Then there were public fasts quite frequently,
"because of sins, blastings, mildews, drought, grasshoppers,
caterpillars, small pox," "loss of cattle by cold and frowns of
Providence." Perhaps a mouse and a snake had a battle in the
neighborhood, and the minister must expound it as "symbolizing the
conflict betwixt Satan and God's poor people," the latter being the
mouse triumphant. Then if there were a military expedition, the minister
might think it needful to accompany it. If there were even a muster, he
must open and close it with prayer, or, in his absence, the captain must
officiate instead.
One would naturally add to this record of labors the attendance on
weddings and funerals. It is strange how few years are required to make
a usage seem ancestral, or to reunite a traditional broken one. Who now
remembers that our progenitors for more than a century disused religious
services on both these solemn occasions? Magistrates alone could perform
the marriage ceremony; though it was thought to be carrying the monopoly
quite too far, when Governor Bellingham, in 1641, officiated at his own.
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