USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. II pt 1 > Part 11
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EBENEZER is enumerated among the vacant churches at the beginning of this century, unable to support a pastor, and so also in the Assembly's minutes in 1808. It was not over ten miles in a direct line from Bethesda, and was within reach of Rev. Mr. Walker. Mr. Harris says : "For twenty- five years, in connection with Bethesda, he also ministered at Ebenezer Church with the same degree of acceptance and success as here in his pastorate." As Ebenezer does not apply to Pres- bytery for supplies, it depended probably upon him. Its statistics, as given in different years, enumerate 35, 59, 54, 42 and 43 communicants. Infant baptisms, 7 and II.
BEERSHEBA, in York, was under the charge of Rev. George G. McWhorter, in connection with Bethel, until September, 1801, when, with the consent of the churches, he resigned his charge and removed to Salem, on Black River. The ruling elders at this time were John Peters, John Chambers, John Venable, and Robert Kennedy. Beersheba Church reported 130 members in communion in 1810. In 1802 both churches petitioned for supplies. They both ask and obtain leave to employ the Rev. Humphrey Hunter, of Concord Presbytery, who supplied the pulpit for one or more years. Beersheba asks leave in September, 1805, to call Rev. Jas. S. Adams, then a member of the Charleston Association. The leave is granted, provided Mr. Adams ob- tain a dismission from the Association and join the Presby- tery. In September, 1806, they obtain leave to continue Mr. Adams as their stated supply. Leave is again asked and
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obtained to the same effect in September, 1807. He seems to have continued as their supply for several years, dividing his time between this church and Olney, across the line in North Carolina. Mr. Adams obtained his dismission from the Congregational Association in 1809.
UNITY CHURCH, in the Old Indian Reservation, was a part of the charge of the Rev. John Brown in connection with Waxhaw. It became vacant by his removal in 1803. It was supplied by Humphrey Hunter, of North Carolina, in 1805 ; by Mr. Foster and Geo. Reid in 1807, and by Mr. Walker in 1808. The second regular sessions of the First Presbytery of South Carolina were held at this church from the 29th of September to the Ist of October, 1800, and the sixteenth regular sessions from September 28th to the 30th in 1807.
ยท SHILOH (formerly Calvary), on King's Creek, west of Bethel, on the North Carolina line, sought supplies at the beginning of this century. W. C. Davis preached to it by Presbyterial appointment in 1807 and 1808, but it was chiefly dependent on the services of Rev. Jas. S. Adams, who ministered to it for some years, from time to time.
BETHEL CHURCH (York) was under the pastoral care of Rev. Geo. G. McWhorter, in connection with Beersheba, until the 29th of September, 1801. By permission of the Pres- bytery it was supplied by the Rev. Humphrey Hunter, from North Carolina, for one or two years. Mr. Walker, Mr. Neely, Mr. Geo. Reid, are appointed as supplies for it in 1807 and 1808. During this vacancy the present church building was erected-the third since the organization of the church. Other ministers sprung from this church in addition to those mentioned. (Vol. 1, pp. 605, 607.) Only one of whom should be mentioned here, viz: Thos. H. Price, whom we have found as minister on James Island, originated in this congregation.
As we pass over the Catawba into Lancaster District, we meet first with that ancient church often called OLD WAXHAW. In the beginning of this century the Rev. John Brown was pastor of this church and of Unity, giving to this last one- fourth part of his time. During his ministry, in May, 1302, occurred a memorable revival of religion, the tradition of which still lingers in the memories of many, and is called "the old revival." The following letters, written by men whose names cannot be mentioned without respect, and who were wit-
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nesses of these extraordinary . scenes, will convey some faint idea of their character.
