] I am not surprised that some people attended Church with social thoughts in mind. They were as human then as we are today ;-), and most people like to be social. If a young lady had limited social options in her provincial town, then going to Church was probably a key opportunity for being seen or trying to get the attention of a particular man who is interesting to her.

... to imply that things had changed all that much, just that from the description, it seems as if a lot of the congregation didn't even pretend to listen to the sermon! ;-)

Come to think of it, a short story called "The Hurrying of Ludovic" in LM Montgomery's Chronicles of Avonlea (published 1912), makes it clear that in a considerably more Presbyterian small town, church was not only one of the accepted places to carry on a (decorous)courtship, but that the congregation could tell (and was extremely interested in) who was courting and what stage they were at! For instance, the story mentions that it was not done for a man and a woman to sit together in the same pew unless they were actually engaged, no matter how long they had known each other.