The Awful Calamity that Befell a Young Lady who Offered a Mock Prayer
That very moment she was struck crazy! She was demon possessed.
Her friends got her into a sleigh and hurried home with her. A physician was sent for immediately, but it was of no use.
Sean Michael Morris·Feb 14, 2024·Updated Sep 3, 2026
Thomas Graham, the noted revivalist preacher of the Erie Conference of the Methodist Church, relates the following sad experience:
When stationed in Fredonia, a girl who lived about three miles from that place, toward Sheridan, and had been awakened at a meeting held in the village, but who refused to seek religion. She went to a ball on Wednesday, being the evening following, and, being bantered about her religious feelings, to prove to the contrary...she took a cloak, and throwing it down in the middle of the floor called it her "mourner's bench," and then, taking the hand of a young man, kneeled down by it and offered a mock prayer.
That very moment she was struck crazy! She was demon possessed.
Her friends got her into a sleigh and hurried home with her. A physician was sent for immediately, but it was of no use. She died, crazy, on Friday evening, about the same hour of the day. She had not one lucid moment until she died. It was emphatically her "mourner's bench." Her lifeless remains were carried to the grave the following Sunday in Fredonia, followed by her friends, who would not be comforted.
This shocking testimony is an excerpt from a book that was written and compiled by Solomon B. Shaw in 1898, entitled,"Dying Testimonies of the Saved and Unsaved".
“Not only have millions upon millions of God’s children witnessed in life and death of Jesus’ power to save, but most infidels, skeptics, and sinners of every grade are constrained to acknowledge the truth of the Christian religion before they die.” - S.B. Shaw
“Multitudes, while dying, see and hear things that are not seen or heard by others.” - S.B. Shaw
She recognized me when I came in, and was loath to let me leave long enough to bring my wife; saying,"Devils are in my room, ready to drag my soul down to hell!"
Yes, I am in great pain; but that is nothing compared with the thought of going to meet God unprepared. What is this physical suffering compared to the remorse of conscience and the dark future before me?
A minister, while traveling one day, was overtaken by a thunderstorm and took refuge in what was called a tavern. His attention was soon directed towards a man who seemed to be trying to entertain himself.
Some years ago I was laboring as an evangelist in the town of M____, and during the meetings there was much conviction by the power of the Holy Ghost. Among others that were wrought upon was a young girl of about seventeen years.
