Lay Exhorters and Silly Women
As with any cultural, social, religious, etc. movement, the Great Awakening was not immune to criticism. Those unhappy with the stirrings of revival cited excesses among the so-called “enthusiasts,” as they sought to discredit what was going on. One of the biggest problems these critics had was in regard to “lay exhorters.” Here is a rather amusing description of such persons:
There is a creature here whom perhaps you never heard of before. It is called an Exhorter. It is of both sexes, but generally of the male, and young. Its distinguished qualities are ignorance, impudence, zeal. Numbers of these Exhorters are amongst the people here. They go from town to town, creep into houses, lead captive silly women, and then the men. Such of them as have good voices do great execution as they move their hearers, make them cry, faint, swoon, fall into convulsions.
Edwin S. Gaustad, The Great Awakening in New England (Gloucester: Peter Smith, 1965), 70.
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