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Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 02, no. 05 (May 1872)
Publisher: Mount Lebanon Bishopric
Date: 1872-05-01
Place published: Albany (N.Y.)
Text: ‘balance the crosses we endure, THE SHAKER. “ IWILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. G. A. LOMAS, Enrron. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., MAY, 1872. N0 5 FIFIY CENTS'PI:2R ANNUM. Saviours, Analyzed, signiﬁes persons or things which save. Salt is a preservative; and individuals, who are “ Saviours come to Zion,” have been alluded to as “ the salt of the earth.” The aspiration of every spiritually inclined soul, is to be saved. Salvation, to the multitudes, signiﬁes an escape from a just peualty—having been wicked, to avoid punishment. This is folly. “ He shall save his people from their sins ; ” but never in their sins I The power to be a Saviour presupposes the individual saved. A drowning man is in no condition to help, much less of saving a companion in a simi- lar plight. Physicians have no right to be sick ; whe...
Show more‘balance the crosses we endure, THE SHAKER. “ IWILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. G. A. LOMAS, Enrron. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., MAY, 1872. N0 5 FIFIY CENTS'PI:2R ANNUM. Saviours, Analyzed, signiﬁes persons or things which save. Salt is a preservative; and individuals, who are “ Saviours come to Zion,” have been alluded to as “ the salt of the earth.” The aspiration of every spiritually inclined soul, is to be saved. Salvation, to the multitudes, signiﬁes an escape from a just peualty—having been wicked, to avoid punishment. This is folly. “ He shall save his people from their sins ; ” but never in their sins I The power to be a Saviour presupposes the individual saved. A drowning man is in no condition to help, much less of saving a companion in a simi- lar plight. Physicians have no right to be sick ; when they are so, they are no longer qualiﬁed to help the sick. VVhat lever and fulcrum have parents, with bad habits, to arrest and correct those same habits in their children ? The name Saviour, like the title Chris- tian, is good for nothing unless accompa- nied by evidences of its work. Shakers are called to be Saviours—and this call of the spirit should be accompanied by the qualiﬁcation of themselves being saved. Are we saved from the lusts and vices of the world? Therein are we the empowered agents to Work for others. Are we free from all vicious ‘habits which We know would disgrace a saint? Can we, from practical experience, bear testimony against worldly pride, fancy fooleries; against pat- ent medicines and all other medicines? Can we be abused and not feel to return it? Do our ideas of being the inhabitants of Zion consist as really in soul-consecra- tion to Christian principles, as in the hope and love of reward for some crosses we fully take upon ourselves? Do we ever with the increase of the Gospel, which leads unto full salvation from every pernicious habit—-every worldly way? Truly, we can number Saviours among us! Jesus was and is a Saviour, inasmuch as his life and invitation yet are seen and heard : “ Follow me!” The hope that God will dispense salvation unearned, is su- preme folly. We know that all the sal- vation we experience, from evils that have afllicted us, has been obtained by severe and constant labor, aided by the examples and inﬂuences of those already saved. The world, to-day, needs Saviours more than aught else. Belief in one, three or many Gods will avail nothing. God saves souls by giving them instruction how they can be saved, and blessing them with the help of individuals already saved——not otherwise. Let those who prate about salvation, from week to week, but give their congregations evidences of their sal- vation from sin, by living a clean, holy, self-denying life, as did their humble ex- emp1ar—Jesus; then will there be less sound and more salvation. God calls for volunteers to ﬁll the ranks of Saviours to the race, even as was Jesus; and the re- quired credentials are, be ye saved. Rise, Believers, in the majesty of your faith, and give evidence of your Saviourships by an in- creasing, personal salvation; not alone in one particular, but in a fully redeemed character— “ Sparing no idol, great nor small— Passing one sentence on them all." as Is Man a Fallen Being? BY GILES B. AVERY. 1. If man hath never fallen, then he hath no sin, for sin premises a departure from rec- titude, or uprightness, that is, a violation of a known law of God. 2. If there is no sin in the World, then there is no spiritual darkness or death ! Do spirit- ual life and light universally prevail and become generally manifest ? 3. If there is no sin in the World, then there can be no sorrow, for sin is the cause of all sorrows that mankind know. Sorrow is suf- fering for the violation of law! Is there no sorrow among mankind? 4. Spiritual death is the consequence of sin ! If there is no spiritual death in the World, then there is no resurrection from the dead. The English word resurrection, is from the Greek word, “Ana.stasis,” Which literally means to stand up again. How can that stand up again Which never hath fallen down from an upright or standing position? Christ said: “I am the resurrection.” If there be no fall, consequently no resurrection, then Christ spake falsely, and hath come in vain. But are all mankind spiritually alive? And do they stand spiritually upright? 5. If there is no spiritual darkness, the fruit of sin, then Christ is not “the light of life!” as the Scriptures declare. But every true follower of Christ can testify to the truth of his Words. 6. If there is no spiritual darkness among men, the fruit of sin, then the testimony of Jesus, “ This is the condemnation that light is come into the World, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil,” must have been falsehood, for condemnation is the fruit of sin! But, alas, how many millions suffer condemnation ! 7. If there is no sin, sorrow nor condemna- tion, then all our senses belie us. 8. If man hath not sinned, then he is not lost, and needs no salvation! And Jesus Christ, as a Saviour, hath been vainly sent upon earth, for there is nothing lost to save, and when Jesus Christ declared “I came to seek and save that which is lost,” he spake foolishly. The language should have been, “I came to seek and save that which never hath been found nor developed !” 9. If man hath not fallen from rectitude, then the present Work of generation among men is perfect, or the Scriptures belie the char- acter of Noah, who, it is said, “Was perfect in his generations.” For the Scriptures de- clare the present race of man to be the descend- ants of Noah. Is it the general understanding of mankind that they are perfect in their gene- rations? Nay, verily! The corruption of generation is the crying sin of our whole race ! 10. If man hath not sinned and fallen, the Whole law and the Prophets are a deception, for they all recognize gross sin in the human family. 11. If man hath not fallen, then the Whole Gospel plan for man’s redemption from a fallen state is a myth, and God has made a great mistake of man’s needs, in commission- ing Christ to preach such a gospel. ‘ 12. If man hath not fallen, all the testi- mony of Jesus, concerning tares in the Gos- pel ﬁeld, is false, and the Whole ﬁeld is good wheat, though not- fully grown! What does universal experience say to this ? 13. To deny the fall of man, is to deny the Whole revelation of God to man (so called), manifested in both the Old and New Testa- ment Scriptures. 14. If man hath not sinned and fallen, there is no_ regeneration necessary, because there is no degeneration from which to be regenerated, since, according to this theory, man hath noth- ing lost. 15. If man hath not sinned and fallen, then the peaceable state of the kingdom of Christ, anticipated by the prophet, when the lion and the lamb should lie down together, is now reigning on the earth, or God created man in A _ tion and redemption! 34: THE SI-IAKEIR. a state not good, that is, not in harmony with creation at large! But, does universal peace now reign ? 16. If man hath not fallen and sinned, then the brute is not fallen, and man is his Lord invariably, and the whole brute creation is his willing subject. But, is it so? 17. If man hath not fallen, then the whole testimony of taking the kingdom of Heaven by force, as manifest by Jesus, is falsehood; because Heaven is man’s pristine home, or God created him in misery! Hence there would have been no need of a warfare to take it ! 1 18. If man hath not fallen, then either the harvest of the world, instituted by Christ, is prematurely commenced, and God did unwisely to send his Son to inaugurate that'dispensa- ' tion, or, being instituted, and souls, by the voice of God, being called to come into it, through God’s vicegerents on earth, all souls would immediately obey the command of God, as the next step in their normal and legitimate development, which they do not do. 19. If man hath not fallen, then as do the waters cover the sea, so doth the knowledge of God cover the earth. For, it would be cruel in God to create an intelligent, account- able being, and make that being punishable for not obeying His will, and then not reveal that Will to him until myriads of ages after his creation! But does the knowledge of God thus cover the earth ? 20. Verily, man is in darkness, loss, sin, sorrow and woe, and very much needs salva- And, to deny it, is to deny all revelation of God to man, of which we have any record or experience. It is to make Noah, Moses, all the Jewish Prophets and historians, John the Baptist, Jesus, all the Prophets and Apostles of the New Testa- ment Scriptures, liars and blasphemers! It is also to deny all present experience ; for there is not a living man, but recognizes, in some degree, both himself and his fellows have transgressed some known law of right, for which a degreee of condemnation is resting upon the soul, until confessed and repented of. Shaker Communism. When Elder Frederick was in England last summer, people got impatient at his disserta- tions on Bible history and spiritual doctrines. They desired to know what Shakerism could do for them physically; how easily and com- fortably it could ﬁll their bellies and clothe their backs, and enable them to provide them- selves with those conjugal relationships which are so highly prized amongst mankind gener- ally. Thus there was a decided misunder- standing between the Shaker missionary and his auditors. They looked at the subject from the side of the ﬂesh, while the lilder viewed it from a spiritual aspect. The history of communistic efforts exhibits the fact that these schemes have been founded in all instances upon the physical appetites of man, rather than the spiritual principles of his nature. Hence, the Shakers say, that no form of com- munism has been able to perpetuate itself, except that of their order. Numerous com- munities have been established, but they have all eventually been broken up through selﬁsh- ness and anarchy. The Shakers avoid such a calamity by adhering to their principles, which they consider to be as scientiﬁc as any func- tional law in physiology. The little work before us* is partly histori- cal and partly scientiﬁc. It treats of certain peculiarities of man’ s spiritual constitution, the observance of which constitutes the essence of religion, and reviews the progress of this religious life from its early dawn amongst the primitive peoples. Historically, Elder Evans accepts the Bible narrative, perhaps more as a symbol of man’s spiritual experience, than as a chronological record of mundane facts. From this source be divides man’s spiritual efforts into four dispensations or churches. During the ﬁrst, which ended with the ﬂodd, man fell. The function of generation given to man for a use, was abused by him. This constituted “ the forbidden fruit,” and therefore the fall of man. The second, or Patriarchal era, com- menced with Abraham, on whom was enjoined the right of circumcision, and procreation, though permitted, had to be atoned for as a sin. Jesus introduced the third dispensation, or First Christian Church, of Which Love was the soul or life, and community of property the body or outward form. The fourth era was instituted in‘ the person of Ann Lee, who, on the part of the female side of humanity, received the Christ baptism, and inaugurated the order of the male and female capable of living in accordance with the requirements of this fourth dispensation. So much, then, for the historical part of the work : next comes the anthropological or sci- entiﬁc. The Elder regards man as a spiritual being with access to the spirit-world. These dispensations have been the results of revela- tion, originating in the spirit-world, and after- wards becoming part of the life of mankind. By the inauguration of these eras man was successfully enabled to commune with still higher degrees of spirit—life, and therefore able to manifest more st irituality in his outward nature. “ In this fourth dispensation,” says Elder Frederick, “ is established the ﬁnal church and kingdom of Christ which pos- sesses the ‘ Urim and Thummim,’ and there- fore cannot be deceived or overthrown by evil or ignorant spirits.” The ostensible purpose of the book is to’ afford “tests of divine in- spiration,” whereby those having communion with the spirit—world may be able to decide as to the purity of the matter communicated. The test recommended is the acknowledg- ment, on the part of the spirits, of the “ Christ principle,” which teaches self-denial, purity, and fraternity; and he adds, “the practical effort of this church is the entire banishment of poverty and want, sin and misery, and a full suply of physical and spiritual necessaries for the body and soul of every one of its mem- bers.” The one essential evil to be controlled is the sexual function. “ He who teaches that Christ and generation can coalesce is de- ceived, or is a deceiver.” It therefore appears why it is necessary to introduce so much theology and religion into * Tests ofDivine Revelation : The Second Christian or Gentile Pentecostal Church as exempliﬁed by 70 Communities in America. By F. W. Evans. London : J. Burns. Wrappers, 50 cents. the discussions of Shakerism; for that part of the book treating of religion makes it appa- rent that Shakerism is the practice of a purely religious life, in which the functions of animal existence are used only in so far as may be necessary for the physical sustenance of the individual. The Shakers are thus ruled, as to their head, by spirits from the “ Christ sphere,” and therefore they consider them- selves as much in the spirit-world, and living as near to its laws, as if they were divested of their bodies. . Such then, is a condensed view of the prin- ciples of this book, which is a text-book of Shaker doctrines. It is a very interesting and suggestive little work. There is scarcely one word which could be omitted. The au- thor possesses a terse and perspicuous style, and his very apt introduction of texts and quotations throws a great amount of light upon the meaning of many passages of Scrip- tu.e which seem to be perfectly misunderstood by the usual expositors. We consider this work of so much interest to our readers, that we give them the oportunity of purchasing it with this month’s Human Nature at half the published price.——Hnman Nature Revelation. BY ELIJAH MYRICK. The ever-developing law of necessity, im- planted in our being, demands perpetual reve- lation: for “the eye is never tired of seeing, nor the ear with hearing,” nor the living soul with new inspirations. The Scriptural, the sacred, the prophetic and commonly accepted word of God, as relates to the spiritual, have their votaries with all shades of belief——their skeptics and inﬁdels. Yet all are believers in present revelation in the ma- terial world; no one doubts the revelations, through the science of astronomy, which tells with unerring certainty, the motion of the planets with such accuracy that an eclipse is foretold with mathematical precision years before its occurrence; the evidence is undeni- able, though the mystery of the science may hang like a miracle before the vision. All discoveries, inventions, improvements in the arts and sciences, are so many revelations emanating from the same source as the spirit- ual. Mind transmits from the world of causes to the world of effects; these being objective t> he sensuous vision, impel universal belief. Who doubts the revelation to Columbus of a new world, which permeated and inspired his whole being, enabling him to confront calumny and all manner of derision; stay the hands of a mutinous crew, till the physical vision conﬁrmed his soul inspiration and gave us this land of the free——God’s reservation from the tyrant’s rule, where “the meek begin to inherit the earth? ” The acknowledgment of revelation in the terrestrial world is universal; admits of no issue, no shade of opinion, it being a legiti- mate supply of a demand. But why has spiritual revelation come into such disrepute when the spiritual has always gone parallel with the material, or followed close in its wake (“ ﬁrst the natural then the THE SHAKER. 85 spiritual”) yet unrecognized ? Because people of sincere motives, in all ages, through a false punctuation, have put a period or an exclama- tion in place of an interrogation or comma, or where the subject indicated no pause; and in- tolerance, the child of ultra veneration and twin brother to selﬁshness, saw ﬁt to stamp with eternal infallibility What was proper to the child development of the race, or perhaps mere local circumstance. And bigotry has handed down this hermetically sealed dogma, declaring it to be the ultimatum of all spirit- ual intercourse or revealments; hence the darkness of the sun of spiritual revelation. The human family is like a child in a con- tinued series of revelations; ‘and what is proper to one age is not always adapted to another ; like the rounds of a ladder, the ﬁrst is necessary to the succeeding. “ Except ye become as a little child ye can- not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Little children are artless truth seekers, always in- quiring, desiring to learn; importuning, im- patient to solve all objective problems and in- corporate into their experience; then again pursue their interrogations in response to new impulses and aspirations. This demands pres- ent and continued revelations. Such, Jesus said, were the subjects of the kingdom of heaven. “ Marvel not that I said unto you ye must be born again;” born of the spirit, to enter the kingdom of heaven as a little inquiring child, a disciple learner of the spiritual alpha- bet, and through it, the science of the spirit- ual heavens. Would it not discover sublime .ignorance and idiotic obstiuacy to contend that repeating the alphabet by rote was the culmination.of all literary acquirements, and that it revealed all that these letters were intended for, or capable of? when it is by their ever-varying combinations that they convey intelligence from mind to mind. So is it with spiritual induction in this ever-recurring, inﬁnite com- bination, conveying a knowledge of truths adapted to our present conditions and circum- stances, instead of the old, bottled—up, tradi- tional, time-hallowed theology. The spirit world is progressive; and its denizens, like mortals, cannot impart what they have not acquired. Mortals -have expected too much perfection from its early manifestations, and through an excess of veneration, made them objects of worship; hence they became dead to the ever living present. Much of the reve- lations held most sacred, are the experiences of departed spirits in various stages of pro- gression; and if we go with them they will give us better experiences; but if we entomb and worship them, they become our hitching post on the highway of progression. John the revelator received an instructive admonition, When he fell at the feet of the spirit who was communicating with him, to worship him. “And he said unto me, see thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Worship the source of this testimony and prophecy, but not the medium. Worship the primary cause —intelligence—perfected mind. For accord- ing to the best authority, “in the beginning was mind, and mind was in the beginning with God, and the mind was God.” And mind was revealed to man, and he became a living soul—a reasoning, reﬂecting and ac- countable being. This ﬁrst and greatest reve- lation is the unqualiﬁed essayer of all others. All the revealments in the material world affecting man’s physical wants, have been eagerly appropriated, while only of late the science of the spiritual world was almost entirely ignored. N 0 Wonder Jesus, in attempt- ing to introduce his spiritual philosophy, ex- claimed: “O fools and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” “Ye read the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me that ye might have life.” The inference is, that they adhered to their old traditions, instead of recognizing in him the culmination of the prophecies. Hisinvitation is: “Come on, we have outgrown the past;” and then, as if to forestall infallibility, adds, and “greater works than I do shall yet be done.” If all revelation were in the past, it shows poor design in placing the eyes in the fore part of the head, or giving the feet the direction they have. The physical, mental and spiritual vision, prophecy forward, onward, upward. True prophecy is a science, by which the higher intelligences reveal to faith, what ex- perience will record in the book of knowledge. “ Where there is no vision the people perish,” is the natural sequence of the “ blind leading the blind.” John saw a woman clothed with the sun, the direct source of light and heat; and the moon under her feet—-standing above or upon all semi or reﬂected lights; wanting the heat of the sun, of direct revelation to permeate and vitalize into life. “ The children of this world are wiser than the assumed children of light.” Though each ma.n’s invention is patent to himself, the label of infallibility would not be worth the print- ing, as the records of present revelation in in- ventions, and daily improvements on the past will testify. Every new era, cycle or dispensation is pro- phetical of progress ; and the bigot that would arrogate and dogmatize its life i11to a fossil, ﬁnds his parallel in the poor ignorant emigrant trundling all his earthly goods in a wheelbar- row, denying that there is any improved method of transit; while the earth-vibrating locomotive at his heels shakes the libelous falsehood out of his mouth. We need more of the childlike spirit that asks the simple truth and seeks its revelations daily; we must have the living testimony of Jesus, the spirit prophecy. The subscription to the gospel of progress adds nothing to that of the gospel of salvation; we have both at one price. The children of light are growing wiser; to them by-gone inspirations are like ﬂowers without fragrance; though real, they have diffused their life. The children of this world are exceedingly wise; they will not trust to the vision of Solomon, his Wisdom nor his gold. They have vision to gratify, wisdom to emulate, and a passion to appro- priate gold to themselves. “ The children of this World are,” but by what authority shall they always be “ wiser than the children of light?” (From Troy [N. Y.] Times.) Shaker Sermons. SPIRI'I‘UALISM—-THE CHARACTER OF JESUS CONSID- ERE1)——CONVERTlNG THE HEATHI;N—-SOME GOOD IDEAS FOR THE CH URCIIES--REMARKS OF ELDERS EVANS AND LOMAS. Among the persons in attendance at the late Con- ference of the Shakers and Spiritualists in this city, were Elder Evans, of the Lebanon Shaker Society, and Elder Lomas, of the Watervliet Society. Both are esteemed as Leaders among their peculiar people, and from the addresses which they delivered here during the Conference we have selected two, which "set forth somewhat at length their views upon relig- ious questions. They will be found interesting : SERMON BY ELDER LOMAS. “ Watchman, what of the night? ”-“ The morning dawns.” Spzritual Friends: I draw some delightful inferences from this assemblage of familiar spirits. I have a larger faith that there is greater good in humanity; even a zeal for the truth, and an increased desire to live it. Shakers and Spiritualists mutually conferring upon what truth is, what its demands, and who are its most obedient subjects! How shortly the time when this happifying confer- ence was deemed an impossibility! Truly, “the morning dawns ; ” the World does move ! If there ever were a people, whom those who are properly denominated “the world” have . despised, that people are the Shakers. If there was ever an organization which the popular religions of this or any other age were quite willing should be enjoyed by its own members alone, that organization is the Shakers. And yet, if there is a living demonstration of greater spirituality—a greater fervency to know the truth and to live it; if there is a stronger testi- mony against, and opposition to sin; popular, but erroneous theologies, human woes, and unspiritual practices; then I am here, a wil- ling listener, to learn of the way; to make its precepts the life-line of my conduct; to be thereby a better Spiritualist—-one who “ walks in the spirit, and fails to fulﬁll unspiritual lusts.” The Shakers date their distinctive existence from Ann Lee. You have heard of the car- penter’s goodly son; Ann Lee was the beauti- ful daughter of a blacksmith. There has been none foolish enough yet, to surround her con- ception and birth with anything miraculous. “ Many daughters have done virtuously ; ” but Ann Lee’s system of virtue has been elevated too high for worldly reach or admiration; and to the world it is there still—-if obtained, it is by an exertion upwards. She was the spirit- ual medium for the introduction of those or- ganizing principles that made up and sustain Shaker societies. In view of some of our social regulations, we have been termed “ wo- man—haters!” and by the same vituperative class, we have been branded as the “ fanatical followers of an old woman !” “ Consistency, thou art a jewel.” Spiritualists, and hate a woman ! better ask us to worship a monstrous three-headed God, whose subjects make the best ﬁghting material the world ever saw. i the charge. 36 THE SHAKER. How false these charges are, we will not waste time to advert, but will assure you that We are the followers of no mere man nor woman that ever lived; and we will not admit that any have greater love for woman than ourselves. We love her so well that we are anxious that she shall become as good, pure and angelic as the heavens; and no desire of ours shall ever soil her spiritual aspirations; and if woman becomes angelic, we are determined to be. there too. But “ Watchman, what of the night?” The age in Which we live is not yet remarkable for its religious enthusiasm—religious zeal is not prevalent. The spiritual faculties are not -roused. Revivals “ are few and far between ”— those that knew an existence have died for want of breath. The speculative, the acquisi- tive, united with the inventive and discovera- ble, demand a large attention, while the senses receive a support beyond my power or wish to estimate. The multitudes seek daily, joys that are earthly, and how they may obtain “the almighty dollar,” while very few are deeply concerned in “ What shall I do to be saved? ” Hence, on the planes of genius, of self—gratiﬁca— tion and aggrandizement, there is light, there is a brilliancy. But upon themes of spiritual life, of eternal growth and practice, darkness is prevalent, and humanity seems swayed into a callousness that makes the spirit’s voice almost unheard, unfelt, unknown. VVe go to church; this is honorable, fashionable and proper. We there hear much theological teaching, but experience only a little practical religion, for one is not the other. Religion is life—eternal life; and so certain is there an eternal life, so sure is there a theology that teaches how to live this life. Amidst the cries of “L0, here! and Lo there!” darkness has ﬂourished, the night has seemed almost pro- found. Images for worship have nearly every- where been elevated—thus have we seen Moses and Mahomet, Confucius and Jesus. These very names are adored, while the characters which made these individuals objects of esteem seem unworthy a consideration. Idols of fash- ion and objects of lust sweep unrelentingly against spiritual aspiration; and thus, in the nineteenth century, idolatry is almost univer- sal; erroneous theology prospers, but religion —-—the elevating, spiritual kind—is at a very great discount. The man Jesus occupies a prominent place before the multitudes to—day ; the masses bow in reverence to his name. The cruciﬁx, em- blematical of the manner he met His physical death, is also an object of worship. To these, millions look for their eternal salvation, while just so many are doomed to disappointment. Jesus was the medium of the Christ Spirit for the introduction of spiritual truths. Through the inﬂuence of this spirit He became a most noted theologian—He taught the science of true religion; more, He practiced spirituality and realized that the Gospel was “ the power of God unto salvation” from His sins.’ It has been asserted that Shakers and Spiritual- ists ignore Jesus. For the Shakers, I deny We love Jesus Christ, the first- born Spiritualist and very honorable Shaker. He taught an exceeding self-denial, illustrating in His life that its results were an exceeding spirituality. Jesus, under the inﬂuence of the Christ Spirit, is “ the way, the truth and the life—example” of true Spiritualists; but with- out the baptism of the Christ, I have just as much honor, and no more, for Jesus, than for the millions of ancient Jews whom I have never seen ! The human mind, clouded by constant draughts of sensual pleasure, never will be illuminated until it enters the church of true Spiritualism, and there learns that true theol- ogy is true to life. For he is a fool who believes that even God can save him from the just re- wards of his service to sin, unless he repents and lives differently. No more solid truth does Spiritualism teach, than “that every human tub shall rest on its own bottom;” and let the millions of Christian heathens pre- pare to face the music! But, “VVatchman, what of the night?” There is a light break- ing through the clouds of darkness, and the Wise are taking advantage of it. Those that were dead are alive again ; the lost are found. They return and tell us they are not in the graves of clay and sand; more, they tell us they never have been there: and more, that an attempt to bottle lightning would be as fruitless as to put them there ! So-called or- thodoxies, which ﬁnd exponents in some Bap- tist churches, in other churches, and in some Young Men’s Associations, cry aloud: “ We don’t believe it.” And truth remains Whether they do or not; for the bell of their monstrous theologies is cracked by the spirit’s return, and the light is shining through. They can never ring those theologies as of yore, even in their chimes, without divulging the mortifying but delightful truth that they are so badly cracked by the light of Spiritualism as to be entirely useless! “The morning dawns!” We have seen the patriotic elements stirred to their very foundations. We have heard the guns of Sumter, and have witnessed the uprising of a mighty nation. If the patriotism of humanity can be so ruﬁied, why may not the spiritual elements be excited? We claim that they may, and that we as self—denying Spiritualists must set the ball rolling. If the God of the Jews can use the thunders of Sumter for the emancipation of the physically enslaved, can- not the God of the Christian Spiritualist use claps of spiritual thunder to wake up the sleeping, and the dead in darkness and sin; and for the cleansing of the atmosphere in that far better day that shall disenthrall the millions of theology-stuffed, but religiously- starved souls, called Christians? “ The morn- ing dawns !” The spirit of inquiry is unfold- ing itself as never ‘before, and this reveals large dissatisfactions with existing theologies that have no religion in them. Honest souls say : “ We went to church to be fed ; we re- turned hungry, with no more power to take up our crosses, no more salvation from our besetting sins ; we went to drink, and returned worse than dry!” And these individuals come to the conclusion that popular churches would make very good sepulchers for dead men, but are no place for the living. What follows? They become inﬁdelic-—this is the first work of Spiritualism—-it makes of its subjects thorough inﬁdels to preposterous errors. This was what made Franklin, Paine and Jefferson what they were; Parker and Peebles, your Starbucks, VVaters, McCoys and others, honest engineers of unpopular truths; this is what persuaded Ann Lee, El- der Evans, Abraham Lincoln and an innumer- able host of honest men and women to be what they were——thorough inﬁdels to man—made ereeds ! And blessed are such inﬁdels. The call of the spirit is for progress, and no progress is more necessary for humanity than a belief in and reliance upon the revelation of the holy spirit to-day. VVe may use the reve- lation of the past to stand upon, but we must lean, more, press forward to hear the voice of God speaking to-day. Why need we rely on Hebrew bounties, while from all around, more truthful revelations are daily unfolding? Here is one of the fruits of condemnation—men choose the darkness of past ages, rather than the spiritual light of to-day, for very obvious reasons. Can we vitalize our souls with the bread of the ancients? Never! Yet this is what millions are trying to do, forgetful of the living present. Souls have grown since then, so have their necessities. The yesterdays have gone, let them go; let us use them only the more effectually to draw out the present ; let us do them homage only as far as they speak truth to the soul. Wisdom did not die with the ancients. God speaks to us as fatherly, more motherly, and as frequently as to the ancient prophets, and it is through the influ- ences of present revelations that we look to see torpor and darkness, the sting of death and the victory of the grave destroyed. VVhen we all shall ask for spirit aid as a necessity- as “ give us our daily bread,” then will it be forthcoming in abundance, as the sweet bread of heaven, and as fountains of living waters, ever refreshing, ever vitalizing. The natural manna answered its purpose very well, but give us the life—giving substance of the spirit to—day. The baptisms of John were positive essentials to his Judean followers; but give us a refreshing shower, as a baptism of the holy spirit, and we care not if all the fonts and ducking holes are as distant as the Red Sea. “ The morning dawns,” teaching us to say our prayers and to do them-—to ask for the kingdom of heaven on earth, and to deny our- selves of every unheavenly practice. To pro- fess less, and possess more of the divine spirit of true religion, which will make of us “ new creatures ” of light, and work out in our lives the purity of the angels. Said Wesley: “ I am sick of opinions ; let us have good works, and the faith of practical benevolence.” VVas not VVesley a better Spiritualist than his pre- tended followers? When we yield ourselves to the inspirations of the angel—life, we see how dark are the century-messed systems of the past. By this life, we learn that if we would be more spiritual, we must be less sensual. It teaches the truth of our father and mother —God. It shows the uselessness of War on the plane of spirituality, where the causes of war——the lusts of the ﬂesh——are being daily cruciﬁed. It makes us dissatisﬁed with theol- ogies that would teach us to be content with THE SHAKER. 7 8'7 mortal pleasures and carnal indulgences; and opens our eyes to the Christ planisphere where the resurrection of life is established, and where an exceeding self-denial is the pow- erful lever for its accomplishment. And the Watchman answered, “ The morn- ing dawns ! ” We see it dawning by the pro- gress of spiritual truth in the churches, and particularly out of them. VVe see it in the call of the spirit to the millions of Spiritualists to “come up to a higher life!” VVe see its light in the tottering power of Rome, in the foolish dogmas of “ Immaculate Conception ” and “ Papal Infallibility ; ” in its excommuni- cation of thousands of its former subjects, who are almost ready for Spiritualism. VVe see it in the downfall of empires, and the puriﬁcation of republics; in the eternal sepa- ration of church and state; in the exclusion of “God” and “Christ,” “Virgin Mary,” “Ann Lee” and the “Methodist Church” from the constitution of the United States. We see the dawning of the better day in the excitement ever worn an’s wrongs and woman’s rights—her wrongs of oppression, and her rights to do as- she pleases, when she pleases to do rightly. In the trial of Theodore Cuyler We see light, and in the apologetical manner of rendering the verdict against a woman’s opening her mouth where Theodore Cuyler does his, shows the day is not distant when the question of woman’s having a soul will be settled in the aﬂirmative, We believe these very same stick- lers for church government, who have been so fearful lest woman in the pulpit should create a breach of Divine injunctions, would be among the ﬁrst to violate her rights as a physical being ; and while abusing her privilege of being true to her womanly instincts, they would ex- clude her soul from heaven, were it possible to get a man to go to heaven and stay there without her! Having given woman a repre- sentative in the Godhead, we look to see her rights effected entire ; and then, if she aspires to ﬁll the White House in Washington, or the White Throne in heaven, the same will be her right, as really as her rights now are supposed only to extend, to the ﬁlling and rocking of the cradle. In the face of the light of present revelation, We protest against the prostitution of the so- called heathens, by the promulgation of the most erroneous doctrines the world ever knew. While these heathens, so—called, are living bet- ter lives than the majority of missionaries sent among them, we call up Bergh, or some more active humane power, to arrest thelinﬂiction of these theological barbarities. Rather than a God should send men and women to teach of the atoning blood of Jesus ; of a triune mon- strosity; of a physical resurrection of the body, and hundreds other non-essentials to a pure life; as men and women, we had better hang up that god and let the heathen go; or rather, call upon the heathen to convert these barbarian missionaries ! “ The morning dawns.” The Spiritualists have accompanied the Shakers in many degrees of spirituality; they have untrammelled their souls from many burdensome obstacles; and yet the call is for progress. We present for their kindly consideration the following radi- cal propositions, from the Shaker standpoint: I. That marriage is an honorable institution; but that it is an earthly, not a spiritual rela- tion. Angels do not marry. 2. That the ﬂesh is opposed to the spirit; the engagement in fleshly lusts is unbecoming the progressive Spiritualist. 3. That private property, war, riches, pover- ty, pride and worldly ambition originate with unspiritual lusts, and will be discontinued when these lusts are done away. 4. That the life of the angels constitutes Heaven ; and that same life will introduce the millennium on earth. 5. That salvation from sin, and the enjoy- ment of eternal life are realities that can be enjoyed here on earth, as in the spiritual world. That salvation from sin means the cessation of sinful practices, and not an eva- sion of merited punishment; and that eternal life is an unchangeable condition——having had all elementary conditions removed from it. Standing on these bases, and the cry comes, “ Watchman, what of the night?” We will answer: “ There is no night; all is concert, all is Summer—-we have reached eternal day! ” ADDRESS BY ELDER EVANS. rms AND THAT. The revelation of to-day is the key to revela- tion in the past. Upon this rock the church of Christ must be built as its foundation to rest upon—-not upon the record of a former revelation. How absurd for one generation to ignore revelation and spirit communion; hold- ing them impossible for their attainment; while implicitly believing that some previous genera- tion Was open to them in the fullest degree! Spiritualism comes to remove this absurdity; and to explain the mysteries of the Spiritual- istic history of Jesus and the Apostles. All the miracles—so termed-—become mirac- ulous, as the growing of the grass, and the falling of a stone, or the continued suspension of the earth in space, are miraculous. And the conclusion is reached, that either these things were not performed by reason of the divinity of Jesus, or that his Apostles and such as shall do “ greater Works than these,” are also divine beings—Gods. Possession of spiritual gifts and powers proves that persons may be Christians, not that they are 30-wanting these gifts cuts off the claim altogether-—but not at all does Chris- tianity prove infallibility. Like Adam, or John the Baptist, Jesus was born a natural man—a generative man. Not until born again of the Christ-spirit could he say in truth, “I am the Way, the truth, the life”—“ I am the resurrection.” The popular error is, to make Jesus all that he was, or all that they claim him to be, by means of his superior generation—a fatal error——that deprives Jesus of his chief crown- ing glory. Abstinence, self-abnegation, self- denial, persevering adherence to principle, by means of which he formed his own character ( just as all men can do or have done) up to his Christ Baptism: and then the same re- generation—travail—that awaits all who shall “follow him” into the holy of holies, the inner heavens; as it also deprives humanity of the great comfort, encouragement and hope implied in the exhortation : “ Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” If he was born a Christian—an utter -impossibility—he is our inferior; we, who have “fought the good ﬁght, kept the faith,” and overcome by means of “Christ within” us, have done what he never did. He may have possessed the innocence of childhood, of an unbodied Angel, but not that sturdy, manly innocence which has been attained under the hammer of ‘ temptation, and in the ﬁery furnace of afﬂic- tion. Being the ﬁrst-——“treading the Wine-press alone ”-—may somewhat balance the ante-natal superior advantages of his class. He was subject to his own parents, who did not com- prehend the spiritual impressions impelling him, and foreshadowing the future work, on a higher plane than the natural, which they occupied. As a natural man, Jesus had to learn Juda- ism—a natural law applicable to the material world. 1. The law of physiology—-no sick- ness. 2. The law of property—no monopoly or usury. 3. The law of reproduction—use, not indulgence. 4. The law of war—force-— right against wrong. When Moses killed the Egyptian, that was War on the lowest plane—physical force. ]lIedt'umsh2'p W'ar.—-—When Jonathan with his armor-bearer defeated a whole host, say- ‘ ing, “ There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.”—1 Samuel, 14, 6. When Gideon discharged twenty-two thou- sand men from his army, leaving ten thousand, the Jewish God still said, “The people are yet too many.” “By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thy hand ; and let all the other people go every man into his place.”—Judges 7. And with the three hundred men, with trum- pets, lamps and pitchers, Gideon created a Bull Run panic in Midian, and a hundred and twenty thousand men fell, mostly by their own swords. Sampson, with the jaw—bone of an ass, slew a thousand men; and then a spring opened in the jaw-bone, and he drank of "it. That was medium war. Jesus also was thus inspired in cleansing the temples.—Matthew 21, 12. Jesus went into the temple and cast out all them that bought and sold therein, “ and overthrew the tables of the mo11ey—changers, and the seats of them that sold doves.” This, too, was J ewish medium war. The entry of Jesus into Jerusalem was in the faith that the kingdom of God was to be set up outwardly and by outward means; for as yet I do not think Jesus himself was con- verted to know that his “ kingdom was not of this world ; ” and he still believed in Jew- ish Mediumistic war, as did also his disciples even until after his death. The highest form of Jewish war was where the medium of the spirits did nothing, any more than the medium of table-tipping or other manifestations is ex- pected to do—sit still. Even to the last, it is not clear to me that 38 THE SIIAKER. Jesus was yet a consistent non—resistant. Luke 22: “ He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one,” was the advice of a war man; and, like the advice of Paul to "a young Woman to marry, was not proper advice to give to full Jewish Christians. And when he told them that two swords were enough, he expected spirit aid in the work of destroying men’s lives—-Jew like. At another time, when under better and more Christian inﬂuences, he went even be- yond Elias, wbo called down ﬁre, by the spirits, to kill one hundred men, which Jesus refused to do——then he was as “ Prince of Peace ” under the Christ inﬂuence. In short, it was a matter of travail towards Christianity With Jesus, as with his apostles and all who follow him. He took the sword and perished with it—c7'uczy’i.'m'on. “ Jesus was not yet perfected,” even after he was out of the body—— in Christian principles—-is the record. There was a travail, and there were sufferings left be- hind for others to fulﬁll and endure, before the body and the head could all be compacted to- gether. Does the presence of Jesus at a wedding prove that at his “ beginning of miracles ” he was already converted to celibacy, as a Chris- tian virtue ? The fact that it takes ages upon ages for the rays of the natural sun to become converted into adiamond, and that many superior stones are formed before the diamond of the ﬁrst water is produced, may be a ﬁt simile of the effect upon humanity of the shining of the Christ spirit for the seventeen hundred years, during which period there has been one con- tinued succession of efforts to produce the true pentecostal church—the kingdom of heaven- a spiritual diamond of the ﬁrst water. ERRORS OF SWEDENBORG AND THE APOSTLES. Swedenborg, as an embodiment of the Angel of Spiritualism (see Rev. xviii), in assuming to set up ai“New Church,” committed the same error the Spiritualists of to-day fall into when they set up Spiritualism as a Religion. The chemists, or the agriculturists, or the pro- fessors of any one of the sciences, might, with equal consistency, resolve themselves into a religious sect. Swedenborg was never resurrected (either in this world nor the other) out of the Natural 0rder—having generation for its central power. Hence, “ conjugal love ” was the primary law of his Church———“ New Church ”—and of the heavens to which he had access in the spirit world. Consequently, the theology of Baby- lon, in its fundamentals, was not subverted by the doctrines of the “ New Church.” The Scriptures, as the “ Word of God,” were never so gloriﬁed on earth before by mortal man. The Tn'm'ty—-“ the Divinity of our Lord ”— he was wholly absorbed in. With him, Jesus was born the Christ. “ The Lord had a Di- vine essence from conception itself. His soul was Jehovah, and Jehovah was God. Thus the inmost of the Lord was essential Divinity; and that clothing of matter was from the Mother-—the humanity. The humanity of the Lord was not as other men, being con- ceived from the Divine Being Himself. Jesus was the Son of God from eternity.” This is orthodox, and is one with the general creed of Christendom. Even the Apostles were not infallible. They “ knew in part, prophesied in part, and saw. as through a glass darkly.” They confounded the ideas of a physical resurrection with those of the true resurrection. Acts ii, 32: “ This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. David spake of the resurrection of Christ (meaning Jesus, for they confounded Jesus and Christ, as they did the physical and spiritual resurrection), that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his ﬂesh see corrup- tion.” His physical body, with the wounds in the hands and side, was not left in the grave (hell), and his ﬂeshly body did not putrefy, as the body of Lazarus had begun to do when it was brought to life. Yet, what became of the body of Lazarus after it was raised? Did it not die And Why should not the body of Jesus do the same, provided it ever was quickened like that of Lazarus? are proper questions. The same also of the “dead bodies of the saints, which came up out of their graves, and were seen of many.” Scriptures could be cited to show that Jesus, the Apostles, and the angels first believed in the reanimation of the body of Jesus (and of other men to follow in due season), also to show that they thought a certain transmutation would occur, by means of which the physical body would be spirit- ualized; in fact, become a spiritual body that could go to heaven. “ This same Jesus whom ye have seen go up to heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go,” etc. Phil. iii, 21: “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” “ This corruption must put on incorruption, and this mortal, immortality.” “For if the dead rise not, then is Christ (Jesus) not risen. N ow if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some of you that there is no (physical) resurrection? then would your faith be vain,” etc. In short, it is no clearer that the Apostles looked for the setting up of a temporal kingdom, that would be sustained by the sword, than it is that they believed and preached a physical resurrection. Election:-It is also in evidence that the Apostles believed in the doctrine of Election. Rom. ix: “ Jacob havefl loved; Esau have I hated, before they had done either good or evil; that the purpose of God might stand, not of works, but according to election.” Chap. viii, 9: “ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate,” etc. again ? The Apostles were also in confusion in their understanding respecting Melchizedek, his character and office; and of the character and ofﬁce of his successors, the Prophets, down to John the Baptist. According to orthodoxy, Jesus going to John to be baptized with water (a rite administered by John only to the peo- ple of Jerusalem and J udea, when and after they had come to him “ confessing their sins ” —their Jewish sins—physical sins against their own bodies) was confusion, as “ the less is of the better blessed.” And, after the water baptism, his baptism by the holy Christ Spirit, through John as the medium, is as Greek to Catholic and Protestant divines, as is the fact that Jesus is estab- lished as the Head of a new priesthood, “ after the order of Melchizedek,” a heathen-—and that is nearly all we know of him, except that he “ was a priest of the Most High God, a king of Peace and of Righteousness, like unto the Son of God,” etc.; and that he blessed Abraham, the ancestor of Jesus, who bowed to him, as did Jesus to John the Baptist; all of which is sufficiently confusing, not to say confounding, to poor orthodoxy, which is in a bad way at this time, having Spiritualism in- cessantly at work undermining the old orthodox heavens of Christendom, and Shalcerzsm sub- stituting entire new heavens in place of them. Rev. xxi, 1 : “ I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the ﬁrst heaven and the ﬁrst earth had passed away; and there was no more sea ”——no more world. “ For there was sor- row on the sea, and it cannot rest and be quiet.” There was a civil governmental organization which should know no war, poverty or pros- titution ; nor the want of any rational supply for the body. “ He that sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ God shall wipe away all tears from all eyes; and there shall be no more death ”—the result of sin—“ neither sorrow, nor crying ; neither any more pain; for the former things have passed away. The tabernacle of God is yvith men.” The kingdom of heaven has come upon earth, securing human beings their inalienable rights to all of the elements of existence—religious communism. The valleys are ﬁlled by the leveled mountains: there is neither rich nor poor, for all things are common ; neither bond nor free, for all labor and share alike ; neither Jew nor Greek, for the Gospel is for all peo- ple. “ There is neither male nor female; ” for both of the sexes have risen, in the resurrec- tion, to a life of divine Christian celibacy, finding an Angelic sexual union “in the Lord.” The prophecies are realized, and the vision of John is fulﬁlled, to the honor of God, by its good to humanity. Gods. BY F. W. EVANS. The Jews worshiped the God of battles- the Lord of hosts of ﬁghting angels—a great warrior. The Heathen, when converted to Heathen Christianity, made a God of J esus— declared him to be Jehovah—-the God of the Jews—and as such, he could not object to Marriage, Private property, nor War, all of which, as Jehovah, he had blessed, in his cho- sen people—the Jews. Therefore the Heathen Christian nations practice all of these things unto this day—for all people will be like the God they worship. If Jesus was a celibate, it was because he was God, not man. If he owned no property, it was because he did not need it; and if he did not marry, it was because he could make children out of stones. And the reason he did not ﬁght was, that he himself had created the weapon and him who used it. THE SHAKER. 89 THE HOUR OF WORSHIP. Arranged for THE SHAKER by the Society at Canterbury, N. H. Ad libitum. 1 Once more the sacred hour has come, When saints to-gether meet, «. spir - its, do in - spire f_,_ 2 We would forget its scenes and cares, \Vith angels to commune; And offer up our fervent prayers- Thy will, 0 God, be done. This brings the promised blessing down, And knits our souls in love; While heart with heart in spirit joined, Still heavenward we move. Our hearts to sing His praise, '{::_____ A A I To bow be-fore Je - hovah’s throne, And wor - ship at His feet. And touch our lips with heavenly fire, Our minds from earth to raise. } 3 How strong our bond of union is! ’Tis heaven thus to share; Nothing of earth aﬂ'ords such bliss, Nor can with it compare. ' May love divine unceasing ﬂow From Christ, the living Head; Through His Anointed here below, To make His people glad. The Song of our Little Sisters. BY E. '1‘. LEGGET1‘. Dear brethren and sisters, though simple our song, At least, like the singers, ltis not very long. ’Tis one, you'll discover, but only too soon, We sing most delightfully—all but the tune. We hope ’t will convince you, "before we are through, We’re not Katy Dids, but are Katy’s that Do. We sweep with such skil1—though we don’t like to boa.st—— . That dirt’s nearly frightened away from our coast. We knit and we sew—even milk with good grace, And smile, though ’tis sometimes the wrong side the face. And if, like the clock, we are often tooslow, Please think of the time that it takes us to grow. We've oft been so sadly done over with play, That even our shadows near fainted away. Oh, pity us ! pity us ! lend us a tear, To drown ourseives in—when our trials appear. We’d scorn to live merely to eat and to drink; Though merry, we often stop laughing to think. To think, though the heart be all throbbing with pain, ‘Twill cease, by and by—and we're smiling again. When the winter winds howl ’round our beautiful home, We think of the spring-time and summer to come, When baby birds waiting, like us, to be strong, VVill join us in singing our holiday song. We list when you tell of that Beautiful VVay, Where children learn something more pleasant than play. We want to walk in it, that we, too, may share The Heaven that comes to the pure-hearted there. Then, though the salt tear may still come to the eye, We'll smile when we think of the Good By and By. Then though, like the- winds, we are often too wild, We know you’ll remember you once were a child. The dear little stars peeping down through the sky, Are they little angels. whose home is on high ? They waft us their love for the love they receive, And smile, in return, for each smile that we give. Oh ! oft, in our slumbers, like music, they come, To sing us the songs of their beautiful home; Pointing still, as they leave, to the sunny land shore, Inviting us there, when our journey is o’er. LL How pleasant it is, that above or below, We've friends to smile on us wherever we go. We know we've a Mother ’\vay up in the sky, Who loves little children, and hears when they cry. We feel, in our hearts, that she ever is near, To bless 11s and shield us when dangers appear; And should we, ob, sometimes be careless or vain, She knows we’re but child1'en, and loves us again. As mists of the morn disappear in the day, Thus, too, may our faults with our youth pass away. Our hearts, now so little, with love may expand, ’Till blooming with fruits of the Heavenly land. Oh, bless us, and love us, that we may be strong, In singing not only, but living our song. Now thanks for your kindliness, thanks for your care, And love for remem beriug how little we a.re. Life in God. .—__.. BY WM. N. REDMON. “ Cease to do evil; learn to do Well.” This sentence comprehends the whole moral duty of man, and is worth a wagon—load of theo- logical metaphysics. All the so—called “ divine mysteries ” are a thousand times worse than nothing, as they have led myriads of innocent minds into error, thereby causing great distress of soul and fear- ful forebodings as to the future, tinctured and imbued with sulphuric hell—ﬁre ! The delusion and utter worthlessness of these theological speculations, bring forcibly to our mind Dr. Johnson’ s Egyptian Philoso- pher, whose fame spread over the land, and to whom was committed the equal distribution of rain; and whose unfaltering integrity had stood good, in the face" of many bribes from millers and other interested parties. Among the throng attracted by the renown of the philosopher, were the Prince and Princess of Abyssinia, sojourners in Egypt; the -Prince, who having heard of the fame of the celebrated wise man, sought his presence, that he might be instructed in the wisdom of the age. The interview continuing for days, his sister became solicitous to know with whom he was spend- ing his time, as he must be engaged in matters of importance which could cause him to stay so long from home. The Prince, in order to increase her anxiety and raise her anticipations to the highest pitch, told her of the marvelous wonders revealed by this extraordinary personage. The Princess becoming charmed with the excellence of the philosopher, insisted on paying him a visit, with her brother, that she might see, hear and know for herself—as all her sex are determined to do. The Prince being no longer able to restrain or conceal his mirth, said : “ Dear sister, I must tell you the facts; our teacher is one of those philosophers of whom it may be said, ‘ the more he says, the less you know.’ The visit could add nothing to your store of . knowledge worthy of your acceptance, or that could raise in your estimation the excellence of the masculine gender.” This illustration may not exactly coincide with the views and feelings of those who have spent the best part of their lives in a theologi- cal education and the study of Oriental divini- ty, but it is the best We can do for them at present. The life and simple teachings of the Lord Jesus, are worth more to the unsophisticated minds of the children of earth, by way of in- structing and leading them into the Divine Life, than all that has been written or printed since by the outside world. Commentaries on the New Testament have been multiplied, ac- cording to the views and conditions of the writers; speculations, without the spirit and power of the Gospel unto salvation. But the writers of polemieal divinity have 40 THE SHAKER. not been conﬁned to the use of the pen or the tongue; in their heated controversies, the worst passions of the human mind have boiled over; men and nations have come to blows, to arms; and individuals to the stake and torch ! Heresy, in every age of the World has been called to an account, and made to pay the forfeiture of life for its inability to see and believe the “divine mysteries,” as held by the standard bearers of mythology. The gods have multiplied in numbers, and increased in severity, ever since “ the falling away” of the Apostolic Church. And now, when the Martyr ﬁres have gone out and men have ceased to settle their polemical discrepan- cies on the ﬁeld of battle, wisdom would sug- gest, that the materials of discord should never again be collected; but be permitted to remain, with the history of the past, as a me- mento of the consummate folly and ignorance of the nations and the age; and with all eifete matter be cast off, and in deep humiliation and mortiﬁciation be left behind. In preceding time, to be the greatest human butcher, has been the most consummate glory of brutal men; gloating on the wide-spread ﬁeld of mortal carnage, as the tiger over his bleeding victim ! To quarrel and ﬁght is not the vocation of philosophers ; and Christianity teaches men to govern their passions, and bring them into subjection to the law of Love ! To irrational animals let us leave the ﬁeld of blood and carnage; as, after nations have exhausted themselves on the ﬁelds of whole- sale murder, from inability to continue the bloody strife, they cease, then diplomacy has to resume her Work, and settle the disputa- tion. But men and nations can never make repa- ration in time, for the ungodly deeds committed on the ﬁelds of blood! One wrong can never right another; Justice, in the even-handed balance, alone can weigh out the dues of indi- viduals and nations. Right must ultimately prevail; and Might be instructed, that “he that takes the sword, must perish with the sword ! ” Let us suppose, that men in all ages had preferred one another; and in all the depart- ments and vocations of life, given precedence to each other; that all the lives and treasures lavished in wars and destruction had been de- voted to the good and upbuilding of nations, peoples and families ; can any one imagine or describe the blessedness of the condition of earth! Fair and honest dealings between nations and individuals will yet obtain ; and the chil- dren of earth, of whatever nation or people, will learn to love and respect each other ; con- sequently envyings, jealousies and strifes will cease on our globe, “ and nations will learn war no more ! ” Then will be consummated the advent of the Lord of Glory, and the kingdom resigned to the Father, according to intent; because the evils of earth have been overcome by kindness and Love, which have drawn the children of time to the Father, and they become one with him, according to their measure, in His sublime perfections. 0, Speak the Loving Word. BY MARIA WVHEELER, UNION VILLAGE, OHIO. “ Love, and love alone is the loan for love! 7’ O, speak the kind and loving word, To every heart, or friend, or foe, Or stranger lone. For human hearts by words are stirred, And leap with joy, or weep with woe, So oft unknown. Yea, speak the kind and loving word, E’en tho’ their hearts are happy now, And no dull woe Sits guest-like at their hearth; unheard May come some grief with clouded brow, A nameless foe. O ! let thy words of love be strong, Thy sister needs them, tho‘ she frowns, Her heart is sore. She may have wrestled with the wrong, Grown hopeless of the victor’s crown, And strives no more. Or if from virtue’s path she’s strayed, And pleasure won her heart's embrace, 0. love her yet. Perchance for kindly words she's prayed, And smiles, instead of frowning face, And love for hate. 0, speak in love, and live its praise : The truth may shine with lustre bright Around our way; .- And yet a ﬁlm may cloud our eye And shroud us from its glorious light, Obscure its ray. Hearts oft grow cold, and proud and stern, For love to melt their ice away; So ﬁrmly set; -0 I never teach a heart to spurn, As meaningless, kind words, for aye, So rarely met. Unto the happy, light and gay, Give kindly words, for sorrow needs No herald here; Unto the child in guileless play, To Age, whose step and dim eye pleads Our gentlest care. How sweet the music kind words bring, Into the heart and household dear- No chimes so sweet. No Warbler can so softly sing, The choirs of heaven pause to hear The strain complete. Nay, never will the kind word die, Or ever cause a throb of pain, But live alway. W'ill glow like planets in o11r sky, \Vill plant sweet ﬂowers for our gain, O’er life’s rough way. “ Generation of Vipers.” To run Enrron. or “THE SHAxER:”—I observe in the March issue of “ THE SHAKER ” an adimadversion upon the use of the above words in the article in the same number upon “ Eternal Damnation,” in which article Jesus is represented to make use of the unchristian expression in question. As the argument of that article greatly depends upon the fact that Jesus sometimes spoke under the inﬂuence of a spirit inferior to that which is now looked upon as so peculiarly his own, even after he had received the ﬁrst ministration of the Christ Spirit, that article would be grossly pre- sumptuous unless Jesus did use those words. It is not, however, a personal question, but one of historic truth in which are involved some of the gravest spiritual issues. I there fore, in all meekuess, beg to place before you the fact that the expression, as used by Jesus, will be found in Matthew xii, 34, in accord- ance With the reference in the early part of the article. Again, in Matthew xxiii, 33, Jesus said, “ Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” TnoMAs I. Srnoun. WE offer an apology for the space used by “ Shaker Sermons ;” but failing to get our supply of The Times, this was our only alternative to meet the demand for them. THE SHAKER, abjuring creeds, relies upon “the Spirit” to ﬁnally lead it into all truth; there- fore, each contributor is measurably responsible for his or her utterances—opim'ons only. being growing truths—knowledge in the process of formation. “FIFTEEN years a Shakeress”—a series in the Galaxy, we pronounce some truth founded on fiction. The American Spiritualist, commenting on the Troy Conference of Spiritualists and Shakers, thus speaks of Elder JOHN B. VANCE: “ We regret being unable to give more of his able address. There was no more smooth and eloquent speaker present than Elder Vance.” Beautifully true. ON Thursday, April 4, at VVatervliet, N. Y., de- ceased: David Hawkins, aged 84. One of the most able, amiable and good men that ever blest the earth. His character was apparently faultless. * “ADDRESS of Antoinette Doolittle” at Troy Con- ference is crowded into June number. It is interest- ing. SUBSCRIPTIONS to THE SHAKER are credentials that pass as Season Tickets to all Shaker meetings this sea- son. Fifty cents per annum. Secure your tickets. F. W. EVANS and company have been again invited to Troy, N. Y. We hear he has also accepted an in- vitation to extend his lecture to Utica. Utica is 96 miles from Troy 1 THE article on Shaker Communism is a Review by James Burns-—a self-sacriﬁcing Spiritualist of Lon- don—of a valuable treatise on Shaker Spiritualism. His assistance is gratefully acknowledged by the au- thor iu a thorough revision of the work. Copies sup- plied from this oﬁice. Price 50c. Postage 6c. PERSONS desirous of circulating sample copies of THE SHAKER can obtain all they need for such pur- poses on application to this oﬁice. §§ WE feel compelled to warn our readers that we have such a pressure of matter as to necessitate an enlargement of THE SHAKER, or the issuing of the same as a semi-monthly, should all be printed. How will this please ? MEMBERS OF SOCIETY ﬂppointed to answer Correspondents, among whom are the Board of Editors. Elder F. W. Evans, Mt. Lebanon, Columbia Co., N. Y. “ Issacha.r Bates, Shakers, N. Y. “ Calvin G. Reed, Mt. Morris, Livingston Co., N. Y. “ Simon Mahee. West Pittsﬂeld, Mass. “ Stoughton Kellogg, Thompsonville, Conn., Shakers. “ Albert Battles, Tyringham, Berkshire 00., Mass. “ Wm. Leonard, Ayer, Mass, Shakers. “ Jonas Nutting, Shirley Village, Middlesex Co., Mass. “ B. H. Smith, Shaker Village, Merrimack Co., N. H. ‘ “ Henry Cummings, Enﬂeld, Grafton Co., N. H. “ John B. Vance, Alfred, Shakers, York Co., Me. “ Alonzo Gilman, West Gloucester, Cumberland Co., Me., Shakers. “ Chas. Clapp, Union Village, Warren .Co., 0., Shakers. “ Ezra Sherman, Preston, Hamilton Co., Ohio. Shakers. “ Stephen Ball, Dayton, Shakers, Ohio. “ Jacob Kulp, Pleasant Hill, Mercer Co., Ky. “ J. R. Eades, South Union, Logan Co., Ky. “ J. S. Prescott, Cleveland, Ohio, Shakers.