Dr. Samuel E. McCorcle was a man of extraordinary theo- logical attainments, and had made acquisitions in science and literature above the majority of his cotemporaries. He par- ticipated in these meetings, which were now held in various congregations, in imitation of those in Kentucky. He believed in revivals as extraordinary outpourings of the Holy Spirit, but was strongly prejudiced against considering "the exercises " as a part of the Spirit's work, and was inclined to doubt, because of these, whether the work which had now commenced was of God or not. He held out a long time, the disorders he witnessed giving new strength to his doubts. But at a meeting he was attending at Bell's Mills, in North Carolina, in January, 1802, his own son was among those who were struck down, and he was sent for to come and pray for him. This turned his thoughts in a new direction, and the various extraordinary cases he witnessed at that meeting at length removed the difficulties under which he labored. He attended the meetings at Third Creek and the Cross-Roads, in Iredell and at New Providence, N. C., of which he gives some account, preached the opening sermon at the camp- meeting at Waxhaw, but relies for a description of its progress upon the following
TESTIMONY OF REV. JNO. M'GREADY.
May 28, 1802.
"I have just returned from a general meeting (so called because different congregations and different denominations were invited to join in it) at Waxhaw's, in South Carolina, which commenced on Friday, 2Ist instant, and closed on the ensuing Tuesday.
"About twenty ministers of different denominations attended, one hundred and twenty wagons, twenty carts, and eight carriages, and by a rough computation, about three thousand five hundred persons, of whom more than one hundred were exercised on the occasion, few of whom received the sensible comfort of religion. I am happy that I attended, because I have returned with answers to two or three objections which were made here against the least degree of divine agency in this work. Those objections originated from facts that had taken place at two common sacramental occasions which I
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had just before attended-one in the vicinity, the other at home. At the first of these, the opposers were numerous, wretched, restless and daring. They cursed, and scoffed, and threatened, and fortified themselves with ardent spirits to pre- vent the stroke or animate for opposition. And yet not one of them was struck down. At the other sacrament a number of females were afflicted, but not one man. These circum- stances could not escape observation, united with another, viz : that it is at the close of all our meetings, when the body is debilitated, and the mind impressed with a long series of dreadful sights and sounds, that by far the greater number fall.
" At Waxhaw's I saw these objections vanish away. About twenty persons fell the first day ; the far greater num- ber throughout the whole occasion were men, and few op- posers escaped ; not less than twelve of the most notorious fell. The second person that I saw struck was a man who had boasted that he would not fall. However, struck he was, fled, fell, was found and brought to a tent, where I saw him, and heard him cry for mercy. Curiosity had compelled another to attend, and the fear of falling had induced him to drink freely, so that it was doubtful when he was struck down, what was the true cause. Time determined. I saw him twelve hours after, and he was trying in ardent language to express his repentance, love, joy, gratitude, resolution and hope. I saw another, soon after he had fallen. His com- panion was gazing on. A respectable by-stander' told me that they were racing horses into the encampment that morn- ing, that they were swearing and talking profanely, that the fallen had boasted that nothing but his bottle should ever bring him down, and that he would not, for the value of the whole camp be degraded by falling for anything else. Another was struck down, and by one of the ministers (who told me) he was urged to pray. This he peremptorily refused. He was urged again, and then declared that he would rather be damned than pray. Such a comment on the enmity and pride of the human heart I never heard before. After lying all night on the ground, he crept away the next morning, and I heard no more of him.
" A remarkable occurrence took place on my return, no: far from the encampment. A young man was exercised in a thick wood ; he was found, and then called for his relatives
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and neighbors, to whom he gave a very ardent exhortation. His exercises were joyful, as they respected himself, but became painful when his thoughts turned on his thoughtless or opposing relatives and neighbors. But the most singular circumstance was his own solemn declaration that he had ex- perienced this painful work in that very wood long before he had ever seen it in others ; and, therefore, he cried out with unusual animation, ' O, my friends, this work is the work of God, and not sympathy, as some of you suppose.' "
DR. FURMAN'S LETTER.
