uooney] KENTUCKY REVIVAL !'43 



God was at hand, that < Shrisl was about to set up his kingdom on earth, 

 and that this very work would terminate in the full manifestation of 

 the latter day of glory." 



From another authority, endowed perhaps with less of fervor but 

 with more of common sense, we get a description of these "exercises" 

 whichhas a familiar ring that seems to bring it very near home. "The 

 people remained on the ground day and night, listening to the most 

 exciting sermons, and engaging in a, mode of worship which consisted 

 in alternate crying, laughing, singing, and shouting, accompanied with 

 gesticulations of a most extraordinary character. Often there would 

 bean unusual outcry; some bursting forth into loud ejaculations of 

 thanksgiving; others exhorting their careless friends to 'turn to the 

 Lord;' some struck with terror, and hastening to escape; others trem- 

 bling, weeping, and swooning away, till every appearance of life was 

 gone, and the extremities of the body assumed the coldness of a corpse. 

 Atone meeting not less than a thousand persons fell to the ground, 

 apparently without sense or motion. It was common to see them shed 

 tears plentifully about an hour before they fell. They were then seized 

 with a general tremor, and sometimes they uttered one or two piercing 

 shrieks in the moment of falling. This latter phenomenon was common 

 to both sexes, to all ages, and to all sorts of characters." [Caswall, 

 Tin Prophet of tli>- Nineteenth Century, quoted by Bemy.) 



After a time these crazy performances in the sacred name of religion 

 became so much a matter of course that they were regularly classified in 

 categories as the rolls, the jerks, the barks, etc. " The rolling exercise 

 was affected by doubling themselves up, then rolling from one side to 

 the other like a hoop, or in extending the body horizontally and rolling 

 over and over in the filth like so many swine. The jerk consisted in 

 violent spasms and fcwistings of every part of the body. Sometimes 

 the head was twisted round so that the head was turned to the back, 

 and the countenance so much distorted that not one of its features was 

 to be recognized. When attacked by the jerks, they sometimes hopped 

 like frogs, and the face and limbs underwent the most hideous contor- 

 tions. The bark consisted in throwing themselves on all fours, growl- 

 ing, showing their teeth, and barking like dogs. Sometimes a number 

 of people crouching down in front of the minister continue to bark as 

 long as he preached. These last were supposed to be more especially 

 endowed witli the gifts of prophecy, dreams, rhapsodies, and visions of 

 angels.'' (Remy, Journey to Great Suit Lake City, I.) 



Twenty years later the jerking epidemic again broke out in Tennessee, 

 and is described in a letter by the famous visionary and revivalist, 

 Lorenzo Dow, who was then preaching in the same region. His descrip- 

 tion agrees with that given the author by old men who lived at this time 

 in eastern Tennessee. We quote from 1 >ow"s letter : " There commenced 

 a trembling among the wicked. One and a second fell from their seats. 

 I think for eleven hours there was no cessation of the loud cries. Of 



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