Steam transit and religious instruction

As I began looking for examples of the cultural reach of steam transit in the antebellum era, I knew that religion was one of the areas that I wanted to investigate. The story of sabbatarianism has been well told by other authors, but I was particularly interested to see if there were other ways in which religious culture and steam transit intersected.

Steam metaphors abounded in early American writing, and religious instruction was no exception. In an article from the Colored American on December 8, 1838, the author wrote that he saw a man hurrying along to catch a steamboat, but the man was too late. “The poor man looked very sad, bit his lip and stamped his feet, but all would do not good, it was ‘too late,’” the author observed. The steamboat had departed, and the man was not on board. The author then turned this tale to the question of religion. “How many, my young friends, are too late about religion,” the author asked his audience. “That most important of all things. We see so many who have put off religion till it is too late, that there is great reason to fear that many more will do the same thing.” Just as no one can board a steamboat which has already departed, one could not turn to religion when it was too late. The message would have been clear to the reader.