“I can never forget one Sabbath, standing on a floor to preach: Brother Christie, a pious and upright man, the class-leader, was standing close by me; and while we were repeating and singing the first hymn, he was taken with the jerks, knocked the hymn book out of my hand, and gave my unfortunate nose a hard rap….”
“As for jerking, dancing, & barking, they were only fungi, which grew out of the revival in its state of decay & ought never to be imputed to the work itself….”
“We ought, however, to have remembered that bodily convulsions, the jirks, &c. are never mentioned in scripture, as evidences of a graceless state, or a delusion of the devil; nor yet as evidences of a work of God’s grace. In a religious view, we ought to have thought but little of them….”
“[John Bryant Sr.] While feeling opposed [to Shaker worship practices] was taken with the jirks…. He seized a buckeye sapling, but was jerked into willing obedience & now has full faith in dancing!”
“There were skeptics who thought they could keep from jerking if they wished, but if any one made sport of it, they were sure to have it the next time they were in a crowd. “
