148 ISLES or SUMMEE. 



in the States, it is apparently often deemed advisable if not nec- 

 essary, to unite all who worship or statedly attend devotional 

 exercises in the same place, in what is practically a social club. 

 It is diflBcult for the church to secure the attendance of people 

 generally to its meetings of a jDurely religious and devotional 

 character, where the cities are constantly placarded, and the 

 columns of the newspapers teem with notices and advertisements 

 of an endless variety of shows and public entertainments. Hence 

 the number of church fairs, church festivals, church feasts, 

 church concerts, and church picnics. It has been deemed nec- 

 essary, not so much to aid the church as an aggressive force in 

 the world, but in self-defense, to surround religion with some of 

 the rational enjoyments and healthy diversions which otherwise 

 will be practically used by the devil to undermine its influence 

 and destroy its power. At Nassau, religion dominates without 

 these adjuncts, as it did in New England in the days of the pil- 

 grims — and for the same reason. 



Public attention is called to some of the holy days and fasts of 

 i\ie church by placards, printed in large type and posted upon 

 the street corners and in other public places. Good Friday was 

 thus announced, and the following we copied from one of the 

 hand-bills. 



''Good Fkiday, 



"Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? 



" Good Friday is the most solemn, the most awful day in the 

 whole year to the Christian. 



" On Good Friday, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the nature 

 of man, suffered on the cross of shame, dying that He might 

 save you. 



" It is everything to you that He died, for He suffered for your 

 sin — yes, your'sl 