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ts0205
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 02, no. 06 (June 1872)
Publisher: Mount Lebanon Bishopric
Date: 1872-06-01
Place published: Albany (N.Y.)
Text: THE SHAKER. “ I WILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. 11. G. A. LOMAS, EDITOR. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., JUNE, 1872. NO. 6 FIFIY CENTS PER ANNUM. Shaker Societies. THEIR PURPOSE AND MAINTENANCE. We would, in present article, deal with this subject as connected with the con- secrated scrvices of those individuals which the Good Spirit seals as acceptable mem- bers of said Societies. The very common idea prevails that the Shakers are rich. Viewed from whatever point any may take, the very reverse of this is true ! VVe have large possessions, but we have large num- bers as occupants and possessors ; and there are thousands of farmers within a few miles of Shaker homesteads, who possess more earthly wealth than the Shakers would, were they divided into families as small as theirs. In the “ Constitution ” of the United Soci...
Show moreTHE SHAKER. “ I WILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. 11. G. A. LOMAS, EDITOR. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., JUNE, 1872. NO. 6 FIFIY CENTS PER ANNUM. Shaker Societies. THEIR PURPOSE AND MAINTENANCE. We would, in present article, deal with this subject as connected with the con- secrated scrvices of those individuals which the Good Spirit seals as acceptable mem- bers of said Societies. The very common idea prevails that the Shakers are rich. Viewed from whatever point any may take, the very reverse of this is true ! VVe have large possessions, but we have large num- bers as occupants and possessors ; and there are thousands of farmers within a few miles of Shaker homesteads, who possess more earthly wealth than the Shakers would, were they divided into families as small as theirs. In the “ Constitution ” of the United Societies we ﬁnd that the sole aim, purpose and intent for the accumulation of any and all possessions in the power of the Societies honorably to secure, to be for “ charitable and religious purposes ” only. None, not even the Bishops of the Socie- ties, have any right to disburse the funds derived from the consecrated services or donations of individuals, for any other pur- poses whatever. It will clearly appear to any reasonable individual, that a Society whose ﬁnancial basis is like ours, must be the very reverse of a money-making insti- tution. This being so, many will ask, how are the Societies maintained and improved? It is a fact, well known, that the Shakers rely upon the adhesion of individuals out- side of their order, to increase or sustain their numerical forces—no children being born in the Societies. Many of Society’s pillars entered it when very young, others in riper years. Some became acceptable members after reaching the meridian of life, able to sustain themselves and a little more ; while many others are unable to do even this. Many, advanced in years, seek admission to Society under the well-founded assertion that they are “ able to pay their way ” at the time ; and it will appear co- gent to all, that if Society is sustained, some must considerably exceed an ability to sustain themselves, and willingly conse- crate that ability to the cause, or it must fail. Here, then, we have the key to So- ciety’s improvement———the consecrated offer- ings of those able to bear to Society more than they cost it. Many children have been adopted, in the hope that their riper years will not only compensate Society for its fostering care of their youth, but add largely to its facilities, whereby their spirit- ual fathers and mothers, less able brethren and sisters, other adopted children, and themselves may be assured a happy main- tenance for all time to come; making So- ciety a permanent institution for the sin- sick Zion-traveler who earnestly pleads for a privilege to devote his or her life to a cause so holy and just. VVe enter into a “ Covenant ” at maturity of years, that our whole being, without reserve, shall willingly be devoted to the upholding and upbuilding of Society ; and sacredly attaching our names to this instrument, forbids our de- mand, if not our acceptance, of a single dime for services so consecrated. “ Can a man rob God? ” Nor does Society invite this consecration without giving us a solemn assurance that it takes us “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health,” in old age, and through unforeseen accidents and diﬁiculties, so long as we fulﬁll our part of the\“compact” to which we, at mature age, have understandingly and vol- untarily attached our signatures. This “ Covenant” has passed the ordeal of the best legal acumen and criticism in our country, and pronounced a safe document for the preservation of Society for the pur- poses it sets forth, and an impassable and imperishable barrier to the cunning design of malignant apostates, than whom Society has no more ignoble, unworthy foe. Bear- ing in mind many, who, in parting with So- ciety as their Alma Mater, have ever respected and honored her; yet some of those departing have, with unexampled ferocity. demanded large sums—-a division of Society’s substance, little of which was gathered by their efforts in her behalf, but rather by the life-services of the saints de- parted, and the living faithful. Such would bring Society to an end of practically fulﬁlling its sacred obligations to faithful adherents, and obliterate the very purposes for which Society was established. And why? Because they have chosen to depart Society! Dark times were those, when Society suffered the unjust allegations of living in secret impurity—hypocritically professing, but failing to demonstrate a pure life! These times are past, and now the very reverse is believed; and we mean to take advantage of the change, and ask, how do we do it? For the purpose of keeping our sacred obligations intact, we have rules which act as safeguards, secur- ing to us spiritual protection, while making us better able to enjoy and enhance the physical blessings of Society. By the car- nally-minded, these regulations are pro- nounced silly, unnecessary, tyrannical. But those who admit the feasibility of living a SHAKER life, ﬁnd in these appa- rently insigniﬁcant regulations the secret of our success, while we challenge any to live as purely as we do together, without them. United as we are to Society, we become its humble servants, and so far part with our identity, that even our correspondence with relatives or others becomes a part of So- ciety, and our every breath is drawn for Society’s good; and thus, in the language of one of Kentucky’s wise statesmen, “ we challenge the world to furnish a truer, purer example of consecration to God than a faithful Shaker! ” VVe, who represent Society to-day, have been put in trust with its substance, and we mean to transmit the same, unviolated, to our successors. We enjoy the beneﬁts of Society as far as we are faithful repre- sentatives. VVe have no individual pos- sessions, and only as we enjoy the beneﬁts of Society in common with our God-serving brethren and sisters, they are not ours. These blessings, deriving their origin and continuance from and by the consecrated services of the self-denying, we are unable by the “Covenant,” as well as unwilling, to share this goodly substance with the self-gratifying crowd of ungodly doers. Being thus bound by the most solemn act of our lives—signing the “Covenant ”—- we fulﬁll our obligations to our predeces- sors, ourselves, and to our God, by devoting our temporal gains to the purposes as afore- said only. VVe wish it distinctly understood that we never have admitted any as mem- bers, with promise or intimation of reward, excepting a share of Society’s beneﬁts, while in it; and we never will. VVe posi- tively assert that we are not using conse- 4:32 THE SHAKER. crated funds for the aggrandizement of the few, to theexclusion of the general body; and despising the recreant policy of rene- gades, we declare Society tobe carrying out its original plan——ﬁrst, for the care of the bodies and souls of its members, and the residue, if any, is being applied to “charitable and religious purposes” only. Believing our Society to be founded up- on principles that are eternal and just, that God is the Architect and Builder, we mean to do our duty fearlessly; and we warn" the foolishness of man from any further attempts at defrauding God-loving souls of their God-given rights. If our in- stitutions are founded upon the selﬁshness of man, we know they will soon pass away, and the sooner the better; but if they are of God, they will endure forever——the whole world to the contrary notwithstand- ing,—-and this we believe. "" Address of Antoinette Doolittle. rnor, MARCH 24, 1872. A renowned preacher came to the conclu- sion, many years ago, that “ there was nothing new under the sun ; nothing but what had pre- viously been.” We recognize the law of cycles, but are dis- posgd to believe that some new things occur in each successive cycle. It is rather a new thing for Spiritualists and Shakers to meet in con- vention ; but we hope this meeting will not be in vain. lVe do not see any reason why a season like the present may not be one of in- terest and proﬁt, if Lore our guide, Truth our aim; and We “ abide in Faith, Hope and Charity, that beautiful trinity of graces which, when woven together, form a strong cord that cannot be easily broken.” There is great power in Love, and strength in Truth. Error is weak, fragile, and must eventually be shaken by Truth, and be broken in pieces. VVe can- not do anything effectual} y against the truth; but when we work with it, then are we strong. It has been said, and well said, that “ theol- ogy is not religion.” When any human soul pours forth its best treasures, gives its best and truest feelings in devotional exercise, in prayer, in song, in speaking of the things which pertain to the kingdom of God, or in the joyful and sacred dance, whether they be Roman, Greek or Jew, such offerings ascend as sweet incense unto spheres celestial, and are treasured as memorials there. Theology points in different directions, is diversiﬁed ; like a “ trumpet giving many and uncertain sounds.” Religion is the language of the soul, it is one with goodness and truth. Religious aspirations go forth seeking the fount where sin—dyed garments may be washed from every stain, and be made white and clean; for the divine elements which give life to the soul, will bring it into harmony with Angels of purity and love. Religiozt is the product of a spiritual bap- tism, which, as at. the Pentecostal feast, ﬁlls the soul with the ﬁre of truth, resulting in practical works of righteousness, producing unselﬁsh love, and teaches thatthe best and strongest proof that can be given of love to God is, loving and serving our brother and our sister who are with us in the daily walks of life. Is there anything more needed at the pres- ent time than an increase of the Holy Spirit baptism? And is not the present a good time to seek, that we may ﬁnd it? Let us resolve to walk hand in hand with “ the spirit that is able to lead into all truth.” Then, if our pathway, at times, lies through the thorny maze, or we pass through the furnace or the ﬂood, “ as our day, so will our strength be.” Many pilgrims have journeyed on be- fore us, who are now marching the streets of the Heavenly Jerusalem, in the spirit land, with palms of victory in their hands, and crowns of glory on their heads. ‘‘ Spiritual philosophy alone cannot satisfy the soul’s needs 3 we Want, we must have the very lzfe and spirit of it, that will make new creatures of us"; will mould and fashion us into the image and likeness of those beautiful spirits which we so much love and admire. VVe need not wait until we put off the mortal coil before we bask in the sunshine of God’s redeeming love, and enter into rest. VVe may, through faith, prayer and self-sacriﬁce, bring the summer—land to us. "We are complex beings——have two natures. The love of goodness and truth belongs to the higher——the Angel nature. The love of pleas- ure, derived from the sensuous and animal, without regard to principle, and the law of use, belongs to the lower, the inferior part of our being—-whichever we serve, that becomes our master. When under the inﬂuence of gross passions, the senses-—hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling—all become pervert- ed. But when We turn from low and selﬁsh loves, to the divine of our being, then the senses become reﬁned, and we begin to under- stand that beautiful saying, “ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” And we enter into communion with the spirits of the higher spheres. We hear angel voices——— they gently lay their hands upon us, and pro- nounce benedictions over us. They feed us with the bread of heaven, and give us to drink of living waters. Pure breezes come to us, laden with the fragrance of ﬂowers which bloom in celestial gardens. The music of the heavenly spheres breaks over our spirits, as the waters of the deep cover the bodies of those who plunge beneath the swelling tide. When we are fully baptized with the Christ spirit from the resurrection Heavens, we hun- ger no more for those things which the natural unregenerate man and woman feed upon, con- tend for and glory in. Our desires and appe- tites are changed. By the light of divine revelation we perceive new truths—-feel new life and power. lVe put off the old corrupt deeds committed in darkness and ignorance, by confession and repentance; and give new pledges, that henceforth our deeds shall be Wrought in the light—in God. This is the Shakers’ method of getting a new heart—of being born again—-changing the life and char- acter. This is not the work of a day——but a progressive work from faith to faith, accompa- nied with good practical works. And there is nothing more needed to-day than living faith, actualized. There are many beautiful ideas and theories in our time; but many have been so fearful, that they should depend on their own good deeds instead of imputed righteousness-—that the golden rule of doing unto others, as We would that they should do unto us, is a thing of the past, ‘gone out of date-—and become obsolete, except with a few old-fashioned people. But nothing can be truer than the saying of the Apostle James, that “ Faith, if it hath net works, is dead, being alone,” Whatever is honest, true and just, pure and of good report (in angelic circles), should have a place in our thoughts, and take form and shape in practical works. But we are now living in a time that is fraught with great events; everyday and hour has its history. Scientists, Rationalists and Spiritualists are all at work. A new cycle is opening upon us. Present revelation is solv- ing mysteries of the past, unlocking the doors of the spiritual temple in the inner spheres, where all the prophecies of the ages past, given by Angels, through saints and seers, pointing to _the present and future work of God upon earth, are treasured without human alloy. The prophets of to-day are penetrating those spheres and searching the records there. Time- honored theories, ecclesiastical dogmas’ and priestly rule cannot stand before the advanc- ing light of the present time. The old theo- logical heavens are passing away with a great noise, caused by the conﬂict between the old and new; but the fan is in motion that will blow away the chaff. The ancient Prophets and Apostles, who did- their work in their time and have gone to their reward, but whose doings and sayings were recorded for the beneﬁt of their pilgrim breth- ren who should follow them on life’s journey, cheerfully lend their aid to the toilers in the ﬁeld to-day. Their sympathies are with us, and their eyes are upon us. Every cycle has its prophets——as guiding stars; and they are the burning candles of the Lord to light the spiritual temple on earth, for the time being. Vfhen they have done their work, they will pass away; but the candle- sticks will remain, and other lights will be placed in them. Are there no new cycles in the spirit spheres ? If we could look into the interior spiritual heavens at the present time, we should see mighty forces at work there. The male and female are conjointly working in unison with the dual Godhead for the redemption of souls who are out of. the body. The heavenly harpers are attuning their harps anew: sing- ing a new song: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and the hosts of heaven rejoice. The celestial ﬁres are rekindled, and scintillations have found their way from heaven to earth, and are kindling a ﬁre here that will not be easily quenched. The good old prophet Jeremiah, who stands in the ﬁrst rank among the ancient prophets, looked through his spiritual telescope down through the ages to our own time and saw, TI-IE ’SI-IAKER. with a prophet’s eye, that there would be “ a new thing in the earth. A woman should compass a man.” -The spiritual is not first, but is preceded by the natural. And already on the natural plane, “ a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees ” has been heard ; and woman has caught the sound, and is gathering her forces for battle. She feels that the time is fully come for her to work; to battle against error, and to aid in pulling down the false and building up the true. Many fears are entertained for the safety of Woman who engages in this work ! It is said, “ she claims rights and privileges that would be imprudent for her to possess; that already she is growing bold and venturesome.” C But‘ it must be remembered that man has the start in the race some thousands of years, and it will require some energy and will-force to overtake him. Now, Jeremiah was either a true or a false prophet. If true, his prediction must be ful- ﬁlled some time. The question is, when, and in what way? Perhaps when that prediction is fulﬁlled, we shall be better prepared to un- derstand the “ great wonder that appeared in heaven,” seen by John, of the Isle of Patmos, clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet.” Think of it. “ A new thing in the earth,” and “ a great wonder in heaven,” which must have been a new revelation there, or it would not have beenia wonder. The admirers and worshipers of Paul do not like the idea that woman must help roll forward the car of progress ; they would much prefer that she should continue to “ learn in silence of her husband at home, with due sub- jection.” VVe will say, “ Peace to the ashes of the dead.” VVe will not contend with Bro. Paul for aught that he said or did, in his time, but will venture to say, that his day is over, as far His counsel in that respect does not meet the needs nor demands of the nineteenth century. as the woman question is concerned. Man has worked unaided by woman’s inﬂu- ence in many departments of life, through a long period. We will not say that he has not made progress. But now, a new era has dawned, and woman is called into the ﬁeld to act her part; and as well might we undertake to bring back the years before the ﬂood, the antediluvian period, as to change the course of events, or bind the spirit that is moving in this respect ! There are times and seasons in God’s provi- dence, just as much in the spiritual as in the natural; and we must work according to his designs and his time. VVe do not go forth and scatter our seed over the land with the expec- tation that it will germinate, and grow and produce a harvest, when the cold breath of winter is upon us, and the snow-capped hills and ice-bound streams tell us it is neither seed-time nor harvest. Then how important is it that We watch and strive to understand times and seasons, spiritually. Not merely “ watch lest we enter into temptation,” which is very essential, but watch the seasons as they roll around. Are there wise men and women, prophets and prophetesses in the ranks of the spiritual Israel of to-day, who discern times and sea- 'to do? 43 sons, so that they understand what Israel ought Is‘ the present a seed-time? If so, let us work! “ sow the seeds of truth in the morning, and withhold not in the evening. Let us sow by all waters.” While some plant, others may water; but God will give the increase in his own time. The duality of Deity is, to me, a beautiful idea! To feel that we have a loving mother in Deity, who Watches ’ over, loves and cares for her children, and feeds them from the great spiritual store-house in the heavens, touches a chord in my heart, and causes a thrill of joy that nothing else could do. As long as we have all male Gods in the heavens we shall have all male rulers on the earth. But when the Heavenly Mother is revealed, and is sought unto as freely and conﬁdingly as the Heavenly Father, then will woman find her proper sphere of action, and be able to ﬁll that sphere. Under the guidance and direc- tion of VVisdom and Love, she will work effectively against social, moral and political evils on the natural plane of life, and help to elevate the race. Then, when the Spirit calls them to leave the generative plane, and rise into the resurrection Order, to commence a new and purely spiritual life, on the Pente- costal Church plan, it will be easy for them to become brethren and sisters in one heavenly communion, breaking their bread together, spiritually and temporally. And, having their hearts and affections puriﬁed, they will begin the song which will never end, and join in the dances of them that make rnerry—-being ﬁlled with holy rejoicing, that they are able to con- quer the World in themselves. The Shakers. BY SAMUEL HOOSER. I often heard of Shakers, while in my native land, That they were a deluded, a blind bewitching band; Such awful news was spreading, too horrid to relate, How wicked they were acting, in the Ohio State. At length I went among them, to see how they went on, I quickly was convinced that these reports were Wrong; I found them such a people as I had never seen, So bright, so pure, so holy, and much opposed to sin. I often heard of Zion, but now I've found the place, The city that’s adorned with truth, and lore, and grace; My heart was struck with wonder, to ﬁnd such glory there, Where all was peace and union, without a single jar. I found I’<l got to Zion, where saints and angels dwelt, Such piercing streams of glory my soul had nererfclt; This is no place of darkness, but one eternal day! Here doubts and fears are banished, and Satan cannot stay. I cried adieu to pleasures of every other kind, I’ll give up all my idols, and leave the world behind; I've found the blessed people, with whom I’ll bear the , cross, And count all earthly glory but vanity and dress. Here is the holy ﬁre that burns all sin and shame! The guilty sons of Babel cannot endure the ﬂame. I’ll shout eternal praises to Zion's King and Queen, That I have found a gospel that saves the soul from Slll. 0 why was I so stupid, to stay away so long! And labor in confusion, with Babel’s mixed throng; But since I’ve found the city where Christ in glory reigns, Illl bid adieu to Sodom, and all its dismal plains. Salvation here is ﬂowing, from sin and dross reﬁned! I'm willing here to tarry, and leave my lusts behind, I feel my soul united to this despised ﬂock ; Let earth and hell oppose 11s, we’re safe upon the rock. Though persecution rages, we’ll boldly shout and sing, We shall be safely guarded by ,Salem’s conquering King; Amidst all tribulations, we feel our love increase, Altho’ the world may hate us, in Zion we have peace. Sweet union here is rolling, all through this happy place; Here flows the crystal fountain, and God unveils his face; Fair lilies here are growing, that never fade nor die; No other ground produces such fruits of peace and joy- How blessed are the people who are admitted in, And dwell secure in Zion, delivered from all sin! Their joys are still increasing, their songs are ever new, They love their great Creator, and all their brethren too. The Cross. BY DANIEL ORCUTT. . What is the cross ? or what is there in the cross which is objectionable ? Let us see. Of all who present themselves as candidates for heaven, it is required that they become peni- tent for sin, poor in spirit, humble as a little child; that they deny self, crucify the ﬂesh, set the affections on things above, hunger and thirst after righteousness, forgive enemies, and submit to persecution for Christ’s sake. Yea, the whole man is to be brought under new in- ﬂuences, to be governed by new principles, and to live for new ends. Self—denial, self- discipline, and self-conquest are made indis- pensable prerequisites for the kingdom of heaven. This is the cross. It stands in the path of life. Christ is the way; there is no other way; there can be no other. To pro- ceed in that way, we must embrace the cross. The cross is irksome and disagreeable only to the carnal mind; it is its nature to be so. By hearing it, a man shall see and know what he is. To neglect the cross is to neglect all; it is like going to the feast without the wedding garment, or like going forth to meet the bride- groom without light, and without oil in our vessels. We may try to substitute something else for the cross, but it will be all in vain. As long as we continue unwashed and impure, we are unsafe. Thus reads the proclamation : “ Except a man deny himself, and take up his cross, he cannot be my disciple.” The Saviour has conquered and reigns. We must conquer and reign also. N 0 one can enter the kingdom of heaven, unless he be a disciple of Christ. But no one is a disciple who bringeth not forth good fruit. Observe, it is not the person who hears or believes the word, but the DOER, that is, the prudent and wise man. It is folly to try to carry the world and bear the cross together. The elements of the world cannot be united with the cross. Such a union is declared impossible by the gospel, of which the inﬂuence, doctrines, tendencies, and ﬁnal issues are contrary to the maxims, prac- tices, and interests of the world. The Christ has ‘pronounced the decision, “No man can serve two masters.” 44: THE SHAKER. Reason. ———__- BY ABRAHAM PERKINS. Faith is the effect of evidence, the assent of the mind, proceeding from light, and standing in close connection with the attributes of God, perfectly uncontrollable by any human power. Proportionate with knowledge of scientiﬁc truth, faith is made perfect. Therefore, when founded on just and eternal principles, princi- ples nourished and lived, man is made better ; while on the other hand, faith based on that which is perishable and false, he is relatively made worse, however sincere he may be, or however true to its support. Hence the importance of a knowledge of genuine godliness; and hence the necessity of an education that develops the understand- ing, enlarges the mind, and capacitates it for the reception of the seed of divine truth, in which is embraced a power to unfold the prin- ciples of all science, revealing a law in every creation and handiwork of God. We are therefore compelled to understand that all We see, hear and feel is the effect of cause; and however mysterious and incomprehensible to man, yet it is the result and operation of law, understood by a higher intelligence. God is a rational Being, and as order is His first law, His works must necessarily be in comformity to order and law. As a conse- quence, with God there is no miracle. Man being ﬁnite, is incapable of comprehending the inﬁnite beyond that which is necessary for the proﬁtableness and happiness of himself, and the acknowledgment of miracles would be the admission of other means of creation than by divine law, an incongruity in universal law, and a detraction of wisdom from the character of the Almighty, which is licretical to true faith, an offense against Christianity, and a doctrine untenable. Success to the Shaker. j.__ AN ACROSTIC.-—BY SARAH A. NEAL. Sad though thy march, lovely pilgrim, toil on! Unaided by many, rejected by some; yet Continue thy course, fair SHAKER sublime, Cease not to sow good, for now is seed time. Each virtue engraven upon thy fair face, Shall yet merit love from the whole human race. Speed on, then, forever, thou herald of truth, To the far distant nations of earth go ye forth. 0 ! halt not at triﬂes; climb the rough, rugged road To perfection’s fair height, in the kingdom of God. Heaven opens in splendor, the day now doth dawn, Eartl1’s joys are dispersing as dcws of the morn. Soar aloft, then, 0, Shaker ! and quicken thy speed, Henceforth be thy motto, to sow the good seed. Angel bands will attend thee, and give thee success; Kind friends read thy columns with great earnestness. Eternal the truths, on thy banner arrayed, RIGHT shall yet rule the day, and cast wrong in the shade. “Reform.”——The Motion Seconded. BY SHUBAEL PRENTISS, SHAKERS, N. Y. On reading 0. C. Hampton’s article on Re- form, my mind was very agreeably impressed, and I wish to express to him my approval of it. I would say to Bro. Oliver and others, go ahead. It is time that all loathsome habits, such as smoking, chewing and snuﬂing to- bacco, and all excesses of eating and drinking should ﬁnd no place among us as believers in all true reforms. There is also a fashionable custom of usﬁig alcoholic drinks as medicine, in cordials, hitters, etc. Whether the drug steeped in the alcohol is most desired, or the same swallowed as a. cover for the alcohol without it, I leave each to determine. I hold an opinion. I have seen bad habits formed from this fashionable practice. Medicine can be prepared without alcohol, but would it then be as desirable? How much would then be used? Very little, I think. Doctors would starve for want of business; and they ought to starve if they could not ﬁnd better employ. I long for the day when humanity will be represented by “sound minds in healthy bodies,”——bodies equally sound “as the beasts that perish.” Would not it be as proﬁtable business for the generative world to take as much pains in the production of hu- manity as is now exercised for quadrupeds? I second the motion for “ reform ” on humani- ty’s account, and in contemplation of Zion’s needs. Correspondence. To run DEAR Snaxsas or ENFIELD, N. H.: been pleasant, and I trust, very proﬁtable to me spiritually. VVhen I reﬂect upon the gen- eral appearance of your Society, and recall the candid expressions of happiness and content. together with the inspired instructions given me, bearing upon the eternal principles of life, I think no real seeker after truth can fail to recognize the high-toned intelligence, the ur- banity and purity of character exempliﬁed among you, without having a desire to advance in the scale of being to a purer and holier life; aspiring to combine all the best attributes of humanity in a true life. I feel to tender my . heartfelt gratitude for the kind attentions re- ceived among you, and I Would‘ that all who come into your circle might receive from you the baptism which I received. Although I am in the world, surrounded by all classes of minds and diversities of charac- ter, perhaps I can do some good in proclaim- ing the good tidings of saving power, vouch- safed to your people. Though not in form like your order, I have long been familiar with the exercise of dancing in spirit, or, as it has been denominated, “ dancing before the Lord,” and holding sweet communion with departed saints. The ﬁeld is broad in which many are rejoicing in the reappearance of God, as mani- fested through Jesus. And generations yet unborn shall rise up to be gloriﬁed in the true worship, as manifested through the Shakers- a life worship. I am often slzalcen, to prove that God is spirit, and must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. After leaving your place, we spent several weeks with our friends in Boston, Fall River, and in the Connecticut valley, and in each place all were interested with the account of our visit to the Shakers. Some of my Spiritualist friends expressed a fear that they should lose me out of their ranks ; but so far as principles are concerned, I believe true Spiritualists and Shakers to be nearly synonymous. Your books will have a faithful perusal, and “THE SHAKER” shall My visit with you, my dear friends, has. have a free circulation. May the white—Winged angel ever wave peace and prosperity over your beloved community. Your friend, ELIZA BLOSSOM, Middle Granville, N. Y. :2- Mr KIND FRIEND ELIZA: I received your very kind letter, and though I have so long deferred answering it, I would say, we hope and trust with you that your visit with us will be productive of good. We are also pleased to know that you appreciate the life and spirit which we are striving to maintain, and that you realized, in some degree, a bap- tism of the spirit from the resurrection heavens, While with us. We believe that any one who receives the degree of light and truth which is so manifestly evident you have re- ceived, though dwelling outside of the relations of our Church, if true to the convictions of right in their own souls, cannot fail to realize, when coming among us, something of the purity of life which we maintain, and the true love that draws us together, and proclaims us the true, unselﬁsh Christian Church. But no one can know much of our real inward lives, unless they enter into the work unreservedly, and do as We have done—honestly confessing every known sin before the Witnesses of God; striving to forsake them; making restitution for every wrong done to others, as lies within our power. Those who have done this work, can testify that it yields them justification, is as a consuming ﬁre to the corrupt and sinful passions of their depraved natures, and gives them power to rise, step by step, into the high and holy element of spiritual life. It expands our love for our fellow beings, creates new fathers and mothers, new brothers and sisters, making the household of Christ our nearest and dearest relations, who are free and wel- come to enjoy every blessing that we possess, both spiritual and temporal, in sickness and health. Hence, the temptations so prevalent outside of our order, to sacriﬁce principle and chastity to obtain the means to pa.nder to fashion, and procure the necessaries of life, are not felt in our communities. Oh, Eliza ! when I go abroad among the rich and poor, and see the contrast in their earthly comforts—some toiling to gain an honest livelihood by the sweat of the brow, not able to obtain enough to clothe them decently, or supply the de- mands of hunger, while another class revel in luxury, my spirit melts into sympathy, and I lift a prayer that the heavy chains of slavery, which still rest upon the human family, may be broken. I bless the spirit so earnestly at work, to set poor, down-trodden woman free from the bondage in which she is held (and I fear, by her own free will,‘too,) a servant to passion, to the spoliation of her own health and happiness. W'hat a contrast from my sweet Shaker home, where not only the out- side of the cup and platter are clean, but the inside also! VVhere love, uncontaminated with worldly, ﬂeshly lusts, bears sway, and keeps the whole household in order. Oh, may our Eternal Father and Mother hasten the day when light shall be shed upon the souls of men, that they may behold the beauties of this glorious Millenial, which has dawned upon THE SHAKER. 45 us, and realize, by experience, the true happi- ness which the life of purity and entire conse- cration alfords. Though you have passed through many trying scenes of suffering and persecution, to attain to so great a degree of the knowledge of God, you receive, if your experience is similar to ours, untold blessings for every sacriﬁce, yea, a treasure, far sur- passing all worldly riches, honor or fame. You say that some of your Spiritualist friends were afraid they should lose you from their ranks. VVe think, when they see us as We are, they will not fear the loss of you or any other good member, but will strive to bring themselves up to our standard, and rejoice to see any one forsaking the perishing joys and pleasures that are now urging millions into the common vertex of human depravity. You say, “ The ﬁeld is broad in which many are rejoicing in the reappearance of God, as mani- fested through Jesus;” also, “ Generations yet unborn shall rise up to be gloriﬁed in the true worship, as given through the Shakers.” Here, I see, is a prophecy. Our kindest love to yourself and daughter, we remain your true friends, Tun Snnnans. Br CAROLINE. Enﬁeld, N. H. The Future Work of Spiritualism. As Spiritualists, our work measures and overarches all the reforms of the age. To continue it successfully requires brave, enthusiastic and self-sacriﬁcing men and women; Media passive, pure and holy in every aspiration; speakers with tongues offire, hearts puls- ing with prayer, intellects rich in genius and culture, and souls touched with the baptism of the living Christ. ‘We are in the Second Coming. The angels are already in the clouds of heaven. There is about to be a religious revival such as the world has not seen for eighteen centuries. Christians will be converted; outsiders will inquire the way to Zion; Christ spirits will lead them; the white faces of martyrs will illumine their pathway. After the cross, the crown. The very foundations of the old social, political and theological religions are being shaken. “ I will shake earth and the heavens also,” said God by the prophet. The world is becoming literally aworld of Shakers. The most stupendous drama in history is now unfold- ing. The sixth trumpet has sounded. The books are open. The world is the stage; nations the actors. The fig tree has put forth. The angels of the spiritual dispensation are calling us to judgment. My soul pleads for you “ yet a little longer,” and the “ spirit and the bride say come." Are your lamps trimmed and burning? Answer as in the presence of God’s angels. Let us, Oh Spiritualists, be true to our convictions; true to our moral and religious natures; true to the principles of purity and right; then should our mortal barks speedily strand, or go down even, they will only sink to rise énto those calmer seas that make divinely beautiful he love-lands of the angels. J. M. PEEBLES. My Shaker Faith. BY ANDRE W BARRETT. What thanks and praise to God belong, Who gave to me this precious faith; It is an anchor, ﬁrm and strong, The best estate a Shaker hath. Thanks be to God for holy faith, That bears me through all trials sore, And like a light in shades of night, A stay when angry billows roar. When trials weigh my spirit down, And troubles like the tempests beat, Faith is my guide, and points the way- Directing sure my errin g feet. It leads my bark through calms and storms, And like a skillful pilot, too, It proves to me of greatest worth- Faith is the guide I will pursue. Faith is my armour and my shield- A heavenly weapon. bright and sure; It makes my greatest foes to yield, And gives me courage to endure. Faith is the holy gospel ground, Where heavenly beauties ever show; Where plants of purity abound, And innocence will thrive and grow. Lord, may this living faith increase- Grow daily stronger in my soul; It is the guide that leads me o’er All dangerous rocks, each tempting shoal. It is the compass that directs The soul to lieavcn’s port above; To dwell with those who live in truth, And bonds of everlasting love. Mother. BY WM. II. BUSSELL. By the same process by which We trace out the existence of the Supreme Being, and the various attributes which are generally ascribed to him, We arrive at the conclusion that there are in the Divine nature both masculine and feminine principles. The universal Father and Mother are necessary complements of each other. Both combine the formation of worlds, on which their image is indelibly impressed. So plainly is this inscribed there, that one needs only to open his eyes to be able to read the inscription Wherever he turns his gaze. It requires no metaphysical acumen, no laborious investigation, to reach this result, but merely the simple process by which we attain to ordi- nary truth, so that one who has admitted this truth into his mind, wonders that a thing so plain should have escaped the observation of reﬂecting minds in Christendom for so many ages. Yet We may account for this from the fact that, instead of looking into the great volume of nature, spread open before them, they have drawn their ideas from the Script- ures, where masculinity alone is generally ascribed to Deity. Other nations, whom we, Christians, in our self—conceit, have been ac- customed to style ignorant, God—forsaken heathen, have had clearer perceptions of this truth. Gods and goddesses both have formed the groundwork of their theolog , however absurd many of its details may appear to us. There are reasons for believing that Jesus acknowledged the fact that Mother as Well as Father subsist in Deity, though our canonical gospels represent him as using exclusively the term Father when addressing or speaking of God. In the Gospel, according to the He- brews, translated into the Greek and Latin languages by Jerome, one of the early Chris- tian fathers, was a passage quoted by Origen, another early Christian father, which repre- sents Jesus as saying, “My Mother, the Holy Spirit, took me and brought me to the great mountain Tabor.” The book from which this was quoted, was not ranked as canonical by those Who made the selection from among all the Christian books anciently written, yet is as likely to have been genuine as those thus’ classed. Eusebius, the early ecclesiastical historian, says, “ The Ebionides use only the Gospel according to the He- brews.” These were a body of Christians living mostly near Jerusalem in the earliest times. Regarding the Holy Spirit, then, as Mother, we see the propriety of the words of Jesus addressed to Nicodemus,-—“Except one be born of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” This is not a mere ﬁgure of speech, but alludes to the real and substan- tial work of regeneration wrought in the be- liever, so that in life and spirit he becomes a new creature, being completely transformed from the earthly to the heavenly life. The Divine Father and Mother, through the min- istrations of angels, both male and female, devoted Jesus himself to the life of unchanging love. “Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God descending to and ascending from the Son of Man,” were words addressed by him to the guileless Nathanael, which as- sured him and other disciples of their prospec- tive induction into the profoundest truths of the heavenly life. Various ﬁgures were used in the ancient prophecies, expressive of the female principle in Deity. In the 115th Psalm she is repre- sented by the Queen sitting at the right hand of the King, whose “throne Gogis for the age of ages.” Her name is “to e remem- bered i11 every generation, and the people shall acknowledge her from age to age.” (See Sep- tuagint version.) The pre—eminent inﬂuence in the Church of Christ, which is to govern that and ultimately the whole world, emanates from Deity as Father and Mother, in the psalm represented by the King and Queen, to whom all inferior authorities must ﬁnally sub- mit. In the book of Zechariah, their repre- sentatives are described as “ the two Anointed Ones—two Christs-—-who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” In rebuilding the temple spoken of by the same prophet, the hands of Zerrubbabel—strange to confusion—laid the foundation, and his hands were to ﬁnish it; yet, “ This is the word of the Lord to Zerub- babel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” The mountain diﬁiculties in the way of its erection were to be removed by the Spirit as the Divine Mother, and the cap-stone Was to be put on “ with shouting, Grace, grace to it.” There is an allusion here to the practice of giving some expressive name to a building, when its frame has been raised, or the ﬁnishing stone laid on, by those engaged in erecting it. The practice is still kept up in some places even in this country. From the top of the ediﬁce one calls out to another, asking what name shall be given to it, and the other replies’ by giving the name selected, which is conﬁrmed by the unanimous shout of all present. The name to be given to the temple, when the ﬁnishing stone should be put on, was to be Grace, or Beauty, one very expressive of the ﬁnishing work of the Mother of salvation. Grace, representing not only the Divine favor, but the reﬁnement, beauty and perfection of spirit in all those who are the subjects of it. The Hebrew word, rendered Grace, is the one from which we have derived our proper name Ann, and those translated “ to it” read Lee, as any one may see, who is familiar with the Hebrew. When the mountain of a carnal nature, which hides from the soul the Sun of Righteousness, Was leveled to a plain in Mother Ann, by her unceasing efforts, aided by the Holy Mother Spirit, then Grace and 46 THE SIIAKER Beauty shone forth in her character in a re- markable degree; then was she constituted MOTHER IN CHRIST, able, by Divine assist- ance, to help others to effect the same work in themselves, and thus to become the sons and daughters of God in the very highest sense of the. terms,——-the legitimate offspring not only of the ETERNAL FATHER, but also of the CO-ETERNAL Mornnn. “What Induced you to Join the Shakers?” BY ELIZABETH H. WEBSTER. ‘T was not that I might win a name Among the gay and fair; For earthly ﬂattlries are but tame, They’ll vanish into air. Nor to enjoy the transient bliss The child of pleasure knows; ’T was not a selfish cause asthis, That so much good bestows. ‘T was not for ease or wealth I pined- Enough of all I had; I heard that constant toil I'd ﬁnd, In “§haker land so sad.” I thirsted for the “living spring” Whe_nce true enjoyment ﬂows ; Its little streams did comfort bring- I’d seek it where it rose. I longed to gain the heavenly graze, That dwelt in Christ, our head; That strengthened him to “ grow space,” And raised him from the dead. I saw him sutferin g. meek and mild, Yet bold and ﬁrm for right ; In agony, whilst others smiled, And watchings all the, nigh t. I saw him cast eartl1’s honors by, Reject the offered crown ; And with his Father’s will comply, Nor pomp, nor splendor own. “ My kingdom ‘s not of earth," he said, And proved it by his life, As on the altar all he laid, Nor murmured at the strife. I heard him when his mother came, Her much loved son to see, Amidst the gathering crowds exclaim- “ My mother-—who is she ? ’T is such as do my Father’s will, My friends and brethren are; ” These are the ones my joy doth ﬁll, To me they’re dearer far. I heard him called a friend of Wrong, For teachings such as these; I saw him lashed with cruel thongs, Nor would their wrath appease. I saw him his disciples meet, Ere yet his hour had come, And thus with tones of love entreat—- “Be followers of the Lamb.” I’ve looked around with anxious eye, Far o’er this wondrous earth, To ﬁnd those who themselves deny, And follow him in truth. One seeks for gold, the miser’s trust, With eager, panting heart; Another worships mortal dust, Nbr gives to Christ a part. Another, though of Christian name, Still follows his own lusts; And while he worships still the same, His good my soul distrusts. Bright beings I could round me see, Of gentleness and love; By nature clad their souls must be, Not “ wisdom from above.” But where are those who battle long, With anger, pride and sin; And tight with courage bold and strong, Their fees that lurk within ? I heard of spirits who had ﬂed From thoughtless scenes of earth, And in the life which Jesus led i Praised him with joy and mirth. I found this holy love embraced ‘f The Brotherhood in one; ” They “dwell in love,” as Christ has said, And “by these fruits are known.” Their faith and works together blend, To make the whole complete, Nor idly dream thatfaith will lend, A. robe l'or glory meet. In Christ-like purity they dwell, And keep a conscience clean; Their blessed Lord they love full well, ' And honor Zion's Queen. The virgins in the dance rejoice, Old men and blooming youth, And daily praise, with solemn voice, The God oflove and truth. These are the ones, exclaimed my soul, VVho walk with Christ in white; VVhom purity and love control, And they are God’s delight. But when I saw how high they stood, And still how very low, How great a price they pay for good, How few the straight way go,- I shuddering, asked myself, can I So great an 0ﬁ'erlng make, And be content to daily die, My Savionr’s yoke to take ? "A ﬁre I kindle,” Jesus said, “ Which will the house divide,” What though the dross be there consumed, The gold is puriﬁed. But who can paint how great my grief, “Then those I loved, reviled; And sent me forth, a bruised leaf, My fondest prayers denied! My babes in mercy to me spare, The ones for whom I live; And let them have the tender care My fond heart loves to give! Who will their little griefs assuage, And comfort in distress, And teach them in their infant age, How to forgive and bless? Alas! a mother pleads in vain, The vow to love ’s forgot; But strength from the angelic train Comes whispering, “ fear ye not." But can I bear reproach and scorn, From those who once have loved ? Can I be thro'-.\‘n, a worm forlorn, Upon the Best Beloved? 0, can I share the humble lot, Of those so poor and low, And like my Master, have no spot Of rest while here below ? Can I endure from all to part, My loved and valued friends; And drink, though with a bleeding heart, Ofevery cup he sends ? The same good spirit that shed light, Now spake within my breast; And gave me strength to choose the right, W here I ﬁnd peace and rest. The conllict ’s new with inward foes- I’ll kiss the chastening rod; My part I'll hear of Jesus’ woes, My alt I give to God. Though sorrows rise, I’ll never fear; The “ GOUDLY PEARL" I’ve found; ‘T was this, my friend, that brought me here, ON CONSECRATEI) GROUND. ANN LEn’s TESTIMONY or Jesus.-Job Bishop testifies hearing Mother Ann say: “ Jesus had to overcome the nature and spirit of the world, the same as we have; and you must all do the same, or you can never go to God.” BACK numbers of present volume are in all cases supplied to subscribers; and we shall continue thus to do until July, when it will be optional with sub- scribers. Parable No. 3. BY R. W. PELHAM. VIGARIOUS Aronsmsnr.