EXTRAORDINARY SCENES

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 13

EXTRAORDINARY SCENES

AT REVIVAL MEETING. j FRENZIED WOMEN ROLLING ON ' THE FLOOR. QUEER PERFORMANCES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 29. Seldom have there been beheld reviva 1 ' scenes in the least like those witnessed late on night in a mission tent an hour's drive out of Shrewsbury. The "mission" is being conducted by Mr J. Wesley Baker, who set up in his tent* and waggon some time ago to convert the gipsies, and whose jpreaching (says a Shrewsbury correspondent) acted upon the impressionable villagers in an amazing way*. " Yesterday," he went on to say, " I attended the night meeting, as Mr Baker told me the Spirit moved the people better at that lime. What I saw becomes almost impossible to write about in the clear light of day. I am tempted to describe it as an orgie of revivalism. ■ The tent was full to discomfort long before 8 o'clock, and as the night wore on the heat became oppressive, although outside it was bitterly cold, and you could not see 10 yards ahead for driving sleet and snow. The congregation was jpf all sorts and conditions. Gipsies occupied the whole of the front row ; ■ -«fche" middle was well filled with well1 dressed, sober folk, and the back seemed to be mainly crowded with curiositymongers. At the other end was Mr Baker, his commissioner, Mr Foster, halt a dozen comfortable-looking women, three or four frock-coated elderly gentlemen, and, lying in front of the fire, some cats and a dog. Hymns, Bible readings, ; and prayers ' made up the quiet and ordinary early part of the service ; the interest of the curiosity-mongers was i not aroused until a woman stepped f&rI ward to announce that she was saved. : A second .followed, and then a third. ' "With the advent of the third, Mr Baker jumped joyfully and cried, ' Glory, the Trinity !' Briefly the third woman told how she was- forced to speak out by ' a big lump on her jaw which made her' do iH i " Then Mr Baker introduced Brother Bert to the meeting as ' the worst man in the district.' Brother Bert was a big, ungainly man, with mutton-chop whiskers, i who as he stepped to the front trod on . the cats. He did not spare himself, i He called himself a wretched worm, said i he had done everything that was devilish, ' and finally told how he had been com- ; pelled to cast himself down on the floor i and cry for mercy. He referred to Mr 1 Baker as the Second Peter of a new j Pentecost. It = was after Brother Bert i had stumbled back to his knees, for the ! whole congregation was now praying, j that a strange new something crept over . the meeting. It seemed to start with some peculiar, querulous moans which j proceeded from two of the women by j the fire. The moans increased. Other ; women took them up, and then with i awful suddenness , and distinctness one < of the women slipped on to her back and ! began to cry out, in an incessant sort ot ■ chatter, sounds like this, ' Parappa, i Parappa,' as hard as she could. "At once Mr Baker jumped to his feet, and advancing to the tront row and 1 extending his hand forward, cried out, ' with tremendous fervency, ' Breathe the j coming Power ! Breathe the coming I Power ! Breathe the coming Power !' Again, again, and again he cried it with terrible intentness, and you naturally felt as you sat there a sort of hysteria surging over the meeting like a tidal wave. jAs Mr Baker continued his invocatio^ which became almost hypnotic in its lenergy and iteration, men and women on all sides began to chatter and gibber and cry out in strange tongues. Anything more uncanny 1 have not heard. I can only say that it is incredible to any but those who have heard it. I tried to put down some feeble imitation of what they were gabbling, but it merely looks foolish, and, as they uttered it. it was anything but foolish at the time. One woman's cry was almost an exact imitation of a dog that had been trodden on. Another woman was quacking liKe a duck. The din was deafening. " Three women were now on their backs waving their arms lrke people in a fit and shrieking out at the same time this insane chatter. One of their cries I had no difficulty in taking down. It was just ' Ip, Ip, Ip, lp,'— unceasingly. Over one of the women Mr Baker bent for a moment. "Then he turned to the meeting, and in a ringing voice called out, ' The fifteenth of Luke; that is the interpretation.' Then he bent over another woman and cried ' out again, ' Lay it down T That is what she says, 'Lay it' down!' . Someone must lay down his or her sin ; God says you must As he cried it he clapped" his hands vigorously. Then another woman flopped down on the floor and instantly started to rant : 'La la la la la.'— which changed to ' De do didum ' —without intermission. lam not trying to be cheaply funny or exaggerate; this is exactly what she said. " By this time, what with the heat of the tent, the fury of the storm outside, and the strange scenes inside, some ot the congregation seemed to be getting, not unnaturally, a bit uneasy. Mr Baker saw this, for he instantly cried out, ' It's all right ; don't be nervous ; don't take any notice! They were making the Word of God a living thing. You cannot get beyond this. The Holy Ghost is here. You can now^ well imagine why people are amazed.' At this moment, without the slightest warning, the woman who was sitting exactly in front of me fell off her seat on to i the floor. She fell without a sound, and there lay, unlike the others, with- • out a sound. All that she did was to i .stare horribly 'at the ceiling. Frankly,

