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The
religious history of Monroe County is very absorbing. Most of
the Virginians and Kentuckians were old School Baptists or
Presbyterians, with a bare sprinkling of the other
denominations. The stirring evangelism of Alexander Campbell
himself was a visitor twice in Paris, the last time in 1848.
The
Primitive or Old School Baptist, originally one of the strongest
in numbers and financial standing, has finally died out, the
swan song of this picturesque organization being sung about 30
years ago when the Primitive church at Stoutsville was converted
into a cemetery shelter house.
Attending
divine services in the early days was the big event of the
month and in the earlier decades they worshipped in the school
houses. As the communities became more prosperous church
edifices were erected. Church services were the occasion when
the community met and exchanged small talk and opinion on
politics, crops, elections, roads, neighborhood gossip, etc.
Everyone put on his Sunday best to wear to church; the women
their full skirts and sunbonnets and the men their best jeans.
Many rode horseback, the women riding sidesaddles. Children
would ride behind their elders, frequently falling asleep from
sheer fatigue. Arriving at the church all would go in and the
services begin.
The
songs would be “Jesus Lover of My Soul,” “Rock of Ages,”
“How Firm a Foundation” and other Isaac Watts masterpieces.
The preacher then read the scripture and delivered the sermon.
These sermons were sometimes of three or four hours duration
lasting from 11:00 until 2:00. The early church elders in many
instances were dead against having an organ in the church,
deeming that it was an instrument of the devil and tended to
distract the worshippers from a reverent and contemplative state
of mind. The stern Puritan ideal was especially strong and any
factor that tended to soften or mitigate the stern and ascetic
ideal of the services was considered the machinations of the
devil.
Old
time hell fire and damnation sermons would be the order of the
day. Hell loomed large in the preacher’s vocabulary and the
congregation would be frequently admonished that unless they
mended their ways the devil would roast them over a slow fire.
Revivals were a feature of church life from their earliest
establishment. Nearly every church in the county, at some time
during the year would have a revival. None but the most
necessary work was done when the “big meeting” was on. The
preacher worked with zeal and fervor to get converts. If there
were an especially wicked person in the community whose soul was
felt to be lost, the good women would join in a general prayer
meeting until the recalcitrant sinner was brought to his knees
in penitence.
Sins
of the flesh were glossed over, but dancing was violently
excoriated. Cards were considered the last word in wickedness
and the devil’s own private invention to lure the unwary into
the paths of sin. Indeed so bitter were some of the preachers
against the venial sins of drinking, card playing and dancing,
that churches were disorganized, the members taking sides on
the question. An outstanding instance in the church split over
these moral questions occurred in Monroe City at the close of
the nineteenth century. The fanatical element actually built
another church and formed a new organization.
Preachers
especially directed their fulminations against drinking, calling
it a filthy habit and warning drunkards that there was an
especially deep pit in hell for the husband who abused his wife
and neglected his children for the bottle. The lessons of “Ten
Nights in a Barroom” were much taken to heart. Purity in
thought and deed was the exalted ideal held up and even to
perform unnecessary work on Sunday was deemed in pleasing to the
Deity.
Camp
Meeting Era
No
history of churches would be complete without a mention of the
old time Camp Meeting. A tent would be erected in a shady grove
and a platform and seats provided. Usually two preachers would
hold forth, for one preacher would fulminate so vehemently and
vociferously that he would be exhausted by the time the afternoon
services were over and would have to be relieved that night. The
faithful and devout members of that particular sect sponsoring
the meeting would come in numbers and camp out in the woods
nearby. White tents would dot the landscape and the cooking was
done in camp fires.
Frequently
hundreds remained while the meeting lasted. Straw was scattered
on the ground for the fanatical penitents would frequently be
lashed into transports of frenzy and lather by the emotional and
zealous fervor of the preachers. The success of the meeting was
gauged by the number of converts the divine succeeded in
enticing to the mourner’s bench. The air would be punctuated
by such outbursts as “Glory, Glory Hallelujah, I’ve found
God, I’ve got salvation,” and sometimes the penitent would
fall in a sort of cataleptic trance as the preacher implored the
Lord to cast the devil out of him. The second coming of Christ
was the theme of much perfervid exhortation. The preacher
intimated that Christ might appear at any time and catch the
wicked when he was up to some devilment so it would be better to
mend his ways at once and henceforth walk in the straight and
narrow path.
By
the time the meeting was over the dust had usually become so
thick under the tents and the fleas so numerous that there was a
sigh of relief from all.
After
every revival and camp meeting in the early days, there would be
the baptizing in a creek or river nearby, usually on the Sunday
following the close of the meeting. This custom was followed
clear up to within the beginning of the 20th century and Is
still practiced in some of the country churches. This was a big
day for the countryside and people would come from far and near
to witness the spectacle. Sunday afternoon was the usual time
and the crowds would line up on the bank nearby where the event
was scheduled to take place.
The
preacher and the converts would dress for the affair in a clump
of bushes nearby. The girls wore white and the preacher a long
swallow tail coat. Sometimes he was protected by long rubber
boots. The congregation would sing “Happy Day That Fixed My
Choice” and “Washed in the Blood of the Lamb” and the
converts would file down the river bank one by one and be dipped
clear under the water.
The rite of baptism would be administered with a vengeance. No
meaningless sprinkling on the head with a few drops of water.
The sinner’s misdoings must be washed away with a good healthy
douse and thence-forward he “was as white as snow.”
Sometimes this rite would be administered in the dead of winter
and the ice would have to be cut to allow the baptizing to take
place. The poor little girls would come shivering down the bank
without a wrap and be ducked in the ice cold water. This was
supposed to give the convert a special state of grace, and the
colder the water, the more merit he achieved in Heaven.
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