Sunday, May 16, 2010

Behaviour

Sun 16 May 1762: I had observed to the society last week, that I had not seen one congregation ever in Ireland behave so ill at church as that at Athlone, laughing, talking, and staring about during the whole service. I had added, "This is your fault; for if you had attended the church, as you ought to have done, your presence and example would not have failed to influence the whole congregation." And so it appeared: I saw not one to-day either laughing, talking, or staring about; but a remarkable seriousness was spread from the one end of the church to the other.