"That she went one afternoon to see Calvin Harlowe, to get some
assistance; that Mother being at the house, Calvin asked her to look at
it. That she accordingly came to her, and put her finger into her mouth
upon the cancer; at which instant the pain left her, and she was
restored to health, and was never afflicted with it afterward.
"Taken from the mouth of the said Mary Southwick, the 23d day of April,
1808. In presence of Jennet Davis, Rebecca Clarke, Daniel Cogswell,
Daniel Goodrich, and Seth Y. Wells. (Signed) MARY SOUTHWICK."
The volume from which this formal statement is extracted contains a
number of similar affidavits, which show that miraculous powers of
healing diseases are claimed to have been exercised during Ann Lee's
life, not only by her, but by her chief followers, Elder William Lee her
brother, John Hocknell, Joseph Markham, and others. [Footnote:
"Testimony of Christ's Second Appearing," etc. Published by the United
Society of Shakers. Albany, 1856. [The first edition was printed in
1808.]]
It does not appear that Ann Lee made any attempts to settle her
followers in colonies or communities, or that she interrupted the family
life, except that she insisted on celibacy. But she seems to have
gathered her followers in congregations, because she from the first
required, as a sign of true repentance and a condition of admission,
that "oral confession of all the sins of the past life, to God, in the
presence of an elder brother," which is still one of the most rigorous
rules of the order.
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