fusion but of peace." "Let all things be done decently and in order." One would think that in this advanced age such occurrences as those that have been described would not be tolerated; and in the regular churches while many extravagant things are indulged in during the progress of a revival, still the men in charge of them generally have foresight enough to put on the brakes when the proceedings get too extravagant; they gauge the minds of their auditors to a nicety, and when the excitement begins to run too high, they immediately bring the meeting to. a close. If it were not for this foresight, I am convinced that much more harm would be done than there now is, for undoubtedly too protracted nervous excitement leads to harm in more ways than one. But even now, with all our advanced ideas, proceedings of the silliest character are to be witnessed at many revivals. Here in Columbus, not a month ago, in a certain church, which shall be nameless, I myself witnessed proceedings which beggar description. The minister that night was endeavoring to excite the fears of his audience, and surely his success must have surpassed his highest expectations. He gave one of the most vivid descriptions of his Satanic Majesty I have ever heard, commencing the description at the head and finishing it at the fork on the end of his tail. I do not know what portion of his anatomy would next have claimed his attention, but at this point there was a chorus of shrieks and howls that resembled bedlam let loose, and which entirely drowned the voice of the speaker. He then quieted them down and told them he could not afford to fish sinners out of the pit of darkness for some other man to get the benefit of, and that if they did not intend to join his church, why, he wanted them to stay away from his altar. The extravagance of these proceedings are surpassed by those which take place at the annual camp-meetings which are held at Urbana and elsewhere over this State. There is now in Logan County a tempest of religious enthusiasm, and some of the revivals are marked by so strange proceedings as to merit the attendance of the correspondents of the great daily newspapers. The proceedings are fully as wonderful as some of those heretofore described, many of the subjects going off into trances, and others being seized with cataleptic fits. The revival at which these occurrences are taking place is not under the leadership of any one man, so they have no one to hold them in check.

After a view of these phenomena, the question is, to what are they due? If you would ask the parties concerned, they would tell you without hesitation that it was the "Spirit of God," but it is obvious to the think

ing mind that such is not the case. As little ground is there for attributing them to an Evil Spirit. Some have charged that they were impositions and deceptions, but this cannot be true; "for so many people, and especially respectable people, would not combine for the purpose of fraud." I think you will agree me, after taking into consideration the cause which produce them, and the nature of the proceedings, that they are purely emotional and hysterical phenomena, induced by the surrounding influences. This statement is warranted, I think, by the following facts: First. The nervous and ignorant are nearly always the first ones influenced during a revival. Second. The more nervous and ignorant the convert, the more extravagant the manifestations. Third. The larger proportion of the converts of such revivals are in a short time back to their old habits. Fourth. As in all phenomena of a nervous origin, there is a wonderful tendency to mimicry; so much so, in fact, that many authors cite the manifestations of revivals as instances of the contagiousness of emotional insanity. Fifth. Immediately after the manifestations the subjects, especially women, are completely prostrated, so that in many instances they require the attendance of a physician. Further proofs might be adduced, but I have not the space in which to give them.

After a view of the modes of conducting revivals, and the nature of the phenomena attendant upon them, the question arises, which overbalances, the good or the evil? While undoubtedly much good has been done, many evils have arisen from them. As an instance of the moral evils that sprang from the Kentucky Revival, may be noticed the following point in history. Out of that revival sprang the Campbellite Church, and Sidney Rigdon, a minister of that church, was heard to declare, while the excitement was running high, that in his opinion, it was time for a new revelation. He began to look around for a basis on which to work, and finally found it in a prosy novel, written by an old monomaniac up in the Western Reserve, in this State. This he remodelled, but not to such an extent but that when the Mormon Blble was shown to old inhabitants of the Reserve, they recognized it as being the work of one of their own people. Sidney Rigdon is really the founder of Mormonism, and was led to his actions undoubtedly through the excitement of this great revival. Another great evil is, that persons who have experienced these sensations are apt to think that because they are not permanent, that there is nothing in religion, and so become scoffers,

I have not space nor inclination to further consider the moral evils, but will briefly consider the mental. Dr. Hammond says: "Many persons

Vol. III.

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are more governed by their emotions than their intellects in their beliefs and actions. They accept an article of faith because they hear it enunciated amid the surroundings of groined ceilings, stained glass, a dim light, solemn music and a gorgeous ceremonial, without stopping to submit it to a calm investigation when the circumstances are such that the intellect can have full play. In a case like this the belief will be of short duration.'