--Jssus A SURETY. There is another phase of vicarious atone- ment, presenting man as a debtor, instead of setting him forth as a crizninal, guilty of capi- tal offense. Paul speaks of Jesus being made “ the surety of a better covenant.” W'e will here give the comment of the famous commen- tator, Dr. Gill, who thus explains: “ Christ is the surety of the better testament or cove- nant. Heb. 7, 22. The word signiﬁes one that draws nigh. Christgdrew nigh to his Father in the counsel of peace, and undertook to be the saviour and redeemer of his people. [The Dr. seems to have been present at that counsel !] He substituted himself in their room and stead; ‘he interposed between the creditor and the debtor, and became surety for ' the payment of the debts of the latter, and so stood engaged for them and in their room. Christ is not the surety for the Father to his people, but for them to the Father, as to satisfy for their sins,‘ to work out a righteous- ness for them, and make them happy [in their sins], which is an instance of matchless love.” To illustrate this view of the vicarious atone- ment, we set forth the following parable: M. is indebted to G., and becomes hopeless- ‘ly insolvent, and prays G. to forgive him the debt, as he is rich and able to lose. Nay, says G., the debt is just, and unless you pay up, or give security, I will forthwith have you afrested and cast into prison, and you shall not come out thence till you pay the uttermost farthing. In M.’s extremity, the benevolent J. comes along. and offers himself to G. as l\I.’s “surety,” and is accepted. G. then ad- dressing himself to M., said, “ Remember, justice cannot be set aside. I have a thousand other debtors, or may have, and if I were to give way inthis instance, they would all be on hand, wanting forgiveness. I will have my own, and I will either take it out of you or your surety; when the debt is paid, you" and I will be on good terms again.” But M. still pleading, says, notwithstanding J. is be- coming my surety, I am ‘nformed that he has failed, 4 and is as poor as I am, and he proves the truth of this statement by the infallible word—-the Bib1e——which declares that, “ the’ J. was rich, he became poor” (2 Cor. 8, 9), and J. says, “ of himself he can do nothing.” This being the case, you will have to forgive him, for when the principal and surety both fail, the debt must be canceled. I beseech you, therefore, to forgive me at once, and not trouble him, as he is innocent, and in reality does not owe this debt. Nay, nay, says G., eternal justice shall never be cheated so. I will let all intelligences in all Worlds know that they may never hope to escape my jus- tice! Finally J. Was arrested, and though he declared he had not one cent more than to meet his own Wants, and not even that With- out help, yet G. pushed the prosecution, till, in some mysterious way, J. was furnished with means, and discharged the debt. It is said that this mystery was revealed to a cer- tain hierarchal order, self~styled orthodox, who professed great intimacy with G., who THE SHAKER. 47 had entrusted them with a knowledge of his secret decrees. They stated that G., J ., and one H. were joint partners in trade, the title of the ﬁrm being “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” and J. was furnished with the means of paying the debt out of their joint funds, which, however, all belonged to G. Thus G., the great stickler for justice, secretly paid the debt himself in this underhanded way, in order to keep up a show of his inflexible character for justice. Many sensible people thought that the ends of justice would have been quite as well answered, and the ends of love and benevolence much better, to have forgiven the debt at once. But we have not got to the end of this matter. This G., who had hitherto been thought somewhat of a benevolent sort of per- son, being rather overstrained about his eternal justice, so as almost to exclude mercy, now began to develop a most malignant char- acter. With all his bluster about justice, he himself violated her nature in the most shock- ing manner. After M., through his “surety,” had paid the debt, and been discharged, G. had him arrested for capital offense, and with- out any formal trial, sentenced him to eternal torments. J. again plead M.’s cause, and again offered himself for surety. G. is inex- orable ; says no surety is allowed in cases of capital offense. M. shall meet his sentence, or you, J ., shall suffer the full extent of his punishment as his substitute. Justice must and shall be satisﬁed. Poor, merciful, sy1n- pathetic J. agrees to become a substitute of the whole race of M., and the inexorable, un- forgiving G. accepted the offer, and as it reads, Acts 2, 23, J. was delivered up by the deter- minate counsel and foreknowledge of G., and suffered a most painful immolation. His offer to do this was on the condition that the whole race should be saved. “ He tasted death for every man.” Yet G., after agreeing to this, only extended the beneﬁt of J.’s substitution and suffering to a few select sinners, called the elect, but vowed eternal vengeance on nine- tenths of mankind. Thus G. displayed his “ glorious justice,” by defrauding J. out of far the greater portion of those whom he had suffered and died to redeem. Such is the character which orthodox Calvinism gives to the inﬁnitely good and wise Creator of heaven and carth—the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Happiness. BY DANIEL ORCUTT. The happiness derived from the performance of good deeds is of the highest, of the purest kind; it is, indeed, the only lasting enjoy- ment. The vilest sinner on the earth, if he has done one good action, has a perception of this truth. Then how strange that millions should risk their health, their life, and their eternal happiness upon the pursuit of those pleasures which end in pain, and should en- tirely neglect this source of enjoyment, which is accessible to all, and which not only bright- ens life, but removes the sting of death. Since this life is a preparatory state, to be succeeded by one in which every spiritual power will be greatly expanded, and every capacity for happiness or misery will be greatly enlarged; and since the state of our future being will be determined by theirnanner in which this brief opening of our existence is spent, is it not surprising that any intelligent being should over—e'stimate and depend” upon the ﬂeeting things of Time? Should not the thought, “I must lire forever,” shut every eye, and turn every heart from these triﬂes, and arouse every power of the soul to the work of preparation for ETERNITY. Shaker Cemeteries. BY orrs sigwrnn. “ Why do Shakers appear to have so little respect for their deceased members? VVhy_ do they neglect to furnish them monuments, and bedeck their graves with ﬂowers, shrub- bery ? etc.’-’ I answer: First, living objects of charity——those who cannot wait for remembrance—are all around us; those in the grave do not suffer. Second- ly, we abominate idolatry; and such “cities of the dead” as Mt. Auburn and Greenwood are the fashionable institutions of idol wor- shippers. Money is lavishly, wickedly spent thus, while the living poor have not where to lay their heads, or wherewith to appease their hunger. VVe do not believe in a physical resurrec- tion, nor that our dear departed lie in the ground; neither will they ever have need to use the decaying mortality again—-this having subserved its purpose, as an old, worn-out garment, it is laid aside forever. VVe look to those mansions, “ eternal in the heavens,” for those we loved on earth; for “in my Father’s house there are many,” agreeable to the condition each has attained unto in the great work of salvation. VVhen assembled at our funerals, the souls of our departed loved ones often make their presence known, and their voices chime with ours as we sing: “And when I am called to leave earth, so fair, 0 chant not a. mournful refrain; Let angelic music ﬂoat free on the air, Count all earthly losses my gain! ” We are sorry to part with loved gospel companions, but we do not foolishly express our sorrow by mournful habiliments and badges. We mourn only for the “dead in trespasses and sin”——for those who, having tasted of “ the powers of the world to come,” turn back to the “beggarly elements of the world ”-—for these we sincerely mourn. VVe never shock our own nor other souls by singing, “Hark! from the tombs,” etc., for we seek in no such place of “ rottenness and dead bones” our needed inspirations. VVe need erect no monuments to bear witness what we wish to remember of them; their virtues a.re engraven on our hearts as perpetual re- minders of good examples. Our graveyards are simple, yet unostenta- tious. They please our spirit friends, who visit us, more than would an intemperate dis- play of marble. Virtues are more enduring than granite, and in these our faithful friends have laid up treasures that are safe from moth and rust. VVe believe in decently interring the mortality of those who are happily re- leased from the troubles of earth. A plain slab, with name and age, marks the spot. Mother Ann Lee’ s grave differs not at all from those of her surrounding children. VVe advise that the various appropriations now uselessly expended on cemeteries, should be used for the elevation,.of the downcast, homes for the destitute, and for charitable and religious pur- poses generally. Then would humanity be honored with lasting remembrances, ‘and angels delight in the resurrection of the people from dead works to living shrines,—from the honoring of the dead to the association’ of the living. We die as did Jesus—unto sin; like him we are daily cruciﬁed—-unto the world ; we realize a present reward with an increasing happiness.‘ With him we are enjoying life eternal; and if, like his, our earthly grave should be unknown, ‘no harm will accrue to any, nor should we care. Short Sermons. V BY D. A. BUCKINGHAM. The doctrine of James Whittaker (one of the founders of our Institution), was, “Be what you seem to be, and seem what you really are, and not carry two faces.” Dis- simulation of character is too prevalent in the world; particularly is it out-of place among Christians, or those who profess to be such. \Vhat fraud, what downright knavery is prac- ticed among mankind under the cloak of relig- ious profession ! Seeming to be what they are not—Christians. True Christians being them- selves honest, are apt to place conﬁdence in those who profess to be so, but often, when perhaps too late, ﬁnd that many sail under false colors. “Repentance,” said he, “will yet be the most joyful sound ever heard by mortals. True repentance is forsaking sin. Where Christ is, there is power to put away sin from the soul; and where there is no power to put away sin, there is no Cl1rist”—no real Chris- tianity. Repentance is preceded by confession. “ He that covercth his sins, shall not prosper, but whose confesseth and forsaketh them, shall ﬁnd mercy.” Mother Ann Lee, when instructing her dis- ciples or immediate followers, said to them, “ Own God'whe1'e you find Him, whether in man, woman or chilc .” There is some good, some degree of virtue in all men ; even a child may possess the germs of Christianity, which, . if properly cultivated, will grow and ﬂourish in life. Parents and guardians of the young should seek to plant the seeds of truth and honesty in them, while their spirits are yield- ing and susceptible. “ Train up a child in the way he should go,” is a maxim of long stand- ing. Virtuous principles should be early in- culcated, that in after life they may bring forth fruit—-thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold. Christians should so live daily as to be walk- ing with Christ in the present tense, and enjoying a foretaste of the bliss of immortal 48 THE SHAKER. and angelic life. Sin is the great obstacle, hiding from mortals the beatitude of the heavenly spheres. It veils from us the glo- rious future, as well as depriving us of present happiness. “Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Not so much What we now are, as what we may, can, or must be-— the ultimate of good works. Now, to arrive at perfection of any kind requires time and groWth,—not an immediate effect, but a gradual change, step by step, or from one de- gree to another. A true Christian character is attainable only in regeneration-—being born anew, born of God, in which state or condition a soul “ cannot sin, because they are born of God. VVe progress by and through faith. “ Faith,” we read, “is a gift of God ”—seed planted in the soul, where it must germi- nate, mature, and perfect. Man lives by faith until he can obtain something better to subsist upon. Experience or knowledge is more reliable and substantial than faith. The latter is only “the substance oi'~ things hoped for, and an evidence of things not seen.” Hope leaves a convert in expectation, not really in present enjoyment. For, according to the Apostle, “ We hope not for that which we see and enjoy.” Have good regard for the consciences of men, wherever they are, and respect the sin- cere, devotional worship of all persuasions, whether Mohammedan or Christian. Sincerity Will commend the soul to God. It is the heart God looks at. “He is no respecter of per- sons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him.” “ Pray without ceasing,” saith the Apostle. How can a man’s thoughts be constantly in prayer? By being constant in Christian duty. Acme '\f kindness, deeds of charity, hands to Work, and 501ll to God—-these form the most effective prayer, as well as the loudest preach- ing. Prayer, to be effectual, must be fervent ——nothing doubting. “The effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much.” Self-Examination. BY ANNE ERVIN. It is remarkable that in the New Testament there is no elaboration by the Apostles of this subject, which must present itself to the thoughtful Christian as one of the very ﬁrst importance. A few, though very valuable thoughts are to be found scattered through St. Paul’s writings, such as “ circumcision of the heart; ” to the Corinthians, “ Examine your- selves Whether ye be in the faith ; prove your own selves; ” before any one come to the Lord’s Supper, he urges that “ a man examine himself.” Neither James, Peter, Jude, nor John contains a word directly inculcating the necessity of heart-search. Yet all their teach- ings incidentally require more or less to give them practical effect. Nothing in the writer’s opinion could better illustrate the essential distinction between our forerunners, the primi‘ tive Christians, and ourselves, than the fact that the former advanced doctrines which in themselves require a certain amount of self- examination, but failed to see that a deep, vital, an intense and ever-increasing heart- search is one of the essentials of spiritual life. But we, who are called to partake with our Lord of a continual feast, not of an external commemoration of his death, but to partake forever of the same death, suffering, and joy; we who are called in very truth to be a royal priesthood, whose sovereignty is over death ; whose only acceptable offerings are those of a meek and pure spirit; whose treasures consist in the sweet graces of Christ ; whose conquests are only of our own evil natures,—it behooves us surely with every energy We possess to search and diligently try our hearts, that we may progress in our high calling. For it is quite certain that never shall We rise in the resurrection, until we have thoroughly seen ourselves. Oh, what depths of depravity has every honest mind discovered within itself! What a distance between itself and the divine intelligence ! What depths of humiliation has every sincere struggler experienced from deep self—sight! But in the discovery of this de- pravity, in this sense of loss and of humilia- tion, there is promise of ultimate safety. It is certain that no one has found salvation with- out experiencing these sufferings. Now, to enter upon serious self-examina- tion, we have need to bring an intelligent understanding of the purpose of our work. “re are called to travel out of death into life. Death is every moral evil which diseased hu- manity inherits ; life is purity, love, unselﬁsh- ness in heart and mind. ‘What a world of work is here involved for every soul I A life- time, in which every thought and effort has been directed to this great work, is not suffi- cient to subdue every evil propensity of the heart. And unless we enter into the work with a single and simple determination to conquer, We shall not be likely to meet with much success. Surely then it is needful to strain every nerve to see our failings, because, until we do see them, We are unable to eradi- cate them. VVhen we have seen that we pos- sess certain failings, we must be ready to admit to ourgelves that we do possess them. If we do not, we shall not grapple with them. When we have seen and admitted to ourselves our failings, we must devote our attention with all diligence and patience to eradicate those evil propensities. The single-hearted should not be impatient with themselves, nor should they be surprised if, with the honestest effort, they sometimes fail to come quite up to the standard they have set for themselves. Soil which has for a length of time been in- jured by bad tillage, needs care, skill, pa- tience, to bring it to a crop-bearing state. There are some who bring to the gospel work much of honest intention in many respects, but who, to excessive love of appro- bation, join painful incapacity for internal search. N ow these persons cannot fail to be aware of this, and they should beware of themselves. Herein is their great cross. Let them thankfully labor day and night until they do really gain an insight of themselves. Let them keep before themselves the greatness of the work they are called unto. To these may appropriately be applied the saying of St. James respecting those who hear the gos- pel, yet do not its requirements, that they are like. “unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass ; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth What manner of man he was.” Those who are endowed with a capacity to see and remember their own failings, are in- deed greatly blessed. Let them be careful to improve to the uttermost this faculty. But ye, who are critical of the faults of others, I say unto you, awake! This is not the work you are called to. Remember that “the righteous scarcely be saved.” Those who are, with single purpose of heart, labor- ing to subdue, themselves, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left, who “shut their eyes from seeing evil” in others, but are constantly alive to their own evil natures; these, by constant internal search, toil and suffering, scarcely be saved. Where then shall ye appear, who are occupied in observing how little others are carrying out the princi- ples of meekness and godly fear that ye are neglecting ? Remember that the angel Michael, that bright and perfect being who is striving to perform his work upon you, dared not to bring a railing accusation against Satan, when he contended with him. Oh! remember that true self-examination will produce that fervent charity which will close your lips from speak- ing aught against another, and will save those who love you the painful sight of beholding you very bitter against others for the failings which you possess in even a greater degree. Remember, if you possess the Spirit of Truth, he will search out for you the thoughts and intents of your own heart ; that he will pierce you even to the dividing asunder of your soul and spirit. But alas ! how many gain a glimpse of surface light; how few penetrate the interior ! THE following obituaries have been lately reported: Joseph Goodnough, Watervliet, N. Y., March 17, aged 83. Thos. W. Hoit, Canterbury, N. H., April 6, aged 71. Clarissa Foster, Canterbury, N. H., April 2, aged 73. Jesse l\Iyrick, Harvard, April 10, aged 92. Hannah Quance, Enﬁeld, Conn., April 4, aged 45. Eldress Clarissa Pease, Enﬂeld, Conn., April 15, aged 59. Henry Annis, Enﬁeld, N. H., May 2, aged 68. The Amer1'cmz Spiritmdist is worthy the support of all progressive minds. Its Spiritualism is in the right direction~—t-eaching to “ walk in the Spii-it”—and thus we claim that it precedes THE SHAKER as a Jolm Baptist. A. A. Wheelock, 29 Beekman St., New York. $2.50 per year. Elder F. W’. Evans, Mt. Lebanon, Columbia Co., N. Y. “ Galen Richmond, Shakers, N. Y. “ Calvin G. Reed, Mt. Morris, Livingston Co., N. Y. “ Simon Malice. \Vest Pittsiield, Mass. “ Stoughton Kellogg, Thompsonville, Conn., Shakers. “ Albert Battles, Tyringham, Berkshire Co., Mass. “ Wm. Leonard, Ayer, Mass, Shakers. “ Jonas Nutting, Shirley Village, Middlesex Co., Mass. “ B. H. Smith, Shaker Village, Merrimack Co., N. H. “ Henry Cummings, Enﬁeld, Grafton Co., N. H. “ John B. Vance, Alfred, Shakers. York Co., Me. “ Joseph Brackett, West Gloucester, Cumberland ' Co., Me., Shakers. “ Chas. Clapp, Union Village, VVarren Co., 0., Shakers. “ Ezra Sherman, Preston, Hamilton Co., Ohio, Shakers. “ Stephen Ball, Dayton, Shakers, Ohio. “ Jacob Kulp, Pleasant Hill, Mercer Co., Ky. “ J. R. Eades, South Union, Logan Co., Ky. “ J. S. Prescott, Cleveland, Ohio, Shakers.
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ts0206
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 02, no. 07 (July 1872)
Publisher: Mount Lebanon Bishopric
Date: 1872-07-01
Place published: Albany (N.Y.)
Text: THE SHAKER. “ I WILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. G. A. Lonxs, Emron. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., JULY, 1872. No. 7. Fmrr CENTS PER ANNUM. “ what is Truth?” “ VVhen Pilate had said this, he said to the Jews, I ﬁnd in him no fault.” The multitudes of theories seeking to answer this question, ﬁnd expositions, such as they are, in the various theologies of the day. These theologies form the most monstrous Ba.bylon ever existing. The majority are professedly Christian; but instead of con- verging toward each other into the Christ life, which is “the way and the truth,” “no fault,” a diverging from the principles of truth are continually consummating. We propose the burning of all the so-called Christian theologies, and substituting the simple, faultless life of Christ as a guide-- this is all the theology needed; rel...
Show moreTHE SHAKER. “ I WILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. G. A. Lonxs, Emron. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., JULY, 1872. No. 7. Fmrr CENTS PER ANNUM. “ what is Truth?” “ VVhen Pilate had said this, he said to the Jews, I ﬁnd in him no fault.” The multitudes of theories seeking to answer this question, ﬁnd expositions, such as they are, in the various theologies of the day. These theologies form the most monstrous Ba.bylon ever existing. The majority are professedly Christian; but instead of con- verging toward each other into the Christ life, which is “the way and the truth,” “no fault,” a diverging from the principles of truth are continually consummating. We propose the burning of all the so-called Christian theologies, and substituting the simple, faultless life of Christ as a guide-- this is all the theology needed; relieving us from the necessity of clerical leger- demain, pulpit wrangling, and the vast expense of that branch of colleges and academics used for theological purposes. The popular, pettifogging education of the priest never yet made truth more apparent. The agility acquired to twist the scriptures in this or that direction, never yet had a savory inﬂuence. It has been used, rather, to interpret to the masses what the original does not mean; to quiet the conscience of the people, thus preventing a revolt against sectarian errors. Christ is \Vhoso lives as Christ Jesus did, will be a living representation of truth. Is there any doubt how Jesus lived? None. But no sooner did or does the cross appear, than its unpleasant application is excused by the introduction of a theology that teaches an evasion of the truth; and the exemption of every carnal taste from the cross, rather than its application, is popular Christianity to-day. Every step made in this direction will be repented. V_Vhat did Jesus answer to Pilate, that so suddenly convinced him of Christ’s life being the embodiment of truth, and caused him to exclaim, “I ﬁnd in him no fault?” VVe believe Jesus implied in his answer to the question: “ \Vhat is truth? ” that it is “ the eternal relinquishment of error.” Are we seekers of truth? We learn it in Christ’s life—— “ seek ”. it there, “and you shall ﬁnd it.” Had we no theologies, excepting the life of Christ, represented through the Truth has a living expression. that expression. medium Jesus, where would this affect us ﬁrst? “If any man would be a disciple of truth, let him do as I have done— follow me.” To the rich man he said: “ If thou wouldst be perfect——truth, with- out fault—-—make others to share in all that you possess.” How this truth would cross the multitudes! But they have theologies that excuse them. What next? “ Be virgins ! ” “I am the Resurrection; my children do not marry! the children of this world do marry, but as I am not of the world, so as my followers you must not be of the world.” (John xvii. 16.) “The angels do not marry, neither will these who live like the angels.” (Luke xx. 35, 36). How simple the testimony, yet how unplatable the cross ! Back fly the apolo- gists, to a command given to the ﬁrst man Adam and his followers; and refusing to see the two ordcrs—-the ﬂesh, generative, and the Spirit, resurrection above the ﬂesh ——fears for the extinction of the world’s inhabitants, conjoined to an ardent desire to prevent such catastrophe, soon form a theological excuse from becoming angels just yet, and again, the senses preponderate truth, the life of Christ; and the more effectually to blind the eyes of the truth- seeking, the once Church of Christ, which began its career by making brothers and sisters of husbands and wives, is prostituted to the reversal of this rule, and glories in making “ children of this world” of those who should be the “Children of the Resur- rection ”—Christ——Truth. We believe Christ actuated Jesus to an entire relinquishment of unchaste, lustful manipulations, either individually or sex- ually. Some ignore the marriage bond, who do not truth in their lascivious prac- tices. Just so, some, in their illuminations of truth, discard the “private property” error, while they indulge every other. Some see truth in freedom from war—— peace——-yet enter a disclaimer if asked to put away the lusts that are the cause of war! Do such seek truth? The desires for ﬂeshly lusts, for private property, for martial glory, banish truth, and when these are banished, then will truth appear. Were Jesus, under the inﬂuence of Christ, to enter the various places of worship, witness the fashions, the rich and poor; the libertine, the military heroes ; husbands and Wives, representatives of millions of private property, together with a theology concocted for the purpose of their continu- ance, we believe he would feel a holy indig- nation, that, though it might not call for a scourge of small cords, yet would he reuse the congregations to the truth, that sooner or later they must face the testimony : “ VVho- so would be my disciple, let him follow me; I am the way, the truth and the life.” *“ Constitution and Bible. DOCTRINAL FINALITY. BY F. W. EVANS. “There is a spirit in man, and the in- spiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.” There is also in man a desire for doctrinal ﬁnality—a completed and perfected system ; like the village that was ﬁnished ﬁfty years ago. In esse, this is right, as indicative of a time when there shall be “no dark- ness at all” in the human soul, even as there is none in Deity. Perverted, it is forever concluded that the end of the journey, in pursuit of truth, is already reached. A man or woman who resists the tendency to a ﬁxity which organization engenders, moving as the Spirit moves, increasing with the increase of God, creating the letter of the future, rather than being bound by the letter of the past, produces trouble to themselves and their organiza- tion. War—controversy, hatred, and per- secution-——.follows in due course of time. Authority requires an inquisition to keep its subjects on the basis of creed and dogma, lest they substitute therefor the rock of Revelation. “Woe unto those who are at ease in Zion,” who seek to escape the disquiet of continual investigations, occasioned by the inﬂux of new truths. The Constitution! the Constitution! was the war-cry of the South. To it, the Spirit of Truth on the political plane daringly responded, “VVhat is the Con- stitution? VVho made the Constitution? and the answer came back from the- 50 THE SHA1{ER. “sovereign people: ” We uttered the declaration of principles, and of independ- ence of all Constitutional Governments then in existence; when the Conservatives replied, we will have and wage endless war, unless you let us have a Constitution that shall be a compromise—a covenant- between your Radicalism and our Con- servatisim, in which our “ Peculiar Institu- tion,” and a few other peculiar things, shall be incorporated and protected; which covenant shall not be revoked, nor the Constitution amended, except by mutual consent; and that consent we will never give. Thus your declaration of rights and abstract principles shall never be practically attained, except by and through another bloody Revolution. That bloody Revolution came in due time, and the “ Peculiar Institution” found no place in the now amended Constitution. VVill the other peculiar things ever be removed without another, and another, bloody Revo- lution? Or, will the Civil Government become, to the Church, as the moon to the sun? and will the Church become as the sun, shining on and on forever? The Bible! the Bible! is the cry raised against Progress in the Church. But its living members undauntingly ask, W'hat is the Bible? VVho made the Bible? How many Bibles are there? Did not God and Christ, and “all truth,” exist before the Bible? Again: \Vho translated these Bibles after they were made ? And history answers: As was the Con- stitution to the Declaration of ﬁrst princi- ples by the nation’s fathers and founders, so is the Bible—so are all Bibles—to the sermon on the mount, and to the Pente- costal fathers of Christianity-——to the simple declarations and statements of ﬁrst principles by Jesus and his immediate followers, who ﬁnally gathered together in the Christ Spirit, and upon the foundation of those abstract, simple principles, in a Pentecostal Church, practicing celibacy, and holding in common property. It is well known that the Catholic Bible was formed by the Council of Nice 300 years after the events itpurports to record had transpired. While the Protestant Bible, by king James, was a thousand years later coming into existence. The men who translated these Bibles (for no women have yet translated any Bible) were, as compared with men of our own time, ignorant of science. They believed in the Trinity, the Atonement, the vicarious sacriﬁce of Jesus for our race, provided they became orthodox; the resurrection of the body, and that the earth was only 6,000 years from its crea- tion out of nothing, and that by the mere all temporal ﬁat of will of a Being. To them God and the devil existed somewhere in the natural universe. One had a city made of all precious things that were grand and good; the other was in a pit, with no bottom to it, ﬁlled with brimstone in a state of igni- tion, like the crater of Vesuvius that never goes out. VVould, or could, these translators fail to ﬁnd, or to put into their Bibles, the irrational and absurd theological ideas of which they were possessed? That they did this, each atlirms and demonstrates of the other. Jerusalem did ever stone her Prophets; and the Zion of the day was ever indignant whenever a new Zion was born. The struggle between organization and revelation is continuous unto the “ end of the world ; ” until all worldly elements are worked out of the organization, and God rules supreme therein. As Gideon said to the people, “I will not rule over you; neither shall my son rule over you. God shall rule over you.” As the Christ Spirit passed from Elijah to Elias, so did the Christ Spirit pass from John the Baptist to Jesus. As a Jewish reformer and master, John had baptized Jesus with water, after his con- fession. But he had previously been inspired to know that, amongst those who came to him to be baptized, the Messiah would be made known to him by a certain sign; and, when he saw the Spirit of Christ as a dove, resting upon and abiding with him, he knew that the Christ had passed from himself to Jesus, and that he was to become the Messiah, i. e., to incar- nate the Christ in his character; and then, as he was decreasing and Jesus increasing, he said to him, Comest thou to me to be baptized? thou didst well; and I did well in baptizing thee. But now I have still more need to come to thee, and be bap- tized “with ﬁre and the Holy Ghost,” than you had to come to me confessing your Jewish sins, and being baptized with water, for I must confess all that the Christ Spirit has come to burn up. As the natural creation was progressive, so was the spiritual. The moral, spiritual, and religious nature of man was of gradual development in Noah, Abraham, Moses, and in Jesus. Their histories evidence that they learned as long as they lived. The Spirit in Noah created Bible, or record, for Abraham; perhaps only in the form of tradition. The Spirit in Abraham did the same for Moses; and Moses made Bible for the Prophets, down to Jesus; and Jesus made Bible for Ann Lee——“ the Scriptures of truth.” Ann could read; but she could not read the Catholic or the Pro- testant Bibles, nor any outward record. What a blessing! /seeing that it made her the more dependent upon the Spirit-—upon Revelation. And thus may each true Christian throw himself upon the rock of Revelation, and have all traditions, records, and Bibles broken to pieces. Because the ﬁrst class of reformers do so much, shall the next class do nothing but ape and worship them? The Christ Spirit in Jesus, declared that his successors should not only do the same works that he himself had done; but that they should exceed him in that respect. “All truth ” must exist, before any could progress into it. In Noah’s time, the millions of earth were sensualists; while he was perfect in his generations for 600 years. Abram came into spiritual truth beyond all Meso- potamia ; being the father of a. new people, who practiced self-restraint in generation, as Noah had done before him. . Moses stood opposed to and by all Egypt in rela- tion to the substance of the whole of the Mosaic laws and institutes. Jesus “trod the winepress alone; ” and Ann Lee wasone of a company of eight only, to found the Gospel in America. Let us Seek Health! BY G. B. AMERY. In this day of light and knowledge, any at- tempt made to attribute bodily ailments, such as headaches, disorders of the stomach, and nervous debility, to some unknown cause, is justly regarded as unfair; and if, as some claim, that/in their special case it is not to be dealing very partially with them? Has the Lord intended that We should be sick 3 Has he, by a ﬁxed and unalterable decree, deter- mined that we shall have the headache, be sick unto death with dyspepsia, or has he de- creed that, in obedience to his laws, we shall enjoy health? Let us not evade the issue. Our profession is to do God’s will. If it is not his will that We should be sick, let us either ascertain for ourselves or from others What law We are transgressing, and sin no more. Has any one ever traveled out of the lusts of the ﬂesh without experiencing at the commencement of their travel an awakening of the low and sensual desires of that “ serpen- tine nature?” We think not. Those who desired deliverance from it, being tormented with it, readily embraced the testimony against it, and accepted the means placed at their dis- posal to overcome it. Count it not strange that they who are not convicted should be indifferent, but the testimony against the lusts of the ﬂesh convicted many of its sinfulness and impurity, who at ﬁrst were thoughtless. “ The Whole need not a physician,” said Jesus. Those who through improper eating or drink- ing were made sick, and who earnestly desired health at any sacrifice, would eagerly accept any course of diet which would give it; and such, upon their restoration to health’, Would, of course, have an experience and testimony avoided, do they not judge that the Lord is . TI-IE SHAKER. 51 to give to others, and doing as “they would others should do to them,” whenever they meet one afflicted as they had been, would naturally proffer their advice, whether it was accepted or not. If one who has been dys- peptic sees a brother or sister eating or drink- ing that which caused nauseating sensations in their experience, is it wrong for them to state to the sufferer that abstinence from that article of diet removed the feeling? Having been a conﬁrmed dyspeptic, miserably sick day and night, and through abstinence from certain articles of diet, and fasting at times, measurably diminished the inordinate desire for food, and rid myself of the sickness——en— joying reasonable health as I do, is it strange that I should ﬁrmly believe that others af- flicted in the same m-tuner that I was, may be cured by the adoption of the same means? Many, when approached upon the subject, say they don’t believe they could do without this or that article. Believing; where we can know, is weakness. And feeling that we can- not do without, what science and the experi- eice of others prove to be hurtful to our health, is only an evidence of our abject servi- To put the matter plainly, it is letting our appe- tites (lusts) tell our minds what they intend to do, instead of our rational faculties deciding what is lawful and for the best. No one will get out of the ﬂesh without suffering, nor need they expect to get out of any evil without tribulation. Any one so bound to any article of diet, as to be unwilling to sacrifice it, if economy and health demand it, is certainly (according to the degree of their opposition) a slave to appetite. Christ’s gift of healing was thought to be a great one; but as the ability to live without sin is superior to all the “ car- ” so is the gift to keep well su- perior and more to be desired than any gift of tude to a depraved and unnatural taste. nal washings, healing, which, if sickness be a “ transgression * of law,” could only be temporary in its effect. As lovers of truth, and desirous ofprogression, let us have a keen testimony against lusts of every kind, being assured that “truth alone prevails.” lVhitewatei*, 0. Self-Government. BY D. A. BUCKINGHAM. To wisely speak and rightly act, In no case deviating, Require deep thought, much caution, care. Perhaps some hesitatin g. For he who ventures out to Sea, Tho’ in a course well beaten, Need oft observe the Polar Star, The point of compass taken. It is a. work of nicest skill To rule one’s self completely, Day after day, year after year- In all, perform discreetly. He who his tongue would govern well, Must first control his passions; For most assured, the latter are The “ stepstone ” to expressions. Talk not too much-speak not in vain-—- Beware of little errors; Like Jesus, overcome the World, Yea, face the " King of Terrors 1” VVhat tho’ our natures plead for ease, And for indulgence prattle, The Cross of Christ will limit these, And hold us to the battle. Jesus, our guide and pattern too, Sought not his own will merely; He lived for higher purposes, And wrought redemption dearly. He gave his life ofcarnal birth For Life that is eternal, Inviting all to follow him, And with him reign supernal. ’Tis not the noisy winds nor waves, Tornadoes, avalanches- That make our hearts harmonious blend, VVith inward, heavenly dances. The sturdy oak may stubborn stand And face the storm and thunder; But the. willow bows most gracefully, And lets the winds pass over. Soft words do more to quell the foe Than volleys of vexation; Speak kindly then, and thereby show We abound in good sensations. For, from the heart the mouth doth speak, The tongue doth utter phrases, Seine little spark of strife, when lit- Oh l what a ﬂame it raises ! The still small voice-—-the voice of love- Kind looks, and speeches pleasant, \Vill heal the wounds misfortune gives, And llappify the present. ’Twill rend from social life distrust, Discord, and cold embraces, Make desolation teem with life, With joy and smiling faces. Then I-leaven will not yonder be, Above the clouds, and hidden, But here on Earth, the Kingdoms come, In which all souls are hidden; The lame and blind, the deaf and dumb, No_sex nor color slighted, A glorious Jubilee to all- And Heaven and Earth united. Continence and Community. BY R. ‘V. PELHAM. There are moral and spiritual truths, either discovered or revealed, which are as ﬁxed and eternal as mathematical ones, and equally demonstrable. “Ye cannot serve God and l\Iammon.” This aphorism, ﬁrst uttered by Jesus over 1800 years ago, did not then begin to be a truth; it is a fixed and eternal verity. Beings in the condition of the human race cannot serve God with all their mind and might, as He requires, and at the same time give up their hearts and lives to the acquisition of riches. This is a truth that exists eternally and unchangeably in all worlds. This same truth has been again uttered in other words near the beginning of the 19th century by a modern poet: “ Within the human breast Two master passions cannot co-exist.” Mammon means riches, Wealth; sometimes personiﬁed as the God or Demon of riches. The two conditions of mind, devotion to God and devotion to Mamm on can no more co-exist in the human breast, than two parallel lines can cross each other. This repugnance of these two conditions, this impossibility with regard to man in his intellectual constitution and present moral condition, and the require- ments of Christ’s gospel, or the Christian institution upon him, is as certain, unchange- able, eternal and ubiquitous as any mathe- matical truth. Therefore, in order to be a Christian, a man must divest himself of per- sonal wealth. The brotherly love and perfect equality which eternal truth enjoins on Christians, forever debar them from personal wealth, and require them to support a joint interest, and to have their goods in common. The possession of personal Wealth and equality of enjoyment are conditions forever repugnant to one another and to eternal truth. Therefore Jesus required the young man to sell all his personal possessions in order to gain an inheritance and treasure in the heavenly kingdom which he was about to set up. He required all others who would be his disciples. “ Whosoe'ver he be of you that forsake not all that he hath, can -not be my disciple.” The rule of Jesus in regard to property is, ividilrirluul poverty and social abundance. The marriage relation is forever repugnant to equality of possession; and this repug- nance is founded in ‘the eternal nature of things. If the young man had obeyed Jesus and made himself a pauper, he would have been utterly unqualiﬁed for entering the generative order and raising a family. And it was impossible for him to obey that other command of Jesus, “ Come follow me,” and at the same time perform the work of pro- creation. Jesus cannot be followed where Jesus did not go. The generative order necessarily requires separate interests, and the possession of personal property; and this, too, has its foundation in the very nature of things. Consequently, the generative is forever re- pugnant to the Christ order, which requires the relinqui.-;hment of all personal property. “ The ﬂesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these two are contrary the one to the other.” The truth of this irrepressible conﬂict of flesh and spirit did not then begin to be, when it was ﬁrst announced by Paul, but is eternal and un- changeable, and exists everywhere in God’s universe when they come in contact. The order of the ﬂesh existed from Adam to Moses, and from Moses to Jesus: Un- ceasing diligence was exerted to bring it into order and subject it to law. “Divers wash- ings and carnal ordinances,” with many other restraints, were imposed by divine sanction, but all without success, as testified by the martyr Stephen: “Ye do always resist the Holy Spirit, as your father did so do ye.” Thus, an experiment extended through 4000 years develops an unbroken testimony to the existence of an eternal truth—a ﬁxed law- that the ﬂesh always resists the spirit—that “the carnal mind is not subject to the law or God, neither indeed can be.” A ﬁxed and immutable law of the generative order is to multiply and divide. Thus a series of successive divisions and separations of interest is continued. The ﬁxed and immutable law of the regenerative order is a_(/gregati0n—gathering together uniting in one till it reaches the Whole brotherhood of man. The ﬂeshly dispensation or procreative order, is that in which a man and wife be- come “ one ﬂesh ” for the purpose of procreat- ing a ﬂeshly oﬂspring. “ That Which is born of the ﬂesh is ﬂesh.” The spiritual dispensation inaugurated by Jesus, is that in which a man “forsakes the 52 THE SHAKER. wife,” and all ﬂeshly relations, to become one with Christ in being spiﬂtual ofspring. “ He that is joined to the Lord is one in spirit with him,” and “ that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” “ To be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life.” In this aphorism of Paul, he again sets forth the eternal antagonism of the ﬂesh and spirit. It is but the utterance, of a ﬁxed, immutable and eternal truth—-a truth which every one who has been made alive in the spirit, knows just as well as Paul. The antagonism be- tween the ﬂesh and spirit does not take place in the air, but in the human breast, and every spiritually minded man knows that this conflict is irreconcilable—knows that his carnal, lust- ful, generative nature is not subject to the law of God in the Christ order, neither indeed can be—knows that he must keep up an unccasing warfare against it, at the peril of his spiritual life, until it is subdued. “ If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above,” where Christ dwells. Those counted worthy of this resurrection—— those who have risen with Christ and live in his sphere “ above ” the ﬂesh, neither marry nor are given in marriage. “ They are children of the resurrection order, who follow Jesus in the regeneration, and are exalted with him above the generative work. “ A Temple which Hath Founda- tions.” . BY E. H. VVEBSTER. Jllatt. vii. 24, and Haggai ii. 6, 7, S. Tempered with sadness is ourjoy, And prayers our thoughts employ, For a\':n~ice whicli \v:ilke<'l on high, Whose temples almost touched the sky, Knows not, alas! its doom is nigh, But vainly strives to build anew The temples 01' the past, And makes of earthly clay and dew A temple that will last. The glory of the latter day, \Vhose strength shall bear ti-uth’s keenest ray, Must be with broad foundations laid, “'ith justice and with virtue stayed, And righteousness so long delayed; All else will surely sweep away, All refuges oflies, All shaken in that burning clay, W'hcn grim oppression dies. 0, Tempora, O, Mores! We are in receipt of very many letters that bewail the conditions of the sectarian world— of its high professions, yet poor practices ; of its advanced call to higher life, and from un- christian loves and lusts, with so small reply. The following, from a Rev. Dr., near Spring- ﬁeld, Mass., puts the case, not just as we should; but, We believe, fully as strong as his congregations will bear with him; and we have no doubt, if he continues thus to preach, he will have to ﬂee to the rocks and caves of Shaker homes for protection. His name is free to those interested. “WHO ARE THE xNr1nsLs?” * * * “ The essential features of the testimony of Jesus are: That his followers must be of ‘one soul and mind, and have all things in common; ’ and, ‘that it is good for a. man not to touch a woman.” “ The first will prevent temptations to steal- ing, cheating, prostitution, etc., lessen labor, do away with armies, castles, war, police; so that there can be better education, better living, and more comfort for all. “In the second, we ﬁnd a prohibition to marriage, free love, fornication, and lust generally, as now found inside and outside of the marriage order; all must live as sisters and brothers. He that is already married, must “lead about his wife as a sister.” “The original says, not that marriage is honorable; but let marriage be (made) honor- able; that is, abstain from carnal intercourse even in marriage. The Catholics say: “‘ That the irrational, insane stupidity of carnal inter- course cannot be pointed out too clearly, nor condemned too severely.” Those who preach much of an all-good, all-wise Creator, must know he cannot love to see such miserable children as they produce; that they inter- fere with his right to produce the best. “ Even though I say it, so-called Christians who fail to live up to these two foundational doctrines, are inﬁdels to Christianity; hypo- crites to the cause; liars in profession; sailing under false colors, and unworthy the confidence of the true believers in Christ. “ There are very many Revs., who believe these assertions as truly as I do; yet none - of us dare preach but a part of the truth for most obvious reasons. The Slzaker is doing a silent, but terrible work to old theologies; and is the only medium I know of, that dares make known the whole truth, without the loss of its bread and butter, together with inquisitorial persecution.” D. J. M. Act from Principle. How few persons there are whose lives are governed entirely by principle, rather than in- clination. Even those of us who may be en- deavoring to live for high purposes, come far short of our aspirations ; alas, how very far short ! How often we ﬁnd ourselves debating with our convictions of right and duty, ques- tioning if it might not be as well for us to yield to inclination just for this time, promising our disturbed consciences that we will make up for the present indulgence by more rigorous self-denial, and strict attention to duty.- Vain, fallacious reasoning of a weak nature! \Ve can never make up for aneglected opportu- nity, one misspent hour, one wrong, selﬁsh act. Once past, the opportunity unimproved, the hour wasted, the act committed, and it is beyond our reach—beyond recall, except in thoughts of regret. VVe may atone for it, but we can never change the past. Alas ! how painfully are we aware of this fact. Then should we all endeavor the more earnestly to make our lives ornaments of prin- ciple; for we all know that after all, the path of duty, though sometimes rugged, is not with- out sweet pleasures; and let us never follow our inclinations, if they would lead us away from the right. Then shall we be permitted at the last to look back upon our lives with satisfaction, feeling that we have “ done what we could,” and that our Father regardeth us with smiles of approbation.