04.06-CHAPTER 6 INDIA AND LONDON

CHAPTER 6 INDIA AND LONDON THE MOVEMENT commenced in Los Angeles in 1906. By the next year it was spreading rapidly in India. Bartleman wrote of Wales as the cradle of the Movement, India as the Nazareth where it was brought up, and Azuza Street as the place of its full display.

Early in 1907 Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Garr, of Los Angeles, reached Calcutta. Their meetings were marked by characteristic features already considered. That well-known servant of Christ, Lord Radstock, was at that time in Calcutta and strongly disapproved of the meetings. Sundry missionary brethren and sisters became entangled, yet some for only a short time. In India its principal advocate was Max Wood Moorhead, editor of the periodical mentioned, Cloud of Witnesses to Pentecost in India. The third number was dated October 12th, 1907. The Movement promptly ventured on an audacious prophecy. There lies before me a copy of the handbill that first announced this. It reads, A MESSAGE FROM GOD given September 23rd, 1907 (The) Spirit saith - JUDGMENT IS COMING (in) ten months- COLOMBO EARTHQUAKE FIRST CEYLON SUNK (IN) SEA This reached Mr. Moorhead in Ceylon, who repeated the whole handbill, of which the above was the beginning, in the issue of his magazine mentioned. He stated that the message was given through a Swedish missionary, and that her fellow lady workers had received confirmation of it. He gave a lengthy account of how by tongues and interpretations the prophecy was confirmed to him on four occasions. The destruction was fixed for October 16 and 17. Many fled from the City. Mr. Garr and his party departed for Hong Kong.

It is obvious that from the first a lying spirit was deluding members of the Movement in India, including its principal leader. It is instructive to learn how leaders endeavored to parry the blow at the prestige of the Movement. Six months later T. B. Barratt was in India. On the 16th May, 1908, he wrote from Coonoor, Nilgiri Hills, to A. A. Boddy as follows, which Mr. Boddy published in a Supplement to “Confidence” dated June, 1908, headed “Important Letters from Pastor Barratt and Others.” Mr. Barratt said, Of course, mistakes have been made here in India as elsewhere. The Apostles even made mistakes after “Pentecost.” But the Lord is taking us on and teaching us in His wonderful school daily. The prophecy concerning Colombo was a mistake. Mr. Moorhouse (head) also very emphatically acknowledged it. [But his acknowledgment was by no means so immediate or spontaneous as could have been expected. One who was at that time intimate with him informs me that it was only after long and severe pressure by himself that Moorhead at last acknowledged his false position.] But our adversaries are constantly trying to find fault and and make a tremendous noise at every mistake thus made, as if the whole Revival were to blame for it. They ought to mind mind their own “P’s and Q’s.” On the other hand, it ought to teach our friends NOT TO LISTEN OR FOLLOW EVERY VOICE THEY HEAR. The Devil’s voice was also heard among the “Sons of God (Job 1:6-9), and you find that he was there for no good purpose. He never is.

That’s where the gift of discernment is to be applied, and 1 John 4:1-4. Where “voices” or a “voice” is heard, or some intense impression received to do this or that, let us put the PASSWORD to the power influencing us before allowing it to enter. Every evil spirit or demon is AFRAID OF THE BLOOD OF JESUS. IT ACTS LIKE POISON TO THEM. Spiritualists hate it, which is a very good proof. And no evil power will recognize Christ as having come in the flesh or acknowledge Him as King and Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3).

Then we are PERFECTLY SAFE, having been sprinkled with the Blood and are kept by HIS POWER.

