The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-08-03

the first time in the world
history woman stands as the
founder Of religious sects and cults
From the beginning this was true
Anne Hutchinson came to New England
with her husband in 1884 and on ship
board developed new woman theolog-
zeal ideas that disturbed the notions OF
her fellow passengers. In Boston she
was admitted to the church Of Wheel
right and Cotton and at once began her
spiritual labors. These she confined at
first to her own sex, assembling the Wo-
men of the church and exhortlng them
that the Holy Spirit dwelt in every pious
believer and shone with an inner light
which was a sacred guide for all the
path of life when regulated by the con
scious judgments of the mind, She
preached so eloquentIy and persuasively
that she attracted both Cotton ana
Wheelwright and even Sir Harry Vane
| by her discourses- To these Anne
Hutchinson's teachings appeared as the
purest, highest spirituality. But there
were others outside of Boston who did
not regard the Holy Spirit as a sufi-
Gent guide to man, but considered hui
man laws-stiff ones at that-also nee
essary to keep him in the middle OF the
road, so they objected strenuously to
the new teachings. The more enthusi-
astic and eloquent Anne became the
greater cry u0E opponents AzAd0C LII
there were earthquakes in the spiritual
atmosphere of Boston town. At length
the opponents got the upper hand, and,
while they could not shut off Anne
Hutchinson's speech, they could drive
her off where they would not hear it,
which was the next best thing. They
banished her from Massachusetts, and
she and a great band of followers join
ed Roger Williams colony in Rhode Is
land, where none should be accounted
a delinquent for doctrine" Then by
and by the Boston church that had ban
ished her, on second thought, perhaps,
concluding that the Holy Spirit might,
after all, be trusted as a guide of con-
duct, sent deputation officially to
Rhode Island to bring her back They
missed her working faith and fiery elo-
quence, but she would not return. Anne
Hutchinson was massacred by Indians
in 1643. There is no church which she
founded, but the doctrines she was ban
ished for preaching are, in modified
form, the life itself of the live Christian
churches today. She, being dead, yet
speaketF.
Next was that other Ann, Mother Ann
Lee. founder of the sect Of our gentle
friends, the Shakers One of her first
converts was her own husband, which
speaks volumes for her as a proselytizer.
Well for Ann Lee that she fiourished
hundred and forty years later than Anne
Hutchinson, or she would not only have
been banished, but probably martyred
for her faith. AS it was she was i'm
prisoned in New York for awhile, not
because of her religious faith directly,
but because her religious faith would
not permit her to take the oath of ale
glance to earthly governments, as, for
instance. the state of New York, even
though in those days a woman had
vote no more than now
Governor George Clinton, however,
soon released Ann and her elders, and
then they went up and down the land,
/ preaching, converting men and women
to their doctrines and founding quaint
and quiet Shaker colonies where every
body must work for his living, a1ternat-
ing hours of labor with dancing and
singing to praise God for letting him
live and gain the rich experiences of
mortal life to f1t him for heaven. One
of the phenomena of the age was the
great and rapid spread of the Shakers
Today the sect is declining. The ex-
celIent repute of Shaker broons and
Shaker apple butter bids fair to outIast
the colonies themselves, yet today, with
all the worlds sin and suffering, Mother
Ann Lees doctrines. in modified form
again, have a deeper hold on the
Thought of intelligent persons in the
community at large than they ever did
before, and those who read the under
surface signs Of the times know it. Per
haps that is how it was meant to be.
Ann Lee, too, being dead, yet speaketh.
Sixty-four years after Mother Lee
died this country witnessed the incep-
ton Of the cult of spiritism, now num-
bering millions of believers, and it, too,