—Zell’s Casket. Answers to Correspondents. “ Is marriage, as generally practiced, wrong in all cases?” We answer in the negative. Wlhere there is no law manifested to the individual higher than marriage, let-him practice it. Jesus answered this question very properly, see Matt. 19, 11. Some want and will have no higher law, until they are forced to do so; others, like the Shakers, seek to know God’s will, and to do it. “ How does marriage affect the spirit?” By bringing it under bondage to the genera- tive order—-the dominion of the ﬁrst man-— earthy; and by preventing its entrance into the Christian ranks, its whole being is conse- crated, not in the service of the God of the Christians, but of the Jews, where marriage, war, private property and their consequences were and are popular. If you are a professor of Christianity, and adore marriage, compare your profession with 1 Cor., 7 chap. 32, 33, 34, and either repent, or join the Jews, and strictly keep the marriage laws. “ Is it wrong to work for an independence in riches?” ' No man has any right to be rich. The gospel teaches Christians to share alike. Whoever is rich, should know, one or many are consequently correspondingly poor. The gospel says to the mountainous rich, come down, a.nd to those in the valley of poverty, rise up. The rich are still comfort- able, while the poor are made equally so. N ow take conscience and an eternity of reﬂec- tion into the council, and our word for it, present and future heaven would demand a liberal division. “Do you require individuals to give up their money or other property upon joining? ”’ We do not, never have. incorrect. Your information is Individuals are welcome to retain property in their own right; but Society does claim, that while said individuals are enjoying its beneﬁts, that the use or interest of their property shall be for the upbuilding of the Cause. No individual would desire to remain long in a society who had so little consecration that he meant to get what he could and keep it. This is world-like, not Christian. Send for a copy of our “Brief Exposition”——SiX cents. ' “VVhy is it, that those who leave your Society are seldom or never successful after they leave it ?” Shakerism spoils individuals for worldly enjoyment, worldly ambition, etc. The fact is a notably true one, and admits of a larger illustration than we can now give. He who would be a Shaker should seriously count its cost. There is nothing terrible nor compulsory in the system. To its subjects it is all lovely. But he is a fool who, having been on the ﬁrm basis of truthful life, could expect to succeed with God’s blessing, after forsaking the counsel of God. We know of no more pitiable case than a seceding Shaker— and they share our pity. * SUBSCRIPTIONS for THE SHAKER may begin with July Number, or with the beginning of the Volume, at the option of the subscriber. \ Christian Home Missions. BY RUTH WEBSTER. While reading in the Golden Age of March 23, the account given by Marie Ladreyt of the child labor in England, I had no doubt of the correctness of her statements. Every feeling heart must be grieved at the bare recital of such deep degradation and misery on the one side, and the utter depravity and brutality on the other. We have just rid ourselves of chattel slavery--that incubus which was fast sinking the nation into ruin, and which was enough to make every true American blush for the honor of his country. But American slavery is civilization and re- ﬁnement compared with the condition of many thousands of children in the factory districts of England. But we need not go to England to ﬁnd sufferings and objects of charity; to ﬁnd work for philanthropists and reformers; for though we have done much there is still much that remains to be done. There yet are untold sufferings in this counrry. Who, that having lived in our cities, but has been pained to see the extravagance and luxury of the rich, and the abject poverty and degraded condition of the poor? It is true that many philanthropic individuals have done nobly; having given largely of their abundance for bettering the condition of the needy. But does this reach the root of the matter? Is it not like lopping off a branch here and there, While the tree still grows and bears its bitter fruit? Our friend Marie, after having faith- fully delineated the vast amount of misery it costs to earn wealth and procure luxuries for a small minority, more than hints at the remedy. She asks, “ Is it strange that Communism ﬁnds so many advocates, and that it gains ground so rapidly in all countries ?” I sup- pose, of course, she means the rapid spread of the doctrine—-the idea; for it is no where practically carried into effect except in the United States. In the regular progress of mind, we must first have ideas and then practice; and it is an encouraging fact that the idea of Communism is so extensively being embraced. But can Europe, and England in particular, do nothing in the mean time to ameliorate the condition of her poor outraged and suffering children? England! who sends missions to christianize China, Hindostan, the Isles of the Ocean, and to the ends of the earth, while there are millions in her own domains, more degraded and worse abused, than in any heathen nation on the globe. Yet she claims to stand at the head of the civilized nations- boasts that she is the bulwark of the Protest- cmt religion ! It is well to call it protcstcmt, for certainly it is a protest to Christianity. Out upon such Christianity——such Christians ! “ lVhy call ye me Lord, Lord?” Shall we advise her to send missionaries to humanize her suffering children? Of what use to preach, or try to instruct them in their present condition? If they had a passport to the Kingdom, they would barter it for a loaf of bread, or a bottle of whiskey. But are these really the heathen? Are not THE SHAKER. those who oppress the poor; who rob the hireling of his wages to ﬁll their own coffers, that they may live in splendor and revel in luxury--are not these the heathen? And I had almost said paupers too; for they are a non-producing class, living on the earnings of others without a just remuneration. But what use of knowing these things—of having our sympathies awakened, unless We can do something for their relief-—unless we can apply a remedy? If every thing has failed heretofore to reach the case, suppose we try something new? At least new on the other side of the water. It has already been tried on this side to a limited extent, and, as far as it has been practiced, it has proved effectual. There can be nothing valuable gained with- out sctf—clem'al and the cross, and these are what mankind do not naturally love. The times call for self—sacriﬁcing souls, that are willing to suffer and bear and do for the advancement of the race. The remedy for this vast and growing evil cannot be reached in any other way. Are not the devout every where praying: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven?” Is there heaven on earth? Is not hell there too? As one advances, the other must give way. VVe need a pentecostal ‘baptism to relax our grasp on our earthly possessions! There is land enough, and wealth enough, were it equalized, for every individual to have a competence, and every child properly educated. Shaker Communism, we believe is a sure remedy. No member of the Com- munity ever suffers for food, clothing or shelter; but mankind seem unprepared for so much self—denial. Let those over the waters, or on this side, who embrace the theory of Communism, organize and enter into the practical life which their theory calls for. If they cannot yet bear a full cross or deny themselves as far, or as much as Shakerisin calls for, let them come as near as they can, and thus test the truth of their theory, and the Shakers will bid them God- speed. iLet every one who has a heart to feel for down-trodden humanity, consider the subject and act upon it. Union Village, Ohio. The two articles following are from some of our Shaker correspondents. We feel ashamed to say they were sent anonymously. As they have kept so long and so well in the “pigeon hole,” we have con- cluded to depart our usual rule, and print them, as valuable additions to our literature and testimony, whose authors we wish to know, and to chastise. * Woman’s Rights. “woULDsr -rnou nULn? RULE THYSELF.” _ GENESIS. III, 16. Evidently in this text is the voice of nature ; even those must admit who deny its being the voice of nature’s God; and fearfully has the prediction been fulﬁlled, as physiological re- searches abundantly prove. “And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” This sentence shows, that “in the beginning” man did not rule, at least, in whateveritis herein declared he shall; and further, that the transfer of rule was the consequence of woman’s desire. 53 Fortunately for the skeptical, experience as well as science comes to the aid of revelation in proof of this. The maiden still rules; the wife must serve. The transfer of rule con- tinues with the continuance of the curse. Now, since the necessity for man’s reproduc- ing his kind upon the earth, could alone necessitate the difference in sex, and that difference alone, makes it necessary or even possible for either to rule in any general sense, it follows, that the rule spoken of in the text must have reference to the procreative function. And since the duties of maternity must necessarily restrict the action of the female; a11d those of paternity as necessarily leave the male unrestricted; it follows, that whatever should subject the female, in any department of the animal kingdom, to male rule, must be productive of disorder. And if, with the logically admitted power in the ruler to govern the ruled, we admit a desire in the ruled to be governed, we shall begin to comprehend the force of the text. Shall we admit this, and thus easily account for the disorders of society; thus easily solve the “mystery of iniquity ”———“ take away the vail from the face of all nations?” Shall we accept the scrip- tural account, in so far, at least, as to admit that depraved denizens of the spirit world found means to poison the mind of our first mother with the virus of illicit desire, thus corrupting the streams of human life at their fountainhead, and greatly multiplying the sorrows of earth as a natural consequence? VVe of the Shaker order do admit this; do believe it to be the only logical clue to the unraveling of the “mystery of godliness.” We believe thatithe human race, in common with the animal, were inducd in their creation with instincts, laws, powers, adequate to their preservation in health and happiness; that the fact that mankind have not been so preserved while the animal has is incon- testable proof that these instincts have been followed-—~these laws obeyed—-these powers employed by the latter, according to the design of the Creator, while by the other, they have not; and that to the difference in their habits alone, is to be ascribed the dif- ference in their conditions. And since the principal difference in their habits relates to the procreative right, We can but conclude, that herein is seen the principal cause of the physical degeneracy and moral depravity of the human race to-day. That herein is seen “the root of the trees which the Father hath not planted; ” and what woman complains of, low wages ; monopoly of business pursuits ; injustice of the laws; being deprived of the franchise, etc., are but legitimate branches; and only by applying the axe at the root of the evil trees, can she reasonably expect the branches to wither. And thus believing, we easily see the necessity for the second appear- ance of Christ, or rather, the manifestation of the Second Christ, “ the Comforter,” in her own order, to restore to woman, not only her long lost rule (of herself), but a power in addition, enabling her to preserve and employ her charms in afar more noble cause than that of generation (noble as that is when con- ducted in an orderly manner), to wit, in that 54: THE SEIAKIER. of regeneration. And here she has no cause to complain of the usurpation of her rights by the man; for the life of purity which, following Christ in the regeneration necessi- tates, places them precisely in the relation of brother and sister, where they are alike mu- tually dependent and mutually independent. Doing away with the “ trouble in the ﬂesh,” and bringing, oh, how abundantly, the bless- ings of the Spirit! And all who will, may come and partake of the Waters (blessings of this kind) of life freely. But, plead not for your rights, 0 woman ! so long as you voluntarily surrender them. Dream not of liberty, so long as you desire to be a slave. “Wouldst rule? Rule thyself.” North Union, 0. “ Exhort one another to good Works.” Many, styling themselves, no doubt, Chris- tian youths, are spending much valuable time in devouring the poisonous literature which is ﬂoating unrestrainedly through the land. Beware ! their word will eat as doth a can- ker, as many, made weak by it, can testify; ‘their word,’ whose highest aim is wealth ;_ which aim they pursue regardless of the evil inﬂuence they exert, in obtaining their hold upon the innocent mind. IVho was it that said not long since to a bright youth absorbed in reading a corrupting novel, “ I hate, abhor, those sickly, sentimental stories?” It Was, I think, Pure Mind! She also exhorted youth to more faithfulness in cultivating the better part of their nature, by reading such books as contain instruction for mental and physical improvement; she told them to study, and to meditate upon the thoughts and actions of the good and great, and to strive to emulate their example; and that in so doing they would increase their internal beauty. Reﬂection and experience prove that more, of real value, is learned outside of books than inside of them. The bulk of mankind have to procure a physical and spiritual livelihood ; and it is obvious that those things are of the most value which tend to increase facilities to this end. Books are of value for two pur- poses: to train the mind of youth, so that they may be prepared to receive, with ease, ideas when presented to them ; and that their minds may, by exercise, be rendered ﬂexible, and capable of pursuing sustained trains of thought, and to increase in their powers of observation both of external and of spiritual things; secondly, to enable the mind as it comes to maturity, to receive with advantage the thoughts of others; that is, as an assist- ance to thought, not to give them a mastery over the mind. It should, however, be con- stantly borne in mind that reading should never be made the chief aim of life. It is necessary for the enlightenment of the under- standing; but the progress of individuals is the chief aim of life, or rather the only design of our existence. It being true, then, of those books, the matter of which is, in itself, good, that they should be used as a means and not as an end, it is clearly of the greatest impor- tance for youth—-a time of life when things which affect the imagination are generally deeply impressed on the mind-—-to carefully avoid everything which does not conduce to solid improvement. The mind is like the stomach: those who live sparingly on plain nourishing food, and take plenty of exercise, are invariably healthy; while those who diet is luxurious, stimulating and excessive, suffer from diseases of all kinds. the mind: reading that trains the mind, or brings to our aid the thoughts of others, as above stated, and thus nourishes thought in ourselves, is good; but that reading which merely excites the feeling, and increases or generates morbid fancies, a light and un- settled state of the mind, is bad to the last degree. Those minds which progress are always more occupied in thinking than in reading; and the healthier the tone of thought the more rapid the progress. Use books to nourish a progressive state of the mind, not to clog the brain with mental rubbish. Again: Reading of particular kinds, though proper for some persons, is not proper for others. Thus, those who have found out that their spiritual welfare is of more importance to them than their temporal, inasmuch as the former is for Eternity, the latter for time, will ﬁnd that reading suﬂicient which assists the spirit to free itself from temporal inﬂuences, and to discover spiritual truths; but those who have not been fortunate enough to strike on this path, are occupied mainly with their own temporal welfare, or in the discovery of physical and intellectual truth. But those, whose time and talents are occupied in the discovery of means to rouse and stimulate unhealthy ‘cravings for excitement of feeling in the young, are most viciously employed; and the mind that admits their inﬂuence will certainly be injured. My youthful friends, there are abundant means within our reach for cultivating our being’s highest good. Let us thus exercise the spirit of Watchfulness over our minds, and let us remember that the reading of exciting, vicious stories forms no part of the vocation of a Christian. Trust in God. BY E. '1‘. LEGGETT. When clouds obscure the land, Should we in darkness roam; Oh ! Lord extend thy hand, And kindly lead us home. We give our hearts to thee ; \Ve would be wholly thine, Thy grace will make us free, Thy love will make divine. \Vhate’er is needful here, 'We know that thou Wilt give; And be thou evernear, For only then we live. The only wealth we have, Is treasured up above; The only wealth we crave, Is thy approving love. Earth has on us no claim; We’ve severed every tie; Home, fortune, friends and fame, We’ve bid them all good-bye. Thou art, Oh God, our all; We ask for nothing more, Let good or ill befall, Thy name we’ll still adore. Thus it is with A Be then our Father, Friend, As we thy children are; \Vhcn weak, thy blessing send; When wrong. in mercy spare. Though ill then oft betide, And friendship still betray, We’ll in thy faith abide, And keep thy Living way. Correspondence. MIDDLE GRANVILLE, Nov. 15th, 1871. To THE DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: Yours of the 29th ult. is duly received. I freely acknowledge my thankfuluess for the good expressions therein contained; I am fully convinced that the standard of Right, Truth, and Divine Light among your people, is tower- ing far above all emblems of Light, given under the seal of Church Policy, ignorantly sustained, through faith in sacriﬁcial offerings of materialism and the shed blood of one body, with other machinations of Priestcraft, all under the sanction of a ﬁghting Church. How aptly are they styled “ blind leaders of the blind !” how low, at the very base, of all knowledge of a God of Love and Truth; and how ignorant of the true resurrection of Christ, in the soul ! His divine attributes are love, not hate, truth without error, light which expels all darkness, and charity with- out selﬁshness. I truly did enjoy that spirit of love and harmony which I realized among your people ; it is a baptism I crave, for every moment of my life, but my surroundings are not always favorable for such enjoyment. \Vhile on my visit to the dear Shakers, in Enﬁeld Conn., one year ago, I felt the spirit and power of God around and in me, realiz- 'ing the glory revealed through the baptism of Love. Recently, I was inﬂuenced to visit your Society, where I enjoyed, mingling in spirit with you, in the harmony and peace of your beloved circle, receiving new impulses to be good and true, to learn more perfectly the laws of my being; and “ the way ” which is Christ, which leads, me up the highways 01 progression, through green pastures and by still Waters; unfolding to my spiritual vision new truths, and new beauties in the philoso- phy of life. I believe, however, that your position has not been comprehended generally, by the World. But in this dispensation, a new light has dawned upon the earth, that is revealing your true faith and practice. Its soundness is being tested by others, their eyes being opened to behold the light as revealed through the Spirit. I have not only a knowledge of it as given through signs, but, in a visit to you, where blending our spirits, the light is still more appreciated. I must confess I think the Shakers a little ahead of this dispensation, which has shone out upon us all, for proﬁt. The marriage question and human rights in general, are having a fair and thorough appeal to common sense. God speed the time, When all the inconsistencies of dark Theology shall have a renovation of character. Then we, Shakers and Spiritualists, with the Angels of God, can cry as of old, Away with such abomina- tions; and let the earth rejoice that a better covenant is observed ; and humanity are being resurrected from darkness to light, through the second coming of Christ. THE SHAKER. 55 His footsteps are traceable back to the open- ing up of the dispensation, when the Shakers took a bold stand against all iniquity; and now through the different phases of spiritual developement among Spiritualists, the car is still moving on in which all, in time, are to be brought to a knowledge of the Truth, and its resurrecting power. I ﬁnd the operations of the Spirit with me, are nearly allied to the exercises of the Shakers; not that I am free from sin and ignorance, but am striving for the higher life; and believe that ‘unborn generations will grow more perfectly into this “ way,” and Shakers Will be multiplied with- out number. I speak boldly and honestly my ideas; and I declare, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; it is the power of God unto salvation. Sincere love to all, ELIZA BLOSSOM. “Have the Shakers made a Mistake P” The Phrenological Journal for June, con- tained an article entitled “ Have the Shakers made a mistake?” and followed this question by an argument seeking to prove that Ann Lee never taught celibacy, but merely chastity in marriage; and the following remark is what led to our answer, appended hereto: “We have not found, we cannot ﬁnd, am - thing in history to warrant the inference that Ann Lee taught or practiced celibacy ! ” MY DEAR WELLS : We have been so famil- iar in the past, who shall say our spirits may not consult matters of history, to-day? You are in possession of the archives of mental and psychic forces. I may be supposed to know more of Ann Lee’s history—and this renews the query, “Have the Shakers made amistake?” I will not perpetrate a weari- some rejoinder; but let me a.sk if it is com- mon for a class of individuals to become more radical than the founder of that class, particularly upon a point so adverse to natural inclination, yet so conjoined to angel nature as an entire abnegation hf sexual coition? Ann Lee was the leader of Shaker Societies in her day, but is not now. Yet, having improved upon some of the themes and practices of her day, we are only as strong on this, as she was. You give her large credit as a sensible woman ; too much so, you think, to inaugurate a system so unnatural as ex- isting Shakerism. Ann Lee never condemned marriage, but considered it the most honorable relation outside of Christianity I Her tes- timony was not only against coition, but her followers, upon uniting, enjoyed separate beds for the sexes. The Shakers admit the large good in marriage, when properly conducted—— but claim that there is no “ kingdon ofheaven ” on earth, in marriage. VVhen the married die, they expect to enter into the ranks of angels, who are living just as the Shakers do" here, being Shakers. VVe believe, they then will wish that they had learned angelic practices while here. Now, as to matters of history and fact, let us quote Ann Lee’s own words. Daniel ‘Wood and others testify hearing her say : “ Sometime after I had set out to live up to the light of God, manifested through James and Jane VVardly, I fell under heavy trials and tribulations on account of lodging with my husband; and as I looked to them for counsel, I opened my mind to Jane. She said: James and I lodge together, but we do not touch each other any more than two babes; you may go and do likewise. “ In obedience, I did so ; but could not sleep, seemingly, any more than if I had been on a bed of embers. I quitted the bed in tribula- tion, and continued crying to God in deep labors of soul, for the space of twelve days and nights, to know his will, and how the restoration of the fall should take place. VVl1ile in this labor, I saw Jesus, in vision. He revealed to me the depth of man’s loss, how it was accomplished, and how to regain lost virtue. Then it was I was made able to bear an open testimony against coition, from which the root of evil springs. Then I felt the power of God ﬂow into my soul like a fountain of living waters. From that day to the present, I have taken up a full cross, not only against coition, but all the doleful works of the flesh I ” We live as Brethren and Sisters together, without any physical contact of the sexes, and keep a ﬂaming testimony against indi- vidual lusts, and thus shun “ the very appear- ance of evil.” Present to us an individual, Who, being married, and living under the most favorable circumstances of the repro- ductive sphere, who is happier or more heavenly than a thorough-going, full cross- bearing Shaker, and I will reconsider the assertions, that S'ha.7:erism is the rudiments of the Kingrlom of heaven on Earth ; and that Illawiage nere-r «has, and never can be a» Christian in.stitutiion .’ Yours, * G. A. LOMAS, Shakers, N.Y. “ This is for your Health.” The most popular and consistent Health journals of to-day are those which teach prevention of disease; and where this has been contracted, direct applications of water or magnetic baptisims. Of this class of journalism, we cannot speak too highly. It begins a i'eformation of the physical race in the most proper direction——diet. And until this is accomplished, we shall, from the un- natural concomitants of blood, continue to bewail the multiplication of so—called human beings, of whom God cannot make Shakers. \Ve have need of more good material for Christ baptisms; and we hail every effort made on the earthly plane, to regulate the diet of the race, through thisits reproductions, and through both of these, teach man of the two orders of existence, first the earthly: then the heavenly; and that properly directed, ex- pedites this. VVe call attention to The Herald of Health: is a good and re- liable journal of its class. It has, in some late articles, dealt out to its readers some very unpalatable truths; but whoever has swallowed them, have been convinced of their eﬂicacy. Price, $1.25 per year, Wood & Ilolbrook, New York. Home and Health, is also deserving of much success. $1.50 a year. De Puy, Holmes 8; Co., New York. The Laws of Life, Danrille, N. Y., comes from “Our home on the hillside”; and no journal tells more truth about dress for females, and diet for dyspeptics. Austin, Jackson & Co., Publishers. Send for sample copy. The Science of Health threatens to surpass all else in counsels to the well and in its truth-telling to the sick. Whoever subscribes for this, may “throw all medicine to the dogs”———who heretofore have been too sensi- ble for the doctors. Its appearance is strik- ingly beautiful. Price, $52.00 a year. S. R. Wells, New York. True Shaker Discipline. BY HARRIET BULLARD. To be without fault should be the object of every professedly Christian soul. This is at- tained only by severe discipline. To be a full Christian requires a complete subjection of self unto the law of Christ. In the absence of Jesus, the apostles, ancient, holy men and women, we must covenant to accept as our leaders and directors those of our own day who are striving to faithfully represent Christ principles. Having so covenanted, willful dis- obedience on our part is as really rebellion against Christ as though we had said “I will ” or “ I won’t” to the person of Jesus. It costs much self-denial always to yield self and selﬁshness to known and accepted au- thority, but a cheerful and continued submis- sion there will prove a safeguard from other evils; while to rebel against this is worse than the practice of gross evils, and will even sooner prove the downfall of any unwilling mind. Let those who think they stand up- rightly in all else but obedience to their pres- ent lead, take heed, or soon they “ Fall like stars to rise no more! ” VVANTED:—-A few hundred thousands or mil- lions to investigate and “ expose ” Shakerism. We have been so interested in those attempted, pro and con, that We hail with delight these various attempts to illustrate and ventilate what we so love. If, in these varied illumin- ations, any fraud, deceit or unrighteousness should appear, none will be happier to learn it than ourselves, or more ready to condemn and eradicate it. Wanted: More “Exposi- tions.” ”“ DECEASED: J. Rufus Bryant, Pleasant Hill, Ky., went to rest on May 6th. He wasa bright light in Zion’s upbuilding. As a Trustee, he had few equals in all that pertains to consecrated temporal aid and endeavor. We give Elder Harvey Eades’ announce- ment : “ J. R. Bryant went to Heaven on the 6th.” Also, Betsy Hastings, aged 67, May 25. at Alfred, Me. In Shirley, Mass, 7th inst., Caroline Baxter, 30 yrs. Also, several deaths at South Union, Ky., no names given. AMONG many suggestions, in answer to our ques- tion in March, Elder J. S. Prescott urges an assem- blage of delegates at Watervliet or Mt. Lebanon, on Aug. 6, 1874, from every Society ofBe1ievers; and to invite the most advanced Spiritualists to attend the same. 56 THE SHAKER. FAITITS VISION. Aﬁetuoso. Nomjn, Mr. L. -9-£1-3-—.—'—~—L—1—;s——~—;+c—r—-1-1-:iu—gs—~c—-1—u«_—-gs gs 1 J; W a 1 s gs ﬁw ;- .—j 1, g;- s L .l 1___,s __s. _ @131, ___.:1_*—l’— "'l::‘d;‘_*1':1::1—[::i__‘-a':1:_. __ :i:a‘:t::1‘-~§—a—;;r-1-l—zI7-*r~ai--av--l‘;-at—1:a;—::[:::i::1::3:: E33: 1» ‘I ; ¢- ; 4 s . F e 4. ——~- A 4. I ~§:—::~=-- -a:-v-—:r:~- ":—:-w—:=- *- :** sh % r i_.4s_:a-- _4.d:ss-:s w I 2 1. :~ N r it 4: :21: § $4‘—U=-i'—v’—d——-E"a*:3:z“d‘*E—"—"‘—d""““';—ﬁ—‘d*:;:“E—i“d"*a:;“L‘d‘ijT‘d"tj:“C"‘U—E§T:§E‘:33“L'd“‘ ._ _ _. _.'_ 1 To the spirit land were hastening, Golden moments ﬂit be - fore, While each sunset brings us nearer To its seeming, distant shore. 2 Oft its pearly gates are opened, Floods of glory thro’ them come; And we catch a glimpse of beauty, Just a foresight of our home. 3 Yet we ask their minis - tration While we tarry here be - low, And that ever round our pathway Light in - creasing still may glow. /1 Q T 3 IA. ‘) _I .__;;.:2 Is 7 @:$-:ws——j5———r——l——l‘ !‘ PT 1- -_i.s:w3;l:.s4.;-:;";;;:‘:.*‘:'E:..;;:..—— and): j,§lLJJ_nRjVw7§i“j'Lj\i‘ :1-T-nﬁni*lii‘jViﬁi,.i‘ —l~—‘-—-0'“-1-—'——i-'—'Q—-"l3-_;1-~l—d7—1;“_ :1:_ ::l:;t_‘.f::;‘:l::1—'*4“"”“‘ .. _l ——4'—— -:-_;:~ — -5- gj ‘ I II I 1“ i . A __. 1 . . J ._A L 4 . - L A ' J A _z _ -‘i~;’~4—3;E—l;—'*—0——‘-—3~—t—£:~':§E:-”:t:j:—;”-4—3-—l;—4~—°*-—;i’-t-3*-3ﬁ--‘_ :f:2:4:§:—_.;=—f~-v~v~;;:—v—i-9* Yet up - - on her snowy 0 it is by ho - ly pinions, Faith will lift our hearts to living That we If our lives are fraught with goodness, And the seeds of love \ve see, In the gain an entrance there; For com life that is be - 1'ore us, Blessed - munion with the sow, We shall reap a - bun - dant blessing, And the immortal - i - ty. Angels, Spotless robes we must pre - pare. joy of An- gels lmow. Items of Interest. WE are in receipt of glowing accounts of Shaker meetings, held at Portland, Me., Farm- ington, 0., and Albany, N. Y., with the Spir- itualists and others. \Vhile We are thus giv- ing the multitudes thousands of invitations to investigate our principles and examine our lives, such vituperative articles as are occa- sionally seen, entitled “ Shakerism Exposed,” must fail of deceiving many, and do us much more good than harm. us better than to have thousands inquiring, Nothing could please “ Are these things so P” and then come among us, sift us to the foundation, and realize as we do how truly God does cause “the wrath of man to praise him !” ”“ FROM our “ Outlook ”—-whence We seek to read “the signs of the times”———We behold true spiritualists in a very advanced condition of theology, which demands of them an ad- vance in purity of life that appears very much like Shakerism! W/Vhether this is an optical illusion or not, remains to be seen. We antici- pate on the part of these a congregation in cities and villages, Where they can yield each other consolations under the cross. We are aware of some who testify to us their entire abstinence from ﬂeshly lusts; and soon these are destined to “ ﬂow together,” z'nfo7‘m each other, and experience, measurably, the eternal, celibate, angel life, which will ﬁt them here for the companionship of angels there. If We are mistaken, then we are prepared to Witness the phenomenon of very bright “ stars falling from heaven ” into the corroding practices of earth—spiritualists (P) fulﬁlling ﬂeshly inclin- ations, and failing to Walk according to the call of the Spirit. * ELDER F. VV. EVANS and a noted lecturer and reformer have been Writing each other let— ' ters upon some living issues of the day. We have put these in tract form, and are ready to send them, post paid, per doz. 25 cents. THE worldly princlple of vizctteship ﬁnds no sympathy in Shaker testimony; we believing that brethren and sisters in Christ are Without distinction or preference in each other’s esti- mation. A circular, lately issued from this Office, has the names of the leading oﬁicers, male and female, of the Novitiate Orders at W'atervliet, N. Y., and Mt. Lebanon. “To the pure all things are pure ;” but in our ab- sence of knowing who alone are pure, We ac- knowledge an 0ver—sigl1t on our part in de- parting the counsel of “shunning the very appearance of evil,” thus giving the impure a desired opportunity of expressing themselves, whose pardon We now beg; for We should have been in better business. ”‘ EXCERPTS FROM LETTEIlS.——“Plet1Se change my I’. 0. address from—-— to ——; my husband donit like THE SHAKER, while I do, and will have it.” s. B. I “My son is greatly interested in the Shakers. As I cannot let him go to them, it will be a paciﬁcation for him to have THE SHAKER.” ** noises‘ FERRY. “The greatest thing the Shakers have ever done for the world is the publication of'1‘nE SHAKER.” J. M. P. “ Not peace on the earthly plane, but a sword, is the elfect of THE SHAKER in my family !” R. Elder H. L. E. writes : I sought to have a neighbor subscribe. He replied: “ Do you think I am fool enough to create a disturbance in my family by sub- scribing for THE SHAKER ?” “ I have read THE SHAKER attentively and noticed it in The Em, and I must say if there were not so much cross and self-denial in its instructions I should be almost persuaded to become a Shaker !” C()L. J. T-——N. “I had thought that \vhenl departed this life I should part with the world; but THE SHAKER has convinced me that unless I get rid of the world before I die I shall be burdened with more ofit there than I have here. What is the world ? Let us reflect." s. R. W. “Let THE S1—i.\1;1«;n nnl'u1'l its whole sell’. Either you must come down to us, or we must come up to you. Amen.” n_ s, Troy, N. Y. PUBLICATIONS. Christ’s First and Second Appearing - - $1 % Dunlavy’s Manifesto - - - - - - 1 25 Millennial Church - - - - - - 1 00 Compendium ol'Sha.kerism - - - - - 0. 50 Three Discourses on United Interests ~ - 0 50 Tests of Divine Inspiration——Evans - - - 0 50 Tracts free, where postage is paid. MEMBERS OF SOCIETY ﬂppointed to answer Correspondents, amtmg whom are the Board of Editors. Elder F. W. Evans, Mt. Lebanon, Columbia 430., N. Y. “ Galen Richmond, Shakers, N. Y. “ Calvin G. Reed, l\lt. Morris, Livingston C0,, N . Y. “ Simon Mabee, VVcst Pittsﬁeld, Mass. “ Stoughton Kellogg, Thompsonville, Conn., Shakers. . “ Albert Battles, Tyringham, Berkshire C0,, Mass. “ Wm. Leonard, Ayer, Mass. Shakers. “ Jonas Nutting, Shirley Village, Middlesex Co., Mass. “ B. H. Smith, Shaker Village, Merrimack C0,, N. H. “ Henry Cummings, Enﬁeld, Grafton C0,, N. H. “ John B. Vance, Alfred, Shakers. York Co., Me. “ Joseph Brackett, West Gloucester, Cumberland 0)., Me, Shakers. “ Chas. Clapp, Union Village, W'arren Co., 0., Shakers. “ Ezra Sherman, Preston, Hamilton Co., Ohio, Shakers. “ Stephen Ball,'Dayton, Shakers, Ohio.‘ “ Jacob Kulp, Pleasant Hill, Mei-cer Co., Ky. “ J. R. Eades, South Union, Logan Co.. Ky. “ J. S. Prescott, Cleveland, Ohio, Shakers.
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ts0207
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 02, no. 08 (August 1872)
Publisher: Mount Lebanon Bishopric
Date: 1872-08-01
Place published: Albany (N.Y.)
Text: THE SHAKER. “ I WILL srmxn ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE on ALL NATIONS SHALL coma; AND I WILL FILL rms nousn wrrn GLORY, sarrn THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. Von. 11. G. A. LOMAS, Enrron. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., AUGUST, 1872. No. S. FIFTY CENTS PER ANNUM. Daniel and John. BY F. W. EVANS. “The superior will govern,” were words spoken by Ann Lee. He whose right it is to reign, will reign in the end. God is above all. The spiritual is “superior” to the natural, even as cause exists before effects. And, as a “ little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,” in process of time, so will the Christ Spirit, ultimately, leaven the whole mass of humanity. It goeth forth conquering, and to conquer. The highest class of spiritual religious people, in any day in the past, were as Moses ex- pressed it to his Israel: “The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of a...
Show moreTHE SHAKER. “ I WILL srmxn ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE on ALL NATIONS SHALL coma; AND I WILL FILL rms nousn wrrn GLORY, sarrn THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. Von. 11. G. A. LOMAS, Enrron. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., AUGUST, 1872. No. S. FIFTY CENTS PER ANNUM. Daniel and John. BY F. W. EVANS. “The superior will govern,” were words spoken by Ann Lee. He whose right it is to reign, will reign in the end. God is above all. The spiritual is “superior” to the natural, even as cause exists before effects. And, as a “ little leaven leaveneth the whole lump,” in process of time, so will the Christ Spirit, ultimately, leaven the whole mass of humanity. It goeth forth conquering, and to conquer. The highest class of spiritual religious people, in any day in the past, were as Moses ex- pressed it to his Israel: “The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people.” As a priesthood to mankind, and as a prophetical order, how could it otherwise be? The Jews were aroyal priesthood, commissioned to teach the nations of earth important radical principles. In Israel, as in every other nation, an order of Prophets and Prophetesses existed, as ministers of the Christ heavens, few in number, and a far more numerous order of Prophets and Prophetesses were inspired by the gods of their people, tutelary di- vinities. As a priesthood, Israel performed the oﬁice of instructor of babes to the Gentiles in the most efficient manner. When its national organization was entirely broken up, its national priesthood disrupted, their religious ministrations abolished, the daily sacriﬁce taken away, the feasts and solemn assemblies suspended, the temple destroyed, and the people themselves transported into foreign lands, their missionary work to mankind was only the more decidedly successful, and powerfully triumphant. But the glory thereof redounded almost exclusively to the honor and glory of the Hebrew God. Moses, the greatest of the early Hebrew prophets, accomplished the national organization of his people ; created the Levitical priesthood, and established it upon the foundation of the national ex- istence. Consequently, it stood in its original integrity; it became corrupted, it rose or fell, was pure or impure, as the body, of which it was the head, was holy or unholy: it was always “like priest, like people.” The Prophet was the fountain, the priesthood the cup, from whence the people drank; and sometimes the people ﬁlled that cup from their own fountains. Thus, when Moses, the Pro- phet, was up in the mount, communing with the God of Israel, receiving from the highest spiritual source to which they had access, the ten commandments, written by spirits on tables of stone, as the basis of all succeeding laws and statutes to Israel, and having left the whole nation in charge of the Levitical priesthood, and under their legitimate ministration; “when the people saw that the Prophet delayed to come down from the mount, to inspire and guide the priesthood, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, their priest, and said unto him, “Up, make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man, or Prophet, which brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him.” “Now Aaron had made a molten calf of the offerings of the people, and said, These be thy gods, 0 Israel; and they sat down to eat and drink, after the manner of the people of the land, and, like them, when the feast was over, they rose up to commit fornication.” Moses knew nothing of the defection of his people; but “God said to him: Up, get thee down; for the people which thou broughtest up out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, that I may consume them as in a moment; and I will make of thee a great nation.” When acting as a Christ Prophet, and under its inspiration, Moses was not only above the Jewish king and priesthood; but was su- perior in governmental dignity and oﬂicial supremacy to the God of Israel, who was himself but a subordinate or tutelary divinity. Yet was Moses, at that time, the meekest man that there was upon earth ; and therefore did he not only resist this appeal to his ambition, but became a minister of the Christ Spirit to the Hebrew divinity, by which he paciﬁed his anger, and allayed in him the spirit of revenge. Thus it is recorded: “Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great spiritual power and mighty physical manifestations? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth. Turn from thy ﬁerce wrath, and repent of this evil which thou hast devised against thy people;” for they are still better mediums than any other nation to work through—better material to build With. Should you take my posterity, they also would come to the same state, and develop similar conditions. For the attainment of your object, the ﬁnal redemption of the race of man, you can do no better than keep hold of this people. “And the Lord repented of the evil which he had thought to do unto his people.” And when Moses went down from the mount, “he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses’ own anger waxed hot; for he was only a medium of the Christ Spirit, which was not incarnated in him, nor incorporated in his own personal character. Moses had not thus attained; he partook of the spirit of his God ; and in his wrath- the wrath of man—-he threw down the precious tablets “written with the ﬁnger of God, and break them beneath the mount.” Then he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the ﬁre and ground it to powder, strewed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink up their own God. And the Levites went in and out from gate to gate through-. out the camp, slaying every man his neighbor, and every man his brother and companion, until three thousand men were slain. The remainder were plagued all their days because of the calf which they had made; for the Lord had said, Whosc- ever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. And all the people saw a cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door when Moses entered in, and God talked with him face to face as a man talketh with his friend. This caused Moses’ face so to shine, that he put a vail over his face when he appeared before the 58 THE SHAKER. people. And the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and ﬁre was on by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeyings. The practical result of all this was, that Israel took possession, by means of a spiritualistic warfare, of all the land of Canaan. And it was only when the nation sinned after the manner of the people of the land, that the heathen were able to carry them away into captivity. And even then, under the law that the superior will govern, they became a power in the midst of their enemies. As Joseph was raised up in Egypt to be its chief ruler, under Pharaoh, so in Babylon we ﬁnd the captive Daniel, by the same agency, raised to power in the civil government. His spiritual gifts were superior to any which the magi, sooth- sayers, astrologers, or wise, scientiﬁc men of the nation, who held him in bondage, were equal unto. Thus Daniel and his fellows attained to almost supreme authori- ty in Babylonia, the most mighty nation then upon the face of the earth. Being chosen to stand before the king, he and his companions carefully observed the Mosaic law of diet, subsisting on pulse, with water for their only drink. VVith this fare, the Jewish captives proved to be “in matters of wisdom and understand- ing, ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all the realm of Babylon; and Daniel continued unto the ﬁrst year of Cyrus, king of Persia, who conquered the kingdom of Babylon.” The means by which this inﬂuence was attained and maintained for so long a period is worthy of critical examination. And the Millen- nium, of which Daniel so plainly prophesied, is a possibility of the race illustrated in his own history, to be ultimately effected by the same spiritual agencies that were employed by David to secure his ascend- ency over all the opposing inﬂuences in Babylon. His foundational principle was vegetable diet-—conscientious religious ob- servance of the laws of physiology. He was also strictly obedient to his spiritual guide—the Christ Spirit. He feared and obeyed God rather than man, as a Prophet, and assumed the consequences. Principles are eternal. It was the rulers of a great national organization, with its legal enactments and penal laws, versus the enslaved Prophet. The king dreamed, and required the magi to interpret -the dream. “Tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpre- tation,” they said. But the king replied: “The thing is gone from me; and if he will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your ‘houses shall ‘be made a dunghill. Tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can interpret it aright.” Pleading for life, they declared, “There is not a man upon earth that can show the king’s matter. And no king, lord, or ruler, asketh such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. None other can show it, except the gods whose dwelling is not with ﬂesh.” This only made the king angry and very furious; and he commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon," the captives of Judah included. But, when Daniel and his fellows prayed, the secret was revealed unto them by their ministering Christ Spirit. Then Arioch took Daniel into the king in haste, saying, I have found a man of the captives of Judah who will interpret thy dream and vision, and show what shall be in the latter days. Daniel saw the march of empires succeeding each other, and their varying characteristics, under the ﬁgure of a great image, made of gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay. The last of these, the toes of the feet, repre- senting many’ kingdoms and republics, instead of one mighty empire like Babylon the Great. And Daniel prophesied, that, in the days of these numerous kings and many republics, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, but shall stand for ever, having broken to pieces and displaced all other kingdoms and governments. This power was represented by a little stone cut out of the mountain without hands, by spirit agency, like the tablets of Moses; spiritual, not natural agency. It smote the image, as David did Goliath, and destroyed it. This dream is certain, and the interpreta- tion sure. Thus the Jewish captives became great men, and rulers over all the provinces of Babylon, by means of Spiritual- ism, the mother of the sciences, and Daniel was constituted “chief of the governors over the wise men of Babylon.” Is not this signiﬁcant of the ﬁnal triumph of the Christ Order, when the “ knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea? ” Thus ends one of the cycles, by which the great external Babylon, of which Daniel was contemporary, melted away, and was so subdued that Government issued a decree recognizing and acknowledg- ing the Hebrew God as superior to any of the gods of the nations, being Lord of their lords, and God of their gods. The king, Darius, wrote unto all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth, Peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree, that, in every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel; for he is the living God, steadfast forever: his king- dom shall not be destroyed ; his dominion shall be even unto the end; for he delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. Of all the Christ Prophets, none had found that spiritual soul-travel, and incar- nated the Christ Spirit into their in- dividual personal character, ascended to the heaven of heavens, penetrated the Holy of holies—the Christ sphere——as John the Revelator of it. He stood in the gift and power of Divine causation. Daniel, like Moses, was on the external providential wheel. His vision related to the history of kings—-—a succession of em- pires on the outward plane, the earth—— until the ﬁnal consummation; when all were subjugatcd by the little stone; and the kingdom and the dominion, under the whole heavens, were given to the people of the saints of the Most High. Daniel begins with the external, and moves towards the spiritual. John begins with the Christ Spirit, and moves outward. He gives the history of the little stone taken from the spiritual mountain without human hands, from the time when it went forth conquering and to conquer, till the king- doms of this world became the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ. Daniel was a Jew, holding civil ofﬁce in the literal kingdom of Babylon, attain- ing and maintaining his position by natural-spiritual power like Moses, and applied to the outer, material elements of earth—its earth and water, its air and ﬁre; and over the animal creation. John was ﬁrst a Jew, like Daniel, then a Christian-— not of this world, its kingdoms or oﬁices. The visions of John were of the physical, moral, spiritual, and religious history of man as a whole, from the beginning to the end; as such, they included .Daniel’s pro- phecies, as the whole includes the parts. Their visions dovetail into one another like body and soul; they duplicate and sustain each other in their minutest details, and in the most wonderful manner. The spiritual manifestations of Moses, although upon a grand scale, and affecting the destiny of thousands of people, infesting a whole nation with lice, and ﬂies, and frogs; killing the ﬁsh, by turning the waters into blood; destroying man and beast by ﬁre and hail; or enveloping the Egyptians in darkness that could be felt, were yet secondary to the manifestations through Noah, by which a whole world of humanity was at once destroyed. The spiritual manifestations of the present day reach down to the material elements more as in the days of Daniel, or as in the days of Jesus, who operated so largely upon human bodies as combina- tions of the elements of earth. While the spiritual manifestions which THE SHAKER. 59 obtain among the Shakers, are ﬁrst upon the spirit, affecting the conscience, then upon the soul, removing the causes of physical diseases in the mortal body, inculcating the law of “Go, and sin no more,” by correcting all bad habits, and teaching to use all the elements of this present world as not abusing them. Baptism of Consecration. BY 0. C. HAMPTON. Sweet lnspiration’s gilded wings Are hovering near the earth, And in her tuneful voice there rings The song ofa new birth-- A birth to higher, holler life, The burden of her song; A birth from rudimental strife, And every groveling Wrong. My spirit feels her quickening power In every quivering nerve, Forever, from this burning hour, Humanity to serve; To move in God's eternal peace, In ministries of love; To cause the tears of grief to cease Below me, and above ; To make the how of hope serene; To span the mourner’s sky; To rid earth of the monster sin, And every tear to dry. My inner temple ﬁrst to cleanse, And live a sinless life, Forgiving foes as well as friends, With patience ever rife. Thus peals sweet inspiration’s hymn Across the slumbcring years, As on our planet’s glittering run, Her angel form appears. She calls to you, she calls to me, To let our light so shine, That men shall be compelled to see, And own a power divine. The records of the fading years May leave no history bright, Of all our labors, pains and tears, Or arduous upward ﬂight. Wliat matter, so we work in love. The work God gives us all, We walk serenely, far above Fame’s best or basest call. What though our pilgrimage be lone, And little rest we ﬁnd, Still they are angels of the throne, Who love and bless mankind. A preacher of reform I’ll be, And practice what I preach, And purpose of my destiny Sin shall not overreach. So shall I walk heavens heights sublime, And bless my fellow man, VVhi1e I remain in rolling time, And in my weakness, can. To leave for aye the fogs of sense, The rudimental plane, And take my ﬁnal journey hence, Far holier heights to gain. Need we in starry realms to peer, To ﬁnd heaven’s blest abode ? We walk the heights of heaven here, If loving, pure, and good. Ye saints above. ye saints below, Help me my vows to keep; Henceforward in this path to go, Rich gems for heaven to reap- Rich harvests ol‘ the souls of men,', Ripe for the realms above; Rich spoils to take from earth’s domain, By works of peace and love. What is Religion ? BY SAMANTHA BOWIE . .._._.: It is an awakening of truth in the soul ; a love for God ; giving a just sense of one’s duty, by opening the eyes of the soul to the great end and purpose of life—redemption. It does not consist of words, thoughts nor ac- tions; but these are governed by the living principle of religion. How admirable is that religious belief, which, while it seems to have in view, not alone the soul’s felicity in another world, but effectually secures its happiness in this life ! Religion is being good; and this is being like God. The various names given to religion are subject to much odium; but all admire the fruits of religion in a pure life. Morality is one step towards pure religion. Spirituality is in its advance. All things of real beauty and worth have their origin in pure religion; and nothing will satisfy the soul’s demands but practical religion Under the inﬂuence of true religion the soul is mild, humane, and only spiritually inclined, working untiringly for humanity. It teaches souls to serve God through the love of a pure life, and not from the fear of his displeasure. There are many creeds, but there is one only religion, and this will make of all humanity, one relationship in spirit, by bringing all into a life that is alone found in Christ—pure, vir- ginal, pentecostal. Who Woiiders ? The Sprvkngﬁeld (Mc¢ss.) Republican does not wonder that some former members and the Shakers parted company; for, from the utterances of the departed, it is of the opinion that they would not grace any moral com- pany, but be a disgrace to any respectable community. “ Why go they cut from among us? Because they are not of us ; ” they want the world, the ﬂeah, and the excitement of perverted sense. These we deny to all, hold- ing union with us. N o honorable Shaker has ever failed to merit and receive the respect of those Who diﬁered with him in matters of faith ; While a suspicion follows and distrust rests upon those who depart their principles, and practice the World. It is no honor to any sect, to have a seceding Shaker become one of their number, for they leave us for nothing purer, better. * The Avesta — Fire-Worship — Baptism. BY J. M. PEEBLES. ._._.