''SPIRIT'' WRITING. 521 



dinary power of voice, enough to appall tlie heart of the most 

 stout-hearted." Of its subjective side we have a vivid descrip- 

 tion from the pen of Robert Baxter, who was for a while one of 

 Irving's leading prophets, but afterward, finding that the prophe- 

 cies which his mouth uttered did not come true, he ascribed them 

 to " lying spirits." He thus describes his own original expe- 

 rience : 



" After one or two brethren had read and prayed, Mr. T 



was made to speak two or three words very distinctly and with 

 an energy and depth of tone which seemed to me extraordinary, 

 and fell upon me as a supernatural utterance which I ascribed to 

 the power of God. The words were in a tongue I did not under- 

 stand. In a few minutes Miss E. C broke out in an utterance 



in English which, as to matter and manner and the influence it 

 had upon me, I at once bowed to as the utterance of the Spirit 

 of God. Those who have heard the powerful and commanding 

 utterance need no description ; but they who have not, may con- 

 ceive what an unnatural and unaccustomed tone of voice, an in- 

 tense and riveting power of expression, with the declaration of a 

 cutting rebuke to all who were present, and applicable to my own 

 state of mind in particular, would effect upon me and upon 

 others who were come together expecting to hear the voice of 

 the Spirit of God. In the midst of the feeling of awe and rever- 

 ence which this produced I was myself seized upon by the power, 

 and in much struggling against it was made to cry out and my- 

 self to give forth a confession of my own sin in the matter for 

 which we were rebuked. ... I was overwhelmed by this occur- 

 rence. . . . There was in me at the time of the utterance very great 

 excitement, and yet I was distinctly conscious of a power acting 

 upon me beyond the mere power of excitement. So distinct was 

 the power from the excitement that in all my trouble and doubt 

 about it I never could attribute the whole to excitement. ... In 

 the utterances of the power which subsequently occurred many 

 were accompanied by the flashing in of conviction upon my mind, 

 like lightning rooting itself in the earth ; while other utterances, 

 not being so accompanied, only acted in the way of an authorita- 

 tive communication." At another time he was reading the Bible. 

 " As I read, the power came upon me and I was made to read in 

 the power, my voice raised far beyond its natural pitch, and with 

 constrained repetition of parts and with the same inward uplift- 

 ing which at the presence of the power I had always before 

 experienced." 



So far as I know, there exists no written record of the 

 "tongues" spoken by the Irvingites, but the few specimens of 

 their " prophecies " which I have seen present identically the 

 same characteristics as those found in Mr. Le Baron's utterances 



