Pentecost In The Backwoods   A holy frenzy seemed to have taken
hold of the West. Throughout the frontier communities, the
ecstasy of conversion overflowed into the nervous system. At
Cane Ridge, and at a hundred subsequent meetings, the worshipers
behaved in ways that would be unbelievable if there were not
plenty of good testimony to their truth. Some got the “jerks,” a
spasmodic twitching of the entire body. They were a fearful
thing to behold. Some victims hopped from place to place like
bouncing balls. Sometimes heads snapped from side to side so
rapidly that faces became a blur, and handkerchiefs whipped off
women’s heads. One preacher saw women taken with the jerks at
table, so that teacups went flying from their hands to splash
against log walls. Churchmen disagreed about the meaning of
these symptoms. Were they signs of conversion? Or demonstrations
of the Lord’s power, meant to convince doubters? Peter
Cartwright, a famous evangelist of a slightly later era,
believed the latter. He told of a skeptic