__ Man, made in the Divine image, is naturally a religious being. In all ages and under all skies, have been found symbols of man’s faith and worship. The soul’s better aspirations, ever tend heavenward. The most graceful and digniﬁed people that we saw while traveling in the East were the Persians. They do not, as Christians have represented, worship ﬁre, but consider ﬁre a symbol of the sacred ﬁre—the inﬁnite light of the universe. Some of the religious books of the Parsees are exceedingly clear in statement, and spirit- ual in tendency. To thinkers, the “Avesta” especially is a most valuable work; enabling the student to compare its divine truths with those of the Vedas, the Koran, and the Jewish and Christian scriptures. The Parsee religion is much older than Judaism, and has been considered by dis- tinguised religionists, a pure?‘ faith. Their sacred books, aﬂame with inspiration, taught the immortality of the soul, the certainty of compensation, and the importance of purity of heart (rather than the sacriﬁcing of ani- mals for sin-offerings) centuries before these doctrines were prevalent among the Jews. At a time when the ancestors of the French and English nations were accustomed to sacriﬁce human victims to their sanguinary deities, the Parsees taught that heaven was attained only through repentance and purity of life. Though teaching the negative and relative eternity of evil, they also taught the ﬁnal restoration of all souls, during the progressive period of the resurrection. There have been different opinions as to the age of Zoroaster. The earliest and best au- thorities upon this subject are the Greek writers. It is a suggestive and remarkable circumstance that all the Greek authors who wrote upon the Magi and the Parsee religion previous to the Christian era, put Zoroaster back to a period 6,000 years B. C. Xanthos, of Lydia, one of the ﬁrst writers upon the subject, living about 450 B. C., was a younger cotemporary of Darius and Xerxes. He reckons, according to the statement of Dio- genes of Laerte in the prooemium to his “ Lives and Sayings of Eminent Philosophers,” from Zoroaster to the time of Xerxes’ expedition to Greece——about 480 B. C.—-6,000 years. There- fore Zoroaster would have been living at a period about 6,500 B. C. The philosopher Aristotle, and teacher of Alexander the Great, is very positive in his statement. He aﬂirms, according to Pliny (Natural History, xxx, 2) that Zoroaster lived about 6,000 years before the death of Plato, 348 B. C., which would carry us to about 6,350 B. C. A similar calculation and state- ment Was made by Eudoxus, distinguished for historic accuracy. Hermippus, of Smyrna, one of the most ancient authorities among the Greeks upon the religion of the Magi, lived about 250 B. C., making the Zoroastrian books the study of his life. This Hermippus, according to Pliny, was informed by his teacher, Agonakes, a Magian priest, that Zoroaster lived about 5,000 years before the Trojan war-—occur- ring 1,180 B. C. This would take Zoroaster back to 6,180 B. C. The historian, Hermodorus, and other Gre- cian writers, conﬁrm the above statements. The ancient Greeks all believed that Moses, living several thousand years later than Zoro- aster, taught the Jews the magic he had learn- ed in Egypt. It is quite evident that the Egyp- tians obtained their knowledge of psychology and magic from India and Persia. That there was a Zoroaster living in the time of Hystaspes, Darius’ father, is not dis- puted. As Jesus was a common name in 60 THE SI-IAKER. Syria, so was Zarathustra, Zoroaster, in Per- sian countries. There were certainly three distinguished persons called Zoroaster, the last living nearly a thousand years before the Christian era. Before us lies a volume rich in the sayings and dogmas of Zoroaster. Listen: “ Come from far and near and hearken to what I shall proclaim. * ”“ * The Wise have discovered that this universe is a duality. The maternal cause is double, having received from the Father matter and spirit. * * "" Praise the creator Ahura-Mazda, the shining the very shining ! ” “ I will proclaim as the greatest of all things that one should be good and pure, praising only truth. Ahura-Mazda delights to hear those who speak for and further the good.” “ All that have been living, and will be liv- ing subsist upon the divine bounty. The souls of the pure attain at once to immortality; but the Wicked have to undergo age-lasting dis- cipline. Such is the rule of the wise Ahura- Mazda.” “ All Hail, to the divine Intelligence, which holds in itself the Word of excellence. All pure beings who were, are and have been, ex- isted through it. The world is of male and female nature. Oh, let us put down our gifts of praise in the dwel1ing—place of the heavenly singers.” “ The heavens are a point from the pen of God’s Perfection, the world is a bud from the ﬂower of His Beauty, the sun is a spark from the light of His Wisdom; and the sky is a bubble on the sea of His Power. He made mirrors of the atoms of the world, and threw tllu reflection of His own face on every atom.” The Mendai Ijahi of Persia, were by their countrymen, called Sabians, and considered descendants of Zabii, a pre-historic race. It is very evident that Jews and Greeks derived the principles of their ascetic philosophy from India, through Egypt and Persia. After the Jews had mingled with the ancient Chaldeans, and the Persian “fire-w0+rshipers,” we ﬁnd traces of the effects of it in the ceremonials of Jewish service, and also in such phrases as these: The “camp of ﬁre” in the appearing to Abraham——the “ﬂame of ﬁre” in the Lord’s appearance to Moses—the descent “in ﬁre” to give the law—the devouring of the Sons of Aaron “with ﬁre from the Lord,” because they offered in their censers, strange ﬁre——the “ pillar of ﬁre ” that went before the Israelites through the wilderness—“ the ﬁre ” that the Prophet Elijah proposed to convert the Prophets of the god Baal; and, “the sacred ﬁre of the Lord,” that was ever “burning in Zion.” In the apostolic period of Christianity-—-“our God is a consuming ﬁre”—was a common term, symbolizing the destruction of earthly dross and the necessity of spiritual puriﬁcation. Fire and water were used typically by all the ancient religionists of the Orient. The East was long the land of sign and symbol. N o historian will deny that the old Brahmins of India, baptized at certain seasons in the Ganges for the remission of sins, supposing the waters contained a sanctifying quality. Hence, people ﬂocked to the banks of this divine stream, even from remote Tartary, to be therein baptized. The Egyptians practiced immersion as a religious rite; they also bathed immediately afte1' having touched a swine, considering themselves morally deﬁled by the contact. For a somewhat different purpose, they were baptized in the Nile as an act of reverence towards its sacred waters. (Herodot. in Eu- terpe, 47.) The learned Spencer, in his work on the “ Bites and Institutions of the Hebrews,” says: “ Not only was baptism practiced among the Jews, prior to the time of John,” but, he assures us, i‘ that they borrowed it as they did circumcision from Pagan nations- for he adds—-‘ among the Egyptians, Persians, Greeks and Romans, baptism by plunging the whole body in water, was customary to purify those who were to be initiated into the mys- teries of the sacred orders.’ ” The Christian father, Justin Martyr, not well versed in an- cient history, yet seeing, or rather knowing that “ baptism was prevalent among the heathens,” accounted for the fact, by sup- posing that the “ demons invented it in imita- tion of the Christians.” This church father, and others also of that period, claimed in their ignorance, that the Hebrew was the original language of mankind. Max Muller and other noted philologists have completely exploded this idea. The Sanskrit of India, was alan- guage much older than the Hebrew, as well as more rich and elegant in structure. No thorough scholar will dispute that bap- tism by immersion, was a very ancient rite- implying in different countries physical and moral cleansing—change of religious faith and practice—“ a washing away of sin”—a “ put- ting oﬂ‘ of the old man with his deeds,” etc. But for a pure, perfect, and sinless individual to have presented himself by the banks of the Ganges, Nile, or ﬂowing Jordan as a candi- date for baptism, would have been considered a joke bordering on blasphemy. Only ﬁlthy bodies require outward washings—and only. imperfect, sinful men need inner baptismal puriﬁcations—the descent and abiding power of the Christ Spirit. This, in the Evangelists, is called the “baptism of the Holy Ghost,” or rather Holy Spirit, for Spirit is a much better translation of the Greek pneuma, than “ Ghost.” The Essenes, sometimes denominated Coeno— bite Ascetics, true to the principle of “all things in common,” practiced the rite of bap- tism, clothing themselves in white robes after coming “up out of the water.” This cere- mony, considered by them a symbol of the washing away of a sinful nature, was preceded by a full confession of sin. This cross-bear- ing people, ever a center of moral force in the East, regarded purity as the only passport to Paradise. And, in harmony with the same inspiration, Jesus taught that “the pure in heart shall see God.” It was the custom for Saviours in the Ori- ent, to submit to the ceremony of baptism. India, Egypt, Persia, Phoenicia, Greece, Judea—all ancient nations had their Para- dises lost and gained——their Millenniums— their Crosses—and their Saviours too, bap- tized with the Christ Spirit. The prophet Obadiah, with vision unsealed and soul all aﬂame with inspiration, said : “ Saviours shall come up on Mount Zion.” God is no “re- specter of persons, nationalities or periods of time.” There were many Saviours in the past. The good and the pure, are Saviours to-day. The inﬂuence of angel ministry is to elevate humanity. The tendency of the spir- itually minded in all ages has been from gross- ness to reﬁnement-—from promiscuity to chas- tity—from chastity to holiness——from holiness to divinity. This is “ growing in grace,” traveling from Adam to Christ. Universal Obedience. ..__... BY R. w. PELIIAM. “He that keepeth the whole law, and yet oﬂ'endeth in one point, is guilty of all.” This doctrine at ﬁrst view appears unjust, but close examination will show it to be strictly correct. God requires universal and perfect obedience—- the whole heart. Now the intentional breach of one of his commandments, as fully proves the want of this is the neglect of all of them. God will, undoubtedly, be merciful to our frailties ; but a deliberate and willful act of disobedience cannot pass for frailty ; it sulﬁ- ciently shows the state of the mind, and proves that the whole spirit of obedience is wanting. A servant being commanded by his master to do ten things all equally just and right, may do nine of them with great exact- ness; but if he obstinately refuses to do the tenth, he cannot be considered an obedient servant, but a rebel. Indeed, he is just as willful and disobedient as if he had refused to obey all the commandments of his master. His spirit is a spirit of rebellion and not of obedience. There is no good reason to believe that he has done one of the commandments of his master from a pure spirit of love, and sim- ple desire to do his will, since such a motive, would lead him to perform the tenth require- ment as faithfully as any or all the rest. Hence, we may be assured that some selﬁsh end, and not purely the love of his master- not a true spirit of obedience—prompted him to do what he did ; and that, therefore, he had no true obedience, because he was destitute of true love. How do We do It? The New York Tribune lately reported that some seceding Shaker was lecturing against the protective measures instituted among the Shakers, upon shaking hands, kissing, etc., at the same time dilating upon the beauty and necessity of celibacy. It is refreshing to us to have The Tribune “ give it as our opinion, that when our friends, the Shakers, yield the point of kissing, celib- acy will naturally go next.” When those, inimical to us, complain of our celibacy, We are led to remember liow much we have suf- fered upon the charge of secret corruption, and since it is not a question, but a charge, how we live, we force the question, “ How do We do it ? ” When any attempt Christian celib- acy and succeed, without many simple abstain- ences and effective crosses, then we will admit being over scrupulous, and extravagant cross- bearers. " TI-IE SHAKER 61 Past, Present and Future. BY ANTOINETTE DOOLITTLE. The longevity of some of the ancients, who attained to the great age of ﬁve, six and nine hundred years, seems a long period of time; especially, if we look upon the race of men, as more perfect then, than at the present time. We speak of the blissful Eden state; of man’s innocence when he came from the hands of the Creator. This is well, if rightly un- derstood. The innocence of childhood is beautiful; but it cannot be trusted like the positive innocence of mature years, gained by trial, and battling against temptation in its multifarious forms. There are persons with us to-day, who recol- lect distinctly when sailing vessels, or stage coaches were the swiftest modes of transit from continent to continent and over king- doms and countries. Future generations will look upon those modes of traveling, somewhat as we look upon historic records of the long past. And since science has developed the power of steam, and the intelligence of man has systematized, tamed and made it subser- vient to his use, the desires of people to travel and visit foreign lands, have become so intensi- ﬁed, that we should need some hundreds of years to accomplish our designs if required to return to the modes of travel which our grand- sires possessed. If we look upon the early history of our race, as in a childhood state, undeveloped, but possessing all the germs of perfect men and women, who, by progressive degrees, under proper guidance and instruction, would attain under the full stature of manhood, progress- ing in natural law pertaining to the rudimental sphere in which we live, and also learning more of the higher spiritual laws which relate to the soul’s welfare that must guide and con- trol it in the life beyond, then we can under- stand why the ancients needed so much longer time than the present generation to accumulate knowledge which, in a large degree, was bounded by their own personal experience; while we have the beneﬁt of the accumulated experience of past ages added to our own. The progressive degrees of development have been under the control of teachers adapt- ed to the condition of the people, and their powers of receptivity. Hence, the word of the Lord at one time, was not the same as at another; not that God, or truth changed, but lessons were given, as the people were able to receive. Wise parents in nature do not force a know- ledge of the arts and sciences upon their chil- dren whose minds are weak and tender; but they give them such mental food as they can digest. Thus has it been with the Universal Father and Mother of all intelligences. How clearly we see this law in operation in the ﬁrst epoch of bible history concerning man ; Whether that history be correct, or not, the rule and deductions to be drawn therefrom, are equally true. I Their ﬁrst necessity was to learn to provide sustenance for the physical part; how to cul- tivate the soil, and gain an honest living ; and in obedience to natural law and physical truth they received great blessings. The natural precedes the spiritual——that is the law. When they were sufﬁciently developed, lessons were given by degrees, relating to the immortality of the soul. Their condition was not the effect of violated law, but they were immature. It would have been an impossibility for them to have received direct communication from Deity, as much so as for an infant to under- stand the science of astronomy. Tutelary deities were appointed to preside over them, yet, so far progressed, that they were capable of imparting all the knowledge and truth necessary for the time being. The Angels who ﬁrst began to minister to the people, were so near to earth, that it Was difficult to decide whether they were veritable men or disembodied spirits. But, as the people grew and waxed strong, the ministrations to them were more spiritual and interior; and occasionally a ray of light from the inner spheres, which we call the Christ-heavens, where spirits dwell who are clothed with power to baptize souls with resurrection life, shone upon them. Only Prophets of the highest order were capable of communing with spirits from the inner heavens ; but they were sought unto by Kings and Princes. The King of Israel at one time, called four hundred Proph- ets together, that he might enquire of the Lord through them. The god of the Jews was a warring god; and he purposely put a lie in the mouths of those Prophets to deceive the blood-thirsty King; and only one was found who prophesied truly, for which he was hated and consigned to prison. The more truth the Prophets possessed, the higher their Medium- ship, the more they were feared, hated and persecuted. Thus has it ever been. Truth, and its defenders, have had to battle against error, as the prison, rack. and ﬂame would attest. At length, under the law of progress, Proph- ets of the higher Order, were multiplied in the land. The Christ Spirit,--“ the Rock,” which followed them in the wilderness, visited them and touched their hearts with the ﬁre of in- spiration and stirred the deep feelings of their souls ; and in a vision they saw the beauties of a coming day, and prophesied of a coming Messiah, who would be anointed King of Saints; and his throne be established in their midst, and he would dwell and walk with them. Thus, from age to age, the generations of men were prepared for higher degrees of spirit- ual truth ; and in due time, Jesus the Nazarene, according to prophecy, was anointed from the Christ-heavens; and through the Medium of the Sonship, the Everlasting Father was re- vealed. And as Jesus became a Son of God, to as many as received him in his Father’s name, he also baptized them with the same spirit and they became sons of God ; all breth- ren of one spiritual family. He gave to his disciples divine gifts, and empowered them to transmit the same to others. To Peter, he gave the keys of the Kingdom (the gift of divine revelation); that was a new epoch in the history of our race, when the Bridegroom came forth from his secret chamber. who were not of the highest order of spirits,. As it took centuries to ﬁll the former epoch and prepare the way for the advent of the male Messiah, so also centuries passed before a way was opened for the Bride, the female Messiah to come forth from her closet where she had been concealed from mortal view. In the ﬁrst Christian era, a church was founded upon a true basis, 75. e., a Virgin Life, community of Goods, and Non-resistance. But there was so little love to just principles, and the love of earthly idols so strong, that the people “ gave their power unto the beast,” and Anti—Christ dethroned the true Christ, and himself sat in the temple of God for ages persecuting the saints. Civil and ecclesiastic powers combined to make war with the fol-- lowers of the lowly Jesus, and a bloody reign ensued. While We bestow honor and praise upon those W110 embraced the Christian faith, for their ﬁrm adherence thereto, and willingness to endure torture, imprisonment and death, rather than violate -their highest convictions of right, may we not give some mitigating con- siderations to their persecutors ! They were defending the religion of their fathers, which justiﬁed war, and taught the law of retalia- tion, “an eye for an eye.” The traditions which had been handed down to them were as sacred to them as the Christian religion was to its new converts. Viewed from our stand- point, in the light of the nineteenth century, they are not only reprehensible, but nearly allied to demons, deserving the tortures of the Calvinistic hells ! But there is a tribunal higher than man, where all things will be Weighed and duly balanced. Would not the same intolerant spirit, even in this age of progress, again lift its head and stretch forth its persecuting hand, if there was not a controlling and balancing power? Let the religious Pharisees——the learned Rabbins of our time, who so devoutly desire to see the name of God and Christ placed in the Na- tional Constitution, succeed in the attempt, and they would show us how the Sabbath breaker should be punished! It would re- quire the strength of many Washiiigtons, Paines and Jeffersons combined, to stay the hand of persecution, and set things right. Would it not be well to have an amendment to that proposition, and let woman’s name be inserted instead ? Let her voice be heard, and her influence felt in the councils of the nation ; and let God and Christ be enthroned in the human heart, quickening the conscience and guiding it in all the practical duties of life. When woman ﬁnds her proper place, she will help to frame the laws to which she is amenable and by which she is bound, and plead the cause of the down-trodden of her own sex. She will help to inaugurate her own rulers, and cease to be the slave of man’s passions. Then, may we not hope when the law of chastity is broken, guilt and shame will rest where it justly belongs? N ow man assumes the right to allure woman into vicious paths, there to leave her despoiled, helpless and hopeless, while he walks deﬁantly away to his companions, who receive him into their fashionable circles Without a rebuke! The ,woman is an outcast from respectable society, left to drag out a miserable existence, while he 62 THE SHAKER. is honored! Shall this state of things always continue? Nay! as God is just, an end will come. The powers of the heavens are moving, and justice will arise and shake terribly the earth in this respect! A light is dawning upon our earth which gives ‘promise of a day of freedom for woman. The strong inﬂuence of the Dove Messenger sent from the bosom of the Eternal Mother in Deity, who acentury ago called upon a few prepared souls to enter into the secret tabernacle of the Most High, and hide in that Pavilion which has been guarded by the Cherubims, called the most Holy Place, because it is the house of the vir- gin character, is felt far and near to-day. That spirit has been working like leaven to open a way for woman to escape from her physical, moral and spiritual servitude. And at the present time avoice is heard: “ lVoman shall be free as man is free ! Let him or her who violates the law of chastity, bear their own iniquity.” Faith. BY F W. EVANS. “ Believe in the Lord your God individually ; so shall ye be established in your organiza- tion.” Believe his Prophets, in and as an organiza- tion; so shall ye prosper and grow, “increas- ing with the increase of God,”—of Truth Divine,—in your collective capacity, as a liv- ing body of Christ, ministered unto by Christ Spirits, those of the Resurrection Order, Who never touched the gcnerativelife in human beings in the past, except to prophesy of its future death; and who never touch it in the present, except to kill it, and to elevate the powers and faculties involved therein to higher uses, on a spiritual plane—the Resurrection Order. After Jesus passed beyond John, who, as a Jewish priest, had been his Elder under the Jewish Law, and Was baptized with the Christ elements, he “trod the Wine—press alone,” like Adam or Noah, or Abraham, or Moses had done in his day and Dispensation; and as all godly Reformers have ever done in the degrees of the Dispensation in which they stood and labored. Principles are eternal, and Prophecy is of no private interpretation, but is of universal application to humanity. Thenceforth Jesus had no Elder on the earth, unless he came short of the glory of God in any one of the planes of progress in the natural order; then he would have been amenable to the Elders of that plane or order. As “ the Resurrection,” he was ministered unto by the Angels of the Order of God that is eternal in the heaven of heavens. The Shaker in State Prisons. :1-j Friend David Sargent has been visiting the Shirley Shakers, and writes us his impressions. He is a man of keen sensibility, deep convictions of the right, and appreciates the life-labors of the Shakers to be “ the nest illustration of Christianity on the face of the earth.” Friend Sargent superintends Massachusetts’ State prison at Uharlestown, and it must have been a genuine relief to his care-worn soul and overtaxed body, to visit a people who are not only physically and spiritually free, but are daily crucifying that which would make them otherwise. May the SHAKERS, that monthly go to State pris- ons, work out a reformatory inﬂiieiiceyith their in’ mates; and we would not object, nor be surprised, if many of these preceded in the heavenly race the multitudes of bigoted pharisees. * The Christian’s Sacriﬁce. BY JOHN DODSON,—THE AQUILLA. The gospel light began to dawn Upon Co1uml)ia’s happy land, And many gladly hailed the mom, \Vhi1e more aloof did boldly stand. Aquilla and I’riscilla’s cot Stood near the ocean’s surges wild; Peace and contentment was their lot, They had but one, one only child. The gospel trumpet reached their ears, And Wakened up a sense of sin, Producing doubts, producing fears, They found all was not right within. They found they were from God estranged- That they’d been traveling into loss; From sin’s broad path they now must change, To follow Christ, and bear his cross. The testimony, clear and plain, Which unto them was ushered in, W'as, Christ has now appeared again, To save his people from all sin. The sanctuary to make clean, Immersed in Jordan’s rolling main, Made ﬁt to drink salvation’s streams For sin, no more to thirst again. Confess, repent, the dross remove, Before the soul can entrance ﬁnd To Zion’s ark of peace and love, Or sweet contentment clothe the mind. , All sin the soul must now forsake; All carnal ties must now break down; This sacriﬁce it now must make, Or fail to win salvation‘s crown. From sin, from sorrow now released, Walking in truth’s straight narrow way, Aquilla and Priscillals peace, No pen 11or tongue can now portray. By 1ove’s pure river, trees of life Stand spreading free, and fair to view; Their leaves heal envy. hatred, strife, Their lovely fruits the strength renew. But, walking in this narrow way, A goal is reached ; they must be tried, The voice of God they must obey, And offer up their only child. At this the mother shed a tear, The father’s heart athwart recoilcd; “ Can God oflove be so severe, To part from us our only child ? ” “ 0 mother, dry those fruitless tears, Father, stand ﬁrm,” the daughter cries, “ The God of mercy ’s not severe, This only breaks the carnal ties. The gospel day no more requires The blood of bulls, nor goats, nor men, But selﬁsh animal desires Upon the cross must now be slain. “Like J ephtha’s daughter, I will not Lament for my virginity; But be contented with my lot, And live a life of purity. In heavenly joys I will increase, All vile affections prompt repel; I’ll live in love, andjoy, and peace, So parents dear, farewell, farewell.” Now when this parting scene was o’er The parents found all worked for good ; Their sun grew brighter than before, On higher, holier ground they stood; No selﬁsh passions ﬁlled their breasts, But universal love did reign. They felt for all who were oppressed With sin and sorrow, grief and pain. VVith faith in Christ, their lead, before, They press along their path with joy; They to the world look back no more, But prayer and praise their thoughts employ. They’re verging to the heavenly land, Ready the summons to obey; Upon its borders joyous stand, While angels beckon them away. Elder F. W. Evans frequently has an at- tack of admiration for The Golden Age. In a recent letter to this office, he tried to excite our jealousy, we suppose, by enclosing the following paragraphs, but he failed: THE GOLDEN AGE Is pure, free from love stories, which corrupt the young. Its columns are open to all representative writers, who can condense their thoughts. It con- centrates the living ideas or issues of the Age, being the organ of Progress for the day or time. Is inde- pendent, possesses strong convictions; impartial in criticism; not fearing even its best friends, but “hears before it strikes.” If all who read THE SHAKER subscribe for The Golden Age, they will, thereby, assist in actualiz- ing it. What Shall I do to be a Shaker? At present, this is not a very popular ques- tion, but is nearly as much so as its syn- onym——“ What shall I do to be saved ? ” In answering either, we answer both; for if we are saved from doing Wrong, we are in the enjoyment of Shakerism——if we are genuine Shakers, then are We saved. Shakerism pur- poses an end of sinful works: nor this only, for much that is good on the earthly plane, it rejects as useless to Angelic life. Not only does it save individuals from the commission of sin, but resurrects them to an exceeding godliness, than is possible while living on the earthly animal plane. It asks none to forsake any earthly good, until it presents something better of a heavenly nature, and thus it teaches souls to rise from earth to heaven. VVe claim that it is radical Christianity. That it takes hold of our lives, moulds them anew, just as it reformed the Jewish nature of Jesus into a model for all Christians. The most radical Shakerisrm is simple, unadorned C7m'st27am'z‘y. The first is a monstrous system to worldly appreciation; but so is the last in its genuine- ness. What is popularly called Christianity does not resemble Shakerism at all; but what is called Shakerism, is a fac siinilc of thorough Christianity. Radical means root; and that which is Christian at its root, will inevitably produce Shakerism in its every branch. Let any Church remodel its creed in accordance with the Christ life—the pattern—and who will deny that its believing congregation would become a genuine Shaker Society ? And wherein would this congregation materially differ from the hosts of heaven with whom it hopes soon to consolidate? Is the prayer—- “ Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven,” impossible of realization ? lVe know it is not. Let any individual attempt to live as nearly angel-like as he conceives an Angel’s life to be, would he not resemble a Shaker in his daily practice? Let him conscientiously investigate Angelhood ; compare or contrast it with his desires, inclinations, passions; and what is the result? Do the Angels eat, drink and are clothed? Certainly. But they are THE SHAKER very unlike this animal—murdering, bibulous, and fashion-loving race. Contrast what we know of the Angel diet With the same of the gluttonous worldling, or even of the common- place Christian ! What an opportunity for improvement. Do the Angels use tobacco, imbibe the ardent, and dress 0» la Eugenie? Some may, but they are not Christian Angels; nor will good imitations of, present such fea- tures. Let us pursue. Arriving at mature years, those “ of the world ” marry; and who in the world will object to this! Our question is, how will this compare with heav- enly practice P How will the auditors of Ward Beecher and of most Revs. compare with the characters, as seen by the Revelator standing “With the Lamb on Mount Zion P” How Would a Shaker practice compare? How will the paraphernalia and fashionable gew-gaws of Chapin’s, Cuyler’s, St. Paul’s or Trinity’s congregations compare with the uniform of “ those who have come up out of great tribu- lation P Let us be reasonable. Some believe, and teach sin to be a necessity. Is there sin in heaven P In heaven or earth will there be any iniquity? If heaven is ever realized here, which must change, the Angel life or the worldly life? Is not their difference sin P Christianity was the introduction of “ thy will be done on earth; ” and Jesus, in obedi- ence to Christ principles was the pattern of the new life. Whose lives as he did, will bear the cross; will not sin, will not pervert, corrupt, nor be aught but heavenly. The same causes that made Jesus what he became, will regenerate us into the same results. These causes or principles will be like waves of pro- gressive life, each advancing the individual adopting it, into an increased, heavenly alti- tude, or like the reappearing of the Christ Spirit in various cycles, making demands of us of further renunciation of the worldly and a deeper adoption of, and consecration to the heavenly. Do you ask: “ What you must do to be a Shaker?” In the usual, simple manner, I will answer: 1. Seek for a Christian convic- tion of, and sorrow for sin. Confess every wrong action, and renounce every evil consid- eration. Repent—solemnly promise to do so no more, and faithfully fulﬁll the obligation. Settle all indebtedness; if you have at any time wronged an individual," seek to repair the injury and accomplish reconciliation. 2. You are now a candidate for the acceptance of the Christ Spirit, and adoption of the Christ Life. Be as a Virgin henceforth; abstain from ﬂeshly lusts and from lascivious thoughts. a wife? Now use her as a sister. Is she unwilling? The Spirit never concedes to the ﬂesh—stand ﬁrm. Are you persecuted? taliate not, bear and forbear. Have you prop- erty P Use this for the care of your unbeliev- ing family. If your family is one in faith with you, consecrate your earthly goods where you and they have consecrated your physical lives, and from which cause you are enjoying a fore- taste of an eternal pentecost. Yours is now an hundred fold, and in the life that now is, you are experiencing the entrance upon a new and eternal existence. Yours is an exceeding peace. “The world” will seem and really be beneath you; your companions of yore Had you 1'8- will not interest you, and the life of the “ old creation,” you will verily hate. You are be- coming a “new creature.” The life of the ﬂesh renounced ; a virgin character pro- nounced and adopted. All vicious habits re- jected ; cleanly, temperate and healthful sub- stitutes accepted—you are a Shaker in the ﬁrst degree of Angelhood—be faithful, be patient, the next cycle will open upon you. Here is where all true Shakers should aim to arrive in this life—and many do. Others ar- rive where, in accordance with their renuncia- tion of the worldly, and agreeable to their consecration to the cross of the Spirit—if these are much, so is their gain; if not much, they are triﬂing with their gospel call, and tamper- ing with inferior desires—and the consequen- ces too often are, the backslider’s career ! Have we advised anything that Jesus did not, or would _not, were he here? Is there any un- christian performance recommended or the neglect of any Christian duty advised P Have we proposed the abandonment of any relation that can continue in the heavens, or of any practice but “ perishes with the using?” For wars of nations and of households, do we not give in exchange, peace? For the generative life of the world do we not offer an Angelic resurrection P In the extinction of the sexual works of the ﬂesh, do we not present the fra- ternal relations of the sexes as found in Christ? What becomes of the selﬁshness that was con- centrated in self or found recognition under the title of MINE? It is diversiﬁed over a very large household and is mine no longer, but ours. What takes its place? An ambi- tion to be an unreserved worker for the good of souls ; for their salvation, even as we have been and are saved from the commission of sin. No more reliance upon the physical death of Jesus, but upon the beautiful prac- tice of his life—a life to God, and a death un- to the World of sin. This is Shakerism. This is Christianity. This is the zcay we become Shakers, experience salvation, and enjoy a life eternal. Thus we are seeking and learn- ing more truth ; and thus we measurably en- joy here, the Angel.lzfe—Christ’s life. “ And let him that heareth say, Come! and partake of the bread and waters of life freely,” in our heavenly Father’s and Mother’s home. "“ Truth, Faith and Reason.—No. 3. _—._. BY R. W. PELHAM. It is a ﬁxed and immutable law of the gen- erative order, to multiply and divide—to keep up a continued series of successive separations and separate interests. The ﬁxed and immutable law of the Christ Order, is aggregation, “ gathering together, uniting in one all in heaven and earth in Christ.” » (Eph. i, 10.) “To be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life.” In this aphorism, Paul again sets forth the eternal antagonism of the ﬂesh and spirit ; it is but the utterance of a ﬁxed, immutable and eternal truth; a truth which every one who has been made alive in Christ, knows just as well as Paul. The antagonism between the ﬂesh and spirit does not take place in the air, but in the human soul, and every spiritually minded man knows that this conﬂict is irreconcilable—knows that his carnal, lustful, generative nature, is not sub- ject to the laws of God in Christ, or in the regenerative order, neither, indeed, can be- knows he must keep up an unceasing warfare against it, at the peril of his spiritual life, until it is subdued. “ If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ dwells.” Those who are subjects to this resurrection-— those who have risen with Christ and lived in his sphere which is “ above ” the ﬂesh, “neither marry nor are given in marriage.” They are “ children of the resurrection ” order, exalted with Christ above the generative Work. Be cautious of forming or adopting systems. When men become wedded to a system, either of their own or another’s, their minds are liable to be so biased, that they will desire to bend everything into conformity to it; and in their eagerness to support the system, they lose sight of truth. Truth is a unit. No one truth can be op- posed to another truth. And one truth har- monizes with every other truth, therefore, any system or part of a system opposed to one single truth, is opposed to all truth, and utterly foundationless and false. As light is pleasant to the eye, so is truth to the understanding. The Catholic Church requires her members to believe in Transubstantiation, contrary to the evidence of their senses, and to renounce opinions as heretical without any proof of their error; but all such requirements are as unwise as they are tyrannical and unjust, be- cause it is impossible to comply with them. If a man is required to sacriﬁce his rational faculty in order to salvation, what will he have left worth saving? He will be no better than a maniac or ourang—outang. He that requires a man to believe mere as- sertion against the clear convictions of his own understanding, demands the surrender of his rationality, and would rob him of the chief at- tribute of man. Nothing fears investigation but mistrustful bigotry or determined ignorance. A He who feels conﬁdent of the rectitude of his opinions and actions, fears not investiga- ' tion. The fear of investigation, or of being in- vestigated, are certain marks of bigotry or dis- honesty. Faith founded in ignorance, is always ex- posed to the assails of light and truth, and therefore constantly in danger. The better one understands the why and the wherefore of a theory, the less liable he is to have his faith shaken. He who through bigotry and ignorance builds on falsehood, is under continual neces- sity of guarding against the approaches of light and truth. The most effectual way to shake off un- belief is to demonstrate truth to the under- standing. He who goes about to divest himself of un- belief by violently shaking his body, will be about as successful, as he who should try to satiate his hunger by running a foot race. eel . Peebles’ remarks in same number. 64: TI-IE SEIAKER. He can swallow incredible things Whose in- terest prompts the resolve not to be choked by any thing. He that is most positive in his opinions may nevertheless be positively mistaken. I am tired of systems and system mongers; I desire to know nothing-—to feel nothing but gospel simplicity— to believe nothing but pure truth. He that loves truth for its own sake, likes it best in its pure unadorned simplicity, Great names, high sanctions, or even mighty miracles, if they do not indeed detract from its merits, can add nothing to its value. Physical Death versus Future Life. The World’s Crisis very sharply and un- christianly criticises Otis Sawyer’s “Shaker Cemeteries” in JUNE SHAKER; also Bro. It very plainly asserts that Spiritualism and Shaker- ism are not of God, but of him who fathers all the iniquities of the world since ﬁrst he whispered in Eve’s ear what she should never have known. The Crisis is stirred to this be- cause We believe and know of a future exist- eiice—immortality. It knows only of the grave and its dead; the resurrection has not occurred to its Editor and numerous readers. But as a dead tree compares with a living and fruitful one-—as a dead man and a dead God contrast with men of life and a God eternal— so do the teachings and philosophy of the physical resurrection of dead, and twice dead bodies compete with the religion of life which comforts us that. our loved ones are not, and never were dead; but that “their spirits are living, in beauty they are blooming” on the eternal shore. Were there any truthful phi- losophy in “ an irresistible force striking an immovable object,” then might the “ irresisti- bility” of The Crisis, affect the “immova- bleness” of THE SHAKER, upon the truth of immortality. A few days will decide this point to any who now live and have doubts. But it is a curious fact that Second Advents do die; for in all the spirit peregrinations we ever heard of, not one of them has been found in the spirit world ! We will not say The Crisis is of the devil ; but we do infer it is blinded by the ﬂesh, is leading souls in the dark, and needs the en- lightenment and resurrection of the Spirit which we have been favored with. * Disappointed. Elder J. B. Vance, in an -address at Troy, stated that many of the requirements of Shaker Communism appeared like the lions in the Way of Bunyan’s Pilgrim; and which exist more in the imagination than in anything else, being dissolved by attack, into thin air. Just so ; much that we dreaded, becomes our delight to engage in. Some fear the Confessional—yet the relief obtained therefrom compensates the soul so much, that it is never .-relinquished by the faith- ful nor its absence desinted. Some dread the Dance: One individual said, “ he would like to unite, but he could not agree to dance, par- ticularly on the Sabbath.” This being his only objection, he was excused, with the proviso that we should not be compelled to keep out from the dance. He having no fears of this, “set out ” to be a Shaker. But a short time elapsed, before he broke into the circle, and was _the most zealous dancer in the room! It is difﬁcult for us to get individuals to wear their own apparel; Whereas ours presented an appear- ance too plain, before they united. Just so are individuals disappointed in their fears of what they must need do to become members of Shaker Societies. We say, if you will live the life, we care little what your theology is, What your fears are, desires have been, or hopes may be. The spirit of oneness will prevail, where all are united in the purpose to maintain a pure, virginal relation, as is found only in Christ. Only let an individual con- fess all their sins on the start in the race, and keep a conscience undetiled, a.nd we predict all their fears will be turned into pleasurable disappointments. ”“ The Paradox of Jesus. Calvin Green, of Mt. Lebanon, once said that “ Jesus was the Sarcastus of his day l ” Reference in this was had to “ Go tell that fox, etc.” But where can a greater, apparent inconsistency be found, than “ He that saves his life shall lose it; but he that loses his life shall ﬁnd it? The pronoun it, apparently refers to the same life; and only as the two lives of humanity are understood——the natural or earthly life, and the spiritual or Christ life-—this paradox is not and cannot be com- prehended. ‘/Vould you gain the Christ life, you must lose the carnal, Adamic, generative practice that is opposed to Christ. Would you save this, then be not disappointed if you ﬁnd that you have not found Christ. Though paradoxical, this is one of the most beautiful sayings of Jesus, and is worthy of a whole life’s study. Probably no passage in scripture is generally less understood, and at the same time of greater value When comprehended. As in this saying so much is enclosed, so let our lives “ be hid in Christ.” * THERE is a beautiful piece of music attached to “Spirit Prophecy.” Believers desirous of obtaining the same, may address our young and noble Prophet Elder, THOMAS SMITH, Canaan Corners, N .Y. it “SHAKER CoMMUNIsM” has not yet arrived from England. When it does we will notify. All orders for the same, may be addressed to this Office, or to Elder F. W. EVANS. See list of Publications. * WE are in receipt of several letters from individuals who ask, among other questions, concerning our position on the wearing or non-wearing of the beard. We answer, that for uniformity, we shave smoothly twice or thrice a week. This is our present custom. We attach no religious importance to it, other than union of action. That we are physiologically wrong, many of us have no doubt ; and that we shall even- tually change present habit, we doubt still less ; but until there can be a unanimous voice in the change, we shall abide present usage. It is a nonessential to the salvation of the soul from present sins, only as it affects the body seriously by shaving; and when individuals remove greater diﬂiculties in their path to righteousness, the shaving or not shaving the beard will assume less proportions. Let us be alive to whatever is progress in the right direction only. * Spirit Prophecy. BY THOMAS SMITH. Rivers of waters shall open in Zion ; And thousands shall seek to be cleansed therein——- ‘- Save us, oh, save us I '7 I hear them crying, ‘ ‘From the curses of Babylon, from darkness and sin!” Away with your doubting, ye feeble and fainting! Away with your fears for the Zion of God! The Lord in his inﬁnite wisdom is guiding The feet of the wanderer to Zionls blest fold. A RELIGIOUS journal tells its readers, spite- fully, that it costs the heathen Chinese $400,000,000 annually to run their religion, “ whatever it is.” That, the Chinaman might reply, is the strange part of, this religious interest. The Christians, before settling among themselves what Christianity is, hasten over to convert China whatever it is ; whereas, if they knew Christianity and Bhuddism as Well as the Chinese know Bhuddism, they might perhaps admire the Wisdom (politically at least) which liberally spends so much money on a system of religion that can keep three or four hundred millions of people whole centuries as a unit, without rebellion or schism, giving out of itself an educational system which faithfully reaches one hundred per centum of the popu- lation, and to which, to our sorrow be it said, the best Christian school system is but a feeble and as yet rather ineffective copy. It ought to be a good. religion, which is worth $400,000,000 a year to keep up, and, no doubt, the Chinese are proud that no where but in China can a religion be found which is valued even half that high.—Americtm Land and Law Adviser. PUBLICATIONS. Chi-ist’s First and Second Appearing - - $1 25 Dunlavy’s Manifesto - - - - - - 1 ‘.25 Millennial Church - - - - - - 1 O9 Compendium of Shakerism - - - - - 0 50 Three Discourses on United Interests ~ - 0 50 Shaker Communism—Evans - - - - 0 50 Tracts free, where postage is paid. MEMBERS OF SOCIETY ﬂppointed to answer Correspondents, among whom are the Board of Editors. Elder F. W. Evans, Mt. Lebanon, Columbia Co., N. Y. “ Galen Richmond, Shakers, N. Y. “ Calvin G. Reed, Mt. Morris, Livingston Co., N. Y. “ Simon Mabee. West Pittsﬂeld, Mass. “ Stoughton Kellogg, Thompsonville, Conn., Shakers. “ Albert Battles, Tyringham, Berkshire Co., Mass. “ Wm. Leonard, Ayer, Mass., Shakers. “ Jonas Nutting, Shirley Village, Middlesex Co., Mass. “ B. H. Smith, Shaker Village, Merrimack Co., N. H. “ Henry Cummings, Enﬁeld, Grafton Co., N. H. “ John B. Vance, Alfred, Shakers. York Co., Me. “ Joseph Brackett, ‘Vest Gloucester, Cumberland Co., Me., Shakers. “ Chas. Clapp, Union Village, Warren Co., 0., Shakers. “ Ezra Sherman, Preston, Hamilton Co., Ohio, Shakers. “ Stephen Ball, Dayton, Shakers, Ohio. “ Jacob Kulp, Pleasant Hill, Mercer Co., Ky. “ J. R. Eades, South Union, Logan Co., Ky. “ J. S. Prescott, Cleveland, Ohio, Shakers.
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ts0208
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 02, no. 09 (September 1872)
Publisher: Mount Lebanon Bishopric
Date: 1872-09-01
Place published: Albany (N.Y.)
Text: “ I WILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. G. A. LOMAS, EDITOR. SHAKERS, ALBANY co., N. Y., SEPTEMBER, 1872. N0 9 FIFTY CENTS ‘PER ANNUM. Conservatism and Progression. How shall they be Reconciled .? BY ELIJAH MYRICK. The desire and effort for preserving what is established, as ﬁrst principles of rudi- mental truth, are not necessarily antago- nistic to Progress. Radicalism is the forced, unwilling antipode of near—sighted Con- servatism. Conserve and preserve are synonymous. Hence, what is good, sound, and true of the past, should conserve the present and future, interblending like the colors of the rainbow. The conﬂict between ﬁnality and young germs of truth, in the individual mind, is carried into sects and communities. The former depending upon its defensible ability, forces the latter into a War of triumph, as p...
