that a man can enjoy communion with God in the sanctuary, amidst the most distracting confusion? Is it right that three or four prayers should be offered aloud at the same time? Does prayer consist in the use of the most intemperate expressions, in which there is no meaning?"

L. S. I do not like these disorders; and I believe there are many of the friends of Mr. Bold who dislike them as much as you do. And I do not see why they should be held responsible for what they neither practise nor approve.

Th. If they would only let the public know that they disapproved of them, and endeavored to prevent them, the case would be different. But while this is not done; and while Mr. Strangeways is patronized, encouraged, and supported by Presbyterians; those who do not make known their disapprobation, when they have occasion to do it, will be reckoned, and ought to be reckoned, as the supporters of these things.

F. W. I like those things which you call disorders. I think much of the life and power of religion depends upon them. I do not like those professed friends of revivals "who retard and check glorious revivals of religion, by an over-righteous zeal for profound silence, or what they call order. I would not condemn a revival because much visible agitation and noise do not attend it. No, a sovereign God may even condescend to meet the unreasonable prejudices of men, and save their children, by what are called noiseless revivals. I doubt not that many favorable beginnings of revivals have been checked, by commanding the subjects of them to quench the Spirit, by not suffering them, or by causing them to believe it a sin, to give vent to their feelings." And I think, with Mr. Bold, that when God compels men to groan, you cannot hinder them.

Th. It is worthy of remark, however, that the necessity of groaning, or crying out, or falling down, or any other violent expressions of feeling, depend very much on the opinions which prevail as to the propriety of such things. They rarely happen where they are thought wrong, and are discouraged. But they often happen where they are thought much of. I blame the leaders, more than I do the subjects, of such things. For, I have no doubt, that ignorant and highly excitable persons are often in such a state of the nervous system, that groaning, crying out, falling down, and the like, are, for the time, involuntary and unavoidable. But these calls upon persons to pray out, several at a time, have no such excuse with those that encourage them; it must be a matter of calculation, in order to increase excitement. But it is a plain violation of the rules of order which the apostle gives in the 14th chap. of his first epistle to the Corinthians. He there forbids the exercise

of their spiritual gifts in any way that tends to confusion and disorder: "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints." And he closes his directions with this emphatic sentence: "Let all things be done decently and in order."

CHAPTER XLII.

Ardent. Do you think those bodily agitations of which we were speaking, can be any other than the work of the evil spirit? Do not the Scriptures speak of those "whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders ?"

Thoughtful. After allowing for some cases which are intended to deceive, I must believe there are a multitude in which the subjects must be acquitted from any such intention.

F. W. Thank you for that. I know that those who embrace your views of theology, have been in the habit of denouncing them as cases of imposture. But I regard them as the work of the Holy Spirit. When any one has an adequate sense of the condition of sinners, he must groan. When he feels the love of God shed abroad in his heart, what wonder if his strength is taken away, and he falls under the power of God? When he has strong desires for the salvation of sinners, what wonder if he is filled with pain, and agonizes in prayer for them?

Th. I do not regard these bodily agitations as a special work of the good Spirit, any more than as the special work of the evil spirit. I do not think there is any thing supernatural in them at all; or that there is necessarily any more praise or blame to be attached to them, than to a fit of the palsy. We may suppose that if a revival of religion begins, Satan will do all he can to bring it into disgrace. And as every act of extravagance and disorder does tend to bring disgrace upon that religion of which it is supposed to be a necessary accompaniment, we may suppose he will take special pains to promote every thing of an extravagant and disorderly nature. And if he can get good men, and good ministers, to countenance and promote such things, it will give them so much the greater currency. But that he should have power over the bodily organs now, as he had, in some cases, in our Saviour's time, I do not

think we are warranted to believe. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you," is the divine direction. He can do nothing with us, now, beyond temptation, without our own consent. If, therefore, we should see a religious excitement now, accompanied with all the bodily agitations with which the Kentucky revival was accompanied, in the beginning of this century; if we should see large assemblies shouting, and jumping, and falling, and groaning, and laughing, and dancing; if we should see them barking like dogs, and having their limbs distorted by the jerks, like those who have the disease called St. Vitus's dance; I should, indeed, think there was a species of insanity come upon them; but I should not think there was, of course, any more of Satanic influence than there is often exerted among us, in promoting false conversions, and unfounded hopes. F. W. Nor any more influence of the Holy Spirit, I suppose. Th. Certainly not. For I think that a quiet state of body and mind is most favorable to the influence of the Holy Spirit; and that every thing agitating or exciting, beyond what is necessary to call attention to the truth, is unfriendly to a work of grace. Such strange bodily agitations, as turn the attention' of people from themselves and their own hearts, to the external condition of things around them, would be exceedingly unfavorable to the promotion of true religion. We may derive some profit, I think, from what was taught the Prophet Elijah: "And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice." It was the last, and not the others, that indicated the presence of God. Those who are pleased with noise seem not to know what are indications of the divine presence. And if the heavenly dove should condescend to come among them, they take the ready means to drive him away.

