HISTORY and TIMES of THE KINGDOM

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Journal:

Nathan H. Harriman articles

This article appeared in the Lewiston Saturday Journal on September 26, 1903.

(The misspelling of Sandford in the headlines are as they appeared)

INSIDE STORY OF SANFORDISM & SHILOH

Rev. N.H. Harriman, Formerly a Co-Worker of

Mr. Sanford, Comes Out In a Statement Against the Work

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"IT LEADS TO UNBALANCING OF HUMAN REASON," SAYS HE

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A Startling Tale of the Inside Workings of Shiloh by One Who Has Seen

It In Every Detail of Its Work and Has Participated Therein

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The subjoined article on the inside story of Shiloh and Sandfordism is from the pen of Rev. N. H. Harriman of Boston, formerly of Shiloh.

Mr. Harriman has been a co-worker of Mr. Sandford for several years, but has withdrawn from the work and, convinced of error now disapproves strongly of Shiloh and especially denounces its methods.

The Journal has published many columns, commendatory of the purpose of Shiloh. We gladly hold our columns open to Rev. Mr. Sandford or any of his friends or supporters for reply to the statements of Rev. Mr. Harriman.

But while there exist such objections to Shiloh as are in Rev. Mr. Harriman’s statement and while they are certain to come to public notice from seemingly authoritative sources, it is well to have them in a fair forum such as we claim to offer.

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Rev. Mr. Harriman, who offers this matter to the public and who wishes to bring facts touching Rev. Mr. Sanford’s methods to light, is a Baptist clergyman and formerly was a prominent evangelist. He is a graduate of Harvard University and of the Bangor Theological Seminary. He served the Baptist church in Malden, Mass., when they were finishing their new meetinghouse in 1891, for 17 months; saw the fine structure dedicated free of debt, raising $36,000 on the night of dedication. He also introduced Pastor Hiscox, who served the church acceptably for ten years, at a salary of $4,000 and a new parsonage. He was for several years an evangelist from the Clarendon street Baptist Church of Boston, having been baptized by the late Dr. A.J. Gordon, in 1890. He remained a member of that church, with his wife and oldest son, until he moved to Tacoma, Wash., in 1896. He was in Tacoma when he heard of Sandfordism. He had been seeking an ideal Christianity for several years. As he expressed it, he thought that Mr. Sandford had something that he had not, so he joined the forces and came East. "To-day," says he, "I am thoroughly sick of fanaticism of all sorts, so much so that I am in danger I fear of going to the opposite extreme and throwing away valuable lessons learned in this experience."

Personally, Mr. Harriman impresses one as a man of dignity and force. He is a cultured scholar of extremely strong spiritual characteristics, possesses a powerful physique; carries an impression of modest bearing and gentle manner. He is a pleasing conversationalist and a vigorous writer and speaker. He has been closely identified with Shiloh’s work for over three years - one of the inner circle. He was one of the Jerusalem party. He has conducted work in special lines for Mr. Sandford. His wife and family have all been at Shiloh. He has been in a position to make this statement of his worthy of consideration - not the work of an idle "investigator."

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Mr. Harriman’s statements from his own pen follow.

They are divided into separate articles according to his manuscript.

MR. HARRIMAN’S STATEMENT

The Argument of his Proposition Touching Sandford

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I have spent three full years under the tuition and leadership of the Rev. F. W. Sandford; have submitted to all the discipline that he prescribes; have stuck at no humiliation, no labor, no suffering. I have gone to such lengths that no one could go further, and I blush for my manhood as I look back over the history of the unspeakable degradation to which I have submitted for three years. I could not get my own consent to publish it, were it not for the importance of the issues at stake for a large body of most excellent people of God.

I have seen the work departing from its original standard of preaching the Gospel to the poor and sending the Word of Life to heathen lands, and have seen it drifting rapidly towards an entire subversion of the Gospel and putting in its place the terrors of the law, for the sole purpose of subduing the whole movement to the will of one man.

