The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1886-08-06
False Prophets.
4 PrOressiOn Very Popular During
the lasf Century.


The last century was prolific OF false
prophets. Jane Wardlaw, tho wife Of a
tailor at Bolton ie Moors, Lancashire
started the delusion that Christ 9 second
advent was at hand, and that He would
appear in the form Of a woman. Short
iy afterward Ann Lee. the wife OF q
blacksmith living in Toad laua Manches-
ter, adopted the views Of Jane Wardlaw,
but went far beyond them, and became
known as The mother of the sect which
now began to be called Shakers, BECAUSE
they made a strange kind of dancing an
element of their worship. Arm Lee
Whose husbands name was Stanley.)
had been Quaker, but her new doctrine
had no connection with her previous
convictions. She professed to see visions,
and in ITO she declared that the Lord
Jesus had appeared to her one night
and had become one with her. so that
whatever she said or did was His saying
or doing. Her claim was TO be the bride
of the Lamb, as seen bv st. John, but
her pretensions met with little accept
ance in England, and she was inspired
to seek a new home in America. To
New Y oTk she went in 1774. accompanied
by seven disciples and her husband, who
soon separated from her, for now arose
| a new teEet-the necessity of celibacy.
/ This doctrine not commenting itself to
the citizens of New York, Ann Lee went
out into the wilderness of Niskenna and
/ founded the. settlement Of Water Vliet,
whichstill exists. She made herself very
obnoxiouslto tfie American government,
I was arrested as British spy and thrown
into prison. Persecution increased her
( notoriety, and she became known as the
I ''female Christ" " She died in 1888, but
her followers protested that she was not
dead, only "withdrawn from sight -
! Johanna Southcott was born In Devon
shire about 1850, She spent-her young
/ days as a domestic servant, but in mid
/ die life she took to utteriug prophecies
| couched in coarse and uncoutk prose or
verse. She found followers in Exeter,
/ but soon went up to London, where she
obtained a wider field for She exercise
/ of her talents. She drew her inspiration,
| like others of her kind, from the Apoc-
alypse, and made considerable income
by the sale of seals, which were warrant
ed 20 insure the salvation of those who
purchased them. In the year 1914 being
then over 60 years of age, she gave out
that she was the divInely-appointe
mother of the Shiloh, and that his birth
on the ensuing 18th of October would be
the second coming Of Christ. Her ad-
herents then numbered about 100. .O0O
and they provided a magnificent cradle
for the expected infant. A crowd
assembled at the predicted midnight.
and only dispersed when they we're
informed that Mrs Southcott had fallen
into a trance. On the 9th Of December
following she died. Her followers re-
fused TO believe that she was dead, and
would not allow her to be buried but
when decomposition began to set in they
consented to a post mortem examination
being made, which revealed dropsy as
the cause of her death.
Robert Matthews, in America, at the
beginning of this century, took up the
profession of prophet. and entered upon
an extraordinary career of fraud, imp0s-
turs and crime. He was arraigned for
murder, but only convicted of assaulting
his daughter with whip. OF his latter
DAYS we have no account, nor are his
blasphemous and nefarious doings worth
recording further.-Qldrer.