The following extract from the "Belfast Patriot" of 1825 shows how the
"Lord's day" was regarded in 1776 in the "District of Maine."

FIFTY YEARS AGO. At a town meeting, held on the common, on the
south end of lot No. 26, probably where the meeting house now
stands, on the east side of the river, in Belfast, Oct. 10th,
1776, the town then having been incorporated two years--among
other things "to see if there can be any plan laid to stop the
Inhabitants from visiting on Sunday." "Voted, That if any person
makes unnecessary vizits on the Sabeth they shall be Lookt on
with Contempt untill they make acknowledgement to the Public."

* * * * *

Houses of worship were formerly "as cold as a barn."

Notwithstanding all the comforts and conveniences of modern places of
worship, to say nothing about the more interesting preaching and other
exercises, some people consider it a hardship to be obliged to attend even
one service on Sunday. How was it in "old times"? Our ancestors were
obliged to conform to the prevalent custom of going to meeting whether they
liked it or not. The law did not then excuse any one from attendance at
public worship, except for sickness. Not to be a "meeting-goer" in those
days was to range one's self with thieves and robbers and other outlaws. No
matter if the meeting-house was cold, and there was danger of consumption;
it was apparently "more pleasing to the Lord" that a man should get sick
attending services in "his house" than by staying away preserve his health.
Mr. Felt, in his "Annals of Salem," says: "For a long period the people of
our country did not consider that a comfortable degree of warmth while at