The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

William Jamesmusic; my soul exulted in the love of God, and I wanted everybodyto share in my joy.”The next case is that of a man:—“I know not how I got back into the encampment, but found myselfstaggering up to Rev. ——’s Holiness tent—and as it was full of seekersand a terrible noise inside, some groaning, some laughing, and someshouting, and by a large oak, ten feet from the tent, I fell on my face bya bench, and tried to pray, and every time I would call on God, somethinglike a man’s hand would strangle me by choking. I don’t knowwhether there were any one around or near me or not. I thought Ishould surely die if I did not get help, but just as often as I would pray,that unseen hand was felt on my throat and my breath squeezed off.Finally something said: ‘Venture on the atonement, for you will dieanyway if you don’t.’ So I made one final struggle to call on God formercy, with the same choking and strangling, determined to finish thesentence of prayer for Mercy, if I did strangle and die, and the last Iremember that time was falling back on the ground with the sameunseen hand on my throat. I don’t know how long I lay there or whatwas going on. None of my folks were present. When I came to myself,there were a crowd around me praising God. The very heavens seemedto open and pour down rays of light and glory. Not for a moment only,but all day and night, floods of light and glory seemed to pour throughmy soul, and oh, how I was changed, and everything became new. Myhorses and hogs and even everybody seemed changed.”This man’s case introduces the feature of automatisms, which in suggestiblesubjects have been so startling a feature at revivals since, inEdwards’s, Wesley’s and Whitfield’s time, these became a regular meansof gospel-propagation. They were at first supposed to be semi-miraculousproofs of “power” on the part of the Holy Ghost; but great divergenceof opinion quickly arose concerning them. Edwards, in hisThoughts on the Revival of Religion in New England, has to defendthem against their critics; and their value has long been matter of debateeven within the revivalistic denominations.138 They undoubtedly138 Consult William B. Sprague: Lectures on Revivals of Religion, NewYork, 1832, in the long Appendix to which the opinions of a large numberof ministers are given.227