The following letter from Rev. Dr. Furman, of Charleston, to Dr. Rippon, of London, is a description of the same meet- ing by a distinguished and well-known minister of the Baptist Church, who was present at and a participant in its religious exercises :
CHARLESTON, August 11, 1802. " Rev. and Dear Sir :
" Having promised you some information respecting the extraordinary meeting at the Waxhaws, to which I purposed going at the time I wrote, in May, and having accordingly attended it, I now sit down to perform my promise.
It was appointed by the Presbyterian clergy in that part of the country, but clergymen of other denominations were invited to it, and it was proposed to be conducted on the same principles and plan with those held in Kentucky. The place of meeting is about one hundred and seventy miles from Charleston, in the midst of a large settlement of Presbyte- rians, but not far distant from some congregations of Baptists and Methodists. This Presbyterian congregation is one of the first which were formed in the upper part of this State, has for its pastor a Mr. Brown, who is a respectable character and is furnished with a commodious place of worship. But as the place of worship would not be in any wise equal to the numbers expected, a place was chosen in the forest for an encampment. The numbers which assembled from various parts of the country formed a very large congregation, the amount of which has been variously estimated; to me there appeared to be three thousand or perhaps four thousand per-
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sons, but some supposed there were seven thousand or eight thousand. My information respecting the number of minis- ters who attended, was probably not correct, but from what I observed and collected from others, there were eleven Presby- terians, four Baptists and three Methodists. The encamp- ment was laid out in an oblong form, extending from the top of a hill down the south side of it, toward a stream of water which ran at the bottom in an eastern direction, including a vacant space of about three hundred yards in length and one hundred and fifty in breadth. Lines of tents were erected on every side of this space, and between them, and behind, were the waggons and riding carriages placed, the space itself being reserved for the assembling of the congregation, or congre- gations rather, to attend public worship. Two stands were fixed on for this purpose; at the one a stage was erected under some lofty trees, which afforded an ample shade; at the. other, which was not so well provided for with shade, a. waggon was placed for the rostrum.
" The public service began on Friday afternoon, the 21st of May, with a sermon by the Rev. Dr. McCorcle, of the Pres- byterian Church, after which the congregation was dismissed, but at the same time the hearers were informed that they would be visited at their tents and exhorted by the ministers, during the course of the evening. To this information an exhortation was added, that they would improve the time in religious conversation, earnest prayer and singing the praise of God. This mode of improving the time both by the min- isters and a large proportion of the hearers was strictly adhered to; not only were exhortations given, but many sermons were also preached along the lines in the evening, and the exercises continued by the ministers in general tiil midnight, and by the Methodist ministers among their adhe- rents nearly or quite all the night.
On Saturday morning the ministers assembled after an early breakfast and appointed a committee to arrange the services for that day and the two following. The committee consisted wholly of Presbyterian Ministers. They soon performed the work of their appointment and assigned the several ministers present their respective parts of service. By this arrangement the public services were appointed at each stand for that day ; three for the Sabbath, together with the administration of the communion, at a place a little distant
!
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from the encampment, and two at each stand again for Mon- day. The intervals and evenings in particular to be improved in the same manner as on the former day. Necessary busi- ness calling me away on Sunday evening, I did not see the conclusion of the meeting. This, however, I can say, it was conducted with much solemnity while I was at it, and the engagedness of the people appeared to be great. Many seemed to be seriously concerned for the salvation of their souls, and the preaching and exhortation of the ministers in general were well calculated to inspire right sentiments and make right impressions.
In the intervals of public worship the voice of praise was heard among the tents in every direction, and frequently that of prayer by private Christians. The communion service was performed with much apparent devotion while I attended, which was at the serving of the first table. The Presbyterians and the Methodists sat down together, but the Baptists, on the principle which has generally governed them on this sub- ject, abstained.
