mourners' bench

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English

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Noun

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mourners' bench (plural mourners' benches)

  1. A bench, seat, rail, pew, etc. set aside for mourners and repentant sinners, and is usually found at the front of a revival meeting or evangelical church.
    • 1940, Langston Hughes, Salvation:
      That night I was escorted to the front row and placed on the mourners' bench with all the other young sinners, who had not yet been brought to Jesus.
    • 1958, William Humphrey, Home From The Hill:
      But what annoyed Fred was having the christening of his son in the very best church in town spoiled by the attendance of any revivalists of the mourners’ bench sort.
    • 1992 - The Mourner's Bench from the album But, What Ends When The Symbols Shatter? by Death in June
      Something got hold of me / It ratttled around my head / Early one morning / On the mourner's bench.

Synonyms

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