An Answer..and A Blessing

   There is a page devoted to the church (Sardis P.B.) that I wrote about a few days back.

http://hrcga.org/church/sardis-primitive-baptist/

   A reader, (thanks Jen), pointed me to this and the answer to the question about the holes in the floor in one section of the building.

   Jokingly, as I wrote last time, I mentioned that these holes in the floor could be used for spittoons if the men carried funnels to be able to hit the hole.

   Seems as though that was the use for the holes, but there was probably a big mess around the area after the service.

   After I wrote that first blog on the Sardis church, as I thought about being in that building, a scene popped into my mind, that seemed to tell me our visit to that church was not just about the old ways, but God was still in business there.

   As we looked around the interior that day, my friend quietly said to me, "This place feels Holy to me".

   I have made it a habit, when visiting churches or cathedrals, to take a minute or two sitting in the pews, or benches, or chairs, in what we would now call the sanctuary, to reflect on the many people who, over the years, had sat in those same seats and worshipped.

   What were they like?

   How did the worship?

   How did God work in lives during their days?

   But I did not do that here, until prompted by that comment. I was too busy seeing what was odd or unusual there.

   We sat on the bench and prayed, and, sure enough, found out that it was Holy and that God still honored prayers offered in His Place.

   The moral for me in all this was "Don't get so caught up in your own world and plans, that you do not pause to ask and seek God for His blessing and guidance". In a great European cathedral or even in an 1840s one room sanctuary.

   The church building may be old, and way out of style, but that has no bearing on whether or not God is still there and working in that place.

   It was, and is, a Holy place...

And we were blessed to realize that.

An Inside Question

   A couple of weeks back, we were down in Charlton County, right outside the county seat of Folkston and discovered an old Primitive Baptist Church.

   As are all of the churches of this particular denomination or sect, this plain structure was built out in the woods. The building is wooden, built in the board and batten style of construction. There is no electricity, and the inside is free from any kind of ornamentation.

   I believe the building is from the 1840s and was clean as a whistle on the inside. Pews were free of dust and the floor clean. Whether someone is keeping it up or it is still being used today, I do not know.

   But that is not the reason for this post. There was something strange that I had not seen before in any of the other P.B. churches.

   There seemed to be a special section on the left side facing the pulpit where two boards were hung from the rafters with nails sticking out as if for either a curtain or to hang up clothing worn to church.

   Besides the boards above, and for information sake, no other section of that church had anything like that, there was also a row of holes drilled into the floor boards with a direct connection our the ground beneath the building.

   The rows between the hanging boards had this arrangement of round holes from one end of the bench to the other. I believe 8 holes in all. I found no other pews in the church with this feature.

   So the question begs: What were the holes for? Was this a special section for some folks?

   Unless men brought funnels from home, the round holes were too small to be used for a type of spittoon.

   Anyone know?

   Anyone have a good idea or guess?

   Whatever went through the holes ended up right on the ground.

   This is not a game changer question of some kind, just curiosity on our part.