Several persons suffered, at this meeting, those bodily affections which have been before experienced in Kentucky, North Carolina, and at other places where the extraordinary revivals in religion within this year or two have taken place. Some of them fell instantaneously, as though struck with lightning, and continued insensible for a length of time; others were more mildly affected, and soon recovered their bodily strength, with a proper command of their mental powers. Deep conviction for sin, and apprehension of the wrath of God was professed by the chief of them at first, and several of them afterwards appeared to have a joyful sense of pardoning mercy through a Reedemer. Others continued under a sense of condemnation after those extraordinary bodily affections ceased, and some from the first appeared to be more affected with the greatness and goodness of God, and with the love of Christ than with apprehensions of Divine wrath. In a few cases there were indications, as I.conceived, of enthusiasm and even affectation, but in others a strong evidence of supernatural power and gracious influence. Sev- eral received the impression in their tents, others in a still more retired situation, quite withdrawn from company, some who had been to that moment in opposition to what was thus going on under the character of the work of God, and others
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who had been till then careless. The number of persons thus affected while I was present was not great in proportion to the multitude attending. I have, indeed, been informed several more were affected the evening after I came away and the next day, but in all, they could not be equal to the pro- portional numbers which were thus affected at some other meetings, especially in Kentucky. Several, indeed a very considerable number, had gone seventy or eighty miles from the lower part of this State to attend this meeting. Of these, a pretty large proportion came under the above described im- pressions, and since their return to their homes an extra- ordinary revival has taken place in the congregation to which they belong. It has spread also across the upper parts of this State, in a western direction. There are some favorable ap- pearances in several of the Baptist churches, but my accounts of them are not particular enough to be transmitted. Taking it for granted that you have seen the publication entitled "Surprising Accounts," by Woodward, of Philadelphia, con- taining the accounts of revivals in Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, I therefore say nothing of them ; but only that the work in North Carolina increases greatly; opposition however is made by many, and I am informed that the con- gregation of which I have been writing so much (that at the Waxhaws) is likely to be divided on account of it, and that Mr. Brown has been shut out of the place of worship since the meeting was held there, by some, I suppose, a majority, of his elders and adherents. A particular reason of the offense taken by them, as I have understood, was the practice of communing with the Methodists. Having mentioned this denomination frequently, I think it proper to say that it is that class of Methodists who are followers of Mr. Wesley, which is intended ; few of the followers of Mr. Whitfield are to be found in the United States, not at least as congregations. These general meetings have a great tendency to excite the attention and engage it to religion. Were there no other argument in their favor, this alone would carry great weight with a reflecting mind, but there are many more which may be urged. At the same time it must be conceded that there are some incidental evils which attend them and give pain to one who feels a just regard for religion. Men of an enthusi- astic disposition have a favorable opportunity at them of diffu- sing their spirit, and they do not fail to improve the opportu-
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nity for this purpose, and the too free intercourse between the sexes in such an encampment is unfavorable. However, I hope the direct good obtained from these meetings will much more than counterbalance the incidental evil.
" I am reverend and dear sir, your friend and servant in the Gospel,
RICHARD FURMAN."*
The revivals of this period were attended with bodily agi- tations and nervous excitement far more perhaps than at any other. But in the Carolinas the bodily exercises never pro- ceeded to such extravagant and even frightful extreme as in the West, and especially in Kentucky. There was exhibited as Dr. Davidson in his excellent history of the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky has described them, the falling exercise, the jerkings, the rolling, the running, the dancing, the barking exercise, to which he adds visions and trances. In the falling exercise some fell suddenly as if struck by an invisible power, while others were seized with a universal tremor before they fell. Many uttered loud shrieks in their prostrate state, or cries of " glory !" Some were more or less. convulsed after they fell, drumming with their heels, or with their bodies bouncing on the floor, and sometimes there was a prancing over the benches, possibly from an attempt to resist the impulse before they actually fell. They would remain in this state from fifteen minutes to two or three hours. And the numbers so affected would be counted by hundreds, and was computed in one instance by thousands. This falling under deep religious impression had occurred before, as under Whitefield. (See vol. I of this work, p. 239, the case of Mr. Bull.) So in the days of Edwards and the Tennents. The jerks first occurred at a sacrament in East Tennessee, and were quickly propagated. In the least violent cases it was a jerking of the forearm from the elbow down- wards-quick, sudden, apparently uncontrolable. It some- times extended to other members, the head would be thrown violently backward and forward, or from side to side, or from right to left, with extreme velocity so that scarcely a feature could be discovered. In the rolling exercise the head and heels would be drawn together, and the person would roll
*Benedict's History of the Baptists, vol. II., p. 167, Boston Edition, of 1813.
