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duties of this society — by them termetl " religious ex- ercises"— was most singular ami painful. ()( a pious nature, she hesitated not to subject herself to all the torments of the tlesh. Often in her fits or paroxysms, as she clinched her hands, it is said, the blood would flow through the pores of her skin in a kind of san- gianary perspiration. This her followers believe was a miraculous phenomenon, and they liken it to the "bloody sweat" of our Saviour in the garden. Her flesh wasted away under these exercises, and she be- came so weak that her friends were obliged to feed her like an infant. Then, again, according to the account given by her followers, she would have " intervals of releasement, in which her bodily strength and vigor were sometimes miraculously renewed, and her soul filled with heavenly visions and divine revelations." All these mortifications of the flesh were by her sect accepted not only as evidences ot great spiritual fervor, but as proofs of the indwelling of the divine spirit in Ann in an uncommon measure. She rose rapidly in the favor and confidence of her brethren, and we need not wonder that soon she came to have visions and rev- elations, and that they frequently and gladly "attested" them as manifestations of God to the believers. By the year 1770 she had grown so much in favor among her people that her revelations and visions were looked upon with more than ordinary interest ; and when in this year she was subjected to persecution and imprisonment by the secular authorities, her followers claim that the Lord Jesus manifested himself to her in an especial manner, and from this time dates the beginning of that "latter day of glory" in which they are now rejoicing. Imme- diately after her release from prison she professed su- pernatural powers in the midst of the little societ}' gathered about her, and she was acknowledged as their spiritual mother in Christ. Ann was thereafter accepted as the only true leader of the Church of Christ — not in the common acceptation of that term, but as the incarnation of infinite wisdom and the "second appearing of Christ," as really and fully as Jesus of Nazareth was the incar- nation of infinite power, or Christ's first appearing, and she now hesitated not to style herself ".4«», the Wor, '," signifying that in her dwelt the Word. Among other things revealed to her at this time was the displeasure of the Almighty against the matrimonial state, and she opened her testimony on the wickedness of marriage. If nothing else could have provoked the secular powers to put a stop to her fanatic excesses in the garb of re- ligion, her attack on one of the most sacred institutions of the civilized state demanded immediate action, and she was again imprisoned, this time for misdemeanor. Set free once more, she began to spread her revelations more generally, and actually entered upon an open war- fare against -the root of human depravity," as she called the matrimonial act, and the people of Manches- ter were so enraged that she was shut up in a mad- house, and was kept there several weeks. Thus harassed and persecuted on English soil, .she finally decided to seek quiet and peace on this side of the Atlantic, and in 1773 professed to have a "special revelation" to emi- grate to America. Several of her congregation asserted that they also had had revelations of a like nature, and she accordingly set out for this country. She came to America in the shi]i ^laria. Captain Smith, and ar- rived at New York in May. 1774, having as her com- panions her brother, William Lee, James Whitaker, John Hocknell, called elders, and others. In the spring of 1776 she went to All)any, and thence to Niskayuna, now Watervliet, eight miles from Albany. Here she suc- cessfully established a congregation, Avhich she called "^Ae Church of Chrisfs STond appeai-im;" formally dis- solved her connection with the man to whom she had in her youth given her h;uid and heart, and became their recognised head. It was not, however, until 17X0 that Ann Lee succeeded in gathering about her a very large fiock. At the beginning of this year an unusually great religious revival occurred at New Lebanon, and.
improving this opportunity, she went prominently be- fore the people, taking an active part in the religious commotion. This proved to her cause a fine harvest indeed, and the number of her deluded followers greatly increased, and resulted in the establishment of the now fiourishing society of New Lebanon. See SnAKiiits. One of these New Lebanon converts, Valentine Itath- bun, previously a Baptist minister, who, however, after the short period of about three months, recovered his senses, and published a pamphlet against the imposture, says that " there attended this infatuation an inexpli- cable agency upon the body, to which he himself Avas subjected, that affected the nerves suddenly and forcibly like the electric fluid, and was followed by tremblings and the complete deprivation of strength. When the good mother had somewhat established her authority with her new disciples, she warned them of the great sin of following the vain customs of the world, and, hav- ing fleeced them of their ear-rings, necklaces, buckles, and everything which might nourish pride, and hav- ing cut'off their hair close by their ears, she admitted them into her Church. Thus metamorphosed, they were ashamed to be seen by their f)ld acquaintances, and would be induced to contiiuie Shakers to save them- selves from further humiliation." But whether it was the success of their unworthy cause, or their religious excesses, or their unwillingness to take the oath of al- legiance to the State of New York, they made them- selves obnoxious here also to the secular authorities, and, as in her native countr}-, Ann Lee was subjected to imprisonment, and escaped trial and punishment only by the kind offices of the governor, George Clinton. In 1781 she set out, in company with her ciders, on a quite extended preaching tour through the New Eng- land States, in the course of which societies were found- ed at Harvard, Jlass., and sundry other places. She had always asserted that she was not liable to the as- saults of death, and that, when she left this world, she shoidd ascend in the twinkling of an eye to heaven ; but, imhappih' for her claims, "the mighty power of (Jod, the second heir of the covenant of promise" and " the Lamb's bride," or, as she styled herself, " the spir- itual mother of the new creation, the queen of Mount Zion, the second appearing of Christ," died a natural death at Watervliet, September 8, 1784.