The credulity of people in regard to matters of faith is as well marked during periods of high excitement as it is in the instance quoted. The following will serve to show you to what an extent this may be carried, as well as anything else: One night during the winter of 1829, there was an exciting revival in progress in a log church located on a creek called Leatherwood, in the Western Reserve. The entire congregation were on their knees praying, when suddenly there appeared among them a stranger, dressed in a peculiar manner for that country, having on, among other articles of dress, a black swallow-tail coat and a white neck. tie. When first noticed he was about the center of the church, having entered without being perceived, and no one knew how he came. After the audience arose from their knees he went forward and commenced to exhort, and finally announced that he was Christ in his second coming, and was going to bring down the New Jerusalem in that locality. People immediately took stock in him-to use a slang expression and he was at once made an object of veneration. Finally, through the failure of some promises he had made, and, it is said, his undue intimacy with some of the women, there were a few Doubting Thomases made, and they insisted that he prove himself to be what he claimed by making a seamless garment. He consented, and a great crowd of people gathered to see the miracle performed. He went through a series of incantations and ceremonies, but the garment failed to materialize, and on the plea of going out after something he tried to sneak away, but there were parties on the watch, who endeavored to catch him, but he escaped, and finally hid in a large swamp. Here he was fed by his disciples for some time, but was finally caught and taken before a Justice of the Peace for trial. But even the learned Justice seemed to have some faith in the impostor, for he gravely announced that "After a careful search, both of the Statutes of the United States and of the State of Ohio, he could find no law which prohibited a man from claiming to be Jesus Christ if he wanted to, and he therefore discharged the prisoner." Other instances, just as ludicrous, might be cited, but this will suffice.

The means used in the conducting of revivals are, it will be clearly seen, such as will excite the emotions alone in the greater majority of cases; and while these generally do no harm, still in many instances they undoubtedly do mischief. "For it is a known fact, that intense or longcontinued emotional disturbance is one of the chief factors in the causation of insanity." Persons without much education of course depend on their emotions to a greater extent than those whose intellects are better developed, and, as a consequence, their thoughts and actions are generally as unstable and fleeting as the emotions themselves. But cases occur in which an emotion not only becomes intensified in power, but assumes a permanency altogether inconsistent with a normal condition, such condition being embraced under the definition of emotional insanity; and when the aberration of mind is chiefly exhibited by the disturbance of some one emotion it is called emotional monomania. And many persons are in this condition, I am convinced, through the means used in conducting revivals. In fact, the statistics of Ohio for 1882 show that in the twenty-eight years which the Asylum for the Insane at Cleveland has been in operation, religious excitement came fourth in the list of the causes of insanity, being exceeded only by masturbation, intemperance and domestic difficulty, and these were only slightly in advance. Also, that of the two hundred and ninety patients admitted to the Asylum at Columbus, during that year, twenty were insane from religious excitement, out-numbering any other one known cause. They further show that since 1855, two hundred and eight persons have been admitted at the Dayton Asylum, insane from this cause, being exceeded by only two other ones, namely, masturbation and domestic trouble; masturbation being the cause in three hundred cases and domestic trouble in two hundred and ninety. It will be seen from these statements that the position occupied by religious excitement in the list of the causation of insanity, is about on a par with any other known one. In emotional monomania there is not necessarily either delusion or error of judgment, but it generally happens that the intellect, sooner or later, becomes involved. This condition often evinces itself in religious services in very curious ways; for instance, in the community where I live, there are a number of people who have banded themselves together under the name of "Second Work" People. They believe in, and profess to have received, a second blessing from the Lord, and claim that it is impossible for them to sin-a delusion under which, I may remark, people who trade with them do not labor. They also imagine that they are persecuted by the regular Church, so they hold

are more governed by their emotions than their intellects in their beliefs and actions. They accept an article of faith because they hear it enunciated amid the surroundings of groined ceilings, stained glass, a dim light, solemn music and a gorgeous ceremonial, without stopping to submit it to a calm investigation when the circumstances are such that the intellect can have full play. In a case like this the belief will be of short duration."

The credulity of people in regard to matters of faith is as well marked during periods of high excitement as it is in the instance quoted. The following will serve to show you to what an extent this may be carried, as well as anything else: One night during the winter of 1829, there was an exciting revival in progress in a log church located on a creek called Leatherwood, in the Western Reserve. The entire congregation were on their knees praying, when suddenly there appeared among them a stranger, dressed in a peculiar manner for that country, having on, among other articles of dress, a black swallow-tail coat and a white neck. tie. When first noticed he was about the center of the church, having entered without being perceived, and no one knew how he came. After the audience arose from their knees he went forward and commenced to exhort, and finally announced that he was Christ in his second coming, and was going to bring down the New Jerusalem in that locality. People immediately took stock in him—to use a slang expression—and he was at once made an object of veneration. Finally, through the failure of some promises he had made, and, it is said, his undue intimacy with some of the women, there were a few Doubting Thomases made, and they insisted that he prove himself to be what he claimed by making a seamless garment. He consented, and a great crowd of people gathered to see the miracle performed. He went through a series of incantations and ceremonies, but the garment failed to materialize, and on the plea of going out after something he tried to sneak away, but there were parties on the watch, who endeavored to catch him, but he escaped, and finally

hid in a large swamp. Here he was fed by his disciples for some time,

but was finally caught and taken before a Justice of the Peace for trial. But even the learned Justice seemed to have some faith in the impostor, for he gravely announced that "After a careful search, both of the Statutes of the United States and of the State of Ohio, he could find no law which prohibited a man from claiming to be Jesus Christ if he wanted to, and he therefore discharged the prisoner." Other instances, just as ludicrous, might be cited, but this will suffice.