Ought Mr. Barratt to have been indignant that lookers-on took notice of this prophecy? The Movement had suddenly thrust itself forward as blessed with a revival of supernatural gifts of tongues, interpretations, and prophecies. Was it of no significance for the public that so early a palpably false prophecy was spread over the land? Very plainly it was everybody’s business not to be misled. And was the matter a mere “mistake”? and if so, whose mistake was it? Mr. Moorhead affirmed categorically that the prophecy was given in tongues to a Christian woman, was confirmed by at least two others, and was re-affirmed supernaturally to himself on four occasions. It were extraordinary that so many persons, on so many occasions, made exactly the same “mistake.” It were wonderful, if it were only a mistake, that the Lord did not enlighten them, or the very many that read the prophecy, during the weeks that intervened before the date predicted, but left them all to be undeceived by the failure. There is no explanation but that a spirit deceived them and kept them deceived. This Mr. Barratt virtually admitted by adding his strong warning against being misled by evil spirits. In the spring and summer of that year, 1908, that Mr. Barratt was there the centre of the Movement was at Coonoor, the lovely district on the Nilgiri Hills where English officials and others resided, or gathered for the hot season. Christian workers from all parts of India resorted thither, and it was a spiritually strategic centre. From April of the next year again, 1909, I was there for many months. The failure of the prophecy had called a halt in the Movement, but from several godly persons who had been at the meetings the previous year I received separate and accordant descriptions. Each told of the terrific noise, by sounds like those of birds and beasts, tame and wild, human and non-human, roared forth by many at once. And they spoke of men and women grovelling on the ground, and of ladies going around arranging the skirts of women rolling and kicking on the floor, or covering them with shawls. These facts have been lately confirmed to me in writing by one who was present.

Such indecent doings were not limited to India. In November 1913 a report reached me of young women similarly rolling on the floor at meetings in Bedford connected with Mr. Cecil Polhill. Leaders of the Movement have expressed surprise at the opposition it encountered in those early days, but such regrettable conduct could not but provoke hostility from right-minded people not blinded and warped by the power provoking these improprieties.

There were resident at Coonoor a godly man and his wife of social standing and refinement. They were universally esteemed as Christians. I had happy spiritual fellowship with them, which was not hindered by the fact that they were leaders in this Movement. At his “baptism” he spoke in tongues “only a few syllables and this was quite sufficient to bring forth Hallelujahs and shoutings, etc, at about midnight, which we heard in ‘Ochtertyre’,” a mile or more away. Thus writes to me an actor in the events of that early time. I told them what had been told me of the doings at the meetings the year before, of which there could be no doubt seeing that so many had given separately the identical details. Their reply startled me. It was that they had been at the meetings but had never seen such doings. Their sincerity could not be doubted, but how could their ignorance be explained?

We will pursue this interesting inquiry in England. A notable early convert to the Movement was Mr. Cecil PoIhill mentioned. He owned Howbury Hall, Bedford, and was wealthy. He was deservedly in high repute in evangelical circles. He was one of the 26”Cambridge Seven,” University men whose united going forth to China as evangelists was the sensation of its time, and he had a long record of devoted labour in that land. He received his “baptism” at Los Angeles, and forthwith devoted time and wealth to forwarding the Movement in England. To this end in 1908 he took No. 9 Gloucester Place, in the west end of London, which house was for a time the London centre. Mrs. Boddy and other chief leaders helped in these meetings. Mr. Boddy wrote in “Confidence” (Nov. 1908. p.10: Dec.

1908. p.7) that “visitors to the meetings... write and speak very thankfully of these gatherings... they have been a help to many.” But there lies before me a very different account by a member of the household. Mrs. Polhill had died and her sister was keeping house for Mr. Polhill and caring for his two children of nine and five years. This was Miss Annie W. Marston. a lady well known and esteemed among evangelical people. She wrote an account of matters at 9 Gloucester Place, addressed to Miss E. Ada Camp, Principal of Carfax Missionary College, Bristol, who showed the letter to me. It read:

We have shut up Howbury and have all, that is Mr. Polhill and I, the governess, the two little girls of five and nine, and half the servants - come here into the filthiest, dingiest hole I ever stepped into, to stay till just before Christmas, simply and only that Mr. P. may push this tongues movement in London, where all its adherents flock round him and flatter him, for no other reason I am convinced, and on very good grounds, than because they want his money.