Show more“ I WILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. G. A. LOMAS, EDITOR. SHAKERS, ALBANY co., N. Y., SEPTEMBER, 1872. N0 9 FIFTY CENTS ‘PER ANNUM. Conservatism and Progression. How shall they be Reconciled .? BY ELIJAH MYRICK. The desire and effort for preserving what is established, as ﬁrst principles of rudi- mental truth, are not necessarily antago- nistic to Progress. Radicalism is the forced, unwilling antipode of near—sighted Con- servatism. Conserve and preserve are synonymous. Hence, what is good, sound, and true of the past, should conserve the present and future, interblending like the colors of the rainbow. The conﬂict between ﬁnality and young germs of truth, in the individual mind, is carried into sects and communities. The former depending upon its defensible ability, forces the latter into a War of triumph, as portrayed by Bunyan. All real progress is sanctiﬁed by adher- ing to ﬁrst principles. The prophets and philosophers of each dispensation could only give utterance to the truths of their day. “The old heavens and earth ” will continue to give place to the new, in each succeeding cycle; and, when reason and wisdom shall take the supremacy of fear and superstition, the change will not neces- sarily be attended with “a great noise.” Isaiah, 45: 22. “They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for, as the days of a tree, are the days of my people; and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” This beautiful, signiﬁcant ﬁgure, sym- bolizes growth; and the existing harmony between conserving and expanding, rightly recognized, is mutually dependent; and an issue is detrimental to both. Should the extending bud refuse to respond to the inward pressure for a new growth of life, and say to the sun of revelation, “ Touch me not ; this is the ﬁnal growth; obedient to God’s law, I shed my foliage, and his cold winter closed me up forever,” the internal pressure, induced by the external warmth, would produce an argument in favor of eternal progress ; a ﬁtting rebuke to the adherents of the dead past. All real good belongs to the present; and the present should willingly yield to the future ; not lay dormant, to be exhumed hundreds of years hence. Let each dis- pensation glory in, and be gloriﬁed by, the other. Conservatives, as leaders of old organi- zations, block the wheels of progress, and falsify the declaration and prophecy of future increase. Resistance to improvement contradicts the noblest instinct of the soul, and begets its opposite——fanaticism of reform-—-caused by the obstructions which perverted con- servatism has thrown across the stream of progress; and revolution is the sudden sweeping away of barriers which should have been reasonably and seasonably re- moved. On Progression’s banner is inscribed, “Let there be light;” and may the time soon come, when all human governments shall form a co-partnership with the divine, in carrying this baptism and benediction into fulﬁllment. The beautiful fragments of the Roman aqueducts made level across vallies, and through hills, for the want of the knowledge which every intelligent child now possesses, are often cited to test the power of their builders; but, they are only so many monuments of their weakness, in- stead of strength. Job, 38: 35, “Canst thou send the lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, ‘Here we are ?’ ” If that question were put to modern science, it would answer in the aﬁirmative. VVhen thought cannot ﬁnd vent, the mind ceases to think; it will not continue to produce its births of power and beauty, to see them fall dead-born into the world. Even the rapt spirit of Isaiah would droop its wings, but for the etfulgence of the vision they project, reﬂecting pictured glories on the solid earth. What deep ﬂoods of the direful miseries of superstition and barbarity have, in con- sequence of stiﬂed thought, been poured upon the world 1 Hence, a disastrous alien- ation has ensued between the disciples of science and the teachers of religion. Be- tween science and true religion there can be no conﬂict. With an earth, sky, and heavens full of truths all around and before us, upon the extreme margin of which we are but just entering, how can such a world produce a dogmatizer, or a bigot? Bigotry shuts itself up in narrow limits, and would bind the thoughts, and manaele the limbs too, had it the power. Forming a co-partnership ages ago, with its natural allies (ignorance and superstition), it strove to hinder the dis- covery of hitherto unknown parts of this globe, and the navigation of the same, and denied the true astronomical knowledge of the terrestrial, as it now does of the celes- tial heavens. But let us think, betimes; knowledge is but an instrument, free alike to the proﬂi- gate and the just ; therefore wisdom must be commissioned its guardian. The un- pardonable error of education has been, that it did not begin with simple truths and elementary ideas, and rise by gradation to combined results. It began with teaching systems, rules, schemes and complex doc- trines, which years of analysis would scarce- ly serve to unfold; all is administered in a mass. In this way, errors and truths are passed over to our successors, done up in the same bundle, and they pass them to others, and so onward, to be perpetual sources of error, alienation and discord. A new era is opening upon the world I the history of the future is like a widening stream, and is about to pass through regions such as have never been traversed before ; we must prepare ourselves to pass with safety through this new ordeal : "' Put hand to the plow of endeavor, Place feet in the truth-furrowed track; Set face to the future, and never One wavering moment look back. For none, who conﬁdingly center All hopes on the by-genes, and ban The present, are ﬁtted to enter The on-going progress of man.” Just in proportion as man becomes Christ- like, he passes out of the region of ﬁnality -—system building—into the region of per- petual activities for good; his is the reli- gion of philosophy, science, love, which ex- pands the mind. reaches out to every capa- city; says : “ Suffer little children to come unto me;” and as “I am lifted up (pro- gressed) so will I draw all men unto me.” Could Jesus stand where we now stand, and view his record o'er. Would he still cling to that star light,---and that alone restore? . And say ’tis done. ’tis final, all that man can ever be, 66 THE SHAKER. That through one twain the race did fall, by one alone they’re free ? He was the promised Saviour ; ﬁrst saved himself from loss ; Then said, “ If ye would Saviours be, come bear your daily cross.” His life was one great prophecy, which told of future good ; Declared, the state of infancy betokcned angel- hood. All truth undiscovered, or unrevealed, partakes of the nature of the concrete ; it is like gold in quartz; a part of the mass ; and as it forever sparkles, it is viewed by some as a mere curiosity ; by others as an object of worship, not knowing its value and use, till some adventurous hand liber- ates it from the crude mass. Then, despite the bigots who claim this to be the only known specimen, other discoveries are made, and the supply is found to be inexhaustible. Then every known appliance is brought into requisition, and new ones invented to blast and grind, wash and melt, and coin, till the whole nation is enriched thereby. And the poor devotee sees his past object of adoration appropriated to the living present. So with ﬁrst principles ; they discover truth, pure truth, to be wrought out under the hammer of reason, and s1nelt- ed in the reﬁner’s ﬁre, till in their conscious purity they can look smilingly in the face of every essayer. A I freely endorse Elder Frederick’s arti- cle in the July SHAKER, on “FINALI'rY.” I think it meets the demands of the age. The diversity of opinions and beliefs re- specting a certain book has been the means of disintegrating society, creating conﬂu- sion. better off to-day, were it to drop all the old systems of theology, and adopt the simple, childlike religion of the human soul. ‘ All the blessings of the past would be com- bined with the present, and make the religion of to-day grander than that of any preced- ing age. Rejecting still the corner stone, which devotees have worshipped ’round, Forgetting greater works are done by those who rear the building, They falsify that holy truth, that progress means perpetual youth ; And all the living must, forsooth, be to the fu- ture yielding. The too common practice of looking ex- clusively to the past, is unworthy of this enlightened age. A hitching post is good when ahead ; when passed, it is of no further use. In no age of the world’s his- tory was discrimination between truth and error so acute as now. Reason assumes supremacy, and demands fearless investiga- tion. Is not the subjugation of, and ruling over woman, traceable to sacred tradition, and legend? And is not the world depraved by such antiquated belief ? The world would be a thousand times . Brigham Young is a fac-simile of the wisest man of Bible fame; and children are still taught to do homage to his exalted wisdom. If either of them now lived in Massachusetts, they would be escorted to a temple of justice. Physical Resurrection. BY CECELIA DE VERE. Is this temple-painful prison- VVith its throbbing bolts and bars, All the dwelling of the spirit, When redeemed from earth-made scars ? Shall the body he triumphant ? Shall this accident of sin Make or shape the life eternal, Clog, or give us power to win ? Shall the humpback, and the cripple, And the dwarf. diseased and lame, Take their bodies, somewhat bettered, But essentially the same ? Shall the soul that hid its evil In a bcauteous form of clay, Still unchanged, and undiscovered, Dwell in heaven’s unclouded day ? Shall the face that screened, and shaded Feelings tender, deep and true, Mask the soul that toiled and suffered For a life and spirit new ? All things in the Lord are perfect; Accidents are not of Him; They belong to earth’s confusion, To our own perceptions, dim. If we seek the heavenly portion Of the meek in heart, and pure, God will mark our earnest travel, Bless, and make our treasure sure Then the soul shall dwell in victory, Far above the body’s fate, And be seen undimmed, unshadowed, In its true and perfect state. If we feel the resurrection Of the spirit day by day- Feel the power of God, that bears us From earth’s elements away- Shall our thoughts to graveyards center, \Vhen our loved ones are set free ? Shall we give our loathsome body All our wealth of sympathy? \Ve are called to know the spirit, And let dust to dust be given; While our hearts. with love unfailing, Find their kindred hearts in heaven. 0 how pure, and how exalted, Is the faith by which we’re taught ! Through the door of Revelation, We can “ see what God hath wrought.” From the earth he made the mortal; But he never marked the place: \Vhy should we of death’s dark portal Seek or leave the slighest trace ? Lay my frame in earth’s cold bosom, VVhen my spirit takes its ﬂight 'l‘o that land, where fruit and blossom Never suffer frost nor blight; Not on stone, or sculptured marble, Be my memory ever traced; But from hearts that hold and love me, May it never be erased. Notices. “WITCH POISON," being a severe, but merited re- buke to a discourse by one Dr. Baldwin, of Troy. The doctor’s discourse is included; but there appears but little of it remaining after the review and re-re- view by Bro. J. M. Peebles. The pamphlet is worthy the perusal of the thoughtful investigator. Price 25 cents. B. C. Barto, Troy, N. Y. “THE VESTAL ’’ is a neat little quarto of prose and poetry by a Spiritualist—Mrs. J. M. Wilcoxsou. Much good sense and spiritual light is imprinted on its pages. As an evidence, we copy in present num- ber of THE SHAKER a poem, by which the two great antipodes in humanity are fairly illustrated. Religio- Philosophical Publishing 00., Chicago, Ill. A Second Revelation of the Gospel, vice Christ’s Second Appearing. BY R. W. PELHAM. When the writer ﬁrst visited the Shakers, in 1817, he soon became a sincere and deeply interested inquirer into their faith and theology; and the most puzzling thing he met with, was the statement that Christ, or J csus Christ, had made His second appearing in a VVOMAN ! lVhatever recondite sense they may have at- tached to the word Christ, I understood it to mean the man called Jesus, or Jesus the Christ, who lived in Judca 1800 years ago, and of whose history we have a fragment in the New Testament. And, I asked myself, do they mean to say that this man has made his second appearing? And, still more perplexing, that HE has made HIS second appearing in a VVo- man! How could He come in a lVom(.m? This phraseology was in full use then, and probably had been from the beginning of the institution, and is continued to the present day. After becominga member of the Society, I set about probing the meaning of this mode of expression, and trying to deduce the radical idea, and to set it forth in rational and intel- ligible language. In this search my thoughts ran in this wise: Jesus the Messiah was the ﬁrst man in and through whom the way of salvation from sin was revealed. This revela- tion was called in Greek, Euomggell2'0n—Good news or Glad tidings. Jesus ﬁrst promul- gated it under that name, translated “ Gospel,” Matt. 4: 23, and elsewhere. Its true prin- ciples were first practically carried into effect on the day of Pentecost, when the community of goods was fully established at Jerusalem ; though previously Jesus and his disciples had their needs supplied from a common purse, and Judas was their deacon or trustee. That true church, through divers causes, mainly a relent- less persecution by Jews, Romans and Cath- olics, was ultimately “ trodden under foot of the Gentiles ;” and that glorious Evangel or REVELATION was banished from this sphere of being and became extinct among men. As this Gospel was not a human invention, it could only be restored by a SECOND REVELATION. When, therefore, the Shakers tell you that Christ has made HIS second appearance in a Woman, they mean that the Gospel which was revealed in and by Jesus, the Christ, after having been lost, has been revealed a second time through a woman. Thus, we do not pretend that Jesus Christ has made his second appearing in a woman, or in any other way literally, nor do we believe he ever will; but we testify that there has been—not a second appearing of Christ, but a SECOND REVELA- TION of the Gospel ﬁrst revealed by Jesus, the Christ; and that revelation was made through a woman. This is plain common sense, easily comprehended, and without mystery; and, for one, I should like to have our testimony pre- sented to mankind on this subject in this way. But if it be generally preferred to continue the old mystical method, I am well aware that in Paul’s writings there are A abundant examples to support the practice. With his licentious use of the term, almost anything means Christ, THE SHAKER. 6'7 and Christ means most anything you please. VVe shall notice some of the ﬁgurative and mysterious senses in which it is used in his Epistles. Under Paul’s manipulations the term Christ becomes impersonal. The per- sonality is last in the principle, and the indi- vidual character diffused in the Church or community, and as a body—a unit——that com- munity is the Son of Man—the Christ, the Lord’s anointed, the Lord from Heaven. “ For,” says Paul, “we being many are one body. For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, though many, are one body; so ALSO IS CHRIST ! For by one Spirit [God] we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Greek, whether bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit!” Paul sends his salutation to Andronicus and Junia of Rome, “ who,” he says, “ were IN Christ before rue.” In Christ does not mean in the bowels of Jesus the M€SS'iafL, but they were members of the Church before him. So he often uses the term Christ with scarcely an allusion to Jesus of Nazareth, or Jesus the Messiah. Again, he speaks of there being “ one body in Christ,” “ helpers in Christ,” “ approved in Christ,” etc., etc., all the time meaning in the Church. He also makes the term signify the Christian religion. “ Christ,” says he, “is the end of the Law.” The Christian religion or institution is the end of the Mosaic law. “If Christ be in you : ” If the Christian religion or Christian spirit be in you, etc. “ Christ liveth in 1ne : ” The Chris- tian religion is manifested in my life; or, he may mean that his life was a transcript or true pattern of the life of Jesus the Christ. “ Christ hath redeemed us 2"’ The power and eﬂicacy of the Christian religion hath redeemed us, as he says in another place: “ The Gospel is the power of God to salvation.” After all these, and many more varied senses, in which the term Christ has been used, it remains a simple truth that the original application of it to Jesus was to designate him as the Jllessiah; translated into Greek, the Christos; into Eng- lish, the Anointed-——not a proper name but an oﬁicial title. (See Jno. 1 : 42-3.) “ VVe have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, (in Greek) the Christos, and he brought him to Jnsos.” This Hebrew term Messiah, or Greek Christos, or English Christ or Anoint- ed, then, was the functional title of Jesus, and not his proper name, nor the name of some invisible being distinct from him. VVe ﬁnd not the least trace in either of the four Evangelists, or even in Paul’s epistles, of the Gnostic doctrine that the pigeon or dove seen by John the Baptist was a high intelligence—- a person—distinct from Jesus, that came from the Pleroma, and took possession of him. That dove was simply a visionary sign given to John to point out to him the Messiah, as he himself declares: “I saw a spirit descending from heaven like a dove. He who sent me to baptize, the same said unto me, ‘ Upon whom thou shalt see a spirit descending, the same is he who baptizeth into a holy spirit.’ ” He who sent John was G01), as the Evangelist declares: “ There was a man sent from God whose name was John.” It was this same God who inspired Jesus, anointed and quali- ﬁed him for his mission to preach and estab- lish the Gospel, reveal the new dispensation, as he himself testified in the Synagogue at Nazareth: “The Spirit of Jehovah is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor,” etc. Thus, Jesus possess- ing the proper endowments and qualities, was authorized, inspired and appointed of God to the Messianic ofﬁce—to initiate the new dis- pensation; to preach the Gospel, which, as Paul says, is the power of God to salvation ; that is, salvation from sin. There is not the least hint that any intermediate spirit came in between him and Jehovah. He was not the Son of a Christ, but the Son of God, by virtue of regeneration and the new birth. He himself was the Christ, and was inspired, led and directed of God the Father, as he himself declares. As to this Jesus, or Jesus the Christ com- ing the second time in person, it never will be. The promise of his coming is to be understood as other similar prophetic language in Scrip- ture. It is not necessary that the same person should come, but one who has the same spirit to minister, the same revelation to make, and possesses the same “ power of the spirit,” and promulgates the same Evangel. The second coming ofElijah the prophet had been promised the Jews, and they looked for the same per- son; but Jesus, pointing to John the Baptist, said : “ If ye can receive it, this is Elijah that was for to come.” The Evangelist Luke also speaks of John as going forth “in the spirit andpower of Elijah.” So we point to Ann, or Ann the Christess, by and through whom a SECOND REVELATION of the same Gospel, with an increase, is made; and testify that “ this is the Jesus, or Jesus the Christ, that was for to come.” And she, also, came forth in the same power of the Spirit, was inspired from the same eternal source, and qualiﬁed of God to initiate and establish the SECOND REVELATION of the Gospel, and she did it ! I will only add here, that as it was the special mission of Jesus to reveal the Fatherhood in God, so it was the special mission of Ann to reveal the Motlierliood in God. This Reve- lation is day by day revolutionizing the world. Stability of Principles. BY ALONZO HOLLISTER. Mankind are continually tossing like the waters of a troubled sea, forsaking present_ opinions, fashions or improvements for some- thing they fancy is better, or to return after a season to the same again, because’ no solid foundation of happiness is attained. Pleasure is oft the impelling motive, and this is sought in sensual indulgences, or in case, riches, or in novelty and change, none of which afford hap- piness; for abiding happiness is the result of growth, and stability in the principles of virtue and goodness ; and its proper nourishment can only be obtained by self-denial. Young minds partake very largely of this changing element; and the more so as they re- ceive their mental pabulum from the ﬁctitious, passionate and trashy literature of the day. If they ever become reliable and substantial ~ members of society, it is necessary that they should grow conservative ; not shut up in the unreasoning elements of passion and will, but their feelings must be weaned from those external and changing elements of superﬁcial excitement, and become ﬁxed to the principles of understanding and habits of thought. The principles of eternal life revealed in Christ, are unchangeable, remaining the same to every individual that receives them, now and ages hence. For instance, the doctrines of the New Testament, which lie at the founda- tion of our faith, and which are just as real and important to believers, in this day, as they were to those who first taught them, more than 1800 years ago; the revelation upon which we claim to be founded being a new revelation, not of essentially different truths, but of the same truths, by the same spirit, to every soul that receives that Spirit ; I and a revelation of further truths in the same line, as the increase and growth of souls in these, and the general progress of the work of God demands them. One can no more neglect any of these and be a disciple of Christ, than he can skip over the four fundamental rules of arithmetic and become a mathematician ; or than he can neglect the letters of the alphabet and be a good philologist. Those whose motives and conduct are guided and governed by these prin- ciples will exhibit a uniform and stable charac- ter, in all the varied conditions and circum- stance of life-—a character which they have not naturally in them, though the natural dis- position of some will approach nearer it than others—but a character that is formed in them by the agency of the Holy Spirit, ministered by the gospel, in obedience to its principles ; a character that will overcome and eventually eradicate from the soul every disposition, opinion or principle that is contrary to the pure nature of God. My Experience. BY JANE MARIA BRAINARD. The second chapter of Matthew gives a par- able, clearly illustrating a Christian character. I know of no people who so readily accept a stranger, as a brother in full fellowship, if earnestly seeking the truth, as the people called Shakers. They open their hearts and homes to such, and say: “Come, partake with us, of all our good things.” It apparent- ly matters not, whether such are .blest with this World’s goods or not; or even if they must need be cared for in many ways. The hungry, naked‘ and sick are attended to; the afflicted are comforted, and the seeker after righteousness is shown how to be a practical Christian. I often think how secure I am, from many evils that are in the world; how shielded I am by visible friends, and the invisible hosts of heaven, by living a Shaker life. I have a feeling for those not blest as I am, and would let them know what I have found. I am glad a way is opened, whereby streams of goodness can ﬂow from our Zion, to my needy fel.low-beings. I feel conﬁdent that the little SHAKER will be the means of 68 turning many from their unrighteousness, to the way of truth. We read of the necessity of improving our talents, and of the utter darkness into which one was cast for failing to improve the one talent given him. I Want to throw in my mite; it may feed some hungering soul. My parents were Methodists, and very strict. They labored continually with their children to keep them from what they termed “the follies of the world;” keeping precepts and examples, and the Methodist discipline always before us. When eleven years old, there was a revival among the youth. I was one of its subjects, and felt conviction for sin, and much release- ment; it was Whispered, I had met with a change. I did have a feeling at that time, which though I could not utter it, yet was impressed that C7m'sttz7ans should not live like the world! This remained on my mind as a sacred truth. Thirteen years after, I took up a book at the house of a friend, commenced reading it, When I felt as if cold water was running, over me. Its title was, “Christ’s Second Appearing, by the Shakers.” I found on inquiry that they lived like angels ; and that unuttered feeling again came upon me, and I resolved to visit them. I did so, and cast my lot with them; have never, for a moment regretted doing so; for I know I have found true Christians. Their daily life is my life; and their sacred truths are food to my soul. I have lived a Shaker more than forty years; and have eaten the bread of life from my heavenly Parents’ table, and can never be satisﬁed any more withoutit. If my mite should prove a crumb to some soul similarly hungry, I shall be thankful. Idolatry. BY ELIJAH MYRICK. Woiild men draw down the smiles ofheaven, let them convert the lavish, sinful expendi- tures on the dead, to the comfort and eleva- tion of the ignorant and poor; turn all the Mt. Auburns and Greenwoods into homes of industry and comfort, or into grain ﬁelds for their support. Such institutions for the dead have Wrought an unWorthy,reformation (.9) by setting up the image of the beast, caste, in place of the beastsect, which made the church- yard their burying place. How aptly does the saying of Jesus apply: “Let the dead bury their dead.” Magna est Veritas. It is beginning to be suspected now that digestion and indigestion have a. good deal to do with “ a Christian spirit and temper ;” but investigations of this kind proceed very slowly, as it is so nice to eat and drink what We like, and so trying only to eat and drink what likes us. Rich dishes look like that fruit in Eden, “ pleasant to the eyes,” and we forget the shadows ‘behind them. This morning I met our excellent and worthy church-warden, quite in low spirits about "‘ church-ra.tes,” and other sublunary matters, and I knew well the rea- son of it, but it wouldn’t do to tell him. Entre nous, there was a supper last night, THE SHAKER. and the roast beef and strong ale have at last taken an ecclesiastical shape.—Go0d Health. Am the recentmeeting in Kelloggsville, Ohio, things were spicy for a time. Bigots refused to permit our speakers entrance into one of the so-called God’s houses. At last the Shakers came. They said, yea, yea, We will try and get into the church. The bigots exclaimed, Oh yes ! we are willing to let the pure Shakers in. And so the Shakers went in. Spiritualist preachers took the same road. The bigots were dumbfounded, when the Shakers declared from the pulpit that they were out-and-out Spiritualists, and that Spiritualism led to purity of life. Troy, N. Y. : The Shaker Elder, G. A. Lomas, of Shakers, Albany Co., speaks before the Spiritual Society the latter part of August. ——-Banner of Light. Love and Lust—-the Difference. Love is lasting, lust is shifting, All unrest and ever drifting; Love adores and saves its object, Lust would make all virtue subject. Love subordinates lO\\' fueling, Lust lives on by double-dealing; Love doth bear the heaviest crosses, Lust ne’er counts its victim's losses; Love doth bridle speech and action, Lust for law hath no attraction; Love doth pity, breathes compassion, Lust doth spurn such kindly fashion; Love doth lavish all protection, Lust doth urge to misdirection. Love, disease and Woe would banish, Lust, would make all beauty vanish; Love in use and joy abideth, » Lust in base indulgence hideth; Love doth give the hearty hand-clasp, Lust may give, but with the death-grasp; Love builds homes and makes them brighter, Lust its withering chain draws tighter. Love is an angel, Lust is a devil, Stalking where furious passions revel; Love is the voice that cheers the (lying, Lust is the coward his victim ﬂying; Love is the sunlight, vvarm and cheering, Lust is the dread flame we go fearing; Love is the hope that cheers the living, Lust is the lease that dies with the giving. Love is saviour and redcemer, Lust a fraud—a treacherous schemer! Love doth selﬁshness despise, Lust, never bloated self denies. Love, spikenard pours on broken hearts, Lust seeks fresh victims for his arts; “Love is fulﬁlling of the law,” Lust is a traitor-—scorns that saw l Love gives worth, and wealth, and labor, Lust robs dearest friend and neighbor; Love is the coin that always blesses, Lust is the counterfeit that curses; Love is of home the light and charmer, Lust the destroyer, deadly harmer ; Love wins sweetly, all devotion, Lust makes a hell—a wild commotion ! Love yields fruits of the richest flavor, Lust wrecked hopes and a. rotten savor; Love is the tried and true availer, Lust is the lawless vile assailer; Love doth bloom in happy faces, Lust doth lurk in low disgraces; Love may promise, none to doubt him. Lust may swear good faith—we scout him! Love is the freedom time makes stronger, Lust is the slavery time makes longer; Love doth lead to the noblest teachers, Lust doth abhor all faithful preachers; Love doth brave the greatest danger, Lust is to courage true a stranger; Love doth unmask the frowning despot, Lust in excuse is a senseless bigot; Love doth exalt both man and woman, Lust is the foe of all that is human ! ~ -The Vestal. Who are Christians? -a-_.n—. BY G. JOSIAH BARKER. Christ answers this question in Luke xiv, 26. If the people are judged by this standard, how large a proportion would be found to be the true followers of Christ? If they are not followers of Christ, can they be Christians? \Ve assert that the majority of professing Christians have not fulﬁlled the text, and are not Walking the self-denying path Jesus trod before, inviting all who would be Christians to follow. Are they admirers of Jesus’ life? Or, do they jeer and ridicule those who live as he lived, and is now living P Why are Christian Shakers maligned by evil reports, if it is not because they bear Christ’s testimony and live the life? They believe faith Without works will never make a Christian; and believe that the doctrine of the atonement is an invention, to save man’s nature from the cross. If men believed they must live as Christ lived, then would there be a difference in their lives. The people have been blinded by blind teachers, Who have sugar-coated vital passages of scripture, so as to mean, that the people may live in the base indulgences of their passions, while Jesus alone must bear the cross ! How absurd ! If we are ever saved (and we are not Chris- tians until We are saved), it will be by a thorough self-denial after the manner of Jesus, the Christ. Professing Doctors of Divinity say Jesus was God, and therefore could not be our exemplar—-for we are not divine ! It may be a pleasure for them to teach such foolishness, but it will be a bitter disappoint- ment to them when the truth is made apparent. They do not want to live as Jesus did; it is not because they cannot, but be- cause they zcill not ! Hoping to go to heaven sometime; expecting to be an angel in time to come; yet while the filthiness of the ﬂesh presents its enticing charms, they are content to be the slaves to lust, while they sing of how good a Christian Jesus was! ‘Vs are willing to face the question———do you live like Christians? VVe take the responsibility upon ourselves of being like, or unlike Jesus. If unlike, we are not his followers, and only as we subdue our inclinations to sin, We are not the followers of him who said: “ Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the worlc ”—-—we are not Christians. Now, who are the followers of Christ-—those who speak many good words for him, or those who live a very good life like him ? They are Christians, who are daily deny- ing themselves of worldy pleasures and sinful lusts; who are living on earth as the angels are living in heaven; who, acknowledging Jesus as their Elder Brother, follow his ex- ample, overcoming as he overcame——not relying upon his merits, but their own. Such do not look to the future for salvation, but experience it to-day—such alone are Chris- tians. 5 THE SHAKER . 69 Individuality and Organization. BY 0. C. HAMPTON. T... DEAR SHAKER:--While so many peculiar views are receiving attention through the columns of the SHAKER, I am inclined to say somewhat upon the subject of Individuality, The Spiritualists harp on this a great deal, and are very jealous of their individuality; so much so, indeed, that they systematically attack and resist every effort at organization that happens to be suggested by any of the more progressed among them, with the argu- ment that all organizations are in danger of neutralizing and destroying their individuality by subordinating the same to the proposed organization. There seem to me to be two plain issues to this question: 1. Mankind must go on in their present isolated and com- pletely selﬁsh condition, and individual efforts represent all the good the World may ever hope- from Spiritualism, or any other reform which may arise to bless and improve them; or, 2. Spiritualists must organize in some shape or other, even at the risk of the loss of their individuality more or less (if there be any such loss involved, of which more further on). But how is this? A Spiritualist will tell me it is his duty to develop his individuality to the highest degree; and, consequently, he must keep aloof from all organized institutions, because no organization can exist which will not more or less cramp and compromise this individuality to the behests of itself. This same Spiritualist, however, will straightway go and get married. VVhere now is his indi- viduality? It is’no where. He has become part of a duality. In process of time he has a number of Children. Now he is no longer even a du.alit_z/,,' he has developed himself into part of a plurality. His independent existence is completely gone up, and his fate is inexor- ably tethered to his wife and children. He is a complete slave. True, he may be so unen- lightened as to hug his chains ; but he is none the less a slave on that account, and leastwise his individuality no longer exists. But sup- - pose he is pleased not to shoulder the respon- sibilities of a married life, but still hankers after “the ﬂeshpots of Egypt” only enough to desire a mate of the opposite sex, to whom he shall be partially attached and devoted, to the exclusion of others equally worthy of his love, and perhaps far more so? Here, again, his judgment is a slave to his inordinate affections, and he is shut up from the Godlike exercise of that universal equal Love which Jesus en- joyed (see Matt. ch. 5, v. 44-45). How dwarfed and wretched such a love, when the conscience is all the time proclaiming in thun- der tones, “ The whole world is fainishing for your love, and you axe wickedly lavishing it upon one single individual, violently subordi- nating your higher, holier obligations to your lower instincts.” And this must be the con- clusion, leaving out of the account the con- sideration that this exclusive love is merely a gilded, glittering ignus fatuus, the design and object of which is to attract the sexes toward each other‘ for the ultimate purpose of coition, and so belonging entirely to the animal plane. At all hazards individuality must be bartered away to obtain it, and Spiritualists should be the last ones to plead for such partial love or favoritism. On the other hand, organization is a condi- tion of complete individualism in the highest and most glorious sense of the term ; that is, organization such as Was exhibted in the Pentecostal arrangement of old. Here every man’s and woman’s best talents, qualities, loves, affections, may go on expanding in all heavenly and sublime directions to all eternity. Not only so, but the wholesome rules and scientiﬁc arrangement of such an organization tend continually to protect its adherents from those lower inﬂuences of our common nature—— “ the lust of the ﬂesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life,” the very inﬂuences which alone cramp, belittle, enslave and gradually extinguish all our independence and indivi- duality. Shakerism professes to be established upon the Pentecostal principles of Celibacy and Community of goods—-all things in com- mon, etc. And the Shakers are willing to be judged by their Works in regard to this, their high profession. Therefore We would advise all progressed Spiritualists to give us a call before looking elsewhere; and, above all, before stak- ing their all upon the issues of any organiza- tion not having for its basis “Celibacy and Community of goods.” Lafayette. Lafayette visited Mother Ann Lee at Water- vliet, in the early and trying season of her settlement there. She told him his time had not yet come to be a Shaker; that he had much suffering to undergo, and a great work to perform in this world ; but when he went into the spirit World he might then unite with her children. Abijah \Vorcester, being a medium of the Spirit, was violently moved by the unseen inﬂuences while Lafayette was there; and Lafayette would touch him, as with a view to receive the inﬂuence. Abijah said to him: “You love this power, don’t you ?” “It seems very desirable,” was the reply. (Witness) LUCY VVOOD. It is a curious fact, that ﬁfteen days before Lafayette’s death was published in the United States, the same was made known by himself to a medium at Watervliet (now Shakers), N. Y., and was a matter of common conversa- tion among our people. He, at the same time, referred to his visit to Mother Ann, when on earth, and of her remarks to him. The above Lucy VVood was an eye and ear witness of Lafayette, in propria persona. "" Pruning Apple Trees. BY F. W. EVANS. Trimming these so that they shall bear the largest quantity of fruit, other things being equal, is good economy. Professor Mapes once stated to me that he trimmed pear trees so closely and scientiﬁcally, as to insure each fruit bud, a blossom; and each blossom, 9. pear. That is the principle. Look at a young apple tree, begining with the trunk, and ask yourself, how many of these largest size limbs does that tree require? It has six; you take out three or four, for two or three main limbs springing from the trunk, will make a tree. Is it well balanced? Then look at each one of those main limbs, just as you looked at the tree; and see how many of its largest limbs you can take out. Do the same by the next size branches. And, if your tree is still too thick, follow the same plan, trim the next size, until nothing remains on the tree that may not blossom without waste, and bear fruit without there being any to drop off. Your apple tree will then be neither full of poles, trimmed up to make room for them; nor yet so crowded, that it spends its forces in blossoms that cannot set fruit; nor in setting fruit that can never ripen. The Devi1—-Has he Reformed? MY DEAR EDITOR :—It would seem, by the perusal of a couple of articles in a late TVorld’s Crisis, that the editor, Miles Grant, has made some wonderful discoveries, and is in great tribulation because of certain articles in the SHAKER. Hear him talk: “ VVe are most fully persuaded that the whole thing (Spiritualism) is but the devil’s system of religion; and that it has nothing in common with the religion of Christ, any more than a counterfeit bill has with one that is genuine.” L To prove this assertion, he quotes largely that most excellent article from the pen of James M. Peebles, in June number of the SHAKER. In this article, as your readers will remem- ber, Brother Pcebles says that Spiritualism will call for “speakers with tongues of fire, hearts pulsing with prayer, and souls touched with the baptism of the living Christ.” His concluding remarks were: “ Let us, Oh Spiritualists, be true to our convictions, true to our moral and religious natures, true to the principles ofpurity and right.” From such sentiments as these our friend ﬁnds conclusive evidence that it is the “ Devil’s religion.” VVhy, what a change has come over that noted old personage with the cloven foot ! We had supposed his teachings were just the opposite of those quoted It helps, however, to prepare our minds for his comments upon the article entitled Shaker Cemeteries; of which he says : “ Shakerism and Spiritualism are half brothers (true). They have both one father- the Devil. Both systems are founded on Satan’s lie-—‘ Ye shall not surely die.’ ” Can it be possible that the old deceiver and life- long enemy of purity has repented of his past life, confessed his sins and become a Shaker! For, of course, he must be a Shaker if he begets children who are Shakers ! If this is really so, it puts Paul’s conversion quite in the shade, and must be set down as the most remarkable instance of change of heart on record. If he can have half as much inﬂuence on the minds of the millions now as before his con- version, when they were so ready to be led by him, what wonderful changes will take place, even in What is called Christian Society.’ 1 '70 THE SHAKER. Instead of serving Zllammon they will choose to serve God; instead of fostering pride they will cultivate simplicity ; instead of war, with its slaughtered thousands and ruined cities, we shall ﬁnd peace that bindeth up the broken- hearted and maketh glad the waste places; instead of lust, that now ﬁlls the land with corruption and murder, we shall ﬁnd con- tinence, purity and mercy; instead of riches and poverty——twin evils and legitimate children of selﬁshness——we shall ﬁnd universal brother- hood, with its community of interests as ex- empliﬁed in the ﬁrst pentecostal Church. The whole Christian world will be converted to C’hristianity! And even friend Grant would realize how much better it is to save men from their sins than it is to burn them up in their sins. Alas, in the midst of my exultations therein, comes the thought unbidden to mind, that even the Devil would lose his inﬂuence upon the minds of so—called Christians if he should be- come a Shaker! In former times he has shown them the whole world, and said, “ all this will I give if ye Will fall down and worship me.” And how few have refused ! As a Shaker he would show them the whole world and say, “all this you must forsake if ye would fellowship with me.” And how few would accept the terms ! Realizing how anxious the old adversary is to retain his present very large company of followers, we shall require the very best of evidence to convince us that he has decided to be a Shaker, or his “half brother,” a true Spiritualist. It occurs to us, also, that this is not the ﬁrst time that the Devil has been calumniated. VVe read that in ancient times certain of the Jews accused him of assisting Jesus to cast out devils, which charge was « afterwards proved to be false, as this will be. As to our founding our faith on Satan’s 1ie—“Ye shall not surely die”——we see too much evidence of that death that comes from sinful works, to have the least desire to put our conﬁdence in that or any other of Satan’s lies. But we do have conﬁdence in that promise, and trust that friend Grant will yet be induced to, given by Christ through Jesus : “ He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” Yours, JonN B. VANCE. War. BY DANIEL ORCUTT. Those who defend war, must also defend the dispositions which lead to war. Now those dispositions are absolutely forbidden by the Gospel. Our Saviour sait, “ put up thy sword,” and ever since that time true Christians must not, cannot go to war. The safety of a nation is not to be found in arms; and morality and true religion forbid war, both in its motives, and consequences. “From whence came wars and ﬁghtings among you?” asks the Apostle; “ Come they not hence even of your lusts, that war in your members?” If these warlike passions were effectually subdued, all wars would cease. Those who are governed by these passions, are blind to their own interest; they are blind to their own best good, both for time and eternity. “VVisdom is better than weapons of war.” Ecol. ix, 18. VVar- like passions are hard masters; and they should be subdued betimes and thoroughly. Otherwise their power will increase over that of reason, and will in the end lead to ruin. At the advent of our Saviour was published’ the glad tidings of “ Peace on earth, good will towards man; ” and Peace was his last gift to his disciples. “ Peace I leave with you, my Peace I give unto you.” “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Christ is the Prince of Peace, and his kingdom is one of Peace. But war belongs to the Prince of this world. ‘Var is contrary to all Christianity; but wars will continue, as long as that policy is maintained, which is calculated to promote a warlike spirit. The power to overcome warlike passions is found in the Gospel. It imparts a peaceful, holy inﬂuence, which enables those who submit to it to conquer their passions, and even to love their enemies, and thus to con- quer them. Many have conquered kingdoms who could not conquer themselves, and many crowns have been given to conquerors of ancient and modern times; but God himself has prepared a crown for all the self—conquered, bearing this inscription : “ He that overcometh shall inherit all things.” Life in God. .j_. .BY VVILLIAM N. REDMON. In the creation, God has given to his Works a speciﬁc identity, nature and destination, which must ultimate according to the Divine Will and purpose. All the lower orders, as far as we are informed, are satisﬁed with their condition ,- having no aspirations of changing, and rising to a higher order; or of retrograd- ing, and sinking into a lower. The conditions assigned each species, whether on the earth, in the water, or the atmosphere, seem to be consonant and satisfactory. Man alone seems to be the recipient of discontent, unrest and aspira.tions ; not feel- ing at home, but an inhabitant or tenant at will, liable to change of tenure at any moment, and removal from earth. The acquisitions of time are not his, only the portion necessary to his sustenance while a tenant; the stores of earth, of whatever nature, fall into other hands, and remain in their appropriate sphere. The extreme folly of selﬁshness, as set forth in the parable of our Lord, in the case of the husbandman, whose barns, store-houses and granaries were already full, and his contem- plations and anticipations looking forward to larger barns, store-houses and granaries, remains a standing lesson to after generations. “ Thou fool! This night shall thy soul be required of thee, and whose shall all these things be ? ” Man brings nothing of earth with him into time, consequently has nothing of lasting ownership in all his possessions, and can take nothing with him when he departs. If he has acquired little, or nothing of the true riches, he leaves earth in poverty, and has to begin a new acquisition in the spirit home; very different his compeer, who was called into the Vineyard of his Lord on earth, receiving wages of the kingdom of righteous- ness, and clothed with the garments of salva- tion. Man having the Divine impress, and aspirations in his soul, must attain to the Divine Nature, and become one with the Creator, in his capacity as a recipient; this attainment, and this alone, can satisfy the unceasing desires of his Nature. Man cannot escape from himself; he must be a man ; yea, a man of God; or be forever miserable! The trust and responsibility lie with himself; and the sooner he commences the all-impor- tant work in the new life, the better; for procrastination increases the burden, and at the same time lessens the ability of bearing it. With the outward man ceases the ability to use the alimentations and desires of earth; the soul must be the happy recipient of the spiritual and divine benediction of a higher order; of which there are ample preparations in the heavenly. mansions, according to capacity and advancement. The provident Lord, before he left time, paternally and fraternally informed his Apostles, that there were no suitable mansions for them; there- fore, he was going to prepare a place, that he might receive them unto himself. In all probability there will be astonishing disap- pointment to many of the professors of Christianity, who expect to be taken im- mediately into the mansions of the Lord; whose claims are mostly resting on a mere profession; having made but little, or no advancement in the Divine Life. The annun- ciation in all probability will be, “depart from me, for I never knew you !” They will be compelled to take mansions more suitable to their conditions; and thence commence the divine life, and progress onward and upward in their own order and fraternity; never being able to attain the Apostolic advance ; but must always remain in the rear, - according to attainment and allotment. Our Heavenly Parents, in the Gospel, have called, are calling, and will call all their children; and all who accept, and enter into newness of life, following the example of their Lord by invitation, will be placed in the mansions of the kingdom, and continued in their places, according to faithfulness in their heavenly Home. Those who reject their privilege, and take the retrograde and down- ward course, “counting themselves un- worthy ” of the call, must be content to take the station of the disobedient and froward, and bear the sad reproach of disloyalty! The iinpossibility of man erasing from his mind the divine aspirations for the heavenly life, by attainment in the Divine Nature, he cannot be satisﬁed with the ﬁlthy nature, and its degradation; and after he has gone his whole length, and nothing remains in the lowest deep, then to his great mortiﬁcation, when he comes to himself, he has to retrace his steps to his Father’s house, and com- mence the new life, in the self—denying, narrow way of the Saviour; for if we go to his king- THE SHAKER. '71 dom, we must follow him in the regeneration, living the new life. Justice alone can give us our dues; and these must be the result of our own choice, volition and attainment; and just here the decrees of God come in, and leave the children of earth without excuse or palliation ; for the Heavenly invitation is, “ whosoever will, let him come and partake of the bread and Waters of Life freely.” ‘Vs cannot shift the responsibility. It was a great favor to the prodigal son to be accepted, after his sad experience in the swine region. It is a matter of mercy, as well as justice, to assign to the inhabitants of earth, mansions according to attainments; for how could the soul, just released from the precincts of alcohol and the narcotics; smoking, chewing and snufﬁng tobacco; swearing, blasphemy, and debauchery, bear the presence of the re- deemed Saviour, clad in the white garments of the heavenly kingdom ? O, the blackness of darkness ! O for a place to hide this debauched and adulterous generation ! ! And shall We repeat the heavenly record, “ Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, and be saved.” “ Be ye pure, for I am pure, saith the Lord.” “ G-od Speed the Day.” BY E. H. VVEBSTER. He speeds the day; it is his own, And hastens swift along; For suffering souls there yet is born A gladness bright and strong. He speeds it most in seeming ill, In times of trouble sore; For when each earthly idol ’s still, VVe turn to Him the more. A peace is born of conflict deep \Vitl1 carnal selfish ways; And those who this sweet peace can keep, Fear not while truth delays. He speeds it in the hurricane, The ﬁery ﬁend and hail, To help us ﬁnd that greater gain, Which tempests can’t assail. He speeds it in the justice deep, VVhich sinful living scorns; That what we sow we sure shall reap, And not the grape of thorns. That if our life is full of greeds, And narro-xv, selﬁsh aims, The sphere we move in feels the seeds Which such a lil'e proclaims. The miasmatic state it breeds, Engenders evils sore, Until in pestilence the seeds Spring up and grow the more. Or, if in burning lust or hate The life be inly spent, The outer sphere is only mate To that by which it ’s rent. Essentials and Non-essentials. Progress means a movement upward, for- ward; and intends that we leave the errors of the past, as soon as they are demonstrated to be such, in the rear. To cling to a custom, for custom’s sake, would-“deny-to us the beneﬁts of all modern blessings, and in all things we "should compare with the old custom of going to mil1—on one side of the horse’s,back, the grain in the bag, on the other, a stone to balance it. We have proved the stone a non-essential; and there are many such, that are now disturbing the balance of mind, in many otherwise estimable Believers. To some the wearing of the beard is “ want- ing in reﬁnement, ‘neatness and convenience ! ” This was a sister’s remark, at Enﬁeld, Conn. To others, the wearing or non-wearing has a religious importance attached to it—if to either, we should agree to do as Jesus did— but we don’t believe in attaching so much importance to customs, opinions or theologies, which are antiquated, unreligious and non- essential to salvation. “The union is the gift,” is a truism of our Mother Lucy VVright; and we must learn to be united on all points of doctrine, of custom, even if new, when proved to be essential to our well being, and when in conformity with our visible lead. The stubborn conservative, hurts the union— the gift—and ties the hands and hearts of ‘our good Ministry, from yielding their consent to have Society improve in all that would make her beautiful, without departing a hair’s breadth from the essential, heavenly, funda- mental principles of our beautiful Gospel. If Society really needs an organ to improve it, then let us be united, regardless of past cus- tom. If the beard will prolong life, or induce better physiology, who will take the respon- sibility of lost health and life by its further abandonment? VVe do not say we are now in their favor; but should the decision be made in their favor, we will abandon all opposition. We want only the good and pure in life; we want all the protective measures that can be had, to throw around our young people, and to save them from sin. ‘Vs want to make home so delightful, so beautiful, that it will gather and retain individuals, and would not omit a single feature that did not conflict with the purity of life, as taught by the saints, and practiced by the angels. Tlierefore, begone, all opposition to music and ﬂowers ; to any and every improvement that will and can stand on our everlasting founda- tional principles. We do not ask sympathy for a progress into anything that will breed a lack of industry, or permit the lending of an eye, ear or feeling to worldly inducement; but We do ask the consideration of all, the good, and the too—indifi'erent, if we are not faltering in an age of progress to our harm. If an individual will be pure and good, yet wants to retain some instrument of music; wear his beard or keep some theological whim, shall we reject him as an associate in the higher life? Shall we refuse him a privi- lege to unite with us in our consecration ? We propose the throwing away of the tobacco-box in preference to the organ; and the pipe and snuff-box rather than the continued absence of the harp; the ﬂesh~pots of mutton, beef, etc., rather than the fruits and ﬂowers, indi- genous to our climate. Let us move away from the wrong, and only towards the pure and good. The new cycle calls for progress, as really towards some things as away from many improprieties. We ask charity of our comrades for our radical propositions; we feel deeply for Society’s improvement, and would stop any and every leak of her strength. ax- Things I Love. BY G. '1‘. SPROAT. I love the honest, truthful soul, Who is not ashamed to say, “I own I’m Wrong; help me to Walk In a more perfect way.” “A wrong confess‘d is half redressed," Pray speak of it no more; You have acted nobly, and I love You better than before. I love the artlcss, noble soul, Who will not wince, nor start, To learn his faults, though from a foe, With malice in his heart. “Strike on, strike on, keep striking on! ” The wise old Roman said; “ Your blows, good friend, may mend my heart, And will not break my head." I love the brave and fearless soul, \Vho dares, in open day, To meet his heart alone, and hear All that it has to say. “If you have anything to say, Speak on, good friend, within; Together let us seek the light, And search out every sin.” The Shaker. Most radically religious monthly in the world. Or- gan of the societies of people called Shakers. Teaches thorough Christianity, unbiased by man-made creeds. Proclaims self-denial to be the eﬂicacious remedy for sin. Declares that Jesus was baptized CHRIST, and thence became the pattern for all who name the name of Christ. to follow. Gives information of Shaker life, habits, economy, success; theology, prophecy, inspirations, revelation and expectations. Depre- cates War, either in the nation or in the household. Demands of all Christians, lives devoted to com- munion of interests. Certiﬂes that celibacy is the or- der of heaven, and that marriage belongs to the earth only, and is not practiced by Christians. Testifies against all intemperance, lusts of the ﬂesh. and World- ly pride. Inculcates true love; separation from worldly customs, politics, etc. Claims God as Father and Mother of all souls-—a duality, and therefore teaches the equal rights of their children, regardless of sex, color, race, education, circumstances, or cus- tom. Is a radical exponent of true Spiritualism-— Shakers are Spiritualists. Objects to riches; pov- erty; slavery of either mind or body. Establishes the only true system of dietetics, and is a preserver of health. Guarantees salvation to all who will live as our great exemplar, Jesus, lived. Believes all can be baptized by the same Christ Spirit, and thus become saviours to the lost or fallen, ﬁrst being saved them- selves. Is just the thing for the uneasy infidel, and bigoted sectarian. Loves all, means all shall be saved; teaches the way. Every individual expecting the reappearance of Christ, should read THE SHAKER, and learn that the SHAKERS believe Christ’s life puts an “ end to the world.” Price fifty cents per annum; costs, and is Worth one dollar. Address G. A. LOMAS, Editor, Shakers, N. Y. Society Record. Passing through Hancock recently, we were pleas- * antly surprised at her improved appearance. Always neat, she now looks beautiful. Meeting-house mod- ernized; the antiquated, elevated aqueduct by ‘the roadside is no more; beautiful stone fences, with posts and boards above; large permanent gates, painted red, and fastened by spring padloeks—all looked rejuvenating. Very likely her people are be- ing illustrated as those consecrated souls who “put their hands to Work, and give their hearts to God.” DIED, at Hancock, June 26, Fnsrus MILLER, aged 70. MT. LEBANON is alive to many new things. THE SOUTH are building an extensive chair factory, with 72 THE SEIAKER. tenant houses attached. A thousand-dollar engine from Haskell’s Albany works is to drive the machin- ery. THE CHURCH have also purchased a powerful engine from the same ﬁrm, for their herb and root department. Paint has been busy here on many buildings this season. As Brooklyn is noted for churches, so may THE NORTH be for nice, com in odious barns. Another mammoth has arisen on the ﬂats, and is. no doubt, ere this well ﬁlled. Orrin Haskins had his ankle broken by an accident on the 6th August. We hear that the Mt. Lebanon Ministry speak en- thusiastically of the singing now heard at Canterbury and Enﬂeld, N. H .. when connected with their orgmzs! At SHAKEHS (Watervliet, N. Y.). some improve- ments are apparent. THE CHURCH remodel their workmen’s lodge into a building of ﬁne appearance. THE SOUTH have just laid nearlya hundred feet of aqueduct, ﬁfteen inches diameter, boiler iron, be- tween the middle pond and machine shop——the wooden one having given out. SOUTH UNION and PLEASANT HILL have each their respective Ministryls Order, as years ago, but of re- cent date they were consolidated. We wish both many blessings. UNION VILLAGE. 0. Daniel Miller reports a large gathering of believers and Spirilualists at Mason, 0. The Shakers bore their testimony faithfully, which the Spiritualists received kindly, but silently. Among the multitudes of Spiritualists there are a few who, having received light and testimony against sinful works, are practically fulﬁlling the call of the Spirit, and failing to fulﬁll unspiritual, ﬂeshly lusts. ENFIELD, CONN. Our visit here VV as short and sweet. No prettier Society do we know of. All looks‘ neatly; buildings in good repair, and improving. THE CHURCH have built an excellent carriage house and stable, and have so improved the farm as to double its yield. The family garden is already a picture, as well as affording an abundance of vege- tables for home use and for sale. Of its magnitude let us only mention that it has a thousand pear trees. THE NORTH seem very ﬂourishing. Their new shop is nearly ﬁnished, and is of palatial appearance-—the prettiest we ever saw. THE SOUTH looks beautifully clean and inviting. Died: July 30, Louisa Blanchard, aged nearly 57 years. August 6, Johanna Wells, aged 70. Notice to Believers. THE SHAKER, under its present patronage of subscribers nearly or quite sustains itself. We would consider it a personal favor, if any interested in its success, would write us their opinions, by answering the following queries, or their equivalent : 1. Does THE SHAKER pay as a missionary enterprise ? if not, why not ? 2. Would it be sustained, if its size and price should be doubled P 3. Are you in favor, or not, of its suspension for 1873 ? 4. What substantial encouragement do you feel to assure to it from your locality? 5. Are you in favor, or opposed, to the insertion of modest advertisements ? 6. Wherein could THE SHAKE-R, in your opinion, be improved ? . Remark : \Ve circulate 5,000 copies month- ly, among the best classes of society, over an extensive territory; the beneﬁts to advertisers are clearly apparent. Please reply. G. ALBERT LOMAS. Send for a dozen tracts from the pens of Elder Evans and a noted, but at present anon- ymous, lecturer-25 cents, this office. BIADAME OLYMPE AUDOUARD says in her speech on Woman and her position in marriage, a speech delivered in France a few months since, "The only thing which can make of marriage a calm, happy and ennobling union, instead of, as it is now, an eternal torture, is——divorce." , to touch a woman ! ” The Beauty of my Shaker Faith. BY HARRIET BULLARD . My call to be a Believer is something more than acasual circumstance. I feel its force, and realize its holiness. As a woman in the sphere of nature, I realize how enslaved I should be, to the fashions and life that gratify the merely animal; the object and slave of man’s passions. As a. sister in the spiritual family of Christ, I am relieved from earthly servitude, and am a free being——free to live and to be as pure as the heavens, with com- panions who also are pure. I have the association of brethren, upon whom I can depend for my spiritual and physical protection-—who are not seeking the spoliation of the angel virtue in woman. We, as their sisters, are enabled to be their minis- ters of comfort and love. The reciprocity of gentleness and sweet companionship between brethren and sisters, who are true and well tried, may ﬁnd an equal illustration in the heavens, but no other condition on earth yields an equal joy. I realize every day of my life, the beauty of my gospel faith. Living in pure virginity, apart from the excitements of a Worldly life; with a privilege of confessing and forsaking the mistakes of the past, and of feeling my attachment and relation to the spirits in the heavenly world. My Whole being is under the guidance and ministration of the superior world. I love its discipline; I am happy in my call to an entire consecra- tion of soul and body to a cause so noble; and though many rebel against the call of God, I know the discipline of a Shaker life is of God, and that its principles can never fail. I have tasted of the bread and waters of a regenerated and eternal life, and to every sincere Seeker after truth, I send greeting, a welcome to share with me. Briefs. “The Shakers have most certainly struck at the root of all evil, but in our opinion they have struck a little too deep.” Thus Writes Dr. R. T. Trall; and yet, who cares how deeply any strike, if the object of the stroke is accomplished, and the root of all discom- ﬁture and separation from godliness aimi- hilated ? Deacon David Osborn had frequently met neighbor Camp, and compared their know- ledge of the scriptures, until the Deacon was nearly out of patience. In a hurry, he was passing near the ﬁeld Where friend Camp was at Work, when Camp, as usual, began: “David, do you know what Baul says?” “Yea,” replied the Deacon, “ It is good for a man not “ No, no,” said Camp, “ I don’t mean dat, not dat ! ” Issachar Bates, Sen., was getting his horse shod at a smith’s, in a Western State, when -“he, as usual, opened a sermon at man’s fallen ﬂ-eshly nature, and assured the company pres- ent that Christ had come again, and that he was a representative of the new_ gospel. He -then showed the necessity of a man’s confess- , ing his sins, and living a new life like Jesus, and he should then be enabled to do greater Works than even Jesus. VVhile preaching to his motly hearers, he was annoyed by one who kept demanding a miracle! “What shall I do for you ? ” h.e ﬁnally asked. “ Turn that cart—wheel into a horse!” replied his annoyer. “ That’s just like the evil one,” he remarked, “to leave the owner of that cart only one Wheel to go home With.” Father Joseph Meacham was convinced, it is said, of the truth of Mother Ann’s mis- sion, when, after a question from him as to her authority to preach Christ’s second appear- ing, she replied : “ When the Man (Jesus) is gone, the W'oman has her right.” At the great religious revival, in Kentucky, many years ago, it will be remembered that a little boy was spiritually Wrought upon to speak with much feeling and eloquence. Closing an appeal to sinners, with the drop- ping of his handkerchief, Wet with tears and perspiration, he exclaimed: “Thus will you drop, sinners, into hell, unless you repent!” This little boy is now the very reverend John Rankin, who has told the story often, to many, without in the least inferring that he Was once that little boy. "“ VVe wish to circulate a few hundred copies of our “ Brief Exposition of Shakerism,” and “Universal Church,” and will do so, post paid, to any address, on receipt of ten cents. Parties, at all interested in the people, called Shakers, can get a good view of our system and government, multum in panic, by the reading the above, little but very expressive works. Other works not in the list of Publi- cations, can be procured at this oﬁice. PUBLICATIONS. Christ’s First and Second Appearing - - $1 25 Dunlavy’s Manifesto - - - - - - 1 25 Millennial Church - - - - - - 1 00 Compendium ofshakerism - - - - - 0 50 Three Discourses on United Interests - - 0 50 Shaker Communism——Evans - - - - 0 50 Tracts free, where postage is paid. MEMBERS OF SOCIETY ﬂppointed ‘to answer Correspondents, among whom are the Board of Editors. Elder F. W. Evans. Mt. Lebanon, Columbia Co., N. Y. “ Galen Richmond, Shakers, N. Y. “ Calvin G. Reed, Mt. Morris, Livingston Co., N. Y. “ Simon Mabec, ‘Vest Pittsﬂeld, Mass. “ H. S. Kellogg, Thompsonville, Conn., Shakers. “ Albert Battles, Tyringham, Berkshire Co., Mass. “ Wm. Leonard, Ayer, Mass, Shakers. “ Jonas Nutting, Shirley Village, Middlesex Co., Mass. “ B. H. Smith, Shaker Village, Merrimack Co., N. H. “ Henry Cummings, Enﬁeld, Grafton Co., N. H. “ John B. Vance, Alfred, Shakers. York Co., Me. . “ ' Joseph Brackett, West Gloucester, Cumberland Co., Me., Shakers. “ Chas. Clapp, Union Village, Warren Co., 0., Shakers. ' “ Ezra Sherman, Preston, Hamilton Co., 01110, , Shakers. _. I “ Stephen Ball", Dayton, Shakers, Ohio. “ Jacob Kulp, Pleasant Hill, Mercer Co., Ky. “ J. R. Eades, South Union, Logan Co., Ky. “ J. S. Prescott, Cleveland, Ohio, Shakers.
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ts0209
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 02, no. 10 (October 1872)
Publisher: Mount Lebanon Bishopric
Date: 1872-10-01
Place published: Albany (N.Y.)
Text: THE SHAKER. “ IWILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. G. A. LOMAS, Emma. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., OCTOBER, 1872. N0. 10. FIFTY CENTS PER ANNUM. What Cheer? BY E. H. VVEBSTER. There’s a light streaming forth from the east, That gilds the horizon afar, And says to each suffering heart, Look aloft to the blest morning star, There‘s a promise of day in its beams; There's a promise of freedom and right; There’s a promise of peace on the earth, And the triumph of love over might. There's a joy for the clean and the pure; There’s a rest for the weary of sin. There's a peace for the conqueror of self, And its seat and foundation ’s within. Therc‘s a love for the trusting and frail; There’s a tender, compassionate heart, That weeps o'er the sinner, and cannot assail, Nor add to its suﬂ'ering smart. ...
