Robert Matthews, Introduction and Parts 1 through 4 Summary and Analysis

Introduction: Elijah Pierson's life changed forever when Robert Matthews (aka the Prophet Matthias) knocked on his door on May 5, 1832.

Part 1: Robert Matthews was born in 1788 to a Scottish immigrant family in Cambridge, New York. The Scots forged their own community, named Coila, within the village. The Scots brought their uncompromising brand of Scots Calvinism with them from Scotland.

Coila's own Scots attended the Anti-Burgher Secession Church, a remnant of strife in the mother country derived from the English king trying to subordinate Scots to English civil law. The Anti-Burghers were fundamental and very strict in their beliefs, stressing simple and plain worship rather than Catholic ostentation. They believed in Calvinist pre-destination. Perhaps the largest religious event in Coila was the Lord's Supper, held in late summer, and preceded by a period...