Explore "Friday Evening Meetings" by Joseph C. Lincoln on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Oh, the Friday evening meetings in the vestry, long ago, / When the prayers were long and fervent and the anthems staid and slow, / Where the creed was like the pewbacks, of a pattern straight and stiff, / And the congregation took it with no doubting "but" or "if," / Where the girls sat, fresh and blooming, with the old folks down before, / And the boys, who came in later, took the benches near the door.
Oh, the Friday evening meetings, how the ransomed sinners told / Of their weary toils and trials ere they reached the blessed fold; / How we trembled when the Deacon, with a saintly relish, spoke / Of the fiery place of torment till we seemed to smell the smoke; / And we all joined in "Old Hundred" till the rafters seemed to ring / When the preacher said, "Now, brethren: Hallelujah! Let us sing."