Howbury Hall was a stately country mansion, in lovely surroundings. How came it that its owner took his family to stay in a house that could be described as a filthy, dingy hole?He had abundant means and surely could have secured another type of house. The step suggests some abnormal influence at work upon a gentleman of his type and standing. The letter continued,

If you could live in this house for a month and see the effect of going into this thing, you would never wonder again whether it is of God or not. Mr. C. G. Moore [a notable evangelical clergyman of that time], wasn’t one bit too strong when he said to me some months ago, “It comes straight from the pit.” This house is swarming with them, between fifty and sixty in a day sometimes; rolling and kicking, bellowing, rattling, cackling, singing, shouting, in tongues and without tongues, with words and without words: shaking the whole house and making such noises that you cannot get away from the sound of them.

All the servants and the governess are in a state of terror.

I told Mr. P. that I really believed that it would kill the elder of the two little girls... but he only laughed... The governess says she would not stay in the house half an hour if I left, and I believe the servants would go too. and what would happen to these poor mites? Their father seldom sees them more than a quarter of an hour a day, sometimes not that...

They had Mr. Boddy at Howbury for a week. He is dreadful.

Mr. A. A. Boddy was the son of a clergyman, himself for some years a solicitor, and later a clergyman. What influence was at work upon this cultivated Christian gentleman that he should leave this painful impression upon his hostess, a cultured Christian lady? Personally, and apart from these special doings, he was quite otherwise, an attractive, much-liked gentleman. I have talked with some who knew him well, one of whom was one of his spiritual children. And what influence was at work upon another gentleman such as Mr. Polhill that he should be inattentive to his little children? The letter continued,

Mr. P. spends thousands of pounds on it, and they would like to get thousands more. A gentleman who was up in such matters said to me yesterday, “This well end, you will see, either in immorality or insanity.” It has ended in both ways already in many, many cases. Of this last assertion I received written confirmation from a member of the China Inland Mission in Shansi. north China, dated in 1913, from personal knowledge of the Movement there. The Pentecostal Missionary Union was formed in January 1909, the chief promoters being Messrs. Boddy and Polhill. The first worker sent out was one of a family known to me. As early as December 1911 her death was announced in “Confidence.” It stated only that “she has not been strong of late,” and added, “Thou shalt know hereafter.” It was not made known that this friend died in deep nervous prostration, though in only early womanhood.

One of the family circle described it to me as “tragic.” An older sister, also a missionary, though not of this Mission, plunged heart and soul into these exhausting experiences and died in similar mental collapse. Thus were two truly devoted women worn out prematurely.

There is no need to wait till “hereafter” to understand these sad events. An excess of current burns the wire.

Miss Marston’s sombre account of those meetings was confirmed to me by her sister Miss Selina Marston. She endorsed it in detail. She had attended the meetings and spoke of the abnormal noises, the confusion, the terror of the servants, and added that passers by would stop to listen, and that even the police loitered about as if thinking they would be needed within. It was pandemonium.

Here, then, is the same contradiction as at Coonoor; meetings marked by dire confusion and disorder, but godly persons not discerning this. It is evident that two Christian sisters would not invent such a story concerning the house of their relative; the facts are not to be disputed. It must be taken as equally certain that Mrs. Boddy and others would not deliberately, fabricate a totally false account of the gatherings. It seems clear that while in the meetings they lived in a subjective world of their own, which concealed from them the unpleasant doings around. But has the human mind a native power that it can live so isolated and concentrated, cut off from pressing realities around, and in an unreal world?

There is another possible explanation. In 1875 Colonel H. F. Olcott collaborated with Mme. H. P. Blavatsky in New York to found the Theosophical Society. The object was to extinguish the light of Christianity by diffusing in the West the darkness of Eastern Theosophy. The history of this Movement is given in Olcott’s Old Diary Leaves, the True History of the Theosophical Society. Speaking of Mine. Blavatsky’s doings as a powerful medium Olcott narrates (pp. 46, 47) that he saw her go into a room and watched and waited for her to come out, which she did not do. After some time he entered the room and looked round for her, but she was not there. Yet there was only one door in the apartment. He adds:

After a while she calmly came out of her room into the passage and returned to the sitting room with me...