I have seen Mr. Sanford rapidly passing from one stage of arrogance to another, from one claim to another, until at last the Bible has but one great character left that he does not claim to be, - that character is the Messiah; and I have marked with great solicitude, increasing indications that this course will not end until he actually claims to be the Christ Himself.

Under the plan of living the whole Word of God, the whole trend of the teaching is very rapidly drifting towards a most ingenious and subtle subversion of the Word of God - "Wresting the Scriptures." There is scarcely a doctrine of the Bible that is held sacred by the general Christian public that is not tortured out of its plain and simple meaning and made to mean something that can be used as capital to support the claims of Mr. Sandford, and to subjugate the will of his followers.

As to the people that are being thus enslaved, I have only words of the highest commendation for their purity of life, singleness of aim, and unflinching consecration to what they believe to be, or believe that they believe to be, God’s highest requirements.

It is precisely that class of people that the Shiloh fanaticism gets hold of. There may be in most of them, and probably is, a tendency, more or less marked, to love and court martyrdom; but the loftiness of their aims and the singleness of their purpose and the purity of their lives cannot be discounted.

The whole community on the hill-top is generally inadequately clothed and not properly fed, - it is, in part, because their systems are reduced that they can be so easily handled. The ordinary precautions for preserving the health of the pupils especially of the women, are largely disregarded. Children are treated with shocking severity, - to carry out the teaching of "the prophet" touching obedience. It is an awful atmosphere of unnatural and abnormal cruelty and terror for a child to grow up in.

Under the show of world-wide projects, the Shiloh community is kept in a constant stretch and strain, always expecting some great things to "heave in sight."

When they fail to heave in sight, Mr. Sandford always has some new scheme on hand to take up their attention. This produces a very unhealthy spiritual condition in the school.

The worst element in subverting the freedom of the pupils is the insistence on their "taking the eyes" of their leaders. In this way they are led on, step by step, until they have no spiritual eyes of their own, - are abject slaves.

All this and much more that I shall prove later is due, as I am bound in charity to judge, to the man at the head of the institution. The mass of evidence which I shall give to the public will, I believe, prove to any unbiased reader that the man is suffering from acute religious over-appreciation of his own greatness and his right to be obeyed.

His claims indicate something other than normal conditions. They are very startling, and are increasing with fearful rapidity. His style of living and dress, while some of his followers are suffering for clothes and food, looks in the same direction. His demand for admiration, adulation, almost worship, smacks of the same. His method of dealing with his pupils indicates the same. His violent temper, and the indulgence in uncontrollable anger, and cruelty in administering discipline, are either insanity or awful wickedness.

Terror is at the bottom of all Shiloh loyalty. Gospel love they do not know. From this terror one choice young person has recently died. Others are in decline.

Combined with other things, this terror is producing a company of physical wrecks. It is also preparing subjects for the madhouse. More than one has gone insane already. Others have traveled far on the same road. Some, at this very time, or at least not long ago, were being watched to prevent them from committing suicide.

I trust to cover these points in the following article.

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THE BILL OF PARTICULARS

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Rev. Mr. Harriman’s Pen Sketch of

Shiloh and Its Founder

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"The Holy Ghost and Us" Bible School, the center of the Shiloh "movement," is in the town of Durham, Maine, post office address Shiloh.

Ten years ago or thereabouts, Mr. Sandford left denominational work, as pastor in the Free-will Baptist body, and started what he called "The World’s Evangelization Crusade of Apostolic Principles."

He began with country evangelization, using school houses and tents. There was power, and souls were saved. He lived a self denying life, repudiated working for hire, proclaimed a "faith work," and soon started a paper. Faith for support, for salvation, cleansing, reception of the Holy Spirit as a second work of grace, and holy living, living the whole Word of God, were the tenets. He also taught the imminent, pre-millennial coming of Christ, Anglo-Israel truth, and the evangelization of the world in his generation. He soon after claimed that God called him out from all denominational fellowship and said that his movement represented the last move of God for this age, claiming that the rider on the white horse, the opening of the first seal (Rev. vi), represented his work.

