IX. 



A SHORT CHAPTER ON COUNTRY CHURCHES. 



Januai^y, 1851. ' 



WHAT, among all the edifices -that compose a country town or 

 village, is tiat which- the inhabitants should most, love and 

 reverence, — should most respect and admire among themselves, and 

 should feel most pleasure in showing to a stranger ? ^ 



We imagine the answer ready upon ,the lips of every one of 

 our readers in the country, and rising at , once to utterance, isr— the 

 Village Church. 



And yet, are our village churches winning and attractive in 

 . their exterior and interior ? Is one drawn ito admire them at first 

 sight, by the beauty of their proportions, the expression of holy 

 purpose which they embody, the feeling of harmony with God and 

 man, ■which they suggest? Does one get to love the very stones 

 of which they are composed, because they so completely belqng 

 to a building, which looks and is the home of Christian worship; 

 and stands as the type of all that is firmest and deepest in our 

 religious fliith and affections ? , 



Alas ! we fear there are very few country churches in our land 

 that exert this kind of spell,-7-a spell which grows out of making 

 stone, and brick, and timber, obey the will of the living, soul, and 

 express a religious sentiment. Most persons, most (jommittees, se- 

 lectmen, vestrymen, and congregations, who have to do with the 

 building of churches, appear indeed wholly to ignore the fact, that 

 the foiin and feature of a building may be made to express religious, 

 civil, domestic, or a dozen other feelings,, as distinctly as the forni 



