and which, above all other things, was the nearest to their hearts. Here they occupied themselves in improving their new settlement, and providing for their comfortable subsistence; and here they held their solemn meetings, and offered up their devotions to God, full three years and a half, until the way was prepared for the commencement of their testimony to the world, in the spring of the year 1780.

In the year 1779, Mother Ann often encouraged her companions, by telling them that the time was just at hand when many would come and embrace the gospel, and directed them to make provisions for it, which they did according to their abilities. This same year, remarkable revival of religion commenced in New-Lebanon and the adjacent towns, attended with many extraordinary circumstances of conviction, which greatly awakened the zeal of preachers} and people. Many were powerfully wrought upon, both in body and spirit, and deeply convicted of their fallen state. Many also, who had been professors of religion, began to see the false foundation on which they had hitherto built their hopes of salvation. Many were favored with gifts of visions and prophecies, by which they saw and testified that the day of redemption was at hand, that the second coming of Christ was nigh, even at the door; and their meetings resounded with loud cries to God for his kingdom

to come.

Their meetings were also attended with great power of God, and a strong testimony against all sin; and the various exercises and gifts of the spirit among the people, manifested the most convincing evidences of a real work of God. Some, under a deep conviction of their sins, were crying for mercy; others felt unspeakably happy in the joyful visions and revelations of the glory of the latter day, and of the commencement of the kingdom of Christ on earth, which was to put an end to wars and fightings, and all manner of violence, restore peace on earth, make an end of sin, bring in everlasting righteousness, and gather the saints into one harmonious communion.

The work was powerful and swift, but of short duration. In a few months their visions and prophecies ceased, the extraordinary power of their testimony seemed to be at an end, and none of those things of which they had testified, as yet appeared. In this situation they were filled with deep distress and anxiety of mind; yet still retained their confidence in the near approach of Christ's kingdom, and continued their assemblies with earnest prayers, and exhortations, encouraging one another to maintain their faith and hope, to wait with patience, to pray and not faint.

This was the state of the people in the spring of 1780, when some of them providentially visited Mother Ann and her little family, and were soon convinced that they were in the very work for

which they themselves had been so earnestly praying, and for which they had been looking and waiting with such ardent expectations. Attracted by the report of these, others were induced to visit them; and the fame of these strange people, who lived in this obscure corner in the wilderness, soon extended far and wide. Many resorted to see them, from New-Lebanon and the country round, and when they heard the new and living testimony, and saw the various and extraordinary operations of Divine Power among them, they were fully confirmed in the belief, that Christ had, in very deed, appeared again on earth. Many from various parts of the country, and of almost every denominaton, embraced the faith of the society.

Many of the new converts, as might be expected, were filled with great power and zeal; but for the want of experience and understanding, they were not able, at all times, to exercise their zeal according to the dictates of wisdom. Many times they exhibited a degree of wildness and enthusiasm in their conduct, which, to the beholders, appeared like the greatest inconsistency and delusion, and especially to such as trusted in the forms of religion, while they were ignorant of its internal power. To the natural man, such views of a new and singular manifestation of religion, were very natural; especially as its light and testimony struck at the very root and foundation of the fallen nature of man.

These things, however, were viewed in a very different light by those who were spiritually minded. But if it sometimes happened that irregularities took place, which were inconsistent with the faith of the testimony, they were discountenanced by the leading characters of the society. The work was all new to those who embraced it, and the leaders being few in number, and the work extensive, irregularities could not always be foreseen nor prevented. And where the destruction of the old heavens, with all their false systems, and of the old earth with all its corruption and wickedness, was beginning to take place in the soul, in order to establish the new in the place thereof, it must necessarily produce a commotion in the human system, like the clashing of two opposite elements. These effects will always be viewed in their true light, by those who are divinely enlightened, and who are able to discern the true source from whence they proceed.

Such a remarkable event, however, could not take place without exciting great agitation in the public mind. Hence many conjectures were in circulation concerning these strange people, and especially concerning their female leader. By some she was strongly suspected of witchcraft, and the old accusation was in substance revived; "She casteth out devils by Beelzebub." But as it was a time of wars and fightings, (the country being then engaged in its revolutionary struggle,) and those who received the testimony, were

averse to war, advantage was taken of this circumstance to represent them as enemies to the country. Accordingly they were accused of maintaining a secret correspondence with the enemy, and the charge of treason was publicly alledged against them. In consequence of these accusations, which had no foundation, but in the enmity of a persecuting spirit, Mother Ann, and a number of the leading characters were, in the month of July following, imprisoned in Albany.*

Tho the charge of treason was the ostensible cause of this imprisonment; yet it appeared evident that the real object of their accusers was, to break up the society, and thereby suppress the growing testimony. But so far from effecting this object, the testimony had afterwards a more rapid and extensive circulation than before. For when it was once understood that an innocent people were actually thrown into prison, on account of their religion, the circumstance naturally excited great sympathy among the more considerate part of the community, and great inquiries were made concerning the religious tenets of a people who were judged deserving of such harsh treatment.

Hence they were visited by multitudes of people from various] quarters, and from many miles distant; and every honest and candid enquirer was soon convinced, not only of the innocence of the people, but of the truth of their testimony. There were also many sensible men who expressed their disapprobation of these intolerant proceedings against an innocent people, for no other cause, in reality, than their religious faith and testimony, and especially at a time when the nation itself was contending for its civil and religious rights. And all who were seriously awakened to a feeling sense of their loss from God, and of their need of salvation, and who were willing to endure the cross of Christ, regard less of popular clamor and the enmity of persecutors, readily em braced the testimony.