A Bible School was opened later, and buildings began to appear on the sand hill in Durham, erected with great show of faith, and much advertising of the faith. He attracted much attention in this work of building and the "prayer of faith" for money became a prominent feature in the work. People flocked to his conventions, evangelization gave place to education, building, propagation of the fact that Shiloh existed, and the school began to get students.

Two years ago Mr. Sandford added to his claims and commissions, that of being the Prophet Elijah, with an Elijah baptism; many little churches came into existence; he ordained ministers and evangelists; sent a part of forty workers to England, where work had existed on a small scale for a few years; a small party went to Alexandria from England; and "The Jerusalem Party," a company of twelve including myself and wife, reached the holy city in May of last year. Their work is to pray in the restoration. The Bible school now consists of perhaps a hundred students, with some older people and children added; and foreign workers, and an indefinite number in the little churches, perhaps two hundred or less, who accept all the claims of the leader and are "loyal."

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PEN PICTURE OF THE MAN

A bright, active, athletic man, of sunny face and attractive address when in that mood; of sandy complexion, medium build, light blue eyes that can flash lightning when he is angry; forty one on his next birthday in October; a magnetic man, of more than ordinary ability; a fluent speaker, sometimes eloquent; a most persuasive conversationalist; a shrewd student of men, and with great skill in handling them, the colossal egotism; unbounded assurance; unwavering faith in himself; an iron will, that brooks no opposition, and an ambition limited only by the infinite, - this is the Rev. F. W. Sandford, the founder of Shiloh, the unquestioned autocrat, "the prophet of the restoration," "Elijah," "David," "The Branch," the first and chief of the "two witnesses," "High Priest" of the Melchisedec priesthood, "restorer" of all things.

I have withdrawn from association with Mr. Sandford, after some years of being with him. I wrote Mr. Sandford, July 27th telling him why I left Jerusalem secretly, - I feared he would drive my daughter insane if he knew. I also told him that I had my minor children, and was therefore free to act; and that I purposed to do all I legitimately could to put a stop to his work of terrifying God’s dear people.

To this letter he made no reply. I felt the need to clear myself of responsibility, however, and am not free to tell what I know.

 

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EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS

One would think Mr. Sandford’s mental condition, "acute religious over appreciation of his own greatness," as I have charged, would be apparent from his extraordinary claims alone. Here they are: Apostle; prophet; overseer of the world’s evangelization; baptizer of all God’s true "sheep," meaning all true Christians; Elijah, the "restorer of all things" and forerunner of the Messiah’s second advent; David, who is to rule the whole earth and prepare the throne for the Messiah; "The Branch"; High Priest of the Melchisedec priesthood; the first and chief of "the two witnesses," with power to command fire and plague upon his enemies whenever he will.

Touching the claim to the Melchisedec priesthood, he recently printed the following reference to an incident which occurred a year ago in Liverpool: "The following day there was given to me the marvelous talk concerning Melchisedec and his priesthood that ever passed through these lips. One sentence that swept through my soul like an irresistible avalanche of truth was this, You ought to say to your earthly limitations, BE ANNIHILATED AND OUT OF THE RUINS LET GOD RISE. The grandeur of the order - for it seemed like God in prayer - has not ceased yet to affect me, and as I dictate these lines . . . . . its memory fills me with awe."

I saw him one night in Jerusalem in October last, walk the housetop in the evening in a frenzy, waving his arms in violent gesticulations, and thanking God that the blood of Jesus Christ had at least accomplished this, it had given to the world one perfect man, an Elijah, a David, and a Melchisedec, or words meaning this. I was not therefore surprised to learn on my arrival in England in June that he is claiming the Melchisedec priesthood also. It is reported to me on good authority that the little churches scattered through New England, the Provinces and one in Tacoma are all to be reconstructed and only those admitted who will sign a paper that is being prepared, declaring full belief in Mr. Sandford in all these claims.