Show moreTHE SHAKER. “ IWILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. G. A. LOMAS, Emma. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., OCTOBER, 1872. N0. 10. FIFTY CENTS PER ANNUM. What Cheer? BY E. H. VVEBSTER. There’s a light streaming forth from the east, That gilds the horizon afar, And says to each suffering heart, Look aloft to the blest morning star, There‘s a promise of day in its beams; There's a promise of freedom and right; There’s a promise of peace on the earth, And the triumph of love over might. There's a joy for the clean and the pure; There’s a rest for the weary of sin. There's a peace for the conqueror of self, And its seat and foundation ’s within. Therc‘s a love for the trusting and frail; There’s a tender, compassionate heart, That weeps o'er the sinner, and cannot assail, Nor add to its suﬂ'ering smart. There's a light glowing bright in our heart, For our Father, who led us this way; There's a love, over warm in our breast, For our Mother, our comfort and stay, Who suffered and toiled to spread the pure faith That shines on our everyday life, And lightens and cheers us thro’ sorrow and toil To faint not, nor sink in the strife. There's a. gratitude due to our King, For all of his infinite care; There's a duty we owe to our Queen ; A loyalty everywhere; To honor their cause, in word and in deed, And light up the temple anew; And worthily walk in their footsteps, so pure, And oil in our lamps oft renew’d. There’s :1 question will come to each soul, VVl1en eternity opens its light; There’s a sorrow will over us roll, If we keep not our lamps burning bright. Let us banish all discord, and work while we can, And lighten each burden we may, While joyfully walking in duty, and use The straight and still brightening way. How to be an Angel. BY 11. L. EADES. It is but rational to conclude that all who enter the kingdom of heaven, in the spirit world, on leaving this, are angels (I go, said Christ, to prepare a place for you—John 14: 2, 3), and that they became so, previous to their entrance there. How to become so is the grand problem the World has been trying to solve from Adam to the present hour. For this purpose are all religions instituted among men, that they may be prepared to reach the home of angels when their bodies are consigned to dust. If this be true, it is important that We should know how to become angels, before We ascend to knock at the pearly gates, lest it may be said to us, “ Depart from me, I never knew you.” Comte says, every “Religion demands the concurrence of two spontaneous inﬂuences: the ob_jective—intellectual; the subjective- moral.” He should have said spiritual, but thank him for not making the animal :1 neces- sity. One thing is very certain, and that is : All religions that ever existed were, in the beginning, precisely alike, that is, their basic pillars are the same; all the deviations arise from the modes of building after the religious idea is conceived. The ﬁrst is a feeling of de- pendence on some power above that of man; the second is the desire to know something of that being or power on whom they depend; the third is the desire to know how to act to propitiate his favor, and come into harmony with him; the fourth is to pray to, love, and worship him. These are the basic pillars of all religions, and as said, all the variations after this arise from the modes adopted by each to accomplish the above ends. Leaving all others for the present, I will present the true Christian or Shaker plan, which is, in a nutshell: to confess, repent of, and forsake all sin; take Jesus Christ as our exemplar; follow his footsteps, and live the pure, chaste, and holy life that he lived. I might stop right here, only for the fact that thousands declare the impossibility of mortals bearing so great a cross, or living a life so pure as to be- come angels on earth——to be “ overcomers as Christ overcame,” and thus secure our right to sit with him in his kingdom. But as‘it has been done, and is now done, I propose brieﬂy and inductively to tell how, after assuming the above pure conditions necessary to our union with Christ. “ Religion,” says Gould, “ undertakes to encourage man with hopes; if he will expend his vital energy in the develop- ment of his higher powers, he will be happier. It also deters him by threats from resisting his spiritual instincts, and burying them in ﬂeshly indulgence,” legal or illegal. “ For man’s faculties sweep far beyond the develop- ment of his sensual life. He derives his live- liest gratiﬁcations and acutest pain from objects to which his animal consciousness is a stranger " He further adds this great truism: “ If man requires a great exemplar, so does Woman require one, too. A religious system which would provide man with a model, and leave Woman destitute of one, is imperfect, and inadequate to supply the wants of human nature.” Thus he makes his own Roman Catholic, and all other religions inadequate, Shakers alone excepted, who have Mother Ann Lee as the exemplar of woman- kind, who bore the same testimony, led the same life, and overcome the same adversary as did Jesus Christ, her Lord. Thank him for the compliment. What I shall say is equally necessary for both sexes to know and practice, in order to become angels, and must ask par- don for any necessary plainness which may exceed their sense of the true bounds of modesty. It is a matter well known to physiologists that all have the power, by their will, to direct and precipitate the vital forces to any part of the system, to develop and strengthen the animal, intellectual, or spiritual brain, or any of the organs of the body. “ For intellectual development, the spontaneous force must be precipitated on the cerebral hemispheres. For sentimental [spiritual] development, it must be turned upon the sensory ganglia. For animal development, upon the cerebellum, or lower brain. That luxury and sexual indul- gence are ruinous to mental, and therefore to moral health, is well known to physicians.” In man, the intellect is coupled either with the spiritual, sentimental, or animal brain, at pleasure. \Vhen it is coupled with the cere- bellum, it is for the purpose of inventing means to aid and heighten animal pleasures; when coupled with the cerebrum, it is for the purpose of devising means for spiritual growth and happiness. “Now [the highest] happi- ness is to be found either in the co—ordination of all the faculties, mental and bodily (and this the sensualist claims), or in the develop- ment of the highest, at the expense of those less noble. If a man is content to remain on the dead level of the majority of other men, he will adopt the ﬁrst course. If he feels a desire to rise above them, he will adopt the second.” Now, because God has endowed us with animal and lower faculties, as well as the spiritual and higher, it does not relieve us from culpability when we submit to the rule of the former instead of the latter, because he has made us “masters of the situation.” “The government of the passions,” says Locke, “is the right improvement of liberty; nor let any one say he cannot govern his passions [if he take the proper means in time], nor hinder them from breaking out, and carrying him into action ; for what he can do before a prince or great man, he can do alone, or in the presence of God, if he Will.” In order to retain this ability, the Work must be begun in the mind, and the vital forces precipitated upon the cerebral hemispheres, and not upon the cerebellum and animal organs. “ What I say unto one, I say unto all, watch.” When the mind is permitted to dwell on sensual delights, the vital currents are directed to the generative organs, when a state of orgasm is induced, and active and vigorous secretions there connnenced, and graduated at the expense of the higher facul- ties and upper brain; for nearly seven per '74: THE SHAKER. cent. of the solids of the adult brain is pure phosphorus, and this, to be continually posited in the generative system and cere- bellum, makes the man or woman a brute, and the cross of Christ and higher life become to either an impossibility, yea, not even de- sired by them, so thoroughly subdued are all their spiritual aspirations. They now can join with Heine in saying, “ I scorn the heavenly plains above me, In the blest land of Paradise,” or with the exclamation of Jean Reynaud, “Ah I Christ, how your paradise scares me I I prefer my life with its lights and shadows, tribulations and pains, to that blank immor- tality with its sanctimonious peace.” This is the sunken, low, and hardened con- dition that mortals reach who allow their thoughts to run on sensual and carnal things, instead of intellectual and spiritual. VVhen even a state of orgasm is not perceptible, the ‘indulgence in luxuries and carnal thinking will polarize the phosphoric tires on the core- bellum, and strengthen the animal, which will predominate, govern, and direct the body. \Ve then hear the complaint, “ Oh, I can’t bear the cross; were it not for this one re- quirement, I Would join the Shakers forth- with,” etc. But you can bear the cross, the weakest mortal, if you will take the course indicated; but if you do the contrary, all your prayers will be unavailable, for then “A transient gust, Spent in a sudden storm of lust,” will be the consequence. There is no retreat, as some suppose, by reabsorption into the blood, by the will, of misspent organic life, and thence carried to the upper brain for spiritual uses. Its stand is taken; it will not retreat. “The wise foreseeth the evil, and hide themselves, but the simple go on, and are punished.” Yea, the simpletons go on, re- peating the process again and again—resolve and fail, and re—resolve and fail, until they become wholly subdued by sensuality, their angel of hope droops her wings, and they sink in the gulf of despair. Then they may Well repeat to themselves the vision of Jean Paul, “All around me is a wide, petriﬁed humanity. In the dark, unpeopled stillness no love glows, no admiration, no hope, no a.im—I so all alone! Wfithin me the dumb, blind Demigorgon is concealed, and I am in it. So I proceed into eternity—and who knows me, and hears my sorrow ?—I. I/Vho knows me, and hears to all eternity ?——I.” Now, by heeding what I have said, this terri- ble state can be avoided. Take not, I beseech you, my young friends, the ﬁrst backward step, then the second will never be taken. But bear with me a few moments longer, if it be not too great a strain upon your patience and modesty, whilst I state a few things it would be the part of wisdom to avoid, though considered by many, harmless and inoffensive. I address those now who really desire in their hearts to be successful in cross—bearing, and gaining the pure angelic state. Those who chant the little popular song, “I Want to be an angel, and with the angels dwell,” will ﬁnd it necessary to avail themselves of the smallest advantages, to insure a speedy progress to the angel condition. It is written, “Resist the devil, and he will ﬂee from you.” But it is a poor time to resist, after you have invited him into your sanctum, and embraced him. Those who really desire purity above all things, will refrain from reading novels and love stories, or singing worldly love songs, or any sexual dalliance; arm-in-arm promenades; moon- light riding, and masquerades, balls, bacchanal carousals. Such will ﬁnd the words of Byron but too true: “ The gay companions of tlie bowl Dispel awhile the sense of ill; Though pleasures ﬁre the madd‘nlng soul, The heart-the heart-—is lonely still.” Yea, things that seem still smaller, may be noted, such as holding the ﬁngers after the grasp of friendly recognition; fondling with dogs, cats, and other animal pets (“ Without are dogs,” etc.); looking at and contemplat- ing half nude pictures; reading stories of crim. con.., and unnecessary conversation thereon. Yea, the truly earnest soul will take the Christ stand, rejecting all partial affections of natural kindred (since now you have a better), husband, wife, children, father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, cousin, or what not. If, since you have chosen the spiritual relation, they will not come with you, let them have the natural; being “joined to their idols, let them alone.” All these, and such like things, precipitate the vital forces downward, and strengthen the animal nature-—yea, “ cause the animal nature to tread out the life of the spiritual nature, and lower man to the beast, and this is sin.” As the old saying is, they “make Jordan a hard road to travel.” ments come over your spirits, or weaken your resolutions, for complete victory is within your grasp. ence. But let no discourage- These are the words of experi- The maxim is true, “ Whatever can be diminished, can be destroyed.” Only keep up the diminishing process, and the end, to your great joy, will surely come, when you will fully realize the truth of Pope’s beautiful picture: “Happy the blameless vestal's lot, The World forgetting, by the world forgot; Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, Each prayer accepted, and each wish resigned. Labor and rest, that equal periods keep; Obedient slumbers that can wake or weep; Desires composed, affections ever even; Tears that delight, and sighs that waft to heaven. Grace shines around them with serenest beams, And whispering angels paint their golden dreams." Extend the Truth. BY S. G. HURLBUT. We will premise the necessity of some deﬁ- nite and concerted action for the spreading of the doctrine of Believers. Ignorance is the great barrier to its reception by those prepared for it. Whatever will enlighten the minds of the people, helps the spread of Shakerism. There is now not one in a thousand that knows even theoretically anything about what constitutes the difference between Shakers and the rest of Christian professors. We aim to live a life of purity—abso1ute pu- rity—free from sin and all evil. This is the ideal Christian life, and had we the capabili- ties of an archangel, and the voice of Gabriel’ s trumpet, We might tell all of earth’s inhabit- ants, at once, that there was something to do besides buy and sell, to get gain, marry, and build up selﬁshness, and run riot over the rights of each other, the strong oppressing the Weak, and they in turn cursing their oppress- ors. In the absence of these powers, We will content ourselves with writing the truth as sharp as possible, and send it forth on its errand of mercy. If it executes judgment, We will not sorrow; truth will harm no good. Our needs, as an organized body of Chris- tian Believers, at present, is increased facili- ties for giving our peculiar views to the world. There is an unprecedented call from all quarters of the globe for more light on the very subjects that, of all others, Believers feel themselves in advance of all other people, viz.: how to live pure lives, and enjoy the social relations between the sexes at the same time. How can we do this better than by doubling the size of our missionary sheet, Tun SHAKER, trebling our eﬂbrts to fill it with well worn, bright truths, and then quadrupling our efforts to spread it to all who would appreciate or pay for it? If there is a better way than this, let us have it. “ The best way is as good as any.” We have the greatest good revealed to us of any mortals that we know of. It is our duty to spread it “in all the Ways we can.” It seems ﬁtting that from the multitude of home blessings we spare a portion to the needy and honest seekers outside of our community. They ask not the bread that perishes, but the truth ; and they expect it, and reasonably, too, of us. Shakerism. Extract from “Hints towards Reform,” by HORACE GREELEY. IVith the Shakers, so nick-named, I have some personal acquaintance, and I am not ashamed to own that I have been instructed and cheered by them. They have never been fairly appreciated by the world. Their utter condemnation of marriage and of individual property,’* the grotesque ceremonies of Divine worship, and their incessant declamation against all departures from celibacy as impure and sinful, have repelled and disgusted nearly all who are not of their own body. But, might not a more expansive philosophy, a more liberal culture, discover in these very excesses a moral worthy of the gravest atten- tion? Are our relations as men and women so universally pure and exalted that we may rightly despise those Who, unable to separate the palpable evil from the latent good, reject both together? Is exclusive property so be- neﬁcent a feature in our social order, as prac- tically exempliﬁed around us, that we may fairly stigmatize those Who, not needing its incitements to thrift or industry, see ﬁt to decline them ? The peculiarities of Shaker worship I read- ily abandon to the ridicule of the caviller, only wishing that theirs were the only absurdities * This is a gross mistake on the part of a large ma- jority; we never condemned either. G. A. L. THE SI-IAKER. \ '75 committed in attempting to honor our Father in Heaven, and that no religious errors more popular and enduring than theirs were Worse than simply ridiculous. lVhen all that may be said against these simple-minded ascetics has been freely admit- ted, there is yet left enough in their character and history to challenge our admiration. They present the sublime and hope—inspir— ing spectacle of a community founded and built up on the conquest of the most inexora- ble appetites; lust, avarice, ambition, revenge ——these are not merely discountenanced by the social economy of the Shakers, but this econ- omy is based on their entire cruciﬁxion. Nor can I see how any man can rationally con- clude, as some have nevertheless asserted, that all this show of subduing the appetites is hypocrisy and a delusion. I can conceive no earthly motive for practicing so much outward self-denial, at so great inconvenience, and with no hope of honor, or popularity, but a certainty of the reverse, if not based on obe- dience to an inward conviction. The uncharitable theory supposes a reﬁne- ment of absurdity and self-annoyance which never yet possessed for any period the brain of any sane man, much less of a whole coni- munity for ages. Let us, then, proﬁt by the lessons which these enthusiasts read us, while discarding their unpardonable errors. Let us remember that they have solved for us the problem of the possibility, the practicability, of a social condition from which the twin curses, pauper- ism and servitude, shall be utterly banished. They have shown how pleasant may be the labors, how abundant the comforts, of a com- munity wherein no man aspires to be lord over his brethren, no man grasps for himself, but each is animated by a spirit of devotion to the common good. “Then I have stood among the quiet homes of this unaspiring, unpoetical people, and marked how they have steadily, surely, ad- vanced from abject poverty to amplest compe- tence; when I have observed how their patient but never excessive toil has transformed rug- ged barrenness into smiling fertility and bean- ty, how could I refrain from thinking lightly of that blind dogmatism which asserts the im- possibility of inducing men to labor except for their own selﬁsh gratiﬁcation, and affirms the necessity of the stimulus of personal acquisi- tion to save mankind from sinking back into the darkness and destitution of barbarism ? Real Christianity versus Profession. “ There is one argument in favor of Chris- tianity, which I could never reason away,” said a young man who was trying to be an in- ﬁdel, and could not, “ and that was the con- sistent, godly conduct of my own father.” To which any bystander might have replied: “ There is one argument against Christianity, which I could never reason away, and that is the inconsistent, ungodly Walk of a majority who call themselves Clm'st~ians. These men and Women are fathers and mothers in our own neighborhood, and are asking all to be- come Christians, which means a profession of something which grants an indulgence to its possessors to do that which should make humanity blush.” If to be a Christian means to follow the example of those who monopolize that title, I, too, must look in another direction. And if to be a Christian means to be good, I will try to be good, without making confederates of a set of hypocrites.—-Religio—Phil0sophicaZ Journal. Communism. BY WATSON ANDREWS. The idea of communistic life seems to have been entertained by men in very early times. Instances are not wanting, even before the advent of our Saviour, of communities estab- lished upon this principle. People, in all time, seem to have been aware that there is not only a disposition, but anecessity in man’s nature leading him to hibernate; to congre- gate into communities, and live in as close a relation as the nature of his circumstances would permit. In obedience to this law, men have endeavored in various ways, and at vari- ous times, during their history, to establish communities, wherein all the members should fare and share alike ; having common interests, tables, and privileges generally, varied only by the tastes, condition and capabilities of the individual. And although there has been no lack of talent, of means, nor of good inten- tions engaged in these enterprises, they have, for the most part, signally failed. And the cause of these failures is always the same old story—disagreement_, antagonisms among the members; a preference for self and family connections in the individual. Nature, ﬁrst of all, must needs provide for the reproduction, care and culture of the race, and the way she has chosen to effect this, Was by endowing man and woman with the parental instincts ; an unlimited partiality for their own offspring. Vllithout this, the race could not have survived a day; and with it, there was necessitated private families, private property, and private residences. Hence all attempts to maintain community of interest and of residence, while retaining the family re- lation must ever fail; for it is no less than attempting to do away with an effect, while continuing the cause. The human race depends for its existence upon the family relation; and the family re- lation, as we have seen, depends upon isola- tion of interests and of resistance for its ex- istence. Likewise, the human race depends for its happiness upon congregation——the com- munity relation ; and this equally depends for its completeness and permanent existence upon identity of interests and residence, and both phases of human life are alike called for by the nature of things. The family relation, therefore, is a great primal necessity; perverted though it is, yet it is a fundamental necessity nevertheless; the seed-ﬁeld of the human race. It ante- dates the birth of the race; it produced, and it sustains the race; and the last echoes of its knell will be heard only by the last of the race. The communistic relation also is a great necessity; a kindred necessity, of even more importance. And although not primal, it is ﬁnal, and completes What the other begins; being the harvest-ﬁeld of the human race. The necessary self-love of the one, with its consequent antagonisms, and the equally neces- sary social-love of the other, with its conse- quent harmony, are alike but parts of the Divine economy in the affairs of men, for growing and harvesting a crop of human souls divine. And “the husbandman that sowed the seed is the Son of man, the ﬁeld is the world, and the reapers are the angels.” In the ﬁrst, self-preservation is the standard of excellence; in the last, self-abnegation. In the ﬁrst, except a man provide for his own household, he is said to be worse than an in- ﬁdel; and in the last, if he do not “ forsake and hate ” his own household, he is an inﬁdel. Beside these, there is no true way for men and women to live upon this planet ; all others are but these in incipiency or decay, presaging or recalling normal, human society. The family relation requires that a man be governed by the selﬁsh sentiments; an almost exclusive care for himself and family. Directly or indirectly, whatever he plans or executes, has for its object the support and comfort of his own household. He contri- butes, it may be, to the support of the state; to liberal institutions and various public enter- prises; but it all means only this : that his nature prompts him (and very properly) to provide for his own in preference to another’s. He gives in charity where he can, without de- priving his own, not otherwise; self must have the preference, or the race ‘would speedily become extinct. And this is by no means the result of calculation mainly; but it has its source in man’s original nature—in the neces- cities of the case. ‘ The true communistic relation, on the con- trary, requires that a man be governed by the liberal sentiments—-—an almost exclusive care for his fellow man. Whatever he engages in has for its object the Well-being and happiness of his fellows; for he has learned that the Way to be happy is to make others happy. And the only way to do this permanently, is to make a full sacriﬁce of all selﬁsh considera- tions; all natural, partial, private relations and possessions—“father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children, houses and lands; yea and his own (peculiarities of ) life also.” Retaining a preference for any of these, proves a rock to the voyager in communism, _ and a rock upon Which, sooner or later, he is sure to split. For the least thing partaking of the nature of possession, possesses the nature of antagonism, and antagonism and harmony are incompatible; and harmony is the cement of society, without which it speedily falls in pieces. No matter what the society, whether savage, civilized or Christian, there must needs be a common bond of union; a universally pervading element, in which all interests centre, and toward which all aspira- tions point, as the needle to the pole, in order to have that degree of harmony which creates, and which alone sustains, society. In natural, generative society, this harmo- nial bond is the reproductive instincts (errone- 76 THE SHAKER. ously called love), culminating in the family relation, with its “ trouble in the ﬂesh”-its care, its anxieties, its fears and its sorrows. Antagonistic in its nature, and limited in dura- tion, its pleasures are necessarily limited, and speedily pass away. In spiritual, regenerative society, this har- mouial bond is love—-love to God supreme, and neighbor as self; culminating in the commu- nistic relation, with its freedom from “trouble in the ﬂesh”——the cares, the anxieties, the fears and the sorrows of the family relation. Harmonial in its nature, and continuous in duration, its pleasures are necessa.rily un- limited and never pass away. For, having reference mainly to the spiritual of man’s life, Which is eternal in its nature, the true relig- ious communistic relation is equally eternal ;- a life—habits of thought and of social inter- course which time cannot affect, and which death does but sever from whatever of annoy- ance things of time occasioned. Instead of stripping the soul of its treasures, death does but place it in the full enjoyment of all that constituted its happiness while on the earth. And this is eternal life, the voluntary relin- quishment of all that death can take from the soul; and the formation of tastes and habits, While in time, which will eternally endure, and in the exercise of which souls are forever increasing in Wisdom, in purity and in happi- ness. And as fast as men progress to the condi- tion of understanding these great truths-—of comprehending the grand system of nature- of God, with regard to man; that it neces- sarily embraces a harvest as well as a seed-time, a regenerative as Well as a generative dispensa- tion ; that these two states are necessarily of an exactly opposite character, inasmuch as the one is a purely natural state, indispensable in the development of natural beings, and the other a purely spirz'tual state, equally indis- pensable in the development of spiritual beings ; that the ripening of the spiritual de- pends upon the decay of the natural, as really as the ripening of the grain depends upon the decay of the stalk; and therefore that what is pleasurable in the one is painful in the other; what is life to the one is death to the other, and vice versa ;—so fast will they com- prehend that all pertaining to the natural, generative order, either in this mode of exist- ence or any other, must be stripped off from the immortal mind of man, as the chaff from the grain, before he can become capable of those complete soul-blendings with the Divine Source and his fellow man, which alone pro- duce the harmony, and ensure the happiness of heaven. Wait no Longer. BY ANNA ERVIN. “ Shall we Wait and Wait forever, Still procrastination rueing, Self-exertion trusting never, Always dreaming, never doing? " Truth claims limitless dominion, Ease and pleasure, what are they ? There are souls Well worth the winning, Who must live through endless day. 4 Souls there are that long have slumbered, Great in heart, and strong in hand; Awake, awake, rise unincumbered, And scatter truth throughout the land. " Wait no longer! Hope, faith, labor,” Bear our spirits to the prize; Let us give unto our neighbor What has made us heaven-wise. What wait we for? ‘Tie for tl1y blessing, O God oflove, of life, and power! Give us zeal to aid progression, And around us light to shower. Daniel and J ohn.-——No. 2. BY F. W. E. John saw (by symbols) the four great dis- peusations, which extend from the beginnin to the end of human history. ' Daniel saw (by symbols) four great king- doms, beginning in his ow11 times, and run- ning parallel with John’s vision to the end. Daniel was a subordinate, John a universal prophet. John was “ more than a prophet ;” far beyond even John the Baptist. A prophet was not, necessarily, any better, personally, than the people to whom he proph- esied; even as a spiritual medium is so physi- ologically, not necessarily any better, as being either morally or religiously superior to the body of Spiritualists. But John the Baptist preached repentance’, in addition to foretelling future events; and John the Revelator, in his private life, Walked closely in the footsteps of his spiritual guide and leader, Jesus. He was not only a prophet, but a good man, which is being more than a mere prophet, like Balaam, and many others, who were beautiful Christ Prophets, but who did not reduce to practice the principles they set forth, that would ﬁnally redeem humanity. Daniel saw" a lion, a bear, a leopard, and :1 complex beast that had ten horns. These were the Babylonia, the Medo-Persia, the Greek, and the Roman empires. The fourth beast, or system, is represented as “ dreadful It had great iron teeth, and it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it.” This was the Roman, and is graphically de- scribed. “ It was diverse from all the beasts, or systems, that were before it, and had ten horns.” In truth, the other systems were merged in it; so that all the elements of pre- ceding human governments were incorporated therein. The ten horns, or powers, repre- sented Republicanism, which was gradually rising and predominating over every other form-of governmental polity; the antithesis of despotism or monarchy-the one-man power —being a subdivision of power among the many men. This fourth beast gradually supplanted des- potisms, monarchies and aristocracies, and de- stroyed them. Again. In the midst of this system came up a little horn, or power, before which there were three of the ﬁrst horns plucked up by the roots. “ In it were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things,”—— the Papal power. The Babylonia, the Mede- Persia, and Greek systems were subdued into one universal government—tl1e Roman. Pagan Rome built the Partheon, a house for the gods and goddesses of all nations; thus and terrible, strong exceedingly. blending them together in one grand system of theogony. She offered to put a statue of Jesus with the rest; but the iconoclastic Christians waged a war of words against all other deities but their own Tr2'm'1‘y ; and “the little horn” prevailed over all other civil governments upon the earth. But Daniel gives us the history of the rise of still another, and more interior power——.—“ a little stone cut out of the mountain Without hands.” “I beheld till the thrones”-—des- potisms and monarchies-—“Were cast down, and the ancient of days did sit. A ﬁery stream issued and came forth before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” Memory is the book; the memory of each individual--—his and her his- tory. It was not by adulation and praise, but by their lives, the product of their free- agency, that these souls ministered to and stood before the Ancient of Days. It was human history, the judgment day, in which the errors of each individual will be illumi- nated by the light of God’s countenance, by the presentation of the abstract principles of right, as seen in the judgment upon human history, or accumulated human experience, as they exist in the Christ element, into which all the prophets, at the time of their prophesy- mg, were baptized. This judgment scene is paralleled in John’s vision, thus: “And I saw a great white throne ”-—;S'ha7cer Order-—“and her that sat on it, from Whose face the (old) earth and the heaven”—-the theologies of iBabylon—“ﬂed away; and there was no place for them ” in the new spiritual, or Shaker Order. “ And I saw the dead, small and great,” in the spirit- ual world, “ stand before God; and the books were opened”-—memories of their past his- tories ; “ and another book was opened, which is the book of life; ” because it is the memory of their present and future obedience to the testimony of Jesus, the principles and orders of the new creation. “And the dead,” who had had the everlasting Gospel preached unto them, “that they might be judged according to men in the ﬂesh,” “Were judged out of those things that were Written in the books, according to their works. And the sea-— World——gave up the dead that were in it ; and death and hell,” not being eternal, “ delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man” (and woman) “ ac- cording to their works ; and death and hell,” being mortal, “ were cast into the lake of ﬁre,” and destroyed. “ This is the second death;” being the death of death itself; the destroyer is destroyed: he that leadeth into captivity is gone into captivity; and there remaineth life eternal. See the Shaker Order, under the title of New Jerusalem, still more minutely described in Rev. xxi. “Because of the voice of the great words Which the little horn spake, I beheld till the fourth beast Was slain and his body destroyed, and given to the burning ﬂame.” This fourth beast, or man-Republicanism, will be de- stroyed by the burning ﬁre of truth, and a system of dual or true Republicanism will be THE SHAKER. '77 substituted therefor, in which the male and female elements will be equally represented in the executive, and will form the more interior order of the senate, with the house of repre- sentatives as an external covering; and hav- ing "Divine revelation, conjoined to human ex- perience, as the soul of the whole govern- mental system. ' “As concerning the rest of the beasts, or systems, they had their dominion taken away; yet their lives Were prolonged for a season and time.” What could better portray the grad- ual supplanting of one system by another, whether civil or ecclesiastical ? DUPLICATE VISION. The same ideas, represented to Daniel under different imagery. “ The four winds of hea- ven striving upon the great sea ” of humanity, is a beautiful use of the natural to convey spiritual conceptions. “ The four beasts com- ing up from the sea, each diverse, as they fol- low in the grand procession of empires, is sublime symbolizing of truthful history then in the future, now actualized and actualizing. The great Image: head of gold—-——Babyl0n ; breast and arms of silver--Medo-Persz'a; belly and thighs of brass—-Greece ; legs of iron— Inzperml Rome ; feet and ten toes of iron and clay—man-Republicanism again . All the systems blended together in one his- tory ; then comes “the little stone cut with- out hands, which becomes a great mountain, ﬁlling the earth”—the Christ revelation. It smites the image upon its feet-—in the latter days; and the iron, clay, brass, silver and gold are all broken in pieces together, not an- nihilated; for in Babylon——mixture——they all still exist, and nullify each other. The great image, and the four beasts, are duplicated his- tory of male governments, which the revela- tion of the Mother element in deity and in humanity will remove, displace; and “no place will be found for them.” For the dual natural civil government, and the dual spirit- ual religious government “ will ﬁll the whole earth.” This will be the Millennial period, the culmination of all prophecy. “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man ’’—a female—‘‘ come with the clouds of heaven ”——Sha7ce7' commu- m'ties—“ and came to the Ancient of Days ; and they brought her near before him; and there was given her dominion and glory, and a kingdom ”—the kingdom of heaven-—“ that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve her. Her dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and her kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” This is the appearing of the Christ spirit in the female humanity, described by the Christ prophet, David, as “the King’s daughter, who was to forget her own people, and her father’s house, that she might become the mother of spiritual offspring, whom she might make princes (and princesses) in all the earth; ” or, as the Christ prophet, John, ex- presses it, “ kings and priests unto God and the Lamb,” who should administer the resur- rection to the countless myriads of souls who had passed from earth, and were still in the generative order, in the spirit world. Well might the Spirit say (through David), “ I will make thy name to be remembered in (or by) all generations. Therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever.” John says (Rev. 14: 14), “I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on her head a golden crown, and in her hand a sharp sickle.” Nothing so like the Son of man as the Daughter of man. “An angel cried to her that sat upon the cloud ”-—A1m Lee--“ Thrust in thy sickle, and reap ; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And she thrust in her sickle, and the earth Was reaped.” Behold the days in which we live, and the great “winepress of the wrath of God” against lust and war (which grows out of it) will be trodden without (or outside) the holy ’city———the spiritual Order——bein_g in the natural order itself, which will execute judg- ment upon its own members; a.nd “blood will come out of the winepress, even unto the horses’ bridles ”—the guides and rulers of the Order. For the whole natural order, civil and ecclesiastical, is “turned to blood.” The rulers and their people are alike baptized into the spirit of murder; for there is no place, nor people, excepting the Shakers, exempt therefrom; as was shown in the late civil war. And the Shaker Order—“ the little stone” —'—“the kingdom of heaven,” for the coming of which, humanity have all prayed, although as yet in only its mustard—seed state, is as- suredly destined to become “a great tree,” among whose branches the birds of heaven—— the religious, spiritually-minded—can find food and shelter; and beneath whose shade—the civil government——the beasts of earth—the natural or earthly—minded——can rest in peace, am “ none to make them afraid.” Thus con- stituting new heavens and a new earth, wherein will dwell, in place of oppression, war. and bloodshed, peace and plenty, in universal righteousness. Sketches of Shaker Life.——No. 1. "We very agreeably comply with an urgent demand to know the inner life of the Shakers, when we begin these “Sketches,” and give notice of their continuance. \Ve are often “How do you “Does your business engross your whole attention ?” These are a few from a multitude of questions constantly recurring. Ere we conclude these “ Sketches” you will know. We were one of a happy party of four that took the early Boston and Albany train for Canaan, N. 32., being invited to a asked 2 “ Are you happy .7” amuse yourselves?” SOCIAL GATHERING, under the auspices of the Novitiate Order of Mt. Lebanon. Arriving at the Canaan Fam- ilies not far from 8 o’clock A.M., we leaped from the carriage with hungry stomachs, but with merry hearts, received by Sister Louisa Green and others. Breakfast was waiting for us, prepared by our Sister Marcia, and this thirty miles from home ! VVe again entered the car- riage, and were conveyed to Mt. Canaan, only 150 perches from the buildings—a spot made by nature to greet the children of Grace-— where, upon our arrival, nearly ﬁfty voices, singing in harmony, opened a welcome hymn, while, from all around, beginning with the Elders, and extending to the multitude, greet- ings of welcome met our eyes, ears and feel- ing, while the trees and undergrowth seemed to lend their assistance to the mountain breezes, to accord with the hundreds of voices in the jubilee of welcome. The school chil- dren had remembered us, for their busy ﬁn- gers had worked upon a wire net-work, with tiny white ﬂowers, the letters in good Roman- WELCOME! A large awning, on the top of the hill, was sufficient covering for all, in case of a storm- which, however, they never have needed for this, as the best of weather has annually cheered the spot for twelve years, by some arrangement Elder Frederick claims to have made with “ Old Probabilities.” Seated ’neath the monstrous tent, a set of “Resolutions” were in order; their tenor being, that each one assembling there, should love every other body present ! Of course, so easy a rule was adopted unanimously. A dialogue followed, spoken by eight of the children, upon “ Useful Knowledge,” which was well arranged and nicely spoken, closing with a pretty song. Individual contributions or essays, prepared for the occasion, were next in order, and these gave evidence of having been ﬁlled with the results of good mental culture, and deep, relig- ious feelings. Again the choir sung “ Jerusa- lem” in harmony, and with such spirit as to remind one of a thorough-going Methodist after his baptism by Shakerism ! N ow a very agreeable circumstance was enacted : Six or eight young sisters spoke for half an hour or more, a dialogue of their own composition, upon “The Fundamental Prin- ciples of Shakcrism.” Its composition and delivery‘ were worthy of any institution of learning, and contained so much information that worthily and eagerly sought for by many, that we urged its publication. Next, we had an address by Elder F. W. Evans, upon “Active Shakerism;” and by Eldress Antoinette, upon the “ Purpose and Value of this Jubilee ;” then a few remarks by the writer, upon “ The Honor due Modern Saints ;” when recess and refreshments fol- lowed; then lemon juice and frozen cream mingled very agreeably with our mortality. Soon, a call to dinner: and now, oh, ye epi- cures, attention! ye who dream that meals without meats are without pleasure or profit, look over the tables ! The tables could not groan, or they would, beneath the weight of fruits, ﬂowers, vegeta- bles, custards; all the products of the dairy, and these conjoined to the cereal class. Here was “ the staff of life,” unrobbed of its mus- cle-making bran, which is so basely displaced by violence to the animal creation, and with such poor returns, by the yet uncivilized bar- barities of our age! Here was a table that would have adorned any Eden ever thought of ; and while we joyed in its health—giving pleasures, the ﬂocks and the herds, whose dead carcasses would have disgraced the occa- sion, were frolicking in the ﬁelds, praising God with us ! Next followed a very agreeable chit-chat, which amounted to a real love-feast, and this '78 THE SHAKER. might have continued ad z'«nﬁm'.tam, had not a call to the tent notiﬁed all that om‘ time of departure had arrived. N ow we received love ; and now we realized more than ever, that hosts of the invisible World were enjoying with us the beauties of the occasion. A beautiful farewell song was rendered for us, as our carriage arrived to con- vey us back to the depot; and here ended the loveliest six hours of our existence. And as We left the grounds, we responded in our hearts: Farewell, dear, loving souls! You Whom the World at large look upon as robbed of all comfort, you, alone, are the true com- fort-takers ; for, as you shake from your souls the bondage of sin and selﬁshness, all heaven ﬂows in upon you. Yours is already a life eternal ; “ a thing of beauty, a joy forever.” All was concert, all was love ; and here was a Shaker Picnic—a Social Gathering——where souls, Whose lives are thoroughly virginal, Were giving and receiving an affectionate love, unequaled by anything else in the. world. True Shakers are happy. One place on earth, thank God, can that, which has been said to exist only in the dictionary—-“ happiness”- be found and continually enjoyed; and this place is in aShake7'l1fe, at a Social Gather- ing, with F. VY. Evans, Levi Shaw, Antoinette Doolittle and Olive Holden as its living heads —who are, most truly, “ the servants of all” their people. ‘No never expect to be Worthy of a second invitation; but whose is the guest, let him or her “proclaim it upon the house- top.” 3? Angel Messenger of Peace. BY OLIVE STEBBINS. Fly, ﬂy through the heavens, thou Gospel proclaimer, To earth’s needy children, I earnestly pray; For truth and salvation will greet God's creation, 0, may they thy Warning and precepts obey. Fly, ﬂy through the heavens, thou angel of mercy, Proclaim the glad tidings of “peace and good will; ” To cultivate earth, use your warlike utensils, That it may bring forth, and your granaries ﬁll. Let news from Mount Zion Waken every sleeper, To rise from their slnmbers, and hail the glad sound, For now is salvation from war‘s desolation, Where righteousness reigns, and rich blessings are i found. For all Wars Will cease where the Gospel is planted, Christ’s mission was “peace and good will” unto man; The same voice to-day, in this last visitation, Since it is revealed through our good Mother Ann. VVe now have a warfare, not with carnal weapons, The war We engage in begins at the gate; The sword points within us, the pure testimony, Our own life of sin We must certainly hate. All sinners must bow to the Lord in his temple, Before his true witness their deeds bring to light, Or they cannot enter this beautiful city, VVhere purity reigns as a standard of right. 0 come, all ye weary and ye heavy laden, To Mount Zion’s borders, where sweet rest is found; 0 come to the feast, is the kind invitation, 0 come and be saved on Ged’s holy ground. Says Dr. Holley :-—“ No faith is more easily misunderstood and misrepresented than that of the Shakers. The metaphysical explana- tion of it is so different from popular appre- hension, that great pains and some talent are necessary in conducting a moral analysis, to do justice to this remarkable sect.” Reminiscences. BY D. A. BUCKINGHAM. Holvnsrr THE BEST POLICY. It was the labor of Mother Ann and the ﬁrst Elders to impress upon the minds of their immediate successors, or members of the then Shaker fraternity, the importance of true hon- esty and just dealing, one with another, and with all mankind. They were so strenuous on this subject, that they thought it wrong to take even the amount of a pin of that which did not belong to them personally, in any dishonest way. If necessity pressed any one to take or use that which belonged to or was under the care of another (in their absence), it was to be returned to its place immediately after using, and an acknowledgment rendered, or restitu- tion made or offered to the owner or care- taker, as soon thereafter as consistent. Spe- cial care was taken to avoid all grievances and all wrangling ; knowing that small er7'0rs led to greater ones, as does a “little leaven leaven the whole lump,” or as the “ little foxes spoil the vines.” This agrees with the testimony of Jesus, that, “ W'hosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” Or, according to the Apostle James, that, “ VVhosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” Thus the necessity of being strictly honest, dealingjustly, walking uprightly, in all places and cases. To some persons it may appear like folly to be thus mindful in small matters. But in the observance or non-observance of minor duties or things, we testify to each other, and to all around us, the principle by which We are governed——whether by the true spirit of honesty, or by the spirit of selﬁshness and double-dealing. In a fraternity like ours, where all things are held in common, and no one in truth and reality calleth anything, of all he possesses, his own, how important it is to closely adhere to the fundamental principles and rules by which our ﬁrst founders Were guided and gov- erned. There is a just and proper Way of doing things, and of dealing one with another. Let us have the right. VVe read that “ God’s house is a house of order, and not of confu- sion.” So each and every person, with each and every thing, make up the consecrated Whole-—the common Brotherhood ; all of which —though not mine nor thine—is yet under the special care and superintendence of some indi- vidual or individuals, and is ours. Would it not be well for the present and rising generation of believers in Christ’s second appearing, to compare themselves with the above, and see how nearly they carry out the principles inculcated by our ﬁrst founders? The Modern Baptist and Christ. The much-abused and neglected Swedenborg stock is rapidly rising in the theological mar- ket. A writer in the Golden Age thinks the Whole tendency of religious thought, for thirty years, has been in this direction. Now, let it be understood, that Swedenborg was the angel of Spiritualism, the forerunner, or John Baptist, of Mother Ann; that he did declare, “the Lord is p1'e_paring at this time, a new heaven, of such as look to him in their lives.” Let the good work proceed. The body of Christendom is being found and acknowledged in the labors of Swedenborg; the soul of Chris- tianity will inevitably appear in the life-labors of those who practice the principles inaugu- rated by one, ANN LEE. We call especial at- tention to the leader in March number of THE SHAKER, Vol. I, upon this subject. it Correspondence. The following letter was written by a Shaker sister to a lady in Mt. Holly, N. J. As it contains answers to ever-recurring questions, we place it before the readers of THE SHAKER with pleasure; and shall give other letters from the same pen to the same individual, as space will permit us: '1‘ “ DEAR SISTER MARY :—VVe feel it a duty to ‘ be ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh a reason of the hope that is in us.’ But I am no theologian, and cannot pre- tend to answer your questions in orthodox style, but will endeavor to give you true and simple answers according to my own experi- ence, feelings and reﬂections. You ask, ‘ What were the reasons these good men and women had for retiring from the busy world and lead- ing the life they do?’ No other reason or motive than a purely relz'gz'oius one—an intense desire to live pure and spotless lives-—in a word, a desire to become true Christians--true followers of Jesus. N ot merely outward fol- lowers, but to gain and possess his inner lzfe —his spirit. ‘ If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of His.’ Rom. 8: 9. And if We have His spirit it will be manifest in us by~our ‘zoallcing even as he walked.’ 1 John 2: 6. You next ask: ‘What rea- sons do you give for dissolving the ties of hus- band and wife, parent and child--the ties which we consider, of all others, the most binding?’ Perhaps you will understand me as thoroughly as by any other answer I could give, were I to say, We dissolve those ties for similar reasons, that a young man ‘forsakes father and mother and joins himself to a Wife.’ He has outgrown his childish and boyish aﬁ‘ec- tions and ties, and looks upon the married re- lation as a higher enjoyment and happier life. So the Christian, when he becomes ‘lceclclecl’ to Christ—when he gets a taste of divine, un- selﬁsh love-—When he feels that same sacred and holy tie of love to Christ in his true mem- be7‘s—in his brethren and sisters in Christ-he is weaned from all partial, sensual and lower loves, and gives his whole heart and all his faculties to the building up and support of this holy relation and institution. And who can doubt that this divine, spiritual life of Chris- tian love is inﬁnitely higher, holier and happier than the sensual life of the World, with all its comparatively low ties and relationships ? If the Christian institution has no ties, no loves, no relationships nor enjoyments which equal those natural ties and relations of the World, as professing Christians testify, what can it do for the world ? How make them happier or better? And with all reverence I would THE SHAKER. 79 ask : VVhy should Jesus expect that men and women would forsake fathers, mothers, wives and children, houses and lands for His sake, and in order to become His disciples, as he re- quired, unless His religion and its relation- ships would afford them higher enjoyments? Indeed, our Saviour did promise ‘a hundred fold’ of gospel relations in exchange for the natural relations of the world, which He re- quired them to forsake. This increased and spiritual relationship is the promised inherit- ance of Christ’s true followers; and to us this promise is fulﬁlled. The inworking of the spirit of Christ ultimately develops this high and holy state of the affections, and those who hear its still, small voice and follow it diligently will surely be led in the right way; and this, dear sister, is my prayer in regard to you. “It is according to the spirit and practice of the world to propagate its species; but the spirit and work of Christ and of Christians, who are one with him, is to save those that are propagated. And they have business enough of their own, without meddling with that of the world, out of which they are called and chosen. ‘ Come ye out from among them.’ ‘I have chosen you out of the world, there- fore the World hateth you,’ saith the Saviour to His followers. So, then, as it is the law of the ﬁrst Adam, and the propagating order to ‘forsake father and mother and cleave to the Wife,’ it is the law of Christ and His order or institution, to ‘forsake father and mother, Wife and children,’ ‘ALL’ for Christ’s sake and the Gospel. Luke 14: 26, etc. Of course, if any of these relations choose to go with the Christian into the higher spiritual life of Christian love, they will be embraced in that impartial love on equal terms with others. The Gospel is an expansion of love, not re- quiring us to love our natural relations less, but to love others more, and all on a different and higher principle. It is only such as hate and reject Christ that are to be forsaken, and even they are still to be loved and prayed for. Wle can only know the spirit of Jesus by His teaching and example, till the same spirit takes its abode in us and becomes a saving power. On a certain occasion, Jesus was teaching an assembly, mostly of his disciples, and some one informed him that his mother and brothers stood without, desiring to see him. He did not do as the spirit of the world would have dictated; he illustrated his teachings by his example. He asked, ‘VVho is my mother? and who are my brethren ? ’ and he stretched forth his hand toward HIS DISCIPLES, and said : ‘ Behold my mother and my brethren ! W'ho- soever doeth the will of my Father in Heaven, the same is my mother, sister and brother.’ Mat. 12: 48, etc. Thus He rejected all mere ﬁeshly ties, and gave His disciples a practical lesson to do the same. He owned no parental relations except those of a spiritual nature. With him the mere ﬁeshly relations of the world were nothing; those of the kingdom of God everything. On another occasion, Jesus assured His disciples, ‘that there is no man that has left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting.’ Luke 18: 29. In Mark, 10: 30, the things to be received and enjoyed in this present life, instead of those forsaken, are more particu- larly speciﬁed. ‘ Houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands.’ Now, as all the names of relations here men- tioned as being restored are the names of spirit- ual relations, we must see that ‘ wife,’ though mentioned among those to be forsaken, is not named among those to be restored, because it is the name of a carnal or ﬁeshly relation-—-a relation not known to the kingdom of Heaven or Church of God. In view of these sayings and doings of Jesus Christ, and more that might be mentioned, We think the question, ‘ What reason have we for dissolving the ties of husband and wife,’ is the same as to ask why we have become practical Christiaus—— real followers of Jesus Christ. VVe have dis- solved those ties because He required it of all that would become His disciples--Luke 14: 26 ——because our spiritual natures demand it—— because we hungered and thirsted for right- eousness, and were totally dissatisﬁed with our own earthly, sinful, sensual lives, and because we longed for a higher, holier inner and outer life than could be found in any of the earth relations. I know it is as you say, that those natural ties ‘ are, of all others, the MOST BINDING.’ And it is a sorrowful fact that they bind too many from entering into the more happy relations of the kingdom of God. “You further ask what reason I can give for men and women living in celibacy. This question, I think, has been already in some measure answered, and much more might be said on the subject; but the very best reason we can give is, that Jesus, who was set as an example, that we should follow His steps, did set us this example, and encouraged us by the promise of all the blessings of earth and Heaven, of time and eternity, to follow him in this thing——to forsake wife or husban<l— forsake ALL for His sake and the Gospel. You add : ‘ Marriage was appointed by God- by it the human race is propagated.’ So it was appointed by God, and so is celibacy. The ﬁrst was given to the old man, Adam— the second to the New Illan, Christ. There- fore Christians are required to ‘ put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, which, according to God, is created in right- eousness and true holiness.’ ‘ The first man (Adam) is of the earth, earthy; the second man (Christ) is the Lord from Heaven; and as is the earthy, so also are they that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are they that are heavenly.’ See 1 Cor. 15: 47, 48, etc. That is, the followers of the ﬁrst Adam are like him, and the followers of the second man (Christ) are like him. ‘ No man can serve two masters.’ And now, sister, you say, ‘ Perhaps I think you should not ask such things.’ But indeed I do think you should ask just such things, and as many more as you may feel an interest in asking; and if, in my broken and fragmentary way, I have satisfactorily answered you in any one point, I shall be pleased. If I have failed, do try me again. Tell me Where the lack is, and I will try and do better next time. “ Truly your friend, SARAH.” What is a. Celibate? an--._ DEAR ELDER GILES B. Avnnr:-—On last Feb. 26, I sent a communication to THE SHAKER for insertion. It was headed, “ Second Revelation of the Gospel,” in which was set forth my objections to the statement, “ Christ has made his second appearance in a woman——in Ann Lee,” or to the kindred phrases such as “Christ’s second appearance ;” “ He, Christ, has made his second appearance in a woman.” I set forth how I was puzzled with this phraseology, when in my youth I ﬁrst tried to grasp Shaker theology. In those days of my simplicity, when I had but one single idea represented by the Word Christ, to wit, the man Jesus, I had not then learned the hocus pocus game that might be played with that protean tern1—hoW many changes of form, and different meanings it could be made to represent. Christ then to me represented nothing but the man Jesus, and how He could come in a woman was past my comprehension! When I came to learn the real facts of the case, the true inter- That the man Jesus had in his day revealed the true way of salvation-——— the Gospel; that Revelation was ultimately lost, and after a thousand sects with as many different gospels, and through many centu- ries, had cried 10! here, and 10! there, pro- claiming their false gospels, behold, the true Gospel, which Jesus the Christ had first re- vealed, was now revealed a second time, by and through a woman. So, then, it was not Jesus the Christ———the man that had come the second time, but his Gospel had been revealed a second time. This, I believe, is a fair outline of the communication above mentioned, and I close this preliminary by stating that I was not much disappointed that it was not pub- lished, nor have I the least dissatisﬁed feeling toward our good editor, believing that he only exercised his undoubted right. The following communication I had designed as No. 2 to the one above outlined; but as that was not ac- cepted, I do not present this for publication, but for the considerationjof our much beloved Central Ministry, and for them to dispose of as they may think proper. There is a term which has, I think, come into vogue Within the last ﬁfteen or twenty years, which I think is very improper, and ought to be dropped, as it really misrepresents, and does not convey the idea intended. The word is celibacy, and its kindred term celilmtc. The ﬁrst is thus deﬁned by \Vorcester : “ The life or state of a person unmarried, a single life.” The other, as a noun, is deﬁned: “ One who adheres to, or practices celibacy; an unmarried man, a bachelor.” As an ad- jective, this word is deﬁned, “ mimarried, single.” Not one idea of irirginiti , continen- cy, or even chastity in either of these deﬁni- 1.ions—nothing that implies the least restraint on licentiousness, or the libidinous instinct. In fact the “ bachelors and unmarried men” of our cities are the most thorough debauchees, and in calling ourselves celibates, we rank ourselves with this class. In olden time we carefully avoided professing celibacy, and as- sumed to be virgins, to live virgin or continent lives. I do not object to the terms “ celibate ” pretation was this : 80 THE SHAKER. and “ celibacy” because they are of recent introduction among us, but because they really misrepresent us. For myself, Ihad rather be called a monk than a celibate. There are thousands of celibates throughout our country, but very few who live continently, or live in virgin purity. Those who do not so - live, would do quite as well or better to take Paul’s counsel : them marry.” “ If they cannot contain, let As one of our poets says : “If they're in pain, and can't contain, And will not serve the Lord, you know, Then sure they must live in their lust, And take their just reward, you know." One thing is certain: the term celibate can- not be applied to Shakers distinct272;elg/, and we must have it, if at all, in common with a class whose purity of life is very questionable, or rather unquestionably impure and unchaste. As observed above, we did not in former days use the terms celibacy and ccllbate, as characteristic of our lives and practice, and it was intentioizctlly avoided. I can remember well that our good elder of the novitiate order would often correct outside inquirers, when they called the Shakers “ celibates,” or spoke of our living lives of “ celibacy.” He would give them a deﬁnition of the words, and show them that they did not characterize or dis- tinctively apply to us. lVhoever will examine our early publications, will discover that these terms were never used by our former writers. “ The Kentucky Revival” was pub- lished in 1807; “ The Testimony” in 1808; “ The l\Ianifesto” in 1818; “ The Mil. Ch.” in 1823, and “ The Book of Testimonies” in 1827, besides divers smaller pamphlets, and I question whether those objectionable terms can be found in any of those Works. There is another unanswerable objection to applying the terms in question as character- istic of the Shaker society or institution. They represent the males only. The females, full one-half of the community, are ignored and unrepresented. There is not the least respect paid to “ woman’s rights.” Again, there is a respectable proportion of the members of these societies who are mm’/ried people. They, too, are unrepresented, and a chosen few, who can properly be called celi- bates, represent and give name to the whole community. Is it true that all married men who come into our Society, thereby become celibates? I see in the statistics of London, 1860, they number celibates or bachelors by themselves, and make a distinct class of the widowers, conﬁning the celibate class to single adult males who had never been married. A certain man once informed me that he was raised in the city of New York, and was ap- prenticed to a mechanic who carried on his trade in that city, and employed several other apprentices. It was the custom of this man to take his apprentice boys once a week to a house of prostitution, and there indulged to the full. He was a “celibate,” and his ap- prentice, my informant, was now forty years old, and he had practiced What his master had taught him—celibacy. He was a “ bachelor, a single mom, a cclz'bate.”’ Ay, there are thousands of such celibates to one Shaker in this wicked world of ours ; and though I am willing to call them brothers, as being of the same race, yet, to go by the same name, as a religious characteristic or designation, I em- phatically do object. There are divers cases outside of our Society, in which the heads of families, the husband and wife, take separate lodgings, and live strictly continent or virgin lives, and yet keep their families together, and apparently live like other people. Are they celibates, bachelors, single people? In fact we must come at last to conﬁning the applica- tion of the term celibates to the few adult males of our community, and leave the whole sisterhood, all the married males, and all the adolescent class unrepresented; or drop the title cclibatc, and call ourselves by a name that will legitimately represent the whole. As it is now, our testimony to mankind should be, “ Come and join us, and be bach- elors, live single, and eschew marriage.” And as our title does not recognize the sisterhood, we should say, “If any women choose to join us, we will give them the honorable title of ‘old m.(u'ds,’ which is the proper correla- tive of ‘ bacltelor.’ ” But if we cast away our inadequate and absurd title, what shall We have in its stead ? There is none better than VIRGIN. Though this is more commonly ap- plied to females, yet there is the very best of authority for applying it to males. Jeremiah, ch. 31:13, calls 3/ozmg men and old czrgins. One of VVorcester’s deﬁnitions of the word virgin is, “amale who has preserved his chastity.” He refers for authority to Rev. 14 : 4: “ These are they which are not deﬁled with women, for they are m'rgins.” Not being deﬁled with women shows that they were males. Parkhnrst, in his Lexicon, de- ﬁnes the Greek word for virgin [pm'thcm0s],. “A person in a virgin state,” and adds, “ The word plainly includes both sexes.” Let us then boldly assume our proper title, and honor it by our lives. Your Brother, R. W. PELHAM. Natural Religion. BY F. W. EVANS. Is religion natural, that necessitates the murder of human beings? In China, the problem of population versus faith has been solved so far as the propagative order is con- cerned. There, four hundred millions of human beings have been stationary and stag- nant for thousands of years, kept so by the law that two things cannot exist in the same place at the same time. Not having sufficient foreign or domestic war to check population, China has legalized child- murder by parents; and, for ages, female in- fants have been and are still exposed, as was Moses, in little fragile arks, on some pond, or lake, or river, as soon as born, there to perish, or be rescued, as the case may be. There is simply space for no more human beings ; nor is the power revealed amongst them to dry up the great river Euphrates, the river of human, animal propagation. J. B. Bradley, formerly Consul to China, is my authority for these facts. - In India, unknown ages ago, the same con- ditions Were met by the institution of a spir- itual celibate order-—Indian Shakerism ; Maria Childs asserting that thousands of monasteries and nunneries ﬂourished in that country many ages before it was visited by Ilonian Catholic missionaries. N o ancient highly civilized nation is known which did not possess similar institutions. Egypt had her Theraputes, and the Jews their Essenes, all down thrdugh their history to the time of Jesus, who himself was educated in that remarkable order, which so correctly portrayed American Shakerism. As the Chinese have set their faces towards the western continent, which seems to be the reservoir for the overplus population of the world, it is only a matter of time as to how soon the same point will be reached in these United States, that China has touched so many ages in the past. Will any form of theology that now exists in this new world meet and solve this problem, except it be American Shakerism? In other words, is there any other that is justly enti- tled to be termed a scientiﬁc and natural relig- ion? it being the only system that makes pro- vision for two orders——the natural, or propa- gative, and the spiritual, or resurrection ; each possessing its own dual government distinct from the other, like the moon and the sun. VVhen, by increased knowledge of law, and obedience thereto, there shall be “no more pain, nor sorrow, nor sighing,” nor premature death, the result of physical disease, and war shall be a thing of the past; when there shall be no more poor, for all shall inherit the earth, Slzal.'er27sn2. will be the last and only hope of the race; the godly and natural agency to balance the principle of population, and to check the unnatural increase of human beings on this limited earth. Any subscribers failing to receive their copy of THE SHAKER regularly, will please notify us. PUBLICATIONS. Christls First and Second Appearing - - $1 25 Dunlavy’s Manifesto - - ~ - - - 1 25 Millennial Church - - - - - - 1 00 Compendium ofshakerism - - - - - 0 50 Three Discourses on United Interests - - 0 50 Shaker Communism—E\'ans - ‘- - - 0 50 Shakerism, the Possibility of the Race - 0 10 Tracts free, where postage is paid. MEMBERS OF SOCIETY ﬂppointed to answer Corresprmdents, among whom are the Board of Editorrs. Elder F. W. Evans. Mt. Lebanon, Columbia Co., N. Y. “ Galen Richmond, Shakers, N. Y. “ Calvin G. Reed, Mt. Morris, Livingston 00., N. Y. “ Simon Mabee, West Pittsﬁeld, Mass. “ H. S. Kellogg, Thompsonville, Conn., Shakers. “ Albert Battles, Tyringham, Berkshire Co., Mass. “ Wm. Leonard, Ayer, Mass.. Shakers. “ Jonas Nutting, Shirley Village, Middlesex Co., Mass. “ B. H. Smith, Shaker Village, Merrimack Co., ‘ N. H. “ Henry Cummings, Enﬁeld, Grafton Co., N. H. “ John B. Vance, Alfred, Shakers. York Co., Me. “ Joseph Brackett, West Gloucester, Cumberland Co., Me., Shakers. “ Chas. Clapp, Union Village, Warren Co., 0., Shakers. “ Ezra Sherman, Preston, Hamilton Co., Ohio, Shakers. “ Stephen Ball, Dayton, Shakers, Ohio. “ Jacob Kulp, Pleasant Hill, Mercer Co., Ky. “ J. R. Eades, South Union, Logan Co., Ky. “ J. S. Prescott, Cleveland, Ohio, Shakers.
