exhorting would sometimes last for seven days, and be prolonged every day until darkness had begun to give way to light. Nor were the ministers the only exhortors. Men and women, nay, even children, took part. At Cane Ridge a little girl of seven sat upon the shoulder of a man and preached to the multitude till she sank exhausted on the bearer's head. At Indian Creek a lad of twelve mounted a stump and exhorted till he grew weak, whereupon two men upheld him, and he continued until speech was impossible. A score of sinners fell prostrate before him.

At no time was the "falling exercise" so prevalent as at night. Nothing was then wanting that could strike terror into minds weak, timid, and harassed. The red glare of the camp-fires reflected from hundreds of tents and wagons; the dense blackness of the flickering shadows, the darkness of the surrounding forest, made still more terrible by the groans and screams of the "spiritually wounded," who had fled to it for comfort; the entreaty of the preachers; the sobs and shrieks of the downcast still walking through the dark valley of the Shadow of Death; the shouts and songs of praise from the happy ones who had crossed the delectable Mountains, had gone on through the fogs of the Enchanted Ground and entered the land of Beulah, were too much for those over whose minds and bodies lively imaginations held full sway. The heart swelled, the nerves gave way, the hands and feet grew cold and, motionless and speechless, they fell headlong to the ground. In a moment crowds gathered about them to pray and shout. Some lay still as death. Some passed through frightful twitchings of face and limb. At Cabin Creek so many fell that, lest the multitude should tread on them, they were carried to the meeting-house and laid in rows on the floor. At Cane Ridge the number was three thousand. . . Every road that led to the ground is described to have presented for several days an almost unbroken line of wagons, horses, and men. It is estimated that twenty thousand encamped at the Cane Ridge meeting. The excitement surpassed anything that had been known. Men who came to scoff remained to preach. All day and all night the crowd swarmed to and fro from preacher to preacher singing, shouting, laughing, now rushing off to some new exhorter who had climbed upon a stump, now gathering around some unfortunate who, in their peculiar language, was “ spiritually

slain." Soon men and women fell in such numbers that it

became impossible for the multitude to move about without trampling them, and they were hurried to the meeting-house. At no time was the floor less than half covered. Some talked, but could not move. Some beat the floor with their heels. Some, shrieking in agony, bounded about, it is said, like a live fish out of water. Many lay down and rolled over and over for hours at a time. Others rushed wildly over the stumps and benches, and then plunged, shouting, Lost! Lost! into the forest.

As the meetings grew more and more frequent, this nervous excitement assumed new and more terrible forms. One was known as jerking; another as the barking exercise; a third, as the Holy Laugh. "The jerks" began in the head and spread rapidly to the feet. The head would be thrown from side to side so swiftly that the features would be blotted out and the hair made to snap. When the body was affected, the sufferer was hurled over hindrances that came in his way, and finally dashed on the ground to bounce about like a ball. At camp-meeting in the far South, saplings were cut off breast-high and left for the people to jerk by." One who visited such a camp-ground declares that about the roots of from fifty to one hundred saplings the earth was kicked up "as by a horse stamping flies." . . . . The community seemed demented. From the nerves and muscles the disorder passed to the mind. Men dreamed dreams and saw visions, nay, fancied themselves dogs, went down on all fours, and barked till they grew hoarse. It was no uncommon sight to behold numbers of them gathered about a tree, barking, yelping, "treeing the devil." Two years later, when much of the excitement of the great revival had gone down, falling and jerking gave way to hysterics. During the most earnest preaching and exhorting, even sincere professors of religion would, on a sudden, burst into loud laughter; others, unable to resist, would follow, and soon the assembled multitude would join in. This was the "Holy Laugh," and became, after 1803, a recognized part of worship.

1

Strikingly close parallels to these cases are to be found in missionary reports of conversion to Christianity among primitive and non-Christian peoples. Bishop Calloway 2 describes violent attacks suffered by the negroes in Natal after their

1McMaster: Hist. of the People of U. S., Vol. 2, pp. 578-582. 2 Jour. Anthrop. Soc., Vol. 1, p. 171.

conversion; Brough Smith1 describes similar attacks among native Australian converts; Rev. Nevius 2 those of Chinese converts; and James Mooney 3 those of the Sioux Indians during their Ghost Dance outbreak in 1890.

JUMPERS.