I once asked him - it was at the time when he announced himself David - if he had any explanation of the scriptural fact that the two witnesses are to wear sackcloth, and that Elijah is one of these as he affirms, - any way of reconciling this with the royalty attached to ministry of David as he was giving it. He did not condescend to try to answer this. A full-blooded New Englander; a Jew, a David, an Elijah, the chief of the two witnesses, the Branch; Melchisedec, - all one and the same person! Is further evidence at all needed? Yet so great is the terror of divine judgments that this man has inspired, that those who continue with him will tell you that they fully believe it, - and they believe that they do.

I may add, that in harmony with his announcement of royalty, a quality of deference amounting to adulation, almost to worship, is demanded and accorded this king. He also lives royally, having a special cook to prepare his meals; dresses richly; - rides in hacks where before he took the street cars; has him rooms royally furnished; and is fast approaching the point where only worship will satisfy him. Indeed, one who was present says that he has been worshipped more than once the past spring at Shiloh, by the school or members of it, in meeting, and has been petitioned in prayer.

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HE CLAIMS PERFECTION

This is radical at Shiloh. It is presupposed in everything. God has said to him, "Found perfect," and other such messages. This means that he is infallible in his conduct and words. He will not allow the word "infallible" used, but uncompromisingly insists of the fact. A message, "An eternal excellency," which he says he received nearly two years ago, means to him that he has come to that pitch of perfection that no matter what he thinks or feels or does, the Holy Spirit will see to it that he makes no mistakes.

It is easy to see what an atmosphere this claim must create in an institution and movement like this. And all the training, teaching and discipline aim to make this claim of infallibility fundamental. He has more than one announced in meeting, and I think also in print, that the miracle wrought in perfecting him is greater than that wrought in Jesus; that Jesus was divine to begin with, while he was human, very human; that the Christ in F. W. Sandford is the same as the Christ in Jesus of Nazareth; that if they wanted to see Christ they might look at him, Mr. Sandford.

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ANGER OF THE HOLY GHOST

A Manifestation of the Wrath of

God Through the Personality of the Prophet

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I here refer to the intense, uncontrollable wrath in which Mr. Sandford indulges at times, especially when his claims are ignored or disputed. He calls it the "anger of the Holy Ghost," and says that God is just as angry with the offender as he is.

At such times, he seems unable to find words big enough or fearful enough to satisfy him. I once heard him say when an Englishman, who had money and had joined him twice, had left him the second time, "If I ever get him in my power again I will teach him, - making a fool of the prophet of God!" and his face was terrible in its wrath.

Once, in England, with the whole Jerusalem party present in a meeting, I saw him rise from his seat in sudden rage at something _________ had said, walk quickly behind her chair and give her a sharp slap in the face. When in him embarrassment he stammered, "Well, it is the first time that I ever did it isn’t it __________ ?" she replied, "No, it isn’t; you struck me once before," and proceeded to tell him when and where it was, when he professed to have forgotten it. He had great mortification over this, but succeeded in regaining his equilibrium by explaining that God had let him be humbled for _____________’s sake, who was rebellious, and this was the only way she could be brought to her senses. The poor woman accepted the verdict, and went away to fast and pray, to get "the stuff out of her." I think it was this time that she remained nine days alone in the attic, and at the end of that time "the prophet" became alarmed for her mind and sent me up to (------) and cheer her up; he said he feared she would lose her mind if something was not done. I believe God used me to prevent that effect.

This rage is latterly becoming very pronounced in his dealings with those who have "rebelled" against his authority. It is no vulgar manifestation of wrath, but a refined ingenuity in torture, spiritually. I spoke of this in my letter to him, to which I have referred. I also spoke there of Miss _________, and Mr. __________, as typical cases. In the letter, of course, I used their names. I will give these two cases.

