occurring at Camp- Meetings. 113 



motions of body. These motions are of a mixed kind, 

 voluntary and involuntary. Sensation is not destroyed, 

 nor the will suspended, but the inordinate re-action of 

 the moral faculty upon the common sensorium, with 

 equal suddenness and force, induces confused exercises 

 of mind and mixed motions of body. 



The stimulus of more common passions, as those of 

 patriotism, of love, of social joy or grief, not unfre- 

 quently produce the most exalted acts of virtue, and the 

 most debasing examples of vice. Man is the creature 

 of feeling ; hence, in sacred writ, the heart of man is 

 addressed as the seat of his affections, both virtuous and 

 vicious; and the moral faculty is represented by " the 

 light that lighteth every man that cometh into the 

 world*." 



A serious contemplation of the attributes of Deity 

 gives rise to the most exalted sentiments of which the 

 human mind is susceptible, and the force of religious 

 excitement is oftentimes irresistible. Neither persecu- 

 tion nor famine could destroy it. Witness the chris- 

 tian martyrs, who suffered every torture which the evil 

 genius of the age could invent, and were finally con- 

 sumed at the stake, without evincing a single sensation 

 of pain or regret ; nay, who died exulting in the sacri- 

 fice of their lives, through an invincible sense of devo- 

 tion. Mahometans and Pagans also endure many pri- 

 vations in their systems of devotion, and thousands of 

 them have surrendered their lives to the enemies of their 



* Sec Rush's Inquiries, vol. ii, p. 4, 

 VOL. III. PART I. P 



