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38
Early Writings
very easy subject, and that he could mesmerize me and give me
a vision. I told him that the Lord had shown me in vision that
mesmerism was from the devil, from the bottomless pit, and that it
would soon go there, with those who continued to use it. I then gave
him liberty to mesmerize me if he could. He tried for more than half
an hour, resorting to different operations, and then gave it up. By
faith in God I was able to resist his influence, so that it did not affect
me in the least.
If I had a vision in meeting, many would say that it was excite-
ment and that someone mesmerized me. Then I would go away
alone in the woods, where no eye or ear but God’s could see or
hear, and pray to Him, and He would sometimes give me a vision
there. I then rejoiced, and told them what God had revealed to me
alone, where no mortal could influence me. But I was told by some
that I mesmerized myself. Oh, thought I, has it come to this that
those who honestly go to God alone to plead His promises and to
claim His salvation, are to be charged with being under the foul and
soul-damning influence of mesmerism? Do we ask our kind Father
in heaven for “bread,” only to receive a “stone” or a “scorpion”?
[22]
These things wounded my spirit, and wrung my soul in keen anguish,
well-nigh to despair, while many would have me believe that there
was no Holy Ghost and that all the exercises that holy men of God
have experienced were only mesmerism or the deceptions of Satan.
At this time there was fanaticism in Maine. Some refrained
wholly from labor and disfellowshiped all those who would not
receive their views on this point, and some other things which they
held to be religious duties. God revealed these errors to me in vision
and sent me to His erring children to declare them; but many of them
wholly rejected the message, and charged me with conforming to the
world. On the other hand, the nominal Adventists charged me with
fanaticism, and I was falsely, and by some wickedly, represented
as being the leader of the fanaticism that I was actually laboring to
correct. Different times were repeatedly set for the Lord to come
and were urged upon the brethren; but the Lord showed me that
they would all pass by, for the time of trouble must come before the
coming of Christ, and that every time that was set and passed by
would only weaken the faith of God’s people. For this I was charged