THE "PROPHETS" AGAIN.

Evening Star, Issue 2902, 7 June 1872, Page 3

THE "PROPHETS" AGAIN.

Victoria appears likely to earn a notoriety ©f a very unenviable nature from the colonies as the biithplace of a large number of sporadic religious manifestations. The district of Creswick especially has for a long time been troubled bjr the presence of some people afflicted by religious mania, who call themselves, or are called by others, “New Lights,” and seem to live in expectation of some speedily forthcoming interposition of Providence, and general wind-up of the present regime. A curious tale was supplied to the papers the other day, illustrative of the sad consequences to society that are constantly arising where a disturbing element such as this principle of fanaticism exists in its midst.

A respectable fanner named Boyes, living at Smeaton, fell into the snares of some of the apostles of this new faith, and was gradually stripped of his property for the benefit of the church. There would be little reason to sympathise with Boyes, who serenely bore the consequences of his blind credulity and trust in a lot of pious sharpers, but that the foolish man had a wife and family dependent upon him, whom he was by his conduct reducing to a state of poverty. The commencement and progress of Boyes’s. infatuation are thus sketched The saints periodically visited the faim, and Mrs Boyes noticed that they loaded their cart with flour, oats, bacon, wheat, or anything that was food for man and horse. Mrs Boyes at first kindly expostulated with her husband on the folly of his giving these men such supplies when they were needed at home. Boyes, whose good temper had not changed with his folly, merely replied, “It will be no loss to us, dear ; it is all for the Lord and his saints,” Boor Mrs Boyes now saw that the villains, as she called them, had fairly woven the toils round her husband, and appealed to her clergyman and to Boyes’s most intimate friends to try and save him ; but it was all in vain, and poor Boyes at last forsook her society, though remaining in the house, and seemed to devote himself entirely to prayer and to reading books the Prophets had left him ; but before he forsook his honest and estimable wife a matter occurred that shocked her sadly, One of the two imposters went into her bedroom one day and desired to give her what he termed “ the kiss of peace in the name of the Lord.” She resented the insult, ;but on complaining to her husband of the dastardly act, he recommended be should accept the kiss, as he knew it was the Lord’s will. Mrs Boyes and Mrs M ‘Gregor now saw that the poor man was lost to them beyond redemption and began to consider what was best to be done, when they suddenly found that matters had reached, or were about to reach a climax, as Boyes intimated his intention of selling off everything he had, giving the proceeds to these saints of the Lord, forsaking his wife and children, and leaving them penniless and unprotected, and of going to join the saints at or near Ararat. Mrs Boyes finding herself about to be deprived of her husband, her children of their father, and all his substance, besought her clergyman and all her friends, but it was in vain. An auctioneer who had been let into the secret was procured by the saints, and the consequence was that about L 250 worth of stock, &c., passed into the hands of the buyers for about L4O, The implements and other things of no use to Mrs Boyes realised good prices, and the infatuated man placed the whole of tne amount he received in his pocket “to give it to the Lord’s saints” without ever thinking to ask whether ,his wife wanted or needed anything. Before the sale finished, the neighbors got wind of what the saints had done ; and their treatment of them is thus described :—A clergyman who was present was so incensed at their conduct that he laid hold of one of the fellows by tbe beard and threatened him with personal chastisement. Few of the more demonstrative of the crowd got hold of a pot full of blue oil-paint and a brush, and laying violent hands on the prophets, smeared their faces and beards with ft, but not a murmur escaped their lips, Boyes only exclaiming, it had no effect on them, “it was all for the good of the cause of the Lord,” Two men each seized one of the prophets by “ the scruff of the ueok,” and hustled them off to the creek, the crowd going with them. Though his wife had iainted he took no notice of her, but walked stolidly after the crowd, exclaiming, “ They never can hurt them, the Lord is with them, ” Arrived near the creek, the prophets were lifted very unceremoniously over a fence, and one was first “ chucked ” into the water which, luckily, was not more than 3ft. 6in, deep, when cries arose “ Chuck m tbe other

Bluebeard,” and in he was thrown; but as they both seemed to keep their legs too well to please their tormentors, a few stalwart farmers jumped into the Water, ducked the “ prophets ” thoroughly, throwing one on top of the other, and finally rolled them in the mud at the side of the creek, leaving them, like half-drowned rats, to their own reflections. Boyes then went to their aid, and what with clean water and handfuls of grass, he managed to groom some of the. dirt off them, and then, with them, left for ever his once happy home.