Show THE MESSIAH GORE The Queer History of an Illinois Family of Fanatics A Man Who Believes He is a Prophet Pro-phet and that His Mother Gave Birth to Christ Ceme His Proof In Sandwich Illinois Saturday Willouehby K Lay standing in a cemetery near the grave of his mother who had been buried but a few nour announoed that he was the prophEt ol God devoted to complete the work of Elijah Joshua and Zembabel He said he was commissioned by God from whom he had received many inspirations and proof multiplied six thousand times But U asked a reporter what tave you done toward fulfilling your mienion All thit 1 could About eighteen months ago I wrote 1 000 lines of blank verse in about tour days in token ol the 1 000 years Christ ia to rule the earth after his second coming com-ing UAnd And you believed YOU mother buried today bad conceived the second Christ Yes I firmly believed it aDd believe it still But the postmortem examination utterly abolishes even the remotest possibility of such a thing JJ suggested the astonished correspondent The act was Gods and no earthly science could disprove it The child Christ was conceived by my mother within two weeks She has been examined ex-amined by a party well posted In each matters and the result of the examination was most definitely ascertained ascer-tained The child was there and it was a male child and Christ tJ How do you account for all traces laving disappeared when the doctors I held the poatmortem The dragon was present at the death of the body ready to devour the child and it was borne up to Leaven My mothers belief main tained by myself was based on the twelfth chapter of Revelations It is recorded there that a great wonder appeared in heaven A woman clothed with the sun a moon under her feet and twelve crowns upon her lead She was about to be delivered of a child when a great red dragon having seven beads and ten horns appeared and after casting upon the earth onethird part of the stars he stood before the woman ready to devour de-vour the child She brought forth a manchild who was to rule all nations tions with I A ROD OF IRON i and the child was brought up unto God and to His throne The woman then fled to the wilderness and there God fed her 3260 days The dragon was the devil and he was cast out of heaven by Michael and hie angele The woman was given the wings of an eagle and in vain the devil attempted to devour her liDo you believe your mother met the fate of the woman mentioned in the Bible I do believe that within tan days or about June lat my mother and her sister Maria dead many years will be resurrected and then Christ will appear I have had instructions from God on this point and I have faith that all will come out as I have prophesied I shall stay in the vioin by of the cemetery until June 1st and if nothing transpires I shall give up the work and settle down to preaching or go in to commercial business bus-iness I am a graduate of the Adrian Michigan Protestant Methodist Church and may adopt the pulpit amy = a-my profession How did you get started on this mission Well it is a long story About twelve years ago my mother had a prophetic dream in which she was directed to dedicate herself and her children to God and she did so I had a similar dream when I began writing the 1000 lines referred to and when I began receiving my prophecies pro-phecies from God Have you ever had any tangible evidence of your faith Plenty For instance I have been cured of chronic diseases by God and am to day in full possession of health and all my faculties My mother had evidence piled mountain high highHow How did she come to fast She was directed by God to fast forty days and at the end of that time she was told that Christ would be born to her Who told her so God But she died on Thursday at the end of twentyeight days of etarva tion 12 ionShe died it is true but not of starvation because she maintained her precise weight through her illness ill-ness A pain in her left side caused death but there is another cause She had instructions from God to fast forty days and warned that friends would come to her and MAKE HER EAT and that if she did eat she would die It came true on Thursday My mothers brother W W Sedgwiok went to her and compelled her to take some beef tea and she died that same night During the first three days of the fast when her heavenly instructions to others werenot carried out she became very hungry but Q3 soon as the acts commanded by God were performed her hunger ceased She received instructions to send for J J Canmere of Hannibal Moa Mo-a man of God The letter was written by my father but he delayed in mailing mail-ing tit i Immediately my mothers hunger came on and she said Something has been left undone that God commanded done My father then Started to the post office to mail the letter to Mr Oanmere and my mother wag satisfied and her hunger ceased Bemsrkablel Then again my younger brother Roy was sickly and God told mother when Roy would be worse and when better and it always came to pass that way People in town say that MMe Roy was used as a means of shriving the family of real or imaginary gins and that to gain absolution gait the boy was I frequently starved remarked the reporter People eay a great many things I do not less of expect abuse and misunderstanding mis-understanding than was heaped on the prophets of old Every true prophet Lad hard trials I You are teen a true prophet I am I am BO instructed of God I believe that inspiartion comes from two sources God and the devil Gcd and his angels perform the righteous i right-eous work The devil and his angels perform the devils work which is called spiritualism u Have you ever had any cails from the latter power hI have and know it to exist I have been warned that evil spirits were attempting to turn me from my work but I overcame the temptation I am a propbet and the spirit of prophecy is in ne I knew all about the present Jewish erodes long ago It is the old exodus over again I edit and publish the Prophets Warn ing at Adrian Michigan and in it i I spread my heavensent prophecies and I bavobeen pronounced in other publications 8 prophet of God I am also a licentiate member of the Methodist Metho-dist Protestant Conference of Iowa I claim the United States to be the gathering place of Israel preparatory to the reign of Christ for 1000 years They are coming in crowds from over the sea The end draws near When do you think Christ will appear on earth My mission covers three periods of about one year each The first period began November 15th 1880 and was devoted to my preparation The second closed probation and includes in-cludes such events as are connected with the revival at Jerusalem At the end of the third period Christ wll comeWere you inspired when you wrote Heavens Argument of 1000 lines linesI II was If I was net I rould scarcely have produced such a gigantic gigan-tic composition in four days Wben did you really start in as a prophet It was on November 10th 1880 I was residing as State Center Iowa with my parents at that time and I was studying my lessen review