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Alice Morse Earle, in her old book, Home Life in Colonial Days, devotes a chapter to the way the Sunday was observed in Puritan New England. After describing the cold buildings, hard pews, strict rules, and severe punishments associated with the keeping of the Sabbath, she writes: ‘’The services were not shortened because the churches were uncomfortable.

By the side of the pulpit stood a brass-bound hour-glass which was turned by the tithing-man or clerk, but it did not hasten the closing of the sermon. Sermons two or three hours long were customary, and prayers from one to two hours in length. When the first church in Woburn was dedicated, the minister preached a sermon nearly five hours long.

A Dutch traveler recorded a prayer four hours long on a Fast Day. Many prayers were two hours long. The doors were closed and watched by the tithing man, and none could leave, even if tired or restless, without good excuse.”