30. Dunham was distinguished for
fidelity, and faith, and prayer, as well as wit and sarcasm.
A pious man informed the writer, that a relation of his own,
who first lost her piety and then her reason, was visited by
Dunham and pronounced him to be "possessed of the Devil."
He kneeled down in front of her, and, although she
blasphemed and spit in his face till the spittle ran down on
the floor, never flinched, but went on praying and
exorcising by turns—shaming the devil for getting into the
weaker vessel, and commanding him to get out of her, till
she became subdued, fell on her knees, began to pray and
wrestle with God for mercy, and never rose till she got up
from her knees in possession of her reason, and rejoicing in
the light of God's countenance. The narrator was a truly
good man, a class-leader, the late William Rose, of
Belleville, and we give the incident as we received it from
him, without presuming to pronounce on the precise
psycological [sic] diagnosis of the case.