The case of Miss __________ is that of an unusually bright, keen, conscientious and consecrated young woman, one of the early pupils in the Bible school, and deservedly popular with her teacher, and all the pupils. In a time of pressure, when "the prophet" was disciplining one of his ministers, this young lady presumed to take exception to something that he had said to this man of God.

I have to give the details as I heard them, for I was not present. I saw the (----------------) a young life wrecked - and have no doubt but that I shall give the particulars substantially correct. So great was the "anger of the Holy Ghost (?)" at the spectacle of one of his principal pupils daring to oppose him at such a time, that he was beside himself. He turned on her with such wrath that she sank under his words.

He told her that her sin was too great for forgiveness; that her soul was doomed; that there was no home for her; that she need not think to pray - God would not hear; that He would not even let the prophet pray for her. What language he used I can only guess at from having hear him in similar conditions.

After a time, how long I do not know another young lady takes the place of this lost soul. Whether "the prophet" suggests this or not I do not know. The theory is well known in Shiloh, that one can take another’s sins. This second young lady, when the first one was on the point of insanity from terror, takes her place; goes down into hell for her; there makes confession of her awful sin, which the first one could not do; and then the tormentor prays them both out of hell, as it was reported to me, and as I believe the fact was. He has done that many times since for others; indeed it is common now; the whole Bible school has been treated to that sort of experience several times the past spring.

From one of our healthiest of young women before this, the victim of this torture emerged a physical wreck. She coughed, and the ministers said she had consumption. Her mind was in a pitiable condition of most abject terror. She was seldom free from terror for long at a time. Her inquisitor, apparently made sober by the spectacle of her condition, got a message to reassure her, "A diamond." He told her that her sufferings were imaginary; that God had said that she was a diamond; and in all sorts of ways he tried to rouse her. He has kept this up for two full years now - it was just two years ago today, I think, that he so frightened her - and today she is a hopeless wreck, coughing away her precious young life; subject to awful fits of depression and fear; yet protesting that she is happy. Her are parts of two letters from her sorrowing father, which he permits me to print: -----

"I have known for a long time that there was a power brought to bear on all the members, that broke down their individuality and will, and subjugated them to the will of one man. It is marvelous to see how so many intelligent men and women will believe so many false claims and theories without question. I praise the Lord that your eyes have been opened, and may He give you wisdom to open the eyes of others. I should like to see you and talk with you . . . . .

You charge that __________’s sickness has been caused by Mr. Sandford. I would like to know more particulars.

"Write me as freely as you please. She cannot live long apparently, and yet she still is loyal to work, and prefers to be at Shiloh rather than at home. Her mind is in a terrible state, she is unhappy, sad and brooding. I have observed the bad effects of the system on others. I was surprised to find how superstitious she was. She left a sick bed here and went to Shiloh, July 4th, to the convention, and has not returned. . . . . . She ought to be at home resting. Have written for her to come, but she is under such a delusion that I do not know what will be the outcome. Can anything be done to open the eyes of the blind? I will join with you in constant prayer that this may be done, and the power broken that binds your loved ones as well as mine."

On August 16 he writes again as follows: -

"My Dear Brother in Christ:

"I thank you for your letter, which has made plain some things which before were hidden, and which, taken in connection with strange sayings of ___________, have confirmed us in what we strongly suspected before, that Mr. S. was being led in part by evil spirits and has power to subjugate the will and reason of others and bind them, so they will believe, or pretend to, everything he tells them. I believe such a hypnotic power is very dangerous, and we have good reason to doubt and fear, when we behold the wreck he has made of dear (----------). The injury worked on her mind is worse than that on her body, though,poor child she is not long for this world. Our family has been broken up and she has been taught to look on us as enemies to her. She is still at Shiloh, and does not want to come home. But she is not to blame. She was one of the most loving of daughters . . . ."