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like a wheel, or turn over and over sideways like a log. In the running exercise the person would run with amazing swiftness, leaping over obstacles with wondrous agility, pran- cing over benches fo some time and perhaps falling at last in a swoon. Again some would leap and jump without any measured step, or dance with a gentle and not ungraceful motion to a lively tune. To all human appearance these acts were involuntary and there are many examples adduced to show that they were not under the control of the will, as even ungodly men were struck down and yet were not con- verted, or when persons resolved that they would resist their impulses, but were unable. Instances are on record were persons were so seized when they were entirely alone, when they were at their own homes, and stayed away from those places of public concourse that they might avoid those singular affections and the exposure they would occasion.
There was also in some of those meetings great confusion. The multitude was so great that different preachers addressed them from different stands, and then in those seasons of excitement they would break into groups, the voice of the preacher disregarded, each knot of people conducting their worship, each as seemed to them good. On some occasions the female part of the worshippers laid aside that delicacy, reserve and self-respect that belonged to them and in the warmth of affection on either side intercourse between the sexes was without that decorum which the usages of society and nature itself imposes. These things were magnified by opposers and rules of conduct were at length framed by the church-leaders and their assistants for the abatement of these evils.
If our space would allow us we might bring forward indi- vidual cases to substantiate what we have mentioned thus generally. But we must refer the curious reader to the compilation Dr. Davidson has made from various sources. There is enough that is strange without reverting to the tes- timony of the eccentric Lorenzo Dow, who says, " I have passed a meeting-house where I observed the undergrowth had been cut for a camp meeting, and from fifty to a hundred saplings had been left breast high, on purpose for the people, who were jerked to hold on by. I observed where they had held on, they had kicked up the earth as a horse stamping flies. It may well be suspected that Lorenzo Dow was
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imposed upon, and that the saplings were left as hitching posts for horses.
The question is left us as to whether these phenomena were natural or supernatural, and if the latter, whether they were from a divine source, or the work of " him who lieth in wait to deceive."
After a review of all that, Dr. George Baxter, of Virginia, who, when entering the ministry, spent a month in Kentucky in attendance upon these meetings, says of them, (the London Christian Observer says) : "It is a well-known fact, that, in general, these strange emotions are not so involuntary as they appear to be ; for it has been usually found to be very easy for the preachers to repress them whenever they are inclined to do so." "Let us request any one to weigh well this ques- tion, whether he can ascribe to God, the God of order and wisdom, such wild and disorderly effects as have been de- scribed ? May they not even be the devices of that enemy, who is emphatically called in scripture ' the deceiver' of the world, who would thus delude men into a false estimate of their spiritual state, and also bring into disrepute the com- mon, but far more valuable, effects produced by the zealous and faithful preaching of the gospel ? " (Vol. I, p. 672.) "By their fruits ye shall know them." Dr. Baxter testifies, that "the characters of Kentucky travelers were entirely changed ; that such men became as remarkable for sobriety as they had been for dissoluteness. I found Kentucky, to appearance, the most moral place I had ever seen. A religious awe seemed to pervade the country; and some deistical charac- ters had confessed that, from whatever cause the revival might proceed, it made the people better." The great num- ber of sound conversions, the fruits of which were abiding, is a testimony that the real agency was not from beneath.
Were these strange bodily affections, then, the special and direct effects of the Spirit of God? This question must be answered in the negative. "God is not the author of con- fusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." Even in the day of miracle the Corinthian Church is guarded against such scenes of confusion. Even then "the spirits of the prophets were subject to the prophets," and the direction was " Let all things be done decently and in order."
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