Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1879-04-01
X-i-Y=Z.
The sleeping Preacher of Alabama.

writer is about to state are facts, and, if
human testimony from the very best Of
men is worth anything, they are beyond
disputation. The subject of this short
sketch is the Rev. @. B. Sanders, now
living at Mayesville, eleven miles east of
Huntsville, Alabama, and for twenty
three years q highly-esteemed minister
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church.
He utterly refuses to be called spiritist,
clairvoyant, or that he is a subject Of
mesmerism or animal magnetism, but
simply says of himself: II am a vessel
of mercy whom the Lord hath chosen to
this end" and further says "My pc
culiar development will not be explain
ed from scientific standpoint, at least
so long as it is assumed that my physi-
cal sufferings are the cause of my mental
phenomena" He is indeed wonder to
himself and to the many who have both
seen and heard while in his peculiar
sleeps for the last twenty or more years.
The developments of Mr.. Sanders COM
menced in 1854, and continued more or
less until 1876. In 1854 he was attacked
with typhoid fever, during which he
was taken with violent convulsions,
affecting his whole body, especially his
arms, chest, throat and tongue. The
suture of the skull separated to such an
extent that one could bury the little fin
ger in the opening. His head and lungs
seemed to be the seat of the most intense
pain. In extreme cases respiration would
be suspended for such length of time
that it seemed impossible ever to return.
the pulse beating feebly but SO rapidly as
to be beyond counting. These paroxysms
continued until 1885, but he still suffers
He is called the Sleeping Preacher. -
for want of better name, by all who
know or have heard of him, and the
writer heard him thus called eighteen
years ago Sometimes he sleeps. and vet
seems to be wide awake, the eyes wide
open but without winking, and in this
state will talk, answer questions, walk
to a considerable distance, and in this
respect seems somnambulistic; and vet
has no knowledge when in his normal
state of what he has said or done
Sometimes, when the pain is severe in
his head, he has it bandaged heavily,
covering the eyes, will pass into one Of
his sleeps, which may continue for an
hour, or day, or several days, and in this
condition will call for pencil and paper,
and with his hands under the cover will
write letters to friends, moral essays, OF
report sermons at that time being
preached miles and miles away, follow
ing the lines as closely as if awake, not
emitting the dotting of an or crossing
of t. He thus reported, during one of
his sleeps" a sermon preached by the
Rev. DIR. E. A. Ross, of Huntsville, Ala,
in 1874, twelve miles away, giving text,
subject, in fact the whole sermon COM
plete, and read it the next morning to
his friends. DR.. Ross was written to,
and vouches for the correctness of the
sermon. In 1876 Mr. Sanders was in
Tullahoma, Tenn, conversing with DR..
CowaD, between twelve and one o'clock
at night (Mr. Sanders being in one of his
nervous sleeps). The passenger train for
Chattanooga was heard coming Mr.
Sanders began telling DR. Cowan Of
passenger on board who was suffering
from disease Of the heart, and describ-
ing his condition; suddenly he exclaim
ed: "There, that man dropped a silver
COIN When asked who. he replied:
:" A man on the platform of the car,
wearing cap. The coin is silver, with
an advertisement on one side, which is
up" Search was made that night by the
aid of lantern. Mr. Sanders directed the
exact spot to look. The advertisement
read as follows:
Jas. S. Bradley
Glider and Frame Maker,
I54 w. St., N. Y.
Cheapest in the City.
Mr.. Bradley was written to and replied
that he issued such silver tokens twenty
years ago.
He is gone! gone! gone! poor fellow,
what a pityi" "Who is gone?n was
asked. Lieutenant Mcclure; he has
just died in Clarksyille, Tenn, 7 was the
answer. A telegram was received by
Mrs. Mcclure the the next morning an
nouncing the death of her husband by
the bursting of blood vessel. Mr.. San
ders was at Athens, Ala, $50 miles from
Clarksville. Coming into friends
house one morning, with a slip Of paper
in his hand, he commenced reading it,
saying, g Y our folks are all well at Sails
bury, N. c.; | went to see them last
night; there was a large fire there;'' and
then described its origin and progress in
minutia. The next letter from Salisbury
confirmed his statement.
The writer could fill columns of the
ObSeruer with similar wonderful things
concerning the 'tSleeping Preacher
His most eloquent sermons are preached
while in his abnormal condition "A
newspaper is as easily read with his eyes
heavily bandaged as when in his normal
condition. In regard to his peculiar ex-
ercise of the mental powers of seeing and
hearing, he says it cannot be explained
SO as to understand the phenomena.
His soul does not leave the body. but,
like rays of light, his sight penetrates in
every direction, and without any limit
distance seems annihilated. In all his
written communications during the
sleeps he invariably signs the name
X plus Y equalsZ No explanation is
given as to what this formula means
He has been told that this condition will
return again, when all viii be explained.
For the last three or four years he has
been free from this peculiar state, sleeps
naturally, and is conscious Of having
once dreamed, the frsttime in twenty-five
years. The pain in his head and lungs
continues with severity, yet his general
health is good From $50 he has in
creased to $50 pounds. He is now, as he
always has been, hard worker in the
cause of the Master, and has been greatly
blessed in the same, not only in his pas
toral work, which has steadily pros
pered, but in other congregations scores,
NAV say hundreds, have been brought
to Christ through his ministry.-Neso
York Observer.
little three vear-oId in toxxvn r,ho