The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-03-01
ConyulsiOnist Religion-A '.Seyen-Deyil-
ed" Woman. f

The London Daily News, of February II,
says:
"a seyen-deviled woman" preached her
new religion yesterday. The uncompliment-
ary epi.het is the one which Mrs. Girling, a
female preacher, of the revived religion of
commissions, applies to herself. Her congre-
cation meets under railway arch near the
Walworth road. She assures them that
though "a seven-deviled woman" once, yet
now she has got rid of her tormentors, and
possesses the assurance of enjoying hereafter
everlasting peace. The struggle had been
hard one, she said, and the effect, she added,
had been to render her mad in the opinion of
the unregenerate world; yet she gloried in
her madness, and wished that every man and
woman might become even such as she.
Under the shelter of this railway arch,
which was closed at the outer end by wood
en- door, and Of which the gloom at the fur
ther end was dispelled by two gaslights, there
was accommodation for one hundred and
fffty. Every seat was filed, and all the stand
ing room was occupied. The weather was
not cold; consequently, what with the gas
"
with the crowding together of so many per
sons in small compass, without ventilation
of any kind, the atmosphere was foul enough
to breed or nurture any delusion, if not to
stifie common sense. Mrs. Girling rebuked
some of the more irrevsrent, in language
which was certainly scriptural and emphatic,
but which failed to impress them.
The following is the programme which is
commonly pursued, and which was followed
yesterday. The first duty is to exchange the
kiss of peace. prayer and hymn followed,
and then Mrs Girling began to preach. In
look, she had the air of the fanatic. She was
dressed in black. Tall, slender, middle-aged,
with prominent cheek-bones, large mouth,
lower jaw marked with determination, a
clear, metallic voice, considerable fuency of
language, boldness of manner, evidently be-
lieving in herself, and versed in the minor
tricks of religious controversy, Mrs. Girling
was well suited to impress a rude audience,
and to make them fancy that she had indeed
a message to deliver to them, that she was in
very truth teacher who could put them in
the right way Her views with respect to the
employment of the aspirate were exceedingly
unorthodox. Nor was the congregation who
came to get rid of the Devil, or to glory in
having got rid of him, at all fastdious in the
matter of pronunciation. The majority be-
longed to the poorer, and unhappily, the
more ignorant class. f4t
After the sermon hymn was sung. A
box was sent round for contributions The
audience diminished rapidly as soon as the
box appeared. / fancied the end had come,
but was mistaken. A man seated near the
table in front of the preacher lifted girl of
about twelve over the form, and the child, who
appeared to be in a semi-comatose state, be-
gan to move about much in the same way as
children in poor neighborhoods do when an
organ-grinder makes his instrument give out
lively air. A second girl of the same age,
but of more unhealthy look, soon joined
her, and the pair moved about, now together,
now apart, their arms sometimes held out at
full length, and sometimes folded across their
chests. The two children were either doing
what they had been told, or else they were
temporarily suffering from hysteria. The
doctrines and the heat combined were suffi-
cient to confuse the brain and upset the mind
of any foolish girl or boy. Trifing, or rather
painful, though the performance might ap-
pear to a critical spectator, it gratifed the
other onlookers, and the female preacher in
particular She smiled in a manner altogeth-
er CHASTITY, in such manner, indeed, as
might be regarded by mad doctor as sig
nificant symptom; and then, ceasing to sing,
she commenced a prayer of thanks to the AL
mighty for his manifestation of his Spirit, for
this demonstration of the truth.