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“This country is troubled with various sects of enthusiasts who agree in nothing except a frenzy of pious zeal and a most uncharitable spirit towards their unconverted neighbors, and a madness to introduce confusion, anarchy and nonsense into all the exercises of religion. * * He that is master of the strongest pair of lungs, and is able to exhibit the loudest and most doleful vociferation, is sure of prevailing success. Those who perceive themselves deficient in point of noise endeavour to secure renown by the advancement and propagation of some new and singular opinion.”

In much the same strain Sheriff Walter Bates of Kings county writes:—“When I was first in Maugerville in 1783, I was informed of a preacher by the name of Collins, who had been some time with them; that on account of some jealousy among them he soon after left, but another preacher named Alline came, whose followers were called Allinites. In Sheffield and Waterboro the people became divided into three sects, named after their own preachers: Hartites, Brooksites and Hammonites, who were annually inspired by two travelling preachers from Nova Scotia.”[134] The sheriff had very little that was good to say of these evangelists, whose methods and doctrines he cordially disliked.

Henry Alline, the Whitefield of Nova Scotia, was born at Newport, Rhode Island, June 14, 1748. He settled with his parents at Talmouth, N. S., in 1760. He was a preacher of fervid eloquence, which, as in the case of Whitefield, few who came under its influence were able to resist. He was brought up a Congregationalist, and from that denomination he never really separated, although he plunged into speculations on theological points in which, to quote the late Dr. T. Watson Smith, “the import of the words of inspiration is often lost amidst the reveries of mysticism.” One of the errors of New-Light enthusiasm consisted in regarding mere animal impulses as leadings of the Holy Spirit, which must be followed at all hazards. Henry Alline was one of the best exponents of the New-Light idea. He was a good singer as well as a fervid preacher, and in his sermons appealed to the feelings of his hearers. “The early New-Light preachers,” says Dr. Smith, “resembled their leader. Such men, passing from settlement to settlement, as if impelled by a species of religious knight-errantry, could not fail to make an impression. Viewed in themselves, the results of their visits were in certain cases painful. Families were divided; neighbors became opposed to each other; pastors preached and published in vain endeavor to stem the tide, and failing submitted to the inevitable; old church organizations were broken down and new organizations set up in their places. * * To disturb the slumbers of the churches and arouse them to active effort seemed to be his vocation.” His doctrines were distasteful to the Presbyterians of his day, and were termed by one of their ministers, “a mixture of Calvinism, Antinomianism, and Enthusiasm.”

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It is certain, nevertheless, that Henry Alline stirred non-conformist Nova Scotia to its core. After his death the societies which he founded, as a rule, gradually became Baptist churches, and in this way many of the most intelligent and influential New England families became members of that denomination.

In the month of April, 1779, Henry Alline left Cornwallis in response to an invitation to go to the River St. John. On his arrival at Maugerville he was cordially received by the people, who related to him the broken state of their church and deplored the darkness of the times.

“When the Sabbath came,” he says, “I preached, and the Lord was there, and took much hold of the people. The week ensuing I preached two lectures, and went from place to place, visiting the people and inquiring into their standing. O! it was a grief to see sincere Christians thus scattered up and down the mountains like sheep having no shepherd; and the accuser of the brethern had sown much discord among the Christians. There had been a church there, but the people had separated on account of the greatest part holding the minister to be an unconverted man, who afterwards went away, but the division still subsisted.”

Mr. Alline spent some weeks in the township, preaching often and visiting the people. By his advice they renewed their church covenant in the form following:—

“Maugerville, June ye 17, year 1779.

“We who through the exceeding riches of the grace and patience of God do continue to be a professing church of Christ being now assembled in the holy Presence of God, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ after humble confession of our manifold breaches of the Covenant, before the Lord our God and earnest supplication for pardoning mercy through the blood of Christ and deep acknowledgement of our great unworthiness to be the Lord’s Covenant People, also acknowledging our own inability to keep covenant with God or to perform any spiritual duty unless the Lord Jesus do enable us thereto by his spiritual dwelling in us, and being awfully sensible that it is a dreadful thing for sinful dust and ashes personally to transact with the infinitely glorious Majesty of Heaven and Earth.

“We do in humble confidence of his gracious assistance and acceptance through Christ; each one of us for ourselves and jointly as the church of the Living God explicetly renew our Covenant with God and one with another and after perusing the Covenant on which this church was at first gathered, we do cordially adhear to the same, both in matters of faith and discipline; and whereas some provoking evils have crept in among us which has been the procuring causes of the divisions and calamitys that God has sent or permitted in this place, especially the neglect of a close walk with God and a watchfulness over our brother. We desire from our hearts to bewail it before the Lord and humbly to entreat for pardoning mercy through the blood of the Everlasting Covenant, and we do heartily desire by God’s grace to reform these evils or whatsoever else have provoked the eyes of God’s glory among us.”

Female Members of the Church.