Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/174

 the Church members (by those who had just been commemorating the love of Him who died for sinners), that Sister Rebecca Nurse being a convicted witch, and by sentence of the court condemned to die, she should be excommunicated by the Church; and this was accordingly done on the afternoon of the same day.

Can the imagination picture any thing more revolting to all good feeling? At the very time when she stood most in need of the prayers and support of her Christian friends and fellow-worshipers, she was to be ruthlessly struck out of their communion, denied their sympathy, and cast off, reviled, and contemned by those in whose devotions she had so often taken a part.

Of course, this intended ceremonial was widely made known. The great meeting-house in Salem was crowded to its utmost capacity, in every nook and corner; the two ministers, or "ruling elders," as they were then termed, Mr. Higginson and Mr. Noyes, were both in the pulpit; the deacons and other elders all in their places, when the sheriff and the constables brought in their