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Summary
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3.
At that time, very low wages and long hours were the rule. One of the main
industries in Norwood was Fenlay's Factory where they made wheels and different
parts for buggies. The work hours were from 7 am until 6 pm. Ten hours a day
for one dollar day. People generally were satisfied and seemed content to live
and make the best of what they had.
In Norwood at that time there were five churches. The Methodist. Presbyterian.
Baptist. Catholic and Anglican. We were all taught in the Methodist Faith.
Every Sunday morning the team was hitched to the carriage, and father, mother,
and the family went to church. They used to go early, for at that time the
Methodists had their class meetings when one of the Church Elders met with a
part of the congregation for devotional service before church. Then followed the
regular church service, after which we made the four miles home and dinner.
After dinner, us older ones who were able to walk went to Sunday School --
a walk of about 2-1/2 miles each way. Father and mother were anxious for us to
receive good religious instruction which they were unable to give us at home.
Then, as if to make up for what was lacking, there were evangelists who
generally came in the winter and stayed for two or three weeks in the Methodist
Church and then continued in the Presbyterian Church. They were always accom-
panied by good singers, and were able to work up quite a religious excitement.
which resulted in numbers being added to the churches.
These meetings, with the exhortations of the evangelists, always made an
impression on me, and I was sometimes up with those who were kneeling at the
altar. Once as I knelt there, the preacher came along and asked me if I wanted to
be saved and become a Christian. I said,"Yes, I did!" "Well then," said the
preacher, "it is a foregone conclusion that you will be saved."
This was encouraging but not very satisfying. However, having before me
the good example of father and mother, I joined the Methodist Church. Much of
my spare time now was spent reading and studying the bible, but there was no one
I could confide in or talk over the questions of life that seemed to be so all
important in the New Testament.
The preachers and teachers now seemed so very different from the New
Testament -- preachers who had written to their converts and expressed so much
love and gratitude for the fellowship of the saints and had always given encour-
aging counsel and instruction. But none of the Methodist preachers ever talked
with me or with any of the other friends concerning the way Jesus taught or the
danger of being deceived and overcome by the enemy as we travel in enemy
country. This made me feel that I was a Christian in name only, for there was a
feeling of being alone. No close companionship or fellowship or love to bind our
lives together as expressed in all the New Testament's letters of Paul, Peter,
James and John.
And so the more I read and studied the scriptures, the greater seemed to
be the difference between the self-satisfied, well educated preachers of our day
and the different contented groups of people who followed them to the homeless
travelling ministry of the Disciples in Paul's day and their converts as described
in Acts and the Epistles. These Disciples wrote to their converts afterwards.
The only explanation one could learn of this vast differen e then and now,
was that now, after nearly 2000 years, people live differently and express them-
selves differently in this modern world than they did in the time of Jesus. But
there seemed nothing one could do but work hard all week and then drive in and
listen to the morning sermon. However this did not impress me, and I soon
forgot all that was said.
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Read more about Jim McConnell's family in Rootsweb Genealogy pages.
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