The Kingdom of Matthias The Kingdom of Matthias be a fascinating window to the turbulent movements of the revival known as the Second Great Awakening. This movements swept up great evangelical Americans and gave rise to the Mormons. Matthias was born Robert Matthews in 1788 to a Scots immigrant family in the farming village of Cambridge, in Washington County, New York. The village had been originally founded as a permanent white settlement by New England squatters …showed first 75 words of 1132 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1132 total…give rise to apocalyptic cults and their virile, charismatic leaders. Like the Kingdom of Matthias, A whole series of evangelical cults later appeared in the early decades of the 19th century. The ensuing lurid trial of Matthias for the murder of Elijah Pierson, dominated the new ``penny'' journalism, generating pamphlets and books alerting Christians against fanaticism. But to the slaves, the improvident, and the laboring classes Matthias and similar cults offered both refuge and inspiration.