congregation; read the Bible; gave up notices to the domine by sticking
the papers in the end of a cleft stick and holding it up to the high
pulpit.

The deacons had control of all the church money. In the middle of the
sermon they collected contributions by passing _sacjes_. These were
small cloth or velvet bags hung on the end of a pole six or eight feet
long. A French traveller told that the Dutch deacons passed round "the
old square hat of the preacher" on the end of a stick for the
contributions. Usually there was a little bell on the _sacje_ which rung
when a coin was dropped in.

In many Dutch churches the men sat in a row of pews around the wall
while the women were seated on chairs in the centre of the church. There
were also a few benches or pews for persons of special dignity, or for
the minister's wife.

There were many other colonists of other religious faiths: the Roman
Catholics in Maryland and the extreme Southern colonies; the Quakers in
Pennsylvania; the Baptists in Rhode Island; the Huguenots, Lutherans,
Moravians; but all enjoined an orderly observance of the Sabbath day.
And it may be counted as one of the great blessings of the settlement of
America, one of the most ennobling conditions of its colonization, that
it was made at a time when the deepest religious feeling prevailed
throughout Europe, when devotion to some religion was found in every
one, when the Bible was a newly found and deeply loved treasure; when
the very differences of religious belief and the formation of new sects
made each cling more lovingly and more earnestly to his own faith.

CHAPTER XVI

COLONIAL NEIGHBORLINESS

If the first foundation of New England's strength and growth was
godliness, its next was neighborliness, and a firm rock it proved to
build upon. It may seem anomalous to assert that while there was in
olden times infinitely greater independence in each household than at
present, yet there was also greater interdependence with surrounding
households.

It is curious to see how completely social ethics and relations have
changed since olden days. Aid in our families in times of stress and
need is not given to us now by kindly neighbors as of yore; we have
well-arranged systems by which we can buy all that assistance, and pay
for it, not with affectionate regard, but with current coin. The
colonist turned to any and all who lived around him, and never turned in
vain for help in sickness, or at the t