preparatory pre-paratory to going back to school at Adrian On the night of November 10th I was attending a ball at Mall warrings Hall when the Lord sent a message to me to be delivered in the ballroom He came to me again and stopped me and said that I must go that the people would call me insane but that the Lord would lead me out into great blessing The message was as follows i State Center Iowa November 10th 1880To Church Members in Attendance at the Dance at Manuar ring Hall I was present at the prayer meeting this evening at the Presbyterian church The subject at the meeting was How shall we labor to bring about a revival As you was absent I send you word that I wish your co operation On with the dance let joy be unconfined But remember that for these hours when I need your help my father will bring you intojudgment SignedJ LORD JESUS CHRIST W K LAY Amanuensis Did you read it at the ball No I was refuse permission to read the above and the manager did not read it but I printed it in the State Center Enterprise What next I realized that the agent had led me into difficulty and immediately heard that overstudy on religious subjects had driven me crazy when the fact were that for four months for ten to fifteen hours a day I had been assisting my brother in his warehouse ware-house What came nest I was very much worried for two or three days and it took me nearly I two weeks to realize that I was talking I talk-ing and acting as o prophet Then I the mystery of the coal which is to seal 144000 was revealed tome to-me Should your mother not be raised from the dead what will you believe be-lieve I will abandon the thing and think I I no more about it I am not insane and do not propose getting into the insane asylum The correspondent could gain nothing noth-ing further of interest from the prophet pro-phet save repetition Q evidences that ne wcs inspired Mr Lay 13 aged 24 years tall slight build smooth face and blue eyes He has every appearance of a respectable student and in his manners man-ners and speech givea not a sign of insanity or mental disturbance of any sort The father James Lay is aged about 50 years dark complexion pleasant and well posted He is quite wealthy and during many years residence res-idence in Sandwich held a high place in the estimation of his fellow citizens HelD PERFECTLY SANE and the Sandwich people have but one cause for complaint about him and that was wholly because he aided and encouraged his 1 wife in her suicide by starvation Mrs Lay was a most i estimable Christian lady a member of an old and honored family Bert Lay aged twentyorie y ears is a student at Adrian and a firm be = liever in his brothers inspiration from a divine source Roy Lay aged twelve years is a weak little fellow whose sufferings in behalf of a strange work are recounted belew I am a brother of Mrs Laywbom you saw buried this morning began Hou W W Sedgwick one of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens citi-zens of Sandwich About eighteen months ago the Lays began talking ther peculiar doctrine in State Center Cen-ter Iowa and had trouble in Presbyterian Pres-byterian and Methodfot Protestant churches to which they belonged Tbe town finally became eo hct for theai tbat they were compelled to leave and returned here their old homo leavin i their large property in Iowa About three weeks ago I was told that my sister had started on a I divinely inspired fast and I went to see her about it All the answer I could Ret oat of her was I have been told to do it I must fast and then she added Better for me to dolt than disobey I understand she received re-ceived her commands from the Lord I came to the belief that ths entire family were insane on the subject She told me tnat her eon Will wa a prophet I spoke to James Lay her husband about the matter and wanted the fast broken but got no encouragement I told them my sister sis-ter would statve to death that there was danger in eating heartily after a prolonged fast Finally on Thursday last I visited the house determined j to put an end to the fast and for that purpoae I had some beef tea prepared pre-pared I tried to feed it to my sister but she refused to swallow it At that time I heard the death rattles in her throat Will Lay came in and said We are prophets true prophets YLU got information from lying spirits I You said that my mother would eat and die More of a similar simi-lar nature passed between Will and me My sister said in a faint whisper whis-per I have been told not to eat It will be better if I dont than if I do I caused a postmortem examination examina-tion to be mad with the results as you know JI What about the little boy Roy He has been treated shamefully I under alleged divine instruction He was compelled to go hungry locked up in A room moat of the winter and used outrageoubly Mrs Lay said one bad been told to state the boy Some days instructions tame that Roy must have no dinner again that be must have no meat again NOTHING BUT AN APPLE and so on through the Hat of articles used for food James Lay maintained and encouraged his wife in all this procedure I think the whole aflair an insane freak and am prostrated by mJ sisters death Are you another prophet the correspondent asked a typical Missourian Missou-rian found in the po = totlioe To ae scribe the man i a typical Missourian Missou-rian will convey a proper idea of his personal appearance UMy name is J J Cranmer and Im from Hannibal Missouri where I publish the Gospel Monitor Dont know anything about this matter do you711 Yes Iwellnobody knews anything about any thrng Ive been nigh unto three wealtH attending Mrs Lay L cause she sent fur me You see my magazine 13 devoted to religion ligion logic and literature and it aint for any sects or creeds I dont believe on em I ve got lots of information in-formation since I came here and itll be valuable to me Are yen a crank Guess I must be People out our way has been eayin HO for two or three years Do you believe W K Lay to be the Prophet El jah Dunuo if he he Hes smart enough but that family has BEEN AWFULLY MISLED What will be the price of corn in your town next fall I Two bit11 guess I Dr Ballou one of the physicians attending the post mortem told your correspondent the result of the examination exam-ination as published in these columns col-umns James Lay called on Dr Ballou during the early part of Mrs Lays fast and was asked to call on her I I after the expected birth Dr Billon replied If I have anything to do with this matter I want to be at the birth I will not go after it bas taken place because I dont want to be a party to any fraud and I think there is a chance to place a child there and then claim it to be the son of your wife Nothing more Vas said and Mr Lay left the sturdy doctor Public opinion in Sandwich among all classes is very bitter against James Lay for permitting his wife to Starve to deatb but not a word is breathed against any member on any other grounds The physicians of the place are of the opinion that the whole family hat gone mad on this particular queation Louisville Com menial a |