I was the subject of a neat experiment in mental suggestion... H.P.B. had simply inhibited my organs of sight from perceiving her presence, perhaps within two paces of me in the room... the superior neatness of Oriental over Western hypnotic suggestion is that in such cases as this, the inhibitory effect upon the subject’s perceptive organs results from mental, not spoken, command or suggestion. The subject is not put on his guard to resist the illusion, and it is done before he has the least suspicion of any experiment that is being made at his expense.

Olcutt declares that Mme. Blavatsky did the same on other occasions. This avowed enemy of Christ was confessedly the conscious agent of various powerful spirits who acted through her.

Scripture gives definite instances of the exercise by heavenly beings of this power of inhibiting the faculties of men. A gang of Sodomites were determined to break into Lot’s house, but the two angels who had come to him “smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door” (Genesis 19:11). Had this been absolute physical blindness they would scarcely have persevered in their attempt; but with the inner vision blurred they could not find a door though all around it.

Similarly in 2 Kings 6:17-20. A detachment of Syrian soldiers had been sent to Dothan 28to seize Elisha the prophet. His servant was greatly alarmed, but in answer to Elisha’s request, “God opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw, and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” Gehazi’s physical sight was not affected, for he saw the Syrians; but an inner sight was granted to him to see things ordinarily invisible.

Conversely, in answer to the prayer of the prophet, the Syrians were smitten with blindness (2 Kings 6:18 twice; the same word as in Genesis 19:11, its only occurrences). Yet this was not physical blindness, for they followed the prophet some fifteen miles from Dothan to Samaria; yet, without knowing it, they passed through the gates of a walled city and saw not their perilous situation until, in answer to a further prayer of Elisha, their “eyes were opened, and they saw; and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria”; that is, the inhibition was removed and natural perception was restored. I thought of this incident when passing through the massive bastions that now flank the entrance to the ruins of that ancient capital. A vivid recent example of this suspension of faculties in modern heathendom is given by George Patterson in God’s Fool (Faber. London, 1956, p.137). On entering the low door of the room the sight that met our eyes was like some hellish exaggeration of the Macbeth witches’ scene. Around the walls of the room were squatting ten old women and one old man chanting some incantation in high-pitched monotone, and then dropping to a droning repetition of ’Om Mani Padme Hum,’ their magic prayer-formula. Although their eyes were open they gazed unseeingly in front of them and paid no attention to us as we entered hesitantly and sat down on the floor beside them. They had put themselves into a trance by their incantations, and although their bodies moved rhythmically sideways, like pendulums, to the rhythm of their chant, they were not conscious of anything happening in that room at all.

It would appear that in Coonoor and in London powerful spirits of darkness inhibited the perceptive faculty, and good people did not see or hear the realities under their eyes, but were caused to see unrealities as real. Their bona fides need not be questioned; but their own unconsciousness of the dire confusion in which they participated, with their contrary supposition that the gatherings were heavenly in character, had, it is to be feared, the same dread origin. In the early records there are glowing, and I am sure sincere, accounts of the start of the Movement in a certain seaside resort in England. In the course of years I made inquiries of Christian residents who remembered those days. The report was, as usual of the common distracting noises at the meetings. The leading evangelist of the Movement went around with his tent and established some centres. A resident in one area passing at night the house where the group met, heard the usual alarming sounds and peered through a window. The noises proceeded from a number of men whose condition was such that decency forbids description. One known to me had gone to live in that district specially to share in the meetings. It is small wonder that the end was mental collapse.

Two coincident features are thus met: rapturous accounts by participants in the gatherings, with very opposite features when the details can be tested. After forty-five years further reflection I have found no other explanation than the fore-going of the contradiction involved, gladly as I would do so. It is evident that the testimony of persons under this influence, as to what went on with and around them, is eminently unreliable. This may apply to a vast mass of narrative found in the literature of the Movement.