“I presume not to condemn the persons thus influenced [by the jerks], nor to detract from the sincerity of their devotion; but my wish is to remove the delusion of supposing it to be a bodily disease, and leave the intrinsic merits of the subject to Him, who “searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of the children of men….”
“The phenomenon of…suddenly falling or sinking down, under religious exercises, has not been uncommon in times of great excitement…. But the bodily agitation called the jerks is a very different affection….”
“What the real cause of this singular phenomenon is has been a matter of dispute. It seems to me to have been one of those demonical possessions which were so numerous in the days of the Savior and we…have reasons to believe that they still exist and not in small numbers.”
“The duration of this epidemic was much shorter than that of most of those in Europe. In a little more than a twelve-month, it had almost entirely disappeared…. It was to the scenes enacted at this time, we believe, that the epithet ‘Jerks’ was first applied.”
“[T]he bodily exercise, and the disorders to which it gave rise were of unspeakable injury to the church in that day….”
