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eard them agonizing in tears and strong crying for- * mercy to be shown to sinners, and speaking like angels, to all around. | dss_ The jerks cannot be so easily described. Sometimesthe subject of the jerks would be affected in some onemember of the body, and sometimes in the whole sys-tem. When the head alone was affected, it would be_ jerked backward and forward, or from side to side, soquickly that the features of the face could not be dis-tinguished. When the whole system was affected, I have3 the person stand in one place, and jerk backwardand forward in quick succession, their. head nearlytouching the floor behind and before. All classes,| saints and sinners, the strong as well as the weak, were. - thus affected. I have inquired of those thus affected.They could not account for it; but some have told methat those were among the happiest seasons of theirlives. [have seen some wicked persons thus affected,and all the time cursing the jerks, while they werethrown to the earth with violence. ‘Though so awful tobehold, I do not remember that any one of the thou-sands I have seen ever sustained an injury in body.This was as strange as the exercise itself.The dancing exercise. This generally began withthe jerks, and was peculiar to professors of religion.The subject, after jerking awhile, began to dance, andthen the jerks would cease. Such dancing was indeedheavenly to the spectators ; there was nothing in it likeievity, nor calculated to excite levity in the beholders.The smile of heaven shone on the countenance of thesubject, and assimilated to angels appeared the whole‘person. Sometimes the motion was quick and some-times slow. Thus they continued to move forward andbackward in the same track or alley till nature seemedPe shausted, and they would fall prostrate on the flooror earth, unless caught by those standing by. Whilethus exercised, I have heard their solemn praises and“ prayers ascending to God. 7 |The barking exercise, (as opposers contemptuously Mt ® = whee pee sel ee oe ee Oe, a ed >i a ae | ¥ ~~, © bd: : * BARTON W. STONE. 41 t called it,) was nothing but the jerks. | te perenniee cted with the jerks, especially in his head, wou tenmake a grunt, or bark, if you please, from the sudden-ness of the jerk. This name of barking seems to havehad its origin from an old Presbyterian preacher of EastTennessee. He had gone into the woods for private |devotion, and was seized with the jerks. Standingnear a sapling, he caught hold of it, to prevent his fall- ~ing, and as his head jerked back, he acre a grunt orkind of noise similar to a bark, his face being turnedupwards. Some wag discovered him in this position,)and reported that he found him barking upatree. =|The laughing exercise was frequent, confined solelywith the religious. It was a loud, hearty laughter, but.one sui generis ; it excited laughter in none else. ‘Thesubject appeared rapturously solemn, and his laughterexcited solemnity in saints and sinners. It is truly in-describable. | >The running exercise was nothing more than, thatpersons feeling something of these bodily agitations,through fear, attempted to runaway, and thus escape‘from them; but it commonly happened that they rannot far, before they fell, or became so greatly agitated 4that they could proceed no farther. I knew a young “aphysician of a celebrated family, who came some dis- |tance to a big meeting to see the strange things he hadheard of. He and a young lady had sportively agreed_to watch over, and take care of each other, if eithershould fall. Atlength the physician felt something veryuncommon, and started from the congregation to run.into the woods; he was discovered running as for life,but did not proceed far till he fell down, and there lay |till he submitted to the Lord, and afterwards became a —zealous member of the church. Such cases were com- *_ mon. | | 3 Ke.&shall close this chapter with the singing exercise:_ This is more unaccountable than any thing-else I ever “ th rcinge eae vo Se oO alan nn ca ca ta cel ne Am 5 Sl ls——— , a oe ‘ = ” " saw. The subject in a very happy state of mind would 7_ sing most melodiously, not from the mouth or nose, but _D2 die 9 at Sy» bad Fixe | 42 BIOGRAPHY OF ata the breast, the sounds issuing thence. Suchmu ilenced every thing, and attracted the attentionof all. It was most heavenly. None could ever betired of hearing it. Doctor J. P. Campbell and myselfwere together at a meeting, and were attending to a _ pious lady thus exercised, and concluded it to be some- thing surpassing any thing we had known in nature. ” © Thus have I given a brief account of the wonderful things that appeared in the great excitement in the be-| ginning of this century. ‘That there were many eccen- ' tricities, and much fanaticism in this excitement, was/ acknowledged by its warmest advocates; indeed it } would have been a wonder, if such things had not ap-peared, in the circumstances of that time. Yet the goodeffects were seen and acknowledged in every neighbor-hood, and among the different sects it silenced conten-tion, and promoted unity for awhile ; and these blessedeffects would have continued, had not men put forththeir unhallowed hands to hold up their tottering ark,mistaking it for the ark of God. In the next chapterthis will appear. et a
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