Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-08-08
A KENTUCKY REVIVAL IN 1900.

A KENTUCKY REVIVAL IN 1900.
On sudden this community, which the
preachers hsd often called Satan's strong
hold, underwent moral awakening such
az this world bad never beheld.
Two young men began the great work in
the summer of 1899. They were brothers,
preachers, and on their way across the pine
barrens to Ohio, but turned aside to be
present at sacramental solemnity on Red
river. The people were accustomed to
gather at such times on Friday, and by
PRAYING, singing, and hearing sermons, pre-
pare themselves for the reception OF the
sacrament on Sunday. At the Red river
meeting the brothers were asked to preach,
and one did so with astonishing terVor. AS
he spoke, the people were deeply moved,
tears ran streaming down their faces, and
one, a woman far i'll the rear OF the mouse,
broke through order and began to shout.
| For two hours after the regular preachers
had gone the crowd fingered and were 10th
to depart. While they tarried, one of the
brothers was irresistibly impelled to speak.
He rose and told them that he felt called to
preach: that he could not be silent The
words which then fell from his lips reused
| the people before him Ito a pungent sense
of SIM" Again and again the woman shout
ed. and would not be silent. He started to
90 to he,. The crowd begged him to turn
back. Something within him urged him
on, and he went through the house shout
ing and exhorting and praising God. In
moment the floor, to use his own words,
twas covered with the slain" Their
cries for mercy were terrible to hear.
Some found forgiveness, but many
went away spiritually wounded" and
suffering unutterable agony ofsoul. Nothing
could allay the excitement. Every settle
ment along the Green river and the Cumber.
| land was full ofreligious fervor. Men fitted
their wagons with beds and provisions, and
| travelled fifty miles to campupon the ground
and hear him preach, The idea was new /,
hundreds adopted 1t and camp meetings be-
gan. There was now no longer any excuse
TO stay away from preaching. Neither dis.
tance, nor lack Of houses, nor scarcity OF
food, nor daily occupations prevailed. Led
by curiosity, by excitement, by religious
zeal, families of every Protestant denomina-
tiou-Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians,
piscopaians-hurried to the camp ground.
Crops were left half gathered; every kind
of work was left uudone; cabins were de-
serted in large settlements there did not
remain one SOUL The first regular general
camp-meeting was held at Casper River
church, in July, 1900; but the rage spread,
and dozen encampments followed IN quick
succession. Camp meeting was always IN
| the forest near some little church, which
served as the preachers lodge. AT one end
Of clearing was q rude stage, and before 1t
the stumps and trunks OF hewn trees, on
which the listeners sat. About the clearing
were the tents and wagons ragged in rows
like streets. The praying, the preaching,
the exhorting, would sometimes last for seven
days, and be prolonged every day until dark
ness had begun to give way olght Norwere
the ministers the only exhorters. Men and
women, nay, even children, took part At
Cane Ridge little girl Of seven sat upon
the shoulder of a man and preached to the
multitude till she sank exhausted on her
bearers head. At Indian Creek q lad of
twelve mounted stump and exhorted till
he grew weak, whereupon two men upheld
him, and he continued till speech was i'm
possible A score of sinners fell PROSTATE
before him.
At no time was the failing exercise" so
prevalent as at night. Nothing was then
wanting that could strike terror into minds
weak, tImid and harassed. The red glare
of the camp fires reflected from hundreds of
tents and wagons the dense blackness OF
the Pickering shadows, the darkness of the
surrounding forest, made still more terrible
BY the groans and screams of the spiritual
ly wounded" who had fed to it for COM
fort the entreaty of the preachers; the
sobs and shrieks of the downcast still walk
ing through the dark Valley of the Shadow
of Death the shouts and songs from the
happy ones who had crossed the Delectable
Mountains, had gone on through the fogs of
the Enchanted Ground and entered the land
of Beulah were too much for those over whose
minds and bodies lively imaginations held
full sway. The heart swelled, the nerves gave
way, the hands and feet grew cold and,
motionless and speechless, they fell head
long to the ground. In moment crowds
gathered about them to pray and shout.
Some lay still as death. Some passed
through frightful twitchings of face and
limb. At Cabin Creek so many fell that,
lest the multitude should tread on them,
they were carried to the meeting house and
laid in rows on the floor At Cane Ridge
the number was three thousand.
The recollection of that famous meeting
is still preserved in Kentucky, where, not
MANY years since, old men could be found
whose mothers bad carried them to the
camp ground when infants, and had left
them at the roots of trees and behind logs
while the preaching and exhorting continu-
ed. Cane Ridge meeting house stood on a
well shaded, we'll watered spot, seven mics
from the town of Paris. There great space
had been cleared, a preachers stand put up,
and huge tent stretched to shelter tue
crowd from the sun and the rain. But il
did not cover the twentieth part of the Peo-
pie who came Every road that led to tie
ground is described to have presenteh Tor
several days an almost unbroken iine OF
wagons, horses and men. Seven hundred
and fifty lead tokens, stamped with the let
tiers A or B, were given by the Baptists Ia
communicates; and there were still upward o.
four hundred who received none. Old sold
iers who were present, and claimed to know