I was frightened, and as she appeared to 1 be in some sort of fit another man and I myselt were stooping to see if we could do anything for her. Then Mr Baker called out : 'Do not touch her ! Let her alone ! She will get through all right . He lemoved her hat and hatpins, nowever. and presently she broke out into big, convulsive sobs. Almost immediately a woman about two rows behind began beating a sort of tattoo on the | seat in front of her, and then rolled j off on to the floor. ' Make- room for her ! Let her lie on her back ! Hooray !' ciied Mr Baker. As he was speaking another woman fell down at his feet, and Mr Baker himself removed her hat. " Then the Spirit suddenly moved Brother Bert, and •■ he rose and began to pray in a terrible voice and with extreme fervency. The door was opened to admit some air. and a rain-soddened dog crept in, to be instantly thrown out by a worshipper. Then, although it was now half-past 10. about a score of hobbledehoys and noisy-looking youths crowded in. Mr Baker eyed them sternly and- said, ' Please remember J?oii are in a place of worship, and I am not going to allow any nonsense.' "In the course of time, although the singing and gibberish and moaning never diminished, the prostrate women began to get up in a dazed way and put their hats on again. The" end came when Mr Baker said, ' This meeting is now through so far as I understand it.' But even as he spoke another woman slipped to the floor, and another behind me started to beat her breast. ' Mother and daxighter,' said Mr Baker. What time the meeting was really over I don't know." On the following night -there were further strange proceedings. A mission was conducted in the "Gipsy Tent," and a number of village women did what is now locally known as " speaking in cloven tongues." The same Shrewsbury correspondent says : — ' ' I believe Welsey Baker, the mission preacher, to be absolutely sincere^ and his following of men and women to be equally simple and honest, but I cannot descz-ibe the ' cloven tongue ' manifestation as anything but a half-crazy delusion on the part of people who for months have been nightly praying in a heated and excited atmosphere. For a. couple of hours or more the service went on in a simple, ordinary, and entirely admirable way, just a,s one might expect in any village community. There was nothing to wonder at, and nothing, to cavil ' at. Men and women gave ' testimonies ' in a sincere, unaffected, and obviously deeply religious spirit.

"But at 9.30, while all were kneeling, an old woman took up the praying, and a crooning chorus filled the cabin, while Mr Baker walked to a bench and knelt down. ' Oh, my God, hear prayee !' he cried. At length the old woman began speaking in what is called the ' tongue.' but what seemed to be merely an incoherent gabble of syllables like ' Para - gara-para-gara-rabKa-gabba-para-para - gabba 'gabba - cara - gabba.' This seemed to be what the little meeting had been waiting for, and there begain a fusillade of praying and incoherent sounds which sounded pitiful enough. Mr Baker walked about expectantly for a fewmoments while the old woman's gabble turned into a murmur. The ' reformed worst character ' shouted a prayer, while a few of the kneeling women seemed to be ' working themselves up ' to a pitch of excitement. Others smiled, at the ' pappa-rappa ' gabble of the old woman and the ' cackling ' chatter of a woman in a corner. It was now like a scene in Bedlam. Men were beating their breasts and women were gabbling* and it was difficult to believe that 1 the so-called cloven tongues were anything but a crazy attempt to make some sound that should seem unearthly. For half an hour the gabble proceeded without fuither result, and Mr Baker at length wound up with an ordinary prayer delivered in a thoroughly sincere and simple way."