Jumping is a characteristic of several extravagant religious sects. About 1740 a religious sect known as the Jumpers arose in Wales. Their performances resembled closely an Indian Ghost Dance. The following is an account of their method of worship. "After the preaching was over any one who pleased gave out a verse of a hymn, and this they sung over and over again with all their might and main, thirty or forty times, till some of them worked themselves into a sort of drunkenness or madness; they were then violently agitated and leaped up and down in all manner of postures, frequently for hours together." A similar sect known as Shakers arose in England about 1750. The founder and chief prophetess of this sect was 'Mother' Ann Lee, who was regarded by her followers as the reincarnation of Christ. Their services were described by one of their own number as follows: "Sometimes after sitting awhile in silent meditation they were seized with a mighty trembling, under which they would often express the indignation of God against all sin. At other times they were exercised with singing, shouting, and leaping for joy at the near prospect of salvation. They were often exercised with great agitation of the body and limbs, shaking, running, and walking the floor, with a variety of other operations and signs, swiftly passing and repassing each other like clouds agitated with a mighty wind." 4

Under the influence of Wesley and Whitefield all sorts of hysterical and convulsive phenomena like those which obtained in the New England and Kentucky revivals were seen at the meetings of the early English Methodists. About twentyfive years ago there appeared in Russia a new religious sect which received the name Prygouny or Jumpers. Their principal dogma was that the Holy Spirit descends upon the believers. The Holy Spirit, however, does not descend on all,

1 The Aborigines of Victoria, Vol. 1, p. 466.

2 Demon Possession, passim.

3 Bureau of Ethnology, 14th Annual Report, 1890.

4 Jas. Mooney: op. cit.

5 See Davenport: Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals, pp. 133-179.

for in each assembly there are only two or three who are so favored. The visible signs of His presence are, first of all, an extraordinary paleness of the face, an accelerated respiration, then a rocking of the whole body. As soon as this is noticed the worshippers begin to stamp in time, going in a direction opposite to the course of the sun; then jumping and terrible contortions begin and continue until they finally fall exhausted upon the ground.1

Several Islamic sects among whom such practices obtain have been described by M. Zambaco,2 but these, as well as the few immediately preceding, do not properly belong under the caption of Fear.

THE CONVERSION OF CHILDREN.

Far more unhappy and culpable are the attempts to frighten children into accepting a religion for which their years and reason are far too unripe. It is as impossible for mere infants, so to speak, to grasp and understand the truths of the most highly developed religion, as it is for them to understand the truths of science, and any attempt to force or coax them to do so are, to say the very least, unpedagogic and absurd. As well attempt to make them think the thoughts and wear the clothes of adults. "The mind grows as the body does," said Aristotle, "by taking proper nourishment, not by being stretched on the rack." The child, in its development, hastily recapitulates that of the race, it is true, but it cannot do so at one bound. There are untold centuries between the lowest and highest forms of religion. At first, the child will, perhaps, be an animist and fetichist, then, perhaps, a polytheist, then a deist, and only in the later years of adolescence has he attained the mental and moral development sufficient to assimilate and appreciate modern Christianity.3

It is much to be regretted, therefore, that attempts, like those of Rev. E. Payson Hammond, the Children's Evangelist,' to force Edwardian Christianity into the minds and hearts of little children, are not only permitted but endorsed and lauded by many ministers throughout the land. We venture to say that no individual in recent times has under

1 Tsakni: La Russie Sectaire, pp. 118-135.

2 Des Exaltations Religieuses en Orient, Progress Med., Paris, 1884. 3 See Jean du Buy: Stages of Religious Development, Amer. Jour. of Religious Psy. and Ed., May, 1904.

mined the mental and physical health of more children than has this so-called servant of God.

A few quotations from his writings must suffice to show the nature of his work and its results. "When I spoke to you last," writes a little girl, "I could not say Jesus is mine; and I cannot yet. I attended the inquiry meeting last Sunday, and three ladies talked to me. By-and-by a little girl came and asked me if I had found Jesus. I could not answer her, for I began to weep.

"Oh, Mr. Hammond, I am so unhappy! I have tried to find Jesus, but I cannot. Please pray for me that I may soon be happy, working for Jesus. From your loving little friend, "ROSA.' 1

This is one of many hundred similar letters which Rev. Hammond boasts he has received.

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"I began to talk to this little girl who had been engaged in prayer," writes Rev. Dr. Alexander, Hammond's colaborer, and I said to her, after I had reassured her a little, Well now, I heard you thanking God for pardoning your sins, and for the peace of mind you have; I suppose you feel that you have been converted.' have been converted.' And she said, Yes sir,' with great quietness, and great assurance of mind. I said, 'Now how did that come to pass? You did not always think of these things.' 'Oh no!' she said, 'I never cared about them at all.' 'Well,' I said, 'just tell me how it came to pass that you did come to care about them.'

·

She

said, I came to the meetings, and attended them for awhile; but I did not care much about what was going on. One night I went, with some others, into a room. There were a good many women there, and some of them were greetin' about their sins. A lady was present who spoke to them, told them about their sins, and told them how they were to get pardon; and,' she added, in her simple sort of way, the thought just came into my mind that I was a sinner too.' I said, 'And did you go away with that thought?' 'Yes,' she replied. I said, Did that grieve you?' Looking up in my face with a most earnest and striking expression, she said, Eh, sir, I was in an awfu' way.' In this state she continued, she said, for a good while. I asked, 'How did you find peace of mind?' Oh, sir,' she replied, 'it was something that Mr. Hammond said when he was

1 Early Conversion, p. 120.