Some of the subjects of this revival wandered off, seeking
light and comfort from strangers, and found the settlement of which Ann
Lee was the chief. Her doctrines, which inculcated rigid self-denial
and repression of the passions, were at once embraced by them; they
brought others to hear Ann Lee's statements, and thus a beginning was at
last made.
New Lebanon, where the new converts lived, lies upon the border of
Massachusetts and Connecticut; and into these states, particularly the
first, the new doctrine spread. Ann Lee, now called by her people Mother
Ann, or more often Mother, traveled from place to place, preaching and
advising; in Massachusetts she appears to have remained two years. It is
asserted, too, that she performed miracles at various places, healing
the sick by laying on of hands, and revealing to others their wickedness
and concealed sins. For instance:
"Mary Southwick, of Hancock [in Massachusetts, where there was a colony
of Ann Lee's followers], testifies: That about the beginning of August,
1783 (being then in the twenty-first year of her age), she was healed of
a cancer in her mouth, which had been growing two years, and which for
about three weeks had been eating, attended with great pain and a
continual running, and which occasioned great weakness and loss of
appetite.
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