Their enemies were highly offended when they saw their main object defeated by this success of the testimony. And as Mother Ann was the founder and principal leader of this new sect, which was "every where spoken against," they naturally concluded that, by separating her from her followers, they would soon be dispersed, and the society come to an end. Accordingly, about the middle of August, they sent her down the river, with a view to banish her to the British army, which was then in New-York. But not being able to accomplish their object, she was landed at Poughkeepsie, and imprisoned in the jail of that town. But notwithstanding all

*Nothing could be more unjust and unfounded than this charge Mother Ann, at the commencement of the war, and frequently afterwards, testified by the spirit of prophecy, that it would terminate in the separation of the colonies from the British government; that liberty of conscience would be established in this country; and that the way would be tus prepared for the building up of Christ's Kingdom in this favored land. She could not therefore act against her own testimony.

these endeavors to destroy the society and stop the progress of the testimony, it still continued to increase by a constant accession of numbers from various quarters.

About the 20th of December following, those who had been confined in Albany, were released without any trial; having been confined five months, without any shadow of evidence to justify their imprisonment. Being now released, they visited Mother Ann at Poughkeepsie, and through their intercession with Gov. Geo. Clinton, who had not before been made acquainted with these circumstances, she was released, about the last of December. Thus ended the only imprisonment that Mother Ann suffered in America; an imprisonment which was designed to suppress her influence, and check the progress of the society; but through the overruling hand of Divine Providence, it was the occasion of a far more extensive circulation of her testimony, and a greater increase of the society, than any event that had ever before taken place.

After Mother Ann and her companions were released from prison, they returned to Watervliet, where they spent the remainder of the winter and spring, and were constantly visited by those who had embraced the testimony, and also by many others from the surrounding country. And tho many came from motives of curiosity; yet no honest soul, who candidly examined the testimony, and viewed, without prejudice, the wonderful operations of the power of God which prevailed in their meetings, could go away without a full conviction that the work of God was among them. But they were often afflicted with mockers and scoffers, whose main object was to seek for evil, and seize upon every occasion to scandalize the work, and vilify the subjects of it. were ever ready to judge with an evil eye, and from the decisions of an evil heart, to fix the stamp of evil upon whatever they saw among the people. Hence arose those numerous evil reports which have been so industriously circulated, by reprobate characters, to the present day.

Such

On the 31st of May, 1781, Mother Ann set out on a journey to Harvard, in the state of Massachusetts. In this journey she was accompanied by William Lee, James Whittaker, Samuel Fitch, Mary Partington and Margaret Leeland. In the course of her journey, she visited many who had before embraced her testimony, encouraging and confirming them in their faith by those extraordinary manifestations of the power of God which always attended her ministry; and tho the spirit of opposition manifested itself, more or less, wherever she went; yet numbers were added to the faith. She arrived in Harvard the latter part of June, where she was shortly visited by great numbers of the inhabitants, and by many others from various parts of the country. Many embraced her testimony, and, as is natural on such occasions, the spirit of

Antichrist was greatly alarmed at the danger to which he saw his kingdom exposed, through the prevailing influence of the testimony of truth.

Persecution, the usual engine of religious intolerance, was immediately set in motion; and no means were left untried to arrest the progress of the testimony. Every evil report and every wicked device, that falshood and malice could dictate, were called forth to calumniate and debase the character of Mother Ann and her companions, and render them odious in the eyes of the people, with a view to excite them to acts of persecution. The charges of being enemies and traitors to the country; of having fire arms and munitions of war concealed among them; of living in drunkenness and debauchery, and practising witchcraft and other base crimes, were continually alledged against them.

In consequence of these accusations, they suffered much personal abuse, and on several occasions, they were so shamefully and cruelly abused, particularly at Harvard and Petersham, that, to all human appearance, it seemed as tho nothing short of Divine Power could have preserved their lives. The people also, who embraced the testimony, often suffered a large share in these abuses; being scourged with whips, beaten with clubs, stoned, kicked and dragged about by their legs and arms, and sometimes by the hair of their heads, and driven from place to place, in the most cruel and abusive manner; so that many of them but narrowly escaped with their lives; and numbers carried through life, the scars and marks of abuse which they then received from their cruel and inhuman persecutors. Through all these trying scenes they were evidently protected and supported by the power and providence of God; so that notwithstanding many attempts were made upon the lives of the believers, yet no life was suffered to be taken.

But judgments appeared evidently to follow all the most active and violent of these persecutors. Some who were before rich and prosperous in their temporal circumstances, soon after these persecutions, met with some extraordinary reverses of fortune, lost all their property and came to beggary, and were finally reduced to the necessity of going to the very people whom they had before persecuted, to beg alms. Some came to sudden and untimely deaths; others became insolvent and left the country to avoid their creditors. Some who had before sustained a respectable character in society, soon after lost all their reputation, in consequence of drunkenness and other base practices; others ended their days by suicide. In short, these misfortunes were so general upon those who had acted a conspicuous part in these perescutions, that they occasioned the following general remark among the inhabitants; "These Shaker drivers are all coming to nothing."

These persecutions, however, like the imprisonment at Albany,