In connection with this sad case I wish to add, that the young woman who took Miss _________’s sin on her own soul and thus delivered her, not long ago declared to me that in her opinion Miss _________ had never recovered from the shock that she received in connection with her awful punishment two years ago. She is a near relative and very intimate with her. There can be no question that her present pitiable condition is due to the terror inspired by "the prophet."

Another thing is worthy of note. I heard Mr. Sandford, more than once, after the incident just related, refer to it in public and declare that God had made him so true that he could damn a soul without the slightest pity, who dared disobey God. To disobey F. W. Sandford is to disobey God. You are as true to God as you are to His prophet; not a whit truer. You are as false to God as you are to His prophet. That is the teaching that is forced upon every Shilohite, and all accept it.

At 2:30 P.M., August 31, this telegram came to my desk signed by the father of the above young woman: -

"____________dead. Can you come tomorrow? Services Wednesday. Wire _________ today."

And we laid her away in the beautiful country cemetery, a priceless young life, cut off just when she was longing to reach the heathen world with a message of life.

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ANOTHER TYPICAL CASE

It is the case of one of the ministers. He had been left in charge in Mr. Sandford’s absence,

and fell under his displeasure. He was treated in the same way. He was declared lost, damned and told that his soul was in hell, without hope unless hope might possibly come through the intercession of the prophet, and for a long time he declared that God would not let him pray for him, his sin was so black. He was left in this sad condition till nearly insane, and his health wrecked. I will quote from letters written at the time of his punishment.

"I prayed a prayer for him the other night," writes Mr.Sandford, "which took his case up before the Judge . . . I felt I did all I could do, and left his case in the hands of the Judge, and have been holding my breath ever since. These words came to me, ‘Prepare to meet thy God.’ Whether it means that God is going to kill him, or bring him to definite action spiritually, as though he were to die in a day or two, I do not know. There is not a ray of hope anywhere as far as appearances go. He acts like a man whose body would go down in death soon naturally, and whose mind might reel at any time . . . As I told him, a dozen hells would not be any too bad for him." Later he writes again of him.

"Mr. _________ is at the farmhouse, with not a ray of light from God concerning his case as yet given me, aside from one word, ‘ Communicate,’ which God gave me with reference to something Miss ___________ wrote me, - that she had had a prayer for him and had recalled that a long time ago she saw him lost from sight for a while, and turning up in the end as an apostle." This suggests the refined art with which this man plays with people. He has a message to go and tell this poor wretched prisoner that some one has had a vision in which he turns up as an apostle. Could anything be more shrewd than this? Dying of terror, he is encouraged to "go through" and be an apostle. He proceeds to say:

"At the time we withdrew fellowship from him I told him plainly that I withdrew all fellowship from him, but that I left him as though he were on an island, which I left by a bridge, and that if he ever came across as a lost soul by the bridge, I would be only too glad to see him saved, provided God would save him, the same as I would any other lost souls. . . . .

So I have not been playing with him, for this is what we have said from the first.

"His condition is most deplorable. He feels that physically he must go to the grave, in a very short time, or mentally his brain will reel under the awful strain. I shall be glad to see him helped, D.V.; but when I think . . . .it seems as if public justice would demand the full penalty of God’s wrath."

Some days later Mr. Sandford’s stenographer writes: "God’s wrath has been something awful against Mr. _______, and Mr. Sandford has not seen a ray of light for his salvation. . . ." Two weeks later she writes: "I know that your hearts will rejoice when I tell you that last night Mr. Sandford was led to pray for Mr. _________ again, and God graciously answered and saved his soul. He is in a fearful condition, spiritually and physically. He has been near death and near insanity. He fully realized that his soul was lost, and all the hope he had was that God would accept Mr. Sandford’s prayers for him. Last night God gave Mr. Sandford the message: ‘Set him free.’ . . . . So he prayed a mighty prayer and saved a soul from death."

