And the people responded encouragingly to the efforts of the ministerial body. Those who lived in the cities attended the revival meetings in throngs; those who lived far away flocked to the larger centers to take part in the spiritual awakening. The leaders preached eloquent, emotional sermons. They marshaled their arguments with masterly skill. They wrought upon the fears of the people till they became stirred to the very depths of their souls. Often these revival meetings were productive of marvelous manifestations. The great revival of Kentucky, in 1800, seems to have been in a way the beginning and inspiration of a long series of revivals in following years. The meetings held there were typical of the revival in general; we turn to descriptions of them to learn how they were conducted, and how they were characterized. Professor J. B. Turner of Illinois College says, "The people were accustomed to assemble, sometimes to the number of ten or twelve thousand, and they often continued together, in devotional exercises, for several days and nights. Here the people were sometimes seized with general tremor, the pulse grew weaker, their breathing difficult, and, at long intervals, their hands and feet became cold, and finally they fell, and both pulse and breath, and all symptoms of life forsook them for nearly an hour, during which time they suffered no pain, and were perfectly conscious of their condition and knew what was passing around them. "At one time during service, several shrieks were uttered, and people fell in all directions. Not less than one thousand fell at one meeting. Their outward expressions of devotion consisted in alternate singing, crying, laughing, shouting, and every variety of violent motion, of which the muscular system is capable. These violent motions they soon became unable to resist. They were violently thrown upon the ground by the convulsions, where their motions 'resembled those of a fish upon land.' This disease lasted through several years, in some cases, _and propagated itself by sympathetic imitation, from one to another_,[B] with astonishing rapidity; in crowds, and often in small assemblies."[C] [Footnote B: The italics are the present writer's.] [Footnote C: Turner, "Mormonism in All Ages" (1842), pp. 272,273.]