Church Ventilation by W. H. Littlejohn

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 12, 1872

Church Ventilation.

By W. H. Littlejohn

Too much importance can hardly be attached to the idea of making the conditions in the house of worship as favorable as possible. The object of congregating the people is that of producing in their minds impressions which shall at once be correct and lasting. In order that this may be done to the best advantage, it will always be required that both the preacher and the people be in the very best frame of mind possible; on the one hand to impart, on the other to appreciate, clear conceptions of the truth.

No man has ever yet been found with gifts of a nature such that he could present the truth with as much force and power while his surroundings were such as were calculated to depress and enervate, as he could when they were of a character to strengthen and stimulate.

Again, congregations are invariably affected easily, or with great difficulty, as their minds are, for the time being, active or sluggish. It not unfrequently occurs, that in the very midst of a moving appeal which is in itself calculated to stir the multitude, and would, under ordinary circumstances, succeed in doing so, you will find them apparently unmoved by what is said. Perhaps a portion of them are soundly sleeping in their pews, while others, stupefied and oppressed by the impure and heated atmosphere, are turning upon their seats and rubbing their eyelids in the vain effort to arouse themselves sufficiently to appreciate the full force of that of which, in their insensible condition, they are able to obtain but a very poor conception. The result is, that the minister labors with all the power and energy of his being to bring them into the point of sympathy with himself, but when the service closes, finds that his efforts have been vain, that his time has been wasted, and his strength needlessly exhausted. As a consequence, he returns to his home, debating in his own mind, it may be, whether he has not mistaken his calling, while the people return to theirs, in nowise bettered by the experience of the occasion. Perhaps some of them who are not in the habit of attending church service oftener than once in months, have been deprived of all its benefits, not by any lack on the part of the preacher, nor because he has not uttered cogent truths and burning thoughts, which under more favorable circumstances might have resulted in the awakening of sinners, but because his efforts have been defeated by the want of a little attention to outward circumstances on the part of the individual whose duty it was to regulate the temperature, and to secure the proper ventilation, of the room.

This being the case, it will be readily perceived that attention to minor matters, of the nature above alluded to, is nearly as important to the success of the preached word as it is that the gospel itself should be proclaimed. So true is this, that one who has observed the terrible effects of a want of judgment in the regulation of these things, will come to appreciate, when entering upon a series of meetings in a given community, a discreet sexton as an almost indispensable auxiliary in the work of bringing the public mind under the influence of the truth. Nor is this all; remembering that the construction of the house itself may be such as to render all his efforts to make it comfortable, unavailing, upon first crossing the threshold, his eye passes through the room, taking in at a glance the locality of the stoves, and the chances for supplying fresh air. If his experience be like our own, the first particular will be regarded as of great importance.

Several times it has been our misfortune to find stoves on either side, or in front, of the pulpit in which we were compelled to stand. As a necessary consequence, while the people were suffering for the want of the very heat which we would have been glad to dispense with, our strength was exhausted, and our voice rendered hoarse and almost inaudible by the necessity of laboring, while reeking with perspiration in the immediate presence of fires which were destroying the vitality of the pure air which the overworked lungs needed so much. It is, therefore, in the interest of the people themselves, as well as in that of the preachers, that we make the following suggestions:—

1. Let the sexton in every church be selected with reference to his possession of the qualities of neatness, taste, activity, and judgment, in the management of such matters as relate to the house of God, and which would naturally come under his control.

2. Let those who are building houses of worship see to it that the stoves be removed just as far from the desk as possible; and if in any already erected, this plan has not been carried out, let them be removed with reference to it as far as can be done.

3. Let it be remembered that what is wanted is pure air which is sufficiently heated to render the condition of the congregation comfortable, and that this state of things cannot be brought about so long as they suffer from either excessive heat or cold.

4. In order to secure this end, let the windows be dropped from the top somewhat on the opposite side of the house from the prevailing wind, and let the temperature of the room be regulated by a thermometer.

5. Let the person having charge of the house, when the fires are first built, place the thermometer at the opposite end of the building from the stoves until the mercury shall reach the point of, say, sixty degrees above zero. Then let him remove it to a locality nearer the stoves, and after the lapse of a few moments he can determine by it the exact amount of heat necessary in the vicinity of the stoves in order to make it comfortable at the farther end of the church. Then let him regulate the fires so as to keep the mercury as nearly as possible at the same point, the windows remaining lowered as before.

6. Let him repeat the experiment of moving the thermometer as above, whenever the change in the temperature out of doors is so great as to render the same amount of heat either excessive or insufficient, in order to the preserving the temperature at about sixty degrees in the parts of the room removed from the stoves.

7. Let him see to it that all his efforts shall be conducted as noiselessly as possible, in order that his movements may neither disturb, nor attract the attention of others.

W. H. LITTLEJOHN.