John Taylor was a woolcomber of Range Bank, Halifax.
In July 1858, he posted a number of placards around Halifax announcing
I, John Taylor, of Springfield, Range Bank, Halifax, have great pleasure of announcing to the world that I have for upwards of five years been conversant with God and the proceedings of the invisible worlds as I have with this. I shall on Sunday afternoon, July 18th, at three o'clock, be on Skircoat Moor for the purpose of explaining to the inhabitants of Halifax the nature of those reforms which God is anxious to see established, and the usages I have received from their government. And I have the distinguished honour to announce that God also will make himself visible to all who may assemble on the moor to hear me. He will speak to us in an understandable voice. No one needs to fear, for there will be no lightning nor thunder, as at Sinai. Therefore, assemble in your thousands, and especially the electors of Halifax
On the appointed Sunday afternoon, there was a violent thunderstorm over the town which discrepancy Taylor explained by saying that he promised that the thunder and lightning should not be so fearful as at Sinai.
Several hundred people gathered and Taylor, standing on a cart asked
Is there a father in the meeting?
A man stood up and Taylor asked him to gaze at the weather vane on Manor Heath. After 5 or 10 minutes, Taylor asked the man
Do you see anything?
When he replied that he saw nothing, Taylor commented
You will never see anything
When people laughed at this, the man said that he was a seeker of the truth and like many others in the crowd, he had come from a distance. The crowd were angry and in no mood for speeches, and as his cart moved forward, Taylor fell out and was roughly handled by some in the crowd. He made his escape by entering a cab
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