The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-02-20
a New Kind Of Baptlsts.

County are the losers.
A New Kind of Baptists.
There is no more queer religious sect
in the world than the "Shermanites:" OF
North Alabama.
In nearly any town in this section you
can see among the countrymen who
bring in cotton and garden truck to sell,
several with long uncut beard and flow
ing hair, reaching half way to the waist.
In Birmingham, which sits in Jones'
Valley, as the queen Of all these towns,
these men with long hair and beard can
be seen by the dozens every day during
crop selling season.
They are Shermanites and belong to q
religious organization that is confined to
the mountain fastnessos Of North Ala.
bama, but has many thousand followers.
About twenty years ago a man named
Sherman went through the mountainous
regions Of Alabama on horseback and
preached in all the hamlets and villages.
In fact, he preached at isolated farm
houses, with only single family as a
congregation.
His doctrine was of Jesus Christ, but
he departed from all the creeds of all the
established churches and laid down some
new religious laws which found favor
among his backwoods hearers, and it was
not long till he had many followers.
Immersion was the foundation Of hin
new religion, and it had to be done in q
running branch, so that the water could
carry off the sin as it was washed from
the regenerated believer.
The next best thing in Sherman's doc
trine was for the men not to cut their
hair or their beard. This law, he said,
must be followed strictly. Neither scis.
sors nor razor was to touch the head or
face under any circumstances, for Christ
had neither his hair nor bis beard cut,
and his followers must not depart from
the example.
They we're to have no church build.
iugs, for the Son Of Man preached in the
fields and in ships and on the noun.
tains and 80 should his disciples. "The
only temple" said Sherman, "erected to
God during the old dispensation vas dis.
countenanced by Christ, and he pre-.
dicted its overthrow when it was pointed
out to him by his apostles.'
They were to have no paid preachers,
but evory Shermanite was to be a
preacher. All were to exhort and to
pray, and instead of payiog money to
support preachers, the collections taken
up at the gatherings were to go to com:
mon fund for the relief of the poor and
destitute.
call this sect "Shermanites," for that
is the name they are known by to the
outside world, because they are followers
of Sherman; but as religious sect they
give themselves no name except "follow.
ers of Christ" for their leader taught them
that Christ did not call His established
church By any name, then why should
they?
All of the church meetings are either
held in the open air or at some private
residence. Anybody can "open meeting" !"
and anybody can give out hymn, offer
prayer or make few remarks.
There is another peculiar thing about
the teachings of Sherman, and that is q
man must be possessed of only certain
amount of this world goods to be true
Christian. He should have just enough
to give himself and a family comforta-
BILE living. To possess any more than this
is considered iniquirous. He requires a
1.-THE of every followers possessions and
the money is put in the fund for the poor.
he himself would receive 10 pay for
preaching, but owned and worked farm
and contributed like any of his followers.
I do not know whether Sherman is
living now or not, but FIVE years ago I
saw and talked with him in Birmingham.
He was middle.aged, pleasant looking
man, with keon gray eyes, and, although
using the backwoods dialect, talked like
q man of considerable learning He knew
the Scriptures by heart, and, when once
induced to discuss his religion, would
quote verse after verse in support of his
ideas and theories.
"I teach," he said to me, "men to love
their fellowmen as we'll as to worship
God"
"Are you prophet 2" was asked.
eyes, prophet thus far: I am sent tc
establish q church thatis free from phar-
isees or hypocrites and devoid Of useless
forms and one that teaches its members
to follow the footsteps of the Saviour"
To join this band of mountain wor
shippers one has only to get some Of The
followers" to baptise him in running
stream and then make known to the
guardians of the fund for the poor wha
his earthly possessions are 80 he can bt
assessed. These guardians are selected
from the regular election districts, o,
"beats," as they are called in Alabama
aud are appointed at an annual meeting
A mining engineer, who inspected all
the coal and iron districts in Alabame s
few years ago, stated that he did no
think there we're less than five Thousand
Shermanites.-Atlanta Journal.