F. W. You bear rather hard upon us, I confess. I thought, a little while ago, that you were inclined to be a little charitable, for once. But now you seem to be just as uncharitable

as ever.

Th. I cannot, with the Bible for my guide, think well of a religion which consists in noise, or is promoted by noise.

Ard. I should like to hear some farther reasons for the opinion you have expressed in relation to these bodily agitations. It will be some relief to my mind, if I can be convinced

they are not all either cases of imposture or of Satanic influ

ence.

Th. The imagination is known to have great influence on the nerves of many people, so that almost any effect which they expect to have produced upon them by an operation, will be produced when they only imagine the operation to take place, as well as when it actually takes place. This is abundantly shown by well-attested facts, in a work I have seen. When Mesmer, in the last century, pretended to discover animal magnetism, and Franklin was appointed to examine into his pretensions, he made a number of experiments, which showed the power of imagination upon the nervous system, to a degree which was then quite astonishing. Several subjects of the magnetic influence, having been greatly affected by it, as they thought, were afterwards affected in the same manner, when they only imagined that the same operation was performed upon them, though nothing was done. Those who did not believe in the reality of the discovery, were subjected to the operations without effect. One wholly ignorant of the system cured a sick friend, by making him believe he understood it, and performing a few unmeaning manipulations about him. Mesmer affirmed that he could magnetize a tree, so that every one approaching it within a given time, should fall in a swoon or convulsions. The tree was accordingly operated upon, and a man was led blindfolded to a different tree, thinking it was the right one, and fell down accordingly. One case is related as follows: " A woman was requested to take her seat by the door of the chamber, which was shut, with her sight at liberty, and was then made to believe that the physician would magnetize the door on the opposite side. She had scarcely been seated a minute before she began to shiver, her breathing soon became hurried, she stretched out her arms behind her back, writhing them strongly, and bending her body forward; a general tremor of the whole body came on; the chattering of her teeth was so loud as to be heard out of the room; and she bit her hand so as to leave the marks of her teeth in it. But the magnetizer was not near," nor was any thing done but to make her believe she was magnetized.

A missionary among a nation of savages, says: "There is a class of people who pretend to have intercourse with departed spirits, by which they are able to kill, by incantation, any person on whom their anger may fall; and it is a fact that numbers fall a prey to their confidence in the efficacy of the curses of these men, and pine under the influence of despair, and die."

In each of these cases, it is evident that imagination is the sole cause of these effects. They are not feigned; but in the

particular state of mind of those persons, they are involuntary and irresistible. They believe that they shall be affected in this manner; the idea is formed in their imaginations, and the nerves are acted upon precisely as though what they conceived were real, and the muscular effects follow.

Now, suppose a preacher, in whom his people have confidence, to hold a protracted meeting. Suppose he teaches that where the Spirit operates in a powerful manner, there will be groaning, falling, and cries, loss of strength for hours, and then a joyful resuscitation to those who are converted. Suppose he keeps the people under the influence of every possible means to excite their animal feelings, and keep their minds strained intensely for hours in succession, or for whole days and nights; have we not reason to expect these effects to be produced; and when one instance has occurred, and is made much of, as a signal display of divine power, that others would follow, in rapid succession, and in great numbers? And if these are hailed as converts, and taught to rejoice in their deliverance from condemnation, and hear a multitude of voices giving thanks for their conversion, will not each fully believe that he has been a subject of the special operation of the Holy Spirit? And yet, would there be any thing in it beyond the power of the imagination upon the nerves?

The metallic tractors of

My author has further illustrations. an American physician relieved many persons of severe pains, in both America and Europe, sometimes by being drawn over the part affected, and sometimes by being only pointed at it. It was proposed to test them, by making a pair of wood, only painted so as to appear like those of metal. They were found equally efficacious as the metallic, provided only that the patients supposed them metallic. "A servant girl, afflicted with a most acute head-ache, which had rendered her nights altogether restless for nearly a fortnight, readily submitted to be pointed at with these wooden tractors. The operators moved them round her head, but never touched her. In four minutes she felt a chilliness in the head; in a minute or two more, she felt as though cold water were running down the temples, and the pain was diminished; in ten minutes more she declared that the head-ache was entirely gone; and the next day she returned to express her thanks to her benefactors for the good sleep she had enjoyed through the night." "On the same principle was the belief in the efficacy of the royal touch for the cure of the scrofula, maintained in England for a period of almost seven hundred years. One day in seven was set apart for the king to administer healing mercy to his subjects; many thousands were touched and cured. When the practice was abandoned,