The last I heard from this poor man he had been sent away from Shiloh, and in a broken condition, a wreck I judge, was visiting some relative in eastern Maine.

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A SECOND MEDIATOR

By these cases it will be seen that Mr. Sandford gets between souls and Christ, and becomes a second mediator. He cuts them off from hope, by this threats, plunges them into the terrors of hell and makes them feel the sufferings of the damned, only to break their wills. Then he comes forward with a message, and mediates for them and delivers them.

I know a man, an educated minister, who went through such fasting at "the prophets" dictation, in great wrath because the man had dared to oppose him, that he fell completely under the power of the prophet. He thrust him into hell, kept him there till he was on the verge of insanity; put him through a catechism in this condition to insure that he would never rebel again; then got a message to deliver him. Before he could deliver him, however, the man had to consent to pray henceforth in Mr. Sandford’s name, because the man’s sin was so great that God was angry with him, but accepted Mr. Sandford in his stead. Then he kept that man in terror for more than a year and a half after that, reminding him occasionally that he needed to keep very humble, for it was doubtful if God would ever listen to any prayer from him unless he prayed in the name of the man whom God had accepted in his place. Yet the Bible says "There is One MEDIATOR between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus?" Can one conceive of a man not quite carried away, daring to thus blaspheme? What a picture also of the unspeakable degradation of the slavery into which this man succeeds in bringing even the strongest of men, if once he can get them to believe in him! How it is done I may reveal later.

If I shall give the public a glimpse of certain letters by "the prophet" and his stenographer and manager, which I possess, they will see that pandemonium reigned there, spiritually, for months, and that the sufferings of people in that state of hopelessness into which he puts them, in pursuance of his "apostolic authority," is no myth and no simple thing.

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TWELVE COMMANDED TO REPENT

He had on trial for some time twelve heads of departments, men and women and ministers some of them, who had shared in the degradation that the leader had brought upon Shiloh in Mr. Sandford’s absence, for which he was so severely punished as I have related. Here is what Mr. Sandford says about these twelve:

"There are about a dozen others, including every person, almost without exception, that has any responsible position on this hilltop, over whom I am to pray to-morrow and who will later, probably to-morrow night, receive their sentence. The most of them I believe to be worthy of damnation. I am sorry to inform you, Brother _________, that your father is among the number, and that your mother, though under quarantine, is one with him in his guilt; and that little ____________ has been for days at the point of death from diphtheria. God said to me, ‘Take her up,’ although I am not sure as to what it means, yet I am hoping that it means He will accept my faith for her in spite of her parents’ condition. Well, God is love, as well as justice."

This shows the same spirit in disciplining as the others; the same arbitrary exercise of military authority in bringing people up for "sentence;" the same relentlessness in interpreting sickness as a judgment of God; the same opportune getting of "messages" to carry out his purposes; the same craft in getting capital out of people’s misfortune. The "Brother ________" to whom he addresses the relentless remarks about the condition of his father and mother who were "worthy of damnations," is one of his young ministers in a foreign land, a faithful servant of Mr. Sandford, and a worthy young man.

Think of the cruelty of sending such a message to a foreign missionary, for the purpose of binding the shackles the tighter upon both father and son. Then look at the heartlessness of telling the dear young missionary and his sister in so cold-blooded a way, that their little sister has been for days at the point of death from diphtheria, with no word of cheer, except the mockery of comfort contained in the remark that God is love as well as justice! Yet Shiloh workers regard this kind of refinement in cruelty as proof of their leader’s faithfulness to God.

And what an effect is such language to children about their parents calculated to have on the respect of the children for parents? Yet Shiloh teaches, "Honor thy father and thy mother." Is it any wonder they become confused? And he means that they shall be confused. He does not mean that parents shall stand between him and their children. Before my daughter left Shiloh, he

(---------------) hours with her, not advising her to disobey me, but so (-------------)

 

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