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FREE LOVE COMMUNITY.
"SANCTIFIED" DWELLERS IN ARKS.
Public' attention has again been called
to an undesirable religious association
calling themselves"Tho Sanctified Church,"
or "The Sanctified Band," by an attack
made by indignant citizens on a colony of
them on the banks of the Chowan River,
near Montrose, North Carolina. The fight
resulted in the death of one woman and
the wounding of several men, some of them
seriously.
" The Sanctified Church " is one of the
most peculiar religious organisations in
the -world, and is the only one of the sort
in America. The teachings of the leaders
are repugnant to American ideas and
American customs, and the law has several
times interfered to stop the evil practices
done under the cloak of religion. The
Albemarle section of North Carolina is
filled with varions colonies, all members of
the general organisation of " The Sancti-
fied Band." They live in boats, which they
call arks. Constructed of rough lumber,
these arks are merely house-boats, with
neither sails, oars, nor other means of
locomotion. Sometimes they are dragged
up on the bank when it is decided to m?ke
a protracted stay. When launched again
the ark drifta-around unless some passing
boatman gives it a cable and tows it to
some other town or landing. At more than
one town the inhabitants of these arks
have been told, either by a delegation of
citizens or the officers of the law, that they
must move, and a refusal to hoist anchor
has resulted in war. The arks vary in
size, but they are all the same. In one
end is a small room containing a cooking
stove and kitchen utensils. Here the food
for the inhabitants of the craft is pre-
pared. Adjoining is a larger room used
alternately as a dining-room and meeting
place, where public and private worship is
conducted. Lu the other end of the boat
is another larger room used as a sleeping
apartment. No privacy is given the occu-
pants, and they sleep together, regardless
of sex, age, or relationship. The public is
freely admitted into tho kitchen and
assembly room, but no one is allowed to
enter the sleeping apartment except those
who are " sanctified." It is a sort of holy
of holies reserved for the exclusive use of
members of the band. The discipline of
the Sanctified Church teaches that no one
can go to heaven until he or she has
become sanctified in body as well as in
spirit. This "sanctification" takes place
instantly, and is not a matter of growth,
and it renders the "sanctified" persons
' incapable of sin. This is explained as
meaning that nothing that a " sanctified "
person doss is or can be sinful. Acts
which would be wrong in the unsanctified
are perfectly propor when committed by
those who have been "purified" by this
sanctification process. They assert that a
civil marriage is no marriage, and that a
sanctified person cannot dwell with the
unsanctified. This logic has caused hus-
bands to desert wives and wives to desert
husbands, and the teaching of it has been
the cause of the attacks made on "the
sanctified bands ""by the dwellers in the
towns the bands have visited. The Sancti-
fied Church had its origin eight years
ago on Chincoteague Island, Accomac
County, Va. Joseph Barnard Lynch,
the richest man on the island, claimed
to have been visited by an angel
during a trance, and to have been told
that he was " sanctified." He began
preaching his doctrine, and soon had a
number of followers. A regulation of the
Sanctified Church is the system of having
"fellew-watchmen." This regulation re-
quires each male member to have the wife
of another member as a "fellow watch-
man," and they must daily retire to a
private spot where they "watch and pray."
Single women are not allowed to become
^'fellow-watchmen," and a man's wife can-
not act in such a capacity. She must be
the ''fellow-watch man" of some other man.
This doctrine has been the rock on which
the church has split several times, as some
of the deluded members refused to sub-
scribe to it, and have deserted because
Lynch insisted that it should be enforced.
Tne glaring iniquity of this idea is
apparent. "The Sanctified Band" is a
free-love society, and the " fellow-watch-
man" arrangement permits the grossest
împrop ieties without fear of detection and
ainder the cloak of sanctity. Single women
are prohibited from becoming "fellow
watchmen'' in order to prevent interference
from the authorities.
Lately things came to such a pass that
the residents of Chowan County made up
their minds that they could staud it no
longer. Word was passed around chat a
movement was to be made against the
"Sanctified Band." During a great revival
Sleeting there came the sound of a horse
galloping along the dim trail leading from
She upland, the crash of swinging branches,
and a broad-hatted young farmer, a late
convert, dashed into the firelight, shouting
-"Clar out, you's; the onbelievers is
comin'; they'll be hyur in an hour; and
they're comin' a shootin'." When every-
body was on board the arks the four house-
like structures were unmoored and poled
slowly and laboriously out into the stream
until they were 50 yards from the shore.
Here the anchors were cast and the sancti-
fied band waited for the worst. The
women were at first sent into the rooms on
the river side of the arks. Then, as time
passed on without incident, confidence was
gradually restored, and the members of
the "Sanctified Band" resumed their
accustomed places. At that instant from
the forest there came the sound of breaking
twigs and the murmur of voices. Dark
forms flitted along the shore in Ihe moon
laced shadows. There were smothered
exclamations of surprise and disappoint-
ment. Then, after a brief pause, there
came the rattle and crash of fiieaims and
the loud shrieks and cries of startled
women and children. The bullets came
ripping'through the sides of the ark with-
out cessation. Then somebody-a woman,
evidently—struck up a song. It was.
I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Saviour,
Oh, there are ten thousand charms.
The song died away in a groan. Tho
fusilade ceased. Raucous cries, curses, and
threats were heard from the river bank.
Then silence fell, save for a sound of
mourning in the arks-a wail of prayer and
of weeping. The Carolina Regulators had
paid the first instalment of their resent-
ment in blood and death, and one of the
best known of Joseph Lynch's women con-
verts bad paid the penalty of conversion
iTith. her life. She was the Patty Watkins
of the " Sanctified Band," so far a3 singing
and enthusiasm went, and great was the
grief among the converte at her sudden
death. Yet, not a word was said in bitter-
ness against those who had killed her
save that they were "pore sinners and
onbelievers."
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