THE BIBLE MADE A MIS-MAZE. Then sure the Fall, I tell you all, If Woman caus'd the Fall; The paths no man can clear; That they did bring straight here; * This is explained further on. 39 And crooked paths they all bring in, But as to thee it was by ME, That I thy hand work'd straight. And then the straight path shall be found, The way they work my Bible here; 1 CONCERNING THE MIS-MAZE. For to go round in every sound, I'll place the Type once more: 41 Here ends Wednesday night, Sept. 26. This taken from Joanna Southcott's mouth. JANE TOWNLEY. DEAR SIR, Saturday, September 29, 1804, My last letter must have appeared very puzzling, as I had not time to explain the Mis-maze. Since Joanna was ordered to drop her pen, she saith the words that are given her throw so great a light upon her mind, that while we were writing the lines that she spoke, she began to ruminate and ponder deeply in her own heart, which made her often forget the words that were spoken to her; for when she wrote her ownself, she had then no time to ponder, as she was engaged in writing. So that of late, to prevent any pondering with the words of the Lord, she has amused her thoughts in taking scraps of paper and doubling them to cut them in holes like diamonds. This she often did when in bed; and finding by this amusement her thoughts were so employed in what she was doing, she never lost a worn that the LORD said to her. But since she has been up, she has often amused herself in bending these scraps of paper to make them stand upon the table; and, as she had seen a Mis-maze at Lord Rolle's, she now sits day after day, when the Spirit of the Lord breaks in upon her, amusing herself with making of Mis-mazes with the paper on the table; and then she has no thought of her own, only amusing her F self with what she was doing; and as soon as we had written one line, she distinctly had another line given her, as fast as we could write them. In this manner she was amusing herself, when we were writing about SOLOMON. She had placed a large pincushion in the middle and made a mis-maze all round it, and then the words were spoken to her of what she had done. So Underwood and I were ordered to take a pencil, and work round all her scraps of paper, some of them the length of the line I have drawn *, some still longer, and some shorter, placed round like hedges in a mis-maze; and we were to try to work round them, so as to bring them into a straight line in the middle; but thinking we were to bring every one to the middle, by so doing we brought them all crooked, which were twenty-four in number. Then Joanna took the pencil and worked round the outward ones first, and when she came to the bottom, she brought them up in a straight line to the middle, and the same at the top; and so she worked the table round, and brought them into four straight lines, that we brought into twenty-four crooked ones. Now I have told you the sense, you will understand the meaning of what was written of the Mis-maze. We were all ordered to draw our judgment, what was meant by the four straight paths. Townley's judgment: The word of the Lord-the light of the Gospel the Salvation-and the Redemption of Man. Underwood's :---The word of the Lord to Joanna-the light of the Gospel given through hermen's wisdom to be thrown aside-and give themselves up wholly to be taught of the Lord. While we were drawing our judgments Joanna said, she would not think herself wiser than us, if she drew her judgment clearer; because a light broke in upon her, and told, that it was the Promise made of the Woman in the Creation-the Promise that was * A line of about six inches in length. CONCERNING THE MIS-MAZE. 43 made to the Woman at the Fall-Christ's death to clear the one-and his Second Coming to claim and fulfil the other. "Now Joanna thee I'll answer: Though the first I will not blame; Yet 'tis I, that am thy Master, That must mankind confound. Thy judgment right should burst; Did assist thee in the thought. Thy thoughts were right before men's sight; I tell you plain, ye sons of men, My Bible you work so, That all is straight before your sight; To make it straight before your sight- For every leaf men must work round, : Fa |