1802-1804, Anonymous/Unknown, Church Records, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Presbyterians
“While many within the bounds of those [southern and western] Presbyteries have been, as is hoped, effectually called…, there have been multitudes of instances in which great bodily agitations, and other circumstances out of the usual course of religious exercise, have attended the work….”
1802-1804, Correspondence, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Presbyterians
“On the first Sabbath, the day after my arrival, soon after I began to speak the [cries] agonies and distress of the convicted drew my attention. Their bodies had all the appearance of convulsions….”
1802-1804, Correspondence, Dancing Exercise, Laughing Exercise, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Presbyterians, Running Exercise
“We have now got the Silent, the jirking, the laughing, and the dancing also the [runing] & pointing exercises. Each one of these in their turns have staggered serious people but they are still as it were constrained to acknowledge this O Lord is thy work, and it is wondrous in our eyes….”
1802-1804, Correspondence, Falling Exercise, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Presbyterians, Robert G. Wilson
“Two days ago I beheld for the first time…a subject of the very singular bodily exercise common among us…. He wept sore for a long time, & was frequently wrought for a short space as men are in a convulsion fit….”
1802-1804, American Antiquarian Society, Correspondence, Dancing Exercise, Falling Exercise, Laughing Exercise, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Presbyterians
“The bodily exercise has assumed such a variety of shapes as to render it a truly herculian task to give an intelligent statement of it to any person who has never seen it. However, I do not hesitate to say, that it is evidently the Lord’s work, though marvellous in our eyes….”