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HPB-SB-11-330: Difference between revisions
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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Messianic Pretenders|11-329}} | {{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Messianic Pretenders|11-329}} | ||
... | Availing myself of an opportunity which presented itself while on a visit to a friend in the neighbourhood, I paid a visit to the so-called Shaker Settlement near Lymington, Hants. In company with a young friend, through whose kindness I obtained an introduction, I first saw one or two of the male principals, with whom I conversed, but finding I took them out of their depth, they said I had better see their “Mother,” Mrs. Girling, who would answer any question I might put. We then went into their meeting-house,—a miserable wooden shanty, covered over with a leaky canvas. It was service 'time, and we found about 60 people, chiefly females, and, for the most part, young, who were singing, and Mrs. Girling standing amongst them. While the singing, with music from a harmonium, was going on, three females rose up, apparently in a trance, or semi-trance, state, and commenced dancing round Mother Girling (who is a woman of strong features and great determination of character, about 50 years of age, as I should judge). I noted that these females bowed themselves to the ground—in fact, worshipped Mrs. Girling, and in a half singing tone addressed her thus: “Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O King, for Thou, who wast dead, art alive again; and we worship Thee as the Lord our God;” and much more to the same effect. The reason for their bowing down to her feet appears presently. | ||
At this point I asked Mrs. Girling why she allowed the women to prostrate themselves before her, and we held? conversation for fully half an hour. The substance and pith of her statement was that as to her personality she was no longer Mrs. Girling. | |||
Said she: “I am not Mrs. Girling that am speaking to thee, but the Lord Jesus Christ: I am a man in the body of this woman.” | |||
W.O.: Do you mean to say that you conceive yourself to be the veritable Jesus, the Christ? | |||
Mrs. G.: I am He that came in flesh nearly 2,000 years ago, and was then crucified, and ascended into Heaven; but I am now come again, and am re-incarnated in the body of this woman. I bear upon my body the marks of the wounds of the nails which I received on Calvary. | |||
W. O.: Am I to understand that there are literally corresponding nail marks on your feet? If so, it’s a case of stigmata. | |||
Mrs. G.: Certainly, there are actually and literally the marks which were left on my feet more than 1,800 years ago. Believe me! For I am the Alpha and the Omega: the first and the last, and there shall be none other after me. | |||
W. Ο.: Excuse me calling you into question; but the world is sick of pretended ''Men'' Saviours. ''They'' have developed only the masculine principle, and the result has been nothing but fightings and contentions. What the world of humanity now wants is a ''Woman'' Saviour, ''i.e.'', a religion of love, which can tame the contending and warring factions based upon creeds, faiths, and the like. I, therefore, meet you on your own ground, and declare in your hearing that most certainly you are not the ''last.'' For, as in Creation it was not good for the man to be alone, and to meet this, woman was evolved; even so, in redemption, it is not sufficient for the ''Man'' Saviour to be alone; the ''Woman'' Saviour must be evolved; and the last shall be first. But are you aware that there are others beside yourself making the same claim? You are about the ''twelfth'' that I have come in contact with, either directly or indirectly, and who is to decide between you all as to which is which? | |||
Mrs. G.: It was prophesied that “false Christs” should come, and all others are false, for, “besides me, there is no Saviour.” | |||
The conversation then turned upon the doctrine of celibacy, &c. Finding herself taken upon such unexpected ground, Mrs. Girling was nonplussed, and I felt that she had received more than calculated for. | |||
I do not suppose that, in consequence of what I said to her, she will abate her pretensions; but! think some of her followers, who listened with breathless attention to our conversation, will have received an idea which will enable them to overcome the mesmeric spell under which Mrs. Girling evidently holds them; and to which power they are, or have been, quite passive. What ever may be the impelling force, there is little doubt that Mrs. | |||
Girling and her followers are strong in their faith that Jesus Christ has actually made His Second Advent. | |||
{{Style S-HPB SB. Restored|Many will treat this, and all other similar claimants, as cases of simple madness and blasphemy. It may, or may not be so, but one thing is certain, and that is, there is a “method in the madness,” and, after all, it is not more astounding than that rational people should profess to expect a literal fulfilment of the statement that “Christ shall come in the clouds and descend from the skies with thousands of angels, &c.” How could such (in event occur, and for “every eye” to see Him, when the earth is a solid sphere? For, in this case, if the descent were to take place to England, to the Australians the event would be invisible.}} | |||
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