." So, when you wake up from your church nap, God will still be 
with thee and thine!!