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Frank Weston Sandford (October 2, 1862 – March 4, 1948) was the founder and leader of an apocalyptic Christian sect, informally called "Shiloh" and eventually known officially as "The Kingdom." Sandford was early attracted to premillennialism, the Higher Life movement, the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, and divine healing; and in the 1890s, he created a communal society in coastal Maine whose members "lived on faith" rather than being gainfully employed. Considered by former members and many neighbors to be a crank and an autocrat who insisted on unquestioning loyalty, Sandford—who had identified himself with the biblical Elijah and David—was convicted of manslaughter in 1911 and served seven years in a federal penitentiary. His absence retarded the growth of his small sect; but it survived, in attenuated form, into the 21st century. ==Early life and education== Sandford was born in Bowdoinham, Maine, the tenth child of a farming family.〔Shirley Nelson, ''Fair Clear and Terrible: The Story of Shiloh, Maine'' (Latham, New York: British American Publishing, 1989), 27.〕 As a young man Frank was a natural leader. An early companion recalled that he was always the one who "drove the horse and steered the boat"; if they played ball, "he was always a captain."〔Nelson, 30.〕 His father died when Frank was fourteen, and by sixteen he was teaching school during an era in which physical prowess was often necessary to establish classroom discipline.〔Sandford "learned to get boiling mad with effect—to use his anger to control his circumstances. It worked in a total of seven schools....Work was more fun when he was in charge. His pupils adored him for that. If he was angry, his voice roaring, they did what he said in a hurry. The result was diligence—and immense pride and elation when they pleased him." Hiss, 42-43; Nelson, 31.〕 During his second year of teaching, Sandford reluctantly attended a revival meeting at his mother's Free Baptist church and was converted on February 29, 1880. He threw away his tobacco and announced his conversion publicly, not only at church but also at Nichols Latin School, where worldly cosmopolitanism was the preferred pose.〔Hiss, 44-45; Murray, 33-39. Sandford said he had been struck by the words of an old man who said, "Lord, you know we have no promise of the morrow." Sandford returned the next night and was converted. Nichols was a preparatory school for Bates College and shared its campus. Although the schools were Free Baptist, the student newspaper reported drinking bouts and vandalism, and Sandford was shunned as a "self-righteous humbug."〕 Entering Bates College on a general scholarship, Sandford was elected class president and served as both coach and catcher of the baseball team.〔The ''Lewiston Journal'' wrote of "old reliable Sandord," who suffered repeated dislocations of his fingers as a catcher because mitts were unpadded. Sandford's left hand was "gnarled and crooked for life." Hiss, 47.〕 He graduated in 1886 with honors and was chosen to give a commencement address. For a summer he captained a semi-pro baseball team and was approached by professional scouts. After a teammate ridiculed him for attending church on the annual State of Maine Fast Day, Sandford returned to Bates to attend Cobb Divinity School.〔Nelson, 34-36; Hiss, 50-52. In 1911, the New York Times claimed that Sandford was "one of, if not the greatest college catchers Maine ever saw" and averred that had he "stuck to professional baseball he might have been the idol of thousands of big league fans." ''New York Times'', (October 29, 1911. ) Another report likely exaggerated his prowess when it claimed Sandford played his entire senior year without an error. Hiss, 47.〕 Frustrated by the seminary's mixture of formalism and religious modernism, Sandford later said that God had addressed him directly with words from the gospel of Matthew, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." For the rest of his life he distrusted academic religion.〔Nelson, 36-37; Hiss, 52; Matthew 5: 6. Sandford said that this occasion was the first on which God had spoken to him directly.〕 Soon thereafter the twenty-four-year-old dropped out of seminary after he was called as pastor by the Freewill Baptist church in Topsham, Maine.〔Nelson, 37-38.〕 Sandford was frenetically energetic, and within three years his revivals resulted in three hundred conversions and more than a hundred baptisms. Besides serving as pastor, he became principal of the Topsham schools and organized sports programs for both local children and workers at a paper mill.〔Nelson, 38. Hiss, 53.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Frank Sandford」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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