I found the following article amusing as well as revealing. Most of us have seen or read about similar productions where a church attempts to replicate an old-fashioned Baptist meeting. It is a shame that in such instances, the church is not really wanting to go back to the old-fashioned doctrine and practices but only the fashions and customs of yesteryear. It is such a great blessing to be able to attend a true old-fashioned service each weekend. Such meetings are still being held in the original Baptists churches of this land. Our prayer to God is that more of his people would turn from the pomp and entertainment found in so many Baptist churches today and return to the true old-fashioned service. The article was taken from volume 4 of the editorial writings of the Primitive Baptists by Elder C. H. Cayce - Editor: Elder Claude McKee

 

Old-Fashioned Church Service to be presented
October 1, 1922

An old-fashioned church service, typical of the mode of worship 40 years ago, will be reproduced at the First Baptist Church of East Point Sunday evening, September 24
The electric lights will be discarded and in their places candles and oil lamps will give the only illumination. The choir will disband for the night and no piano will be used. The minister will have the only song book and will read each line, after which the audience will sing the hymns in the old-fashioned manner.
Not even families who attend will be permitted to sit together as the men will sit on one side of the building, while the women will be on the other.
A number of elderly women have been asked to wear bonnets, and the men will probably don denim overalls to add to the realism. Dr. J. R. Roop, of Carrollton, will be in charge of the service and will preach an old time gospel sermon, similar to those still preached in some of the most remote rural districts.

Remarks

The above is copied from the Atlanta Constitution of September 17, 1922. Those poor ignorant people seem to have peculiar ideas as to what it takes to constitute an old-fashioned church service. They seem to think that there cannot be an old-fashioned church service engaged in under an electric light, as though the light is a part of the service. They seem to think that the reason why people did not have electric lights where they worshipped forty years ago was because their worship was different from what it might be now. The fact is there were no electric lights in the smaller towns of rural districts, or even in the cities, until a few years ago. And they seem to think that the women must wear bonnets and the men wear overalls in order to worship in the old-fashioned way, as though the clothing worn was a part of the worship. They do not seem to know that the clothing people generally wore forty years ago was the kind that was in style then. Forty years ago people often walked many miles to attend the service and carried their shoes in their hands, and when they got near the meeting house they would stop and put their shoes on. We wonder if these people whose propose to have one day of the old-fashioned worship will do that? Truly the ignorance of some people concerning the worship of God would be amusing if it were not serious and pitiable. And those people claim to be so much enlightened, too! The fact is, though these people are ignorant of it, that the Lord still has a people on earth who continue to worship Him in the same old-fashioned way that our fathers worshipped. The lights used and the clothing worn are no part of the worship, and have nothing to do with it. They wear clothing to be respectable, like other folks. If they have clothing made in the latest style, that is what they wear to the service. If denim overalls is the best suit the man has, that is what he wears to the service. If the good sister has a new seasons hat, that is what she wears. If the old sun bonnet is the best she has, that is what she wears. It is the sweet and delightful service of the Master that engages their mind, and not the clothing, or the outward appearance, just so they are respectable. But the worldly religionists must have the worldly pomp and show. They may engage in an occasional mock of the old-fashioned service-- or pretend tobut the service itself is not that they care for. What they really care for is the fashion and show. They cannot go long without the piano and the choir. Those things are a part of their worship, and they will not dispense with them permanently. Such service as is rendered with their instruments and fantastic music is not acceptable service to the Lord. He is not to be worshipped with mens hands, but in spirit and in truth. The truth is not what these modern worshippers want. They do not love the truth, and they do not have it preached. They make their own preachers, so they will preach that which tickles the fancy of the world, and the world hears them. They pay large salaries, and a high price, for worldly preaching by worldly preaches for worldly churches. But the old church goes on with her old-fashioned service and worship. They have their trials and conflicts; but the Lord preserves her and keeps her through all the trying scenes through which she comes. He has never left Himself without witness. His witnesses are not so numerous as the witnesses of the worldly religion; but there are enough for the truth to be maintained, and always have been and always will be. To Him be glory forever and ever. C. H. C.