76 CENTENNIAL HISTORY
son petitioned the General Court for relief, but without securing any reversal of judgment. If the culprit's sister had come with him to meeting, Justice Hopkins would have made no objection to her returning with him ; but her making use of her brother's horse to get from the one house to the other on the Sabbath, was a sufficiently near approach to "servile labor on the Lord's day" to arouse the Justice's wrath in behalf of God's violated law. As we have already seen, the old-time meeting-house had no fire in it. Although "the people were tough," as Dr. Bronson says, it was uncomfortable business to sit through a long service on a winter day, and those who lived too far away to return home during the intermission were glad to resort to some neighbor's house to get warmed. There was an obvious want, which in many places was met by the building of "Sabbath-day houses." The Sabbath-day house was an edifice erected for the accommodation of those who lived at a distance, to which at the close of the morning service they repaired, to "thaw their frosty limbs before a rousing fire" , to eat the dinner and to drink the cider which they had brought from home. There are many other points which I might touch upon, but I have sought to keep within the line of habits and customs. There were peculiarities about the government of the early New England churches, distinguishing them from Congregational churches of the present day, which are well worth studying ; but a consideration of these would have led us into broader and more profound questions than I wished to deal with. For the same reason, I have had but little to say of the old-time connection of the church with the state, although it is a matter of great historical interest, connected as it is with the history of the establishment of religious liberty in America. If our age possessed more of the historical spirit, such subjects as these would occupy our thoughts more than they do. But humanity to-day has its eyes fixed on the future rather than the past, and perhaps this is well. Perhaps it is best merely to glance at the past now and