of no human creed. We would cast no
doubt or scorn on even the wildness of sincerity,
or sneer at the most fantastic forms of faith;
but we would call things by their right names—
at least by such names as seem to our reason
and experience to be right; and when we see
a group of howling hysterical people, we must
altogether decline to say that they are
divinely possessed, or specially gifted with
superior gifts. They are in a state of high
nervous excitement, in an abnormal physical
condition altogether; but we do not take that
to be a miracle, or the sign of God's direct dealing
with them, no more than we take madness to
be a sign of special grace which yet was a
doctrine held by many wise men under the Caesars,
and is still devoutly believed by many ignorant
people of our own day behind the Swiss mountains.
The Revivals in Ireland seem to be nowise
different to the Convulsionary movement or
to the Eastern excesses spoken of before;
they seem to be nothing more or less than
a special direction of what may be called
epidemic hysteria. They present all the
features of hysteria, just as the American Revivals
did, years ago. But the symptoms are modified—
the disease is evidently not so severe. There
has been nothing yet like the experiences of
Peter Cartwright, the brawny Backwoods
preacher, who struck down men and women by
hundreds in his monster camp meetings, and for
every case of mental disease counted a soul
snatched from sin to grace. Under his powerful
preaching, modest young women, flushed and
dishevelled, like so many Bacchantes, drunk
with preaching instead of wine, went leaping
and shouting over the camp, crying, "Glory!
Glory!" till they made the old brown woods
ring again; strong men yelled and foamed and
fainted under the excess of their terrors and
the heavy conviction of sin; and dissolute
young "rowdies," who had gone to scoff, got
caught in their own toils, and fell before
the altar, bellowing for pardon and mercy
before the prayer for sinners came to an end.
The Irish Revivals are considerably milder than
their pattern; but they are none the less
diseased manifestations because the disease is not
so virulent. They have had their groups of
grovelling sinners howling, "Glory," and
"Pardon," "Jesus," and "Amen," as the preacher
bade; and there have been some so powerfully
affected as to call forth the most enthusiastic
delight from watching and believing Evangelical
ministers;—for the more excitable the nervous
organisation the nearer to grace and holiness. But,
though the Irish preachers have failed to
produce the mighty effects common to Peter
Cartwright's ministry, they have had the gift of
working miracles; or, rather, the Revival has
been accompanied by miracles. The Daily News
of the 19th of September, quoting the North
British Mail, gives the following story:

"A REVIVALIST MIRACLE. We have just seen a
letter from a father in Moyse, two miles from the
town of Newton-Limavady, to his son in Greenock,
in which, speaking of the revivals in that district,
he says: 'We had the pleasure of hearing two
young converts address an assembly at different
times since you went away. They were both Papists
before they were converted, but are now true
catholics, being brought to the knowledge of the truth.
One of them was dumb all his days until stricken
down the second time, and the love of God was shed
abroad in his heart so very much that he prayed that
the Lord might open his mouth and let loose his
tongue, that he might tell others what God had done
for his soul. From that time God heard him, and
did open his mouth, and he can now speak as plain
as any man, and it is only five months since he was
stricken down, and he is now able to read a little;
but he has a very great many portions of Scripture
that he can repeat, that he has learned by hearing
since that time; and he can address an assembly
middling well. Up to his being stricken down no
one ever knew a word he said, not even his own
people, who held communication with him by signs.'"

Others have had signs and symbols printed on
their breasts; many have borne about them the
sacred name of "Geasus" written by the agency
of the Holy Spirit; which, however, resolved itself
into a darning needle and the blue-bag, combined
with a daring contempt of ordinary orthography
and some have had blood stains and wounds on
their hands and feet. Others have had miraculous
visions; and one "good woman," quoted by Dr.
M'Cosh, had certain spiritual doubts and fears
which a lonely female figure came to relieve.
But the figure "was far too like the Virgin to
comport with the ideas of a Protestant," says
Dr. M'Cosh. Some have been struck blind
and deaf, and many have gone crazed—
which is by far the most natural
termination of the movement. Of the general willingness
to believe supernaturalism in the most
natural thing whatsoever, the following anecdote
is a convincing proof: A young woman was
crying very earnestly for mercy, when a lad,
seeing a flash of light on the window, cried out,
"She will get peace now. I see the light!"
The others caught up and echoed the cry; and
though the candle which had caused that sudden
flash came in sight, they were hardly to be
convinced that they had not seen a supernatural
sign of God's gracious acceptance of this woman's
soul! Yet if these nervous feelings run into
any of the ordinary mesmeric phenomena, the
ministers then put them down as of Satan, not of God.
Hysteria is divine; but, hysteria manifested as
somnambulism or as mesmerism is simply devilish.

This movement is not confined to the poor
only. Certainly the poor and ignorant have
borne the largest share in it; and the more poor
and the more ignorant they are, the larger has
been their share. The sequence is logical enough.
But they are not quite isolated. Dr. M'Cosh
says, "It is not to be forgotten that not a
few of the educated classes have felt the power
of this movement. I have heard of between
twelve and twenty students who have experienced
a spiritual change during the past summer. One
young gentleman, who moves in a genteel circle,
and who has himself, I believe, been savingly
impressed, told me a few weeks ago that he knew
of upwards of twenty persons, young gentlemen