EPIDEMIC CONVULSIONS. 501 



my soul, so that I was often prevented from sleeping, eating, reading, 

 writing, or preaching. I wotdd sing a song, or exhort a few minutes, 

 and the fire would break out among the people. I have spent nine 

 nights out of ten (besides my day meetings, and long, hard rides) with 

 the slain of the Lord."* 



Granade is the preacher who gives this description of himself, which 

 is also descriptive of his times. He was a stormy orator who drew 

 great crowds wherever he went. He admits that he went by the name 

 of "the distracted preacher," but says that at one of his meetings "the 

 people fell as if slain by a mighty weapon, and lay in such piles and 

 heaps that it was feared they would suffocate, and that in the woods." 

 So violent was his manner, stamping with his feet and smiting with 

 his hands, that he often broke down the stands erected for him in the 

 woods. Once, it is told of him, he was addressing a class-meeting in 

 the upper story of a dwelling-house, when the room below was crowd- 

 ed with worshipers, and, being in what the historian calls " one of his 

 big ways," he exclaimed, " I feel like breaking the trigger of hell ! " 

 and at the same time gave a tremendous stamp with his foot which 

 actually broke one of the joists. The people below, hearing the sud- 

 den crash, ran screaming to the door, some of them really imagining, 

 as the writer of all these events relates, "that hell had overtaken 

 them." f 



Granade was of an excitable temperament and vivid imagination. 

 His person was commanding, and, with a sounding voice and most im- 

 passioned manner, his oratory produced startling effects. 



Another feature of these excited meetings, which served still further 

 to intensify the feelings of the people who attended them for days and 

 nights together, was the part taken in them by children. Nothing was 

 more affecting to the congregations than the sight of a little boy or 

 girl on a log or stump, passionately exhorting the multitude. Thus, a 

 boy, who appeared to be about twelve years of age, is described as hav- 

 ing retired from the stand at Indian Creek, Ohio, during the sermon, 

 and, mounting a log and raising his voice to a high pitch, soon had 

 nearly all the congregation with him. " With tears streaming down 

 his cheeks, he cried aloud to the wicked, warning them of their dan- 

 ger, denouncing their certain doom if they persisted in their sins, ex- 

 pressing his love for their souls, and desire that they should turn to 

 the Lord and be saved." A man on each side held the boy up, and he 

 spoke for about an hour. When quite exhausted, and language failed 

 to give utterance to his emotions, the little orator raised his hands, 

 and, dropping his handkerchief wet with tears and perspiration, cried 

 out, " Thus, O sinner, shall you drop into hell, unless you forsake your 

 sins and turn to the Lord." At that moment, the writer of this account 

 continues, " Some fell like those who are shot in battle, and the work 

 spread in a manner which human language can not describe." \ 



* McFerrin's " Methodism in Tennessee." f Ibid. \ Ibid. 