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ts0210
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 02, no. 11 (November 1872)
Publisher: Mount Lebanon Bishopric
Date: 1872-11-01
Place published: Albany (N.Y.)
Text: T SE S H A K E “ IWILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. G. A. Lonas, Enrron. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., NOVEMBER, 1872. T - .. .§f?- 1? . 1<u~ir CL1\1s PLR A1\NUM. No Surrender. :2... Self-denial is an enforcement of Chris- tianity. There is no such thing as com- pulsory Christianity—individuals need not be Christians other than of choice; but whose makes the profession, is under bonds to use an exceeding self-denial. The re- strictions of Jewish law were heavy upon that people ; but their observance brought blessing, and prevented the visitation of the direful results of disobedience. Chris- tianity is an improvement upon Judaism, or it is unworthy of any attention. The improvement consists in a direct increase of self-denial upon those habits, customs, passions, that had, previous to the intro- duction of Chris...
Show moreT SE S H A K E “ IWILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. G. A. Lonas, Enrron. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO., N. Y., NOVEMBER, 1872. T - .. .§f?- 1? . 1<u~ir CL1\1s PLR A1\NUM. No Surrender. :2... Self-denial is an enforcement of Chris- tianity. There is no such thing as com- pulsory Christianity—individuals need not be Christians other than of choice; but whose makes the profession, is under bonds to use an exceeding self-denial. The re- strictions of Jewish law were heavy upon that people ; but their observance brought blessing, and prevented the visitation of the direful results of disobedience. Chris- tianity is an improvement upon Judaism, or it is unworthy of any attention. The improvement consists in a direct increase of self-denial upon those habits, customs, passions, that had, previous to the intro- duction of Christianity, made humanity noble types of earthly, reproductive life. Counting reproduction good, under per- fected Jewish law, the same of all the at- tending practices connected therewith; still, Christianity, in its genuineness, is lzeiter and best. The government of Christ, being paramount to the professor of Chris- tian principles, the laws, indulgenccs and general life of the Jews will be departed from, and the more beautiful, heavenly life of Christ ascended unto. Man, in Christ, being “a new creature,” all “old things will be done away.” Perceive, however, the attempt to engraft Christianity upon Judaism: From the Apostle Paul to the latest sermons, and life of the teachers of popular, but hybrid Christianity, the har- monizing of the earthly, generative life, with the regenerative, virginal principles, may be observed as being ever attempted, but proving a failure at every attempt. A Christian ceases to be the expositor of earthly principles, having been reaped from the earth. “ and the angels are the reapers.” lVhy is Christ “the harvest man ? ” lVill not the assertion apply with equal pro- priety, that Adam was “a scedsman?” Adam should replenish the earth with in- dividuals. Christ is harvesting ripened souls, above the ‘employment of Adam, and thus replenishing the heavens. The followers of Adam are doing the works of Adam—reproduction. The followers of Christ are being resurrected with Christ, and are progressed above the generative life up to angelic spheres. Adam and his gen- erative followers belong to the earth, and can never go to heaven, nor heaven come to them, other than a heaven composed of earthly joys. But, convinced of the joys of the higher life, they will ripen, and be reaped from the reproductive plane; and then, what was heaven, will constitute heaven no longer. New joys, new ideas, new life will ensue, and any return to “ the beggarly elements of the world” will be accompanied by pain to the soul. See, then, the two orders——both necessary— one rudimental, the other transcendental. Though related, they are antipodes, and ever will be. Whoso attempts to live in ‘both spheres, had better ﬁrst attempt the possibility of residing at both poles of the earth, at one and the same time. “An individual cannot be in two places at once,” is an old truism. Therefore, said Jesus: “VVho seeks to save his (generative) life, shall lose life” eternal. “But who, for my sake, loses the former, shall ﬁnd the latter.” We know the earthly, generative life is very dear to those not yet ripe for Christ’s harvest, and to such we say, your time has not yet come to be Christians— you are not Christians; you are, unthink- ingly, wearing a false name, making an untrue profession, and expecting a reward of “life everlasting,” while you are sowing the seeds that invariably and inevitably produce “eorri1ption.” Your profession of Christ amounts to naught unless your life is as was Christ's! Your profession savors rather of condemnation than any salvation. Better, far more honorable, to renounce the name of Christian, until your whole life comports with Christ’s. Living like a Jew or a heathen, and then expecting a reward like Christ’s! Supreme folly. “ Behold I come quickly, to give to every one according as their lives shall be!” Amen. VVe know the masses are not yet ready for these truths; some are, and more, in this enlightened age, ought to be. We hope our proclamation of them will prepare others. Men plead with us, to permit more license of earthly affections and lusts ; to grant indulgence to their ﬂeshly natures, if only in small degree. They tell us how numerous we should become, that “all men would believe on us ;” they would ﬂatter us, by making us believe that our long training in the school of virginity the better ﬁts us for reproduction than any others. They would frighten us, by re- peating to us that we are declining in numbers, with no prospect of replenishing, unless we “come down from that cross ;” they argue, Without tire, that we can be just as good Christians, and save to our- selves an abundance of earthly pleasure. To all of which we say: VVe testify of the the two Orders and their Leaders, “Choose ye this day which you will serve.” There is “No SURRENDER!” on our banners; and from this standard we will never re- cede. “Mankind may cry Peace, peace, but there is no peace ;” our numbers may dwindle to the last individual; yet he, passing to “the better land,” will, in his last act, raise the standard still higher, upon which is ineffaceably written: “N 0 SURRENDER!” The world may plead, ﬂatter, frown, persecute and destroy us, but with the life of Christ as our example, with the testimony of Jesus and Ann as our Covenant, we will pursue the even tenor of our “narrow way,” and patiently work for Priest and People, to experience “the baptism of ﬁre and the holy spirit,” when they will praise God for the ﬁrm stand we have taken, and with us join in the cry that shall reverberate through all heaven——the gladsome sound of “ No Sur- render.” * Jesus. BY F. W. EVANS. “ Jesus is the Christ,” or Anointed. Jesus is not the Christ; i. e., is not the Christ Spirit With which the man Jesus and the woman Ann were anointed. Both assertions are equally true in ideas, if not in words. The Jewish high priest was the Lord’s Christ, or Anointed. But the man upon whom the oil had been poured was not the oil itself with which the man had been anointed. The man might have sinned after he Was anointed (as Aaron, when he made the calf); but the oil could not sin. When the oil poured upon Aaron’s head (to oil him) ran down to the hem of his garment, it indicated that the Holy Spirit, put upon him, should be partaken of by every man and Woman of the Hebrew 82 THE SHAKER.’ nation. They constituted a “royal priest- hood.” “ I would that all the Lord’s people Were prophets and prophetesses,” was the ut- terance of the “ anointed ” Moses. “ I am the Resurrection.” “ I am the truth and the way.” But the man Jesus, or the woman Ann, was not the Resurrection, or the truth or the way, or the life, any more than the apostles were “the light” because they Walked in it. Jesus was the first to be raised from the natural to the spiritual order; from generative life to virgin life; it was through faith and by self—denial. The same with Ann, and with every other man or woman, who then becomes the Christ, the Resurrection, the Way, the Life, etc., to other souls. “ Because I live, ye shall live also,” and do the same works, and even greater works than their predecessors ; having a Mother to conceive and bear them again; Which the primitive Christians did not have; nay, not even the twelve apostles. Ages before Jesus existed, souls “ate the same spiritual meat that he did, and drank of the same spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Chr27st”——not Jesus———an unction from the holy of holies, ministered unto them by the Christ angels, from the heaven of all the heavens, to the lower spheres. “Far above all (these) heavens” Jesus as- cended when he left the earth. There he awaited the coming forth of the Bride; and where they are, there also will be their chil- dren. Keep thy Integrity. BY A. G. HOLLISTER. The Apostle exhorts his readers to “ prove all things, and hold fast that whiclt is good.” If the in quisition of intellect is a test, then it is rife in these days; but to hold fast the good, which is necessary to make the former of any value, completes the process by bringing on the test of experience. If all, who have been blessed with a talent of spiritual light, had been mindful, always to hold fast the good, there would not be so much instability of purpose and contradiction in character—so much trying to mingle ﬂesh and spirit—-light and darkness—bartering a real and eternal good for the momentary pleasures of sense, which ever lead from bad to worse, neglecting practical works of righteousness, which alone give true elevation, to achieve a fancied elevation by chimerical speculations that have no substance nor foundation in truth. To hold fast the good, is to maintain integ- rity by ﬁdelity to the light of rational under- standing; ever heeding to do right because it is right. This requires watchfulness, unwav- ering determination, faith and fortitude; for it brings the soul into the tcst—crucible and takes away its dross. If ﬁdelity to principle brings the soul into trial, it will also carry it triumph- antly through trial, and endow it with regal power, which creates circumstances, or com- pels those existing to serve. Being wholly devoted to obey the highest and purest law of Deity manifest, Deity directs and works through it. The soul that never willingly swerves from moral rectitude, moving with or against cir- cumstances until adversity has tested it to the utmost, will at last feel blessed of God for- ever. Such were the characters wrought by Jesus, and Ann Lee, after they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Resurrection of Life. BY A. J. DAVIS. VVhen mankind shall have become spirz'ta- ally larger and finer in body, they will have fewer and fewer children. Down in the lower stratum of society, behold how populous ! Take the early races, they propagate rapidly. Earth’s mothers have been broken down by their exceedingly numerous progeny. Rise higher in the scale and the married have fewer children and less frequently. Rise still higher in the mental scale and yo11 can easily believe the time will come that reproduction will cease.’ There will then be fathers and mothers with their descendants, and the progeny will be- come as angels, neither marrying nor giving in marriage, having risen above the mission of reproduction. The cerebellum, I repeat, will one of these days cease to have any furniture with reference to reproeluction.’ The ﬁuest and most poetic and spiritual minds gather nearly all their propagating power and essences into the front brain and top faculties. Only friends to truth dare to speak the whole truth on this subject. Our Sweet Shaker Home. BY JULIA JOHNSON, HANCOCK. How happy the thought, that we have a. home, VVhere manifold beauties and blessings are strown ; Which have by the hand of industry been sown, And want bringeth never a woe. More worthy we/ll wall; and humble ofhcart, From \Visdon1’s high oracles never depart- Nor yet think to learn a more glorious art ’l‘han sweet Christian graces to grow. The temple within we will wall round about \Vith Faith, Hope and Love, never darkened by doubt, The gaunt, ghostly demon, despair, keeping out, Who blighteth the soul’s fairest ﬂowers. Our steps shall be guarded with caution and care ; ‘Vim friends tried and true, our interest we’ll share ; More cheerfully aiding lii‘e’s burdens to bear, Thus tipping with gold, the dark hours. Our hearts’ pure alfectioii we’ll trustingly twine ‘Round gospel companions, sojourning in time, With whom we would rise to the regions sublime -- Our spirits cemented as one. No more to he parted, forever at rest, In unison joined to the righteous and blest,' With he’. or a shadow of C(Ll'Cl'1 to molest Eternity’s beautiful home. Music. BY F. W. EVANS. Music is a divine art; and, when perverted, the evil done through its inﬂuence and agency, is in exact proportion to its divinity. In a. tune, a discordant note is repellant and hateful. How much more hateful is a whole tune that is designed to allure and draw souls from their Creator, and to create antipathy towards each other ?—a tune that is not in unison with the divine harmony resulting from a oneness, or agreement, between God and man. To a redeemed man, or woman, martial music, used for military purposes, is as the howlings of demons. And licentious music and dancing, employed to allure the innocent and unwary into circuses, theatres and gam- bling-houses ; or for entrapping them into the drinking saloons of our large villages and cities, which are as gates opening into the hells, from whence those who go down into them, like an ox to the slaughter, never re- turn ; such music is simply infernal. And when believers, in their eager study of music, as an art, sing Babylon songs from the world’s books, they will ﬁnd, by diligent searching, that the inﬂuence proceeding there- from is eifectual to awaken the latent genera- tive elements; just as martial music will arouse the dormant war spirit in an old soldier, however much he may have been religiously converted by war-practicing Methodists. Every tune, or song, given by inspiration, and coming from resurrected souls (whether in or out of the body), inspires the emotional nature with love of the pure and holy, while each song, or tune, proceeding from souls who are in the generative life, tends to excite and feed that life in those who sing or play it, or who listen thereto. Consequently, we would “stop our cars from the hearing of blood ”—music. So should we close all of our soul senses from sympa- thizing with the music that proceeds from, and tends towards generation, or generative lusts; just as we would avoid lascivicus pic- tures and novels, or any other agency used to seduce and draw souls down into, and retain them, in the pits (or hells) of this sin—cursed world. ‘What Shall we Call the Practice? Plagiarism is a detestable practice, and ex- cellent literature is so generally and familiarly studied, that but few expose themselves, by the theft of another’s productions, to pass them oil" as their own; the risk is too great. But what shall we call the practice of those who will make sausages, and label them, “Genuine Shaker Sausages?” or who add, “Shaker socks and ﬂannels for sale here,” when these were never looked upon by a Shaker ? The Shakers discontinued the use of pork thirty or more years ago, and have made no sausage since. Scarcely a branch of business have the Shakers taken up, and succeeded with, ere they were confronted by counter- feits in market, that looked like their goods before being used, but which came to an end of their usefulness much sooner. VVe can re- fer any to numerous manufactures bearing the “ Shaker” name, but which are the fruits of individuals with shalsy reputations. It is a fraud we cannot help. VVe had supposed that when our founders adopted the derisive cognomen of “SHAKER,” that we were safe from being counterfeited. But not so; the meanness of some individuals will permit the THE SHAKER. 83 palming of very inferior goods upon the credu- lous buyer, who thinks he is getting the genu- ine, while they probably have not a particle of Shaker religion in them; and what are goods worth, unless they are full of genuine religion ? "“ The Two Orders. By J. S. PRESCOTT. “And be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you, a reason of the hope that is 111 you, with meckness and fear.” 1 PETER, 3:15. The question is asked us, What authority have yo11 for recognizing two orders of people on the earth ? lVe answer, from reason, reve- lation, and Scripture. But, says the inquirer, I thought you repudiated the Scriptures, and set aside Jesus for authority. Not so ! This is your mistake, and not ours. VVe quote largely from the Scriptures. "We take the Bible forjust what it is, and for nothing more. It is true, we do not crucify Jesus as an impostor, at one time, and make a god of him at another; but simply take his life and ex- ample as our rule and guide to follow; be- lieving they contain the greatest amount of wisdom, truth and purity of any example set, either in ancient or modern times. And this example he did not take with him; but, as the Apostle Peter said, “leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” This, we understand, was after he was made perfect through sufferings. Jesus recognized two orders, when he said: “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants ﬁght.” Again, he recognized two orders when he said: “The children of this world marry and are given in marriage; but they which shall be accounted Worthy to ob- tain that world, and the resurrection from the dead [dead Works], neither marry nor are given in marriage. Neither can they die any more [i. e., the death of Adam]; for they are equal unto the angels, and are children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” VVhat a gross perversion of Scripture this must be, to apply it to a complex marriage, in the ﬂesh, in this world, to increase and iin— prove on licentiousness, when Jesus himself lived a life ofvirginity, and was about to establish a. new, divine, and an angel order on the earth—an equality with the angels in heaven, agreeably with his memorable prayer: “ Thy kingdom come, and thy will be done in earth” [i. e., in earthly tabernacles——human beings, like ourselves]. The perversion of the language of Jesus is indeed lowering his stand- ard very much; it is retrograding—it is bring- ing down the diiiuinc below the human. Two orders of people are indispensable, and implied in the Acts of the Apostles, and throughout the New Testament. “ Simeon hath declared how God at the ﬁrst did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.” “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing ,' and I Will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.” Here we have the highest authority for two orders. \Ve would not object to an intermediate link being thrown between the rudimental and spir- itual orders, to bridge over the chasm, the same as John the Baptist was between Juda- ism and Christianity. This may be neces- sary.* Man is a progressive being, and there is no stronger proof of his immortality than his perpetual dissatisfaction with everything earthly-his continual longing for something he has not—wl1ich illustrates his spiritual na- ture demanding spiritual food. “To have been quoting Scripture; but the Bible of the past can never supersede the ne- cessity of the Bible of the present and of the future. VVe cannot possibly believe that an inﬁnite God exhausted all his resources on the imperfect Jewish records, or on any age or nation. “ Where there is no vision [i. e., rev- elation], the people perish.” VVe believe in present revelation, as well as past, and that revelation teaches the importance of two orders of people on the earth, the natural and the spiritual, governed by two distinct general laws; and reason teaches, if a man progresses at all, he will ultimately reach a spiritual order. No Place to Begin. BY GILES B. AVERY. A few years since, a little girl who was not so good but she might improve, was asked by her preceptor, why she was not a better girl? She immediately replied : “ I cannot find any place to begin.” Well, according to observa- tion and historical narration, this is just the difﬁculty in the Way of the world, relative to becoming evangelized and christianized. It is now, even as it was in the days of the advent of Christ, in Jesus of Nazareth. VVhen called upon to embrace genuine Christianity, which will harvest them out of the world, and gather them into the garners of God, the kingdom of Heaven, they have “ bought a farm to till; or oxen to prove ; or have a father or mother to bury” or provide for; or, yet more, “have married a wife,” or a husband; and, “ there- fore, cannot come;’’ or, they “cannot ﬁnd any place to begin.” The apostles of Jesus found a place to be- gin, by leaving their ﬁshing, and nets also—— they made a place to begin. But, though this bright example was set nearly two thousand years ago, very few have yet found “ a place to begin” to be real followers of Christ ;” be- cause that place of beginning is at the “ end of the world ;” and this, mankind appear to dread, not minding there is a" better treasure in Heaven. “No place to begin.” Alas, that fearful contributor to delay ! A plebeian once stood on the banks of a swiftly-rolling river, desir- ing to cross to the other shore; but, waiting * Very many have proposed an “intermediate link;” but this link invariably contained the elements of the lusts of the 1lesh—not in their plain and proper rh‘ess, but in the disguise of improvements to the present sys- tem. Admitting that there is an advance called for, to be made by us, we yet want no suggestions nor links, that intend the least anialgaiiiation of ﬂesh with the Spirit. The chasm between these is not sufficiently wide, and should be wider, and more distinctly and practically understood. We thus remark, to prevent any misconception of the above.—ED. for the stream to run by, thinking that as stream so rapid would soon discharge its wa- ters—-yet on it ﬂowed, and ﬂowed for ages, while many a traveler crossed, and pursued his journey, and obtained his life’s pursuit- still stood the halting plebeian, sinking in in- famy. Even so do many wait on the banks of J ordan’s river (or the river of judgment for their deeds), dreading the reward of their works which true Christianity would present them; but linger, hoping to find heaven on this side of Jordan (_judgment), but the river onward rolls. “ Thou must walk on, however man npbraid thee, With him who trod the wine press all alone ; Thou wilt not ﬂnd one wordty soul to aid thee, One faltering mind, to comprehend thy own.” , “Poor wandering soul! I know that thou art seeking Some easier way, as all have sought before, To silence the reproachful, imoard speaking- Some lamlwartl path unto an island shore.” “ But, across the J ordan, hear the benediction: ‘ Behold, we count those happy who endure ; VVhat treasure wouldst then, in the land Egyptian, Repass the stormy water to secure ? For poverty and self-renunciation, Thy Father yieldeth back a thousand fold; In the calm stillness of regeneration Cometh a joy they never knew of old.’ ” “ And Christ will come, in his own time and power, To set his earnest-hearted children free; Wcrtch, toil on.’ through this dark and painful hour, And the bright morning yet will break for thee," “ But,” says the faltering Christian, “ I cannot ﬁnd a place to begin !” Make one then. It was said of Napoleon, that on the advent of a terrible battle, his aids-cle-camp said to him : “ You will not risk a battle on this occasion; circumstances are against you.” stances——circumstances,” . “ Circum- said Napoleon; “ I create and command circumstances, not bow to them.” So does the true Christian soldier, in the battle of life against the powers of sin. “ Live to some purpose ; make thy life A gift of use to thee ; A joy, 3. good, a golden hope, A heavenly argosy.” Angel Eyes are Upon Us. BY ANNA DODG-SON. Reading the Rel+z7gz'o-Philosophical Journal, I was pleased with the summing up of the long article, “ Search after God,” in which I found the following beautiful sentence : “Spirits alone can answer prayer. Ever hovering around you, ever showering down upon you the strength of their magnetism and love, to you they are indispensable. They know every thought, they sense every secret wish, they witness every act. Child of earth, beware! Your secret deeds are all known—— every prayer is heard and recorded. Angel eyes are ever upon you. “That better answer can there be to prayer, than that which comes from a spirit-band ?” Beautiful spirit-teaching, that is thus brought to bear so closely on our daily earth—life! Vtlhat a protective inﬂuence would be shed over enlightened Christians, could they be made to believe that spirit-eyes are ever upon them! VVho would transgress the rules of propriety in word, thought or deed? What a moral cor-rector such a belief would be——what 84: THE SI-IAKER a teacher of charity and universal love ! How many prayers Would be directed to the spirits of departed friends, in whom the highest de- gree of conﬁdence for purity, virtue and love could be placed! and would not erring mor- tals long to ﬁnd 22. Christ, dwelling in mortal form, to whom they might unbosom their se- cret thoughts, and confess their sins, that they might ever be ready for the communion of good and holy spirits? Who can bear the thought of being constantly accompanied by bad, unclean, selﬁsh spirits? No one. But this must be the case, so long as the spiritual consciousness speaks disapprovingly. Noth- ing but humility, confession and repentance will repel a bad spirit; and earnest, sincere prayer will bring a good spirit to our aid. Let this belief be living in every Spiritualist, and Christian soul, and we should soon have a good world, of which we should have but little reason to complain. Shaker world, indeed ! Reflecting on the foregoing subject, I was reminded of a hymn, from which, in my youth, I received much instruction, and was conscientiously awakened to a realization of spirit presence. It was composed by Garret R. Lawrence, a physician of our Community, Who deceased in 1837. He spoke by the spirit of prophecy, at his death, of a time near at hand when we should converse with spirits as freely as with each other. This was fulﬁlled to the Shakers, in less than a year after his demise, in what is known to them as the “ Spirit Manifestation.” WE ARE SEEN. All things here on earth revealed, Indicate a Great First Cause, From whose sight there nought concealed, All efficient are His laws. Every thought, ard word, and action-— All lie open to IIis view; None can hide the least transaction- \Ve are seen in all we do. Mortals, here, may tr_v to cover, And conceal their sins awhile; There ’s a God who will uncover Arid expose the deepest guile. '1‘rue Heaven e’er existed, \V.ttchmen there their vigils keep; Every veil shall yet be lifted, There ’s an eye that knows no sleep. Altho’ conscience seems to slumber, And resign its sweet control; Yet each deed records its mnnber, Deep eugraven on the soul. And from these, the soul eternal Takes impressions day by day, W'hether spiritual or carnal, Good or evil, yea or nay. TVho can hide a guilty conscience? Fearful state of sin and woe! ‘V110 can grope thro’ ‘time, unconscious, And their standing never show? Who can smother ﬂames unceasing, Keep concealed the gnawing worm- Shame and guilt their load increasing, Nor with inward horror squirm? We may seek to veil from mortals, Deeds which cannot bear the light; Can we hide from the immortals That surround us day and night? Are not thousands now beholding Every action, word and Way? And our very thoughts, unfolding In the blaze of endless day ? Have not those, who stand connected With the source of truth and light, Many secret sins detected And exposed to mortal sight? Are not all our words and actions Fruits which mortal eyes can view ? ’ Tis a truth without deception, We are seen, yea, through and through. But the honest, pure and holy Never fear the searching light, Knowing ’t will increase their glory To appear in open sight. These shall stand the test triumphant, Joyful that their state is known, Glowing like the stars eifulgent, Shining round J ehovah’s throne. Sketches of Shaker Life.-—No. 2. ' BY R. W. PELHAM. THE ADMISSION or NOVITIATES. The writer is of the opinion that Shakers take for granted that their social relations are much better understood than they really are. As proof of this, inquire of any number you please, VVhat are the necessary steps to be taken, in order to gain admission to 1nember— ship of the Society? and nine out of ten will tell you, that if heads of families join the Shakers, they must break up their families, give up their property; the husband and the wife must separate, and their children taken under the charge of the Society, etc., etc.; not one word of which is true. In order to set this matter in a clear light, I cannot do better than to give a history of my own observations of the practical working of our principles, since my first association with the people in 18l7—ﬁfty—ﬁve years ago. To go a little further back, I will observe that the faith and principles of the Shakers were first opened in the township of Turtle Creek, VVar- ren county, Ohio, by three missionaries, sent by the Shaker Society of New Lebanon, New York, in the spring of 1805; and within ten years after their arrival, the number of con- verts amounted to several hundred men, wo- men a.nd children, most of whom lived within a radius of ﬁfteen miles, taking Union Village for the center. All these, except the single adults, lived in their separate families and on their own premises, in the common order of Society, and continued so for several years. But most of these desired to progress and en- ter into the pentecostal order of consecrating their property, to be shared in common with their brethren and sisters. Finally, the way was opened, and all that felt ready made the consecration about 1815. The oldest members of this body having now had ten years’ experience, and having consecrated their money and property, closed their doors against receiving any more mem- bers directly into the Church, as this body was then called. But the Church must have a door, and for that purpose they built a new house, and set off a small family of suitable persons to instruct all inquirers, and admit novitiate members. This was called “The Gathering,” or “ Junior Order,” and had been in operation two years, when the writer came and took up his abode in it, in 1817. It was then in a ﬂourishing condition, and active mis- sionary exertions were being made to spread the knowledge of the truth and gather souls into the Gospel fold. There was a continual accession of members, some of which were single adults, and some whole families. Divers of these continued on their own premises and attended to their own temporal concerns, as formerly; while others moved into the bounds of the Society, and either rented or purchased lands adjacent. Some of these kept their fam- ilies together during their lives, but these We1‘e few. There was a suﬂlcient number of these families settled round about the Society to unite in building a school house, and children enough to make up a respectable school, and the writer was the ﬁrst teacher of that school. In ten years, up to 1825, these and others that came into the Junior Order, within that time, were two hundred strong, not counting the First Family or Church. They had ulti- matcly consecrated their property and formed a second joint interest or Second Ivlrnnilg/———ha<l purchased adjoining lands, built two commo- dious and substantial brick dwelling houses which would accommodate from eighty to one hundred persons each. Now it may be remarked, with regard to the above mentioned families who lived at a distance when they believed, that they might have continued there if they had so chosen. The selling of their premises, and moving into the bounds of the Society, was entirely a mat- ter of their own choice. No rules of the Soci- They might have remained with their families on their own premises if they had so chosen. There were then Shaker families, so living in Northern Ohio, Pennsyl- vania, Virginia, and other places, who were held in union as novitiate members of the Shaker Society; and there has never been a time since, when there were not such mem- bers living in various places throughout the country. ety required it. \Vhen receiving novitiates into spir- itual relations, we ask not to know their theo- logical opinions, impose no creed, and only require their conformity to a few plain prac- tical principles. They must tell us honestly what kind of lives they have lived hitherto, and bring all their wicked deeds to light. If they have wronged any one, they must, if in their power, make restitution, and set out henceforth to live an upright life. The rela- tion of husband and wife must cease, and the relation of brother and sister must be assumed instead, and their lives and treatment of one another must henceforth be in conformity with this new relation. They must live pure, con- tinent, or virgin lives, and bring up their chil- dren as pure and free from unclean and evil habits as they can. Let them faithfully ob- serve and do these things, and we own them as our dear brethren and sisters, wherever they may be located. VVe are often questioned, ‘What guarantee we have that they faithfully conform to these practical rules? VVe answer, that we take no burden about this matter; we shall not dis- trust them. As long as they profess to do it, we will take their word for it. I ﬁnd the following in the “ Brief Errposzl t-ion,” published in 1830: " The ﬁrst or novi- tiate class are those who receive our faith and come into a degree of relation, but choose to live in their own family order and manage their own temporal concerns. Any who choose may live in that order and be owned as brethren and sisters in the gospel, so long as they live up to its requirements.” p. 9. This practice has never been rescinded, and is the same to—day as it was forty years ago. THE SHAKER . 85 Freedom. —:_.. BY VVM. H. BUSSELL. This word suggests to different minds, ideas as varied as the mental development and cul- ture of each. To the depraved mind it means unrestrained desires; license of thought and action, without regard to divine or human law. On the contrary, to the mind elevated above the mere sensual plane of existence, it means a life in accordance with divine law, deviating not a hair’s breadth, if that be pos- sible, from straightness itself. There is social freedom as well as individual freedom, and these are perfectly consistent with each other. It has been said, that in entering into society man gives up a portion of his individual rights for the sake of a greater advantage to be obtained by association. It seems to be taken for granted by those who make this assertion, that, originally, individ- uals are entirely independent of each other. But this is a mere fanciful assumption, con- tradicted by the entire history of the human race. Man was created a social being, and his highest enjoyment is to be derived from a per- fect society. If the individual is obliged to give up any of his rights to society, no plainer proof is needed that society itself is enslaved to wrong—doing. For, what are the rights of the individual but those which inhere in him by virtue of his existence? These cannot be violated by the person himself, nor by society, Without committing a wrong. The individual is entitled to a sound body with a sound men- tal status, and these may vary, of course, in character and quality, in accordance with va- rious circumstances and conditions, in different ages and in different parts of the earth, yet without any infringement of natural rights. He is entitled also to the opportunities of growth, both physical and mental, and Who- ever hinders him in the possession and enjoy- ment of these, just so far obstructs the opera- tion of divine law. The right to these implies his right to use all the means within his reach, to attain them, that do not infringe upon the rights of another; as also his claim upon oth- ers for assistance in cases where age or any other circumstances make him dependent upon others. These statements are mere truisms which none Will undertake to dispute but those who have been educated in the absurd notion that one part of mankind have rights superior to those of another part, and whose mental vision has therefore been so obscured, that they are unable to perceive the truth, even of axioms. But it will be said that regard must be paid to mankind in its present condition in estimat- ing the rights of the individual; that a perfect society upon the earth at present is a chimera -——a Utopia—and the individual can expect freedom only in proportion as society is virtu- ous and free. This is partly true and partly false. No doubt, when society at large shall have rid itself of the numerous evils that now infest it; when it shall have put an end to its insensate wars and contentious, and shall em- ploy its energies in building up what it still in a great measure seems bent on destroying, the individual will come into possession of much greater freedom than he can now enjoy. But it is not true, that his rights, which are of divine origin, are dependent upon the condi- tion of society, nor, in fact, is his enjoyment of them wholly dependent upon it. Much has been done in the past by perverted minds, to restrict the rights of the individual, but there has been a gradual though slow growth of the race, in spite of all such efforts. There is in man a power of resistance that has proved itself mightier than armies, and stronger than the accumulated vices of society, though sus- , tained by all the vigor of crowned heads. The simple protest of Jesus was more efficacious than the combined power of Roman and Jew ; for, though for a brief season his enemies seemed to triumph, yet he secured forever all that Divine Power has to bestow for human enjoyment. Wliat the Apostle Paul declared of Christians in his day, was true: “ They sat together in heavenly places in Christ,” and that, notwithstanding the persecuting efforts of their enemies. Thus did God show to all succeeding ages, “the exceeding riches of his grace.” Vain were all the efforts of English, secular and ecclesiastical power to make ineffi- cient the simple declaration of George F ex and his followers, that all wars are inconsistent with the precepts and example of Jesus Christ. They could imprison the body, but were pow- erless to destroy the right, or essentially lessen the enjoyment of the individual, or prevent the spread of opinions that are ultimately to beneﬁt the whole human race. Adherence to principle will always produce permanent results. Darkness is only a con- dition; light isias enduring as God himself. “Truth will make free” both the individual and society. Society is the product of indi- viduals, and takes its stamp from their char- acter. The temple of God is holy when the stones composing the structure are “living stones,” as was and is the CHIEF CORNER STONE. Let the divine breath flow through every avenue of the soul, and the light of truth penetrate its innermost recess, giving health and vigor to the outward man, and peace and joy to the inner, and there will be a condition of freedom that the possessor of mere political liberty never knew. The union of individuals raisedifrom the death of evil habits to the life of Christ, and constantly progressing in all truth and goodness, will form a society free indeed, whose reﬂex action upon the individual will be powerful in proportion to the fidelity of each to the life of divine freedo1n—the life of purity and love. Such a society, raised above the earth of mere sensual enjoyment, will, as Jesus said of himself, ultimately draw all men unto itself. The Spirit and Waiits of the Age. BY ANNE ERVIN. The spirit of the age in which we live is emphatically one of progress. It was reserved for the nineteenth century to witness the ap- plication of the grand and beneficent princi- ples of the universal diﬁ"usion of knowledge among all classes, and the almost startling resurrection of mind which is a natural result. And though it is doubtless true that in coming up from the sepulchre and striving to cast off the cerements in which it has so long been bound, the human intellect, so far from being dismayed at these signs of activity, should be stimulated to greater diligence in the work of present- ing those great elementary truths which alone are able to make men Wise unto salvation. Our course is still onward; nor can we limit, even in imagination, that spirit of progress which, before the dawn of the millennial Sab- bath, shall crown with perfection the human mind. We are told, and that truly, that the world is full of wrongs and evils, for which a remedy 1n.ust be found before man can enjoy his full heritage of blessings; but the specula- tive reformer, who seeks to tear down the existing fabric before commencing a new one, has not as yet shown us intellectual and moral engines mighty enough to perform the diﬂicult process of renovation. The human mind is ever prone to error. “Better is an old error than a new truth,” was the remark of a learned divine; but the state of things is now completely changed. A reaction has taken place, ‘which threatens to destroy all the ancient landmarks and to convulse the whole social system, in the attempt to remove the evils which have gathered strength for ages. If such is the spirit of the age, what then is wanted to meet its exigencies and carry forward the benevolent operations which form a distinctive feature in its character? VVe want intelligent, educated men and women, who can properly appreciate and defend the light with which they are endowed, and can diffuse correct principles throughout the land. The preponderance of intelligence and virtue constitutes our only safeguard. VVe Want ear- nest, practical men and women, to meet the exigencies of the age, who would leave the world better than they found it. But more than all, we want devoted, consistent followers of the Lord Jesus, to be co—workers with him in bringing back a revolted world and to prepare the way for the final triumph of love over every form of selfishness and sin. The noblest of all human means must be that which obtains the exertion of divine power. ‘Without this power from on high, every attempt to ameliorate the condition of men will prove a failure. G0 ye into the world and preach the gospel to every creature, is the command of the Redeemer. Never before have the wants of the human family been so great as now. Let those, then, who labor and pray take courage. It has always been the fate of truth to be stigmatized and slandered by falsehood. Whenever the spirit of truth has been revealed, the father of lies has never failed to dispense a sufficient portion of the spirit of falsehood to combat it and scandalize all who maintain it. The great Captain of our salvation was subjected to scorn and derision, and endured the reproaches of the emissaries of Satan. He was charged with drunkenness, and reproached with asso- ciating with publicans and sinners; and he repeatedly assured his followers that they would suffer the same indignities and re- proaches. “ For if ye were of the world, the world would love its own, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the World 86 THE SJEIAKER. hateth you.” name we assume. know them.” It is of little consequence what “By their fruits ye shall Little Things. BY ANNA WHITE . “Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil our vines." - A little spark will create a great conﬂagra- tion, burning up villages, towns and cities. A little hole in a ship sinks it. A small breach in the sea-bank carries all away before it. A little over-crowding of the stomach will produce sickness. A little intoxicating drink has been many a man and Woman’s ruin. A little stab in the heart will kill a person. A little harsh word will stir up anger. A little gift of the Spirit, if slighted, will produce spiritual death. A little sin, as it is frequently’ and very im- properly called, brings death to the soul. So in turn, little acts of goodness, little words of kindness, little smiles of approba- tion, make up the sum of human happiness. Heaven is Within. BY ANGELUS SILESIUS, A. D 1620. How far from here to heaven ? Not very far, my friend ; A single hearty step Will all thy journey end. Hold, there ! Where runnest thou ? No, heaven is in thee ! Seek’st thou for God elsewhere? His face t11ou’lt never see. Go out——God will go in ; Die thou, and let him live ; Be not, and he will be ; Wait, and he'll all things give. I don’t believe in death ; If hour by hour I (lie, ‘Tie hour by hour I gain A better life thereby. Truth, Faith and Reason. BY R. W. PELHAM. A truth discovered, a duty imposed on the understanding, by reading the tattered leaf of a cast—oft' book, is as binding on the conscience, nay, as Welcome to the heart of a sincere lover of truth, as if it were delivered fresh from the mouth of a Prophet under all the agonies of inspiration. ,_ All the reverence paid to truth on account of the “pomp and circumstance ” of mighty miracles, or the awe-imparting inﬂuence of occular inspiration, is really a derogation from the love of truth as such; and when the im- pression of the marvelous is past (which will soon be the case), We shall then be able, by observing what remains, to discover how much the truth was regarded for its own sake. Many sectarians affect to believe mysteries, and require their votaries to believe, not only without understanding, but against their in- tuitive perceptions of truth, and they pretend to use argument and reason for the propriety of this. But it is a vain thing to appeal to man’s reason, to bring in a verdict against itself. Satan will not cast out Satan. A principle cannot oppose itself. The very act of reasoning against reason, gives the lie to his argument who uses them, and proves more cogently the great excellence and propriety of reason. The main ground of the many great absurd- ities which abound in all theological systems will be found to be, the taking for granted certain ﬁrst principles, which being considered the very basis of the system, are held not only too certain, but too sacred to admit of investi- gation or doubt. To reject that which appears to the mind as unreasonable, is to reject that which is opposed to the will of God; for who can sup- pose that God wills what is unreasonable ? We should never confound the understand- ing with the imagination, nor give the latter the ascendency over the former. V My understanding, 0 God, is thy workman- ship, thy great.est and best gift ! Grant me to exercise it not to selﬁsh ends, but purely for thy glory. As a man’s eyes may be of great use to him Without a telescope, While a telescope can be of no use to him without eyes ; so, a man’s reason can be of great use to him without revelation; but revelation can be of no use to him Without reason. We never present revelation to idiots or brutes, any more than we present colors to a blind man; for the reason that we know they are destitute of any faculty to judge of its truth, or make the least use of it. If in any case revelation ‘be presented to a man, and he be asked to receive it as such, Without using his reason to discover Whether it to be true or false, whether it be revelation or human invention ; he is, in that case, asked to be unreasonable—to act without reason. In all cases reason must be the dcrm'e«r re- sort, and, so to speak, God is bound, and his messengers are bound to make all his revela- tions plain and true to man’s reason. If this is not done, no revelation is made. Paul prayed to be delivered from Wicked and unreasonable men. He could not offer such the revelation of truth in the gospel. His only wish was to keep out of their way, and be delivered from them. The Prophet represents God as desiring to reason with mankind: “ Come, saith the Lord, let us reason together,” and Dunlavy says: “ VVhat is good reason to man is good reason to God.” In all things We must appeal to reason. He that receives revelation with- out reason, will be quite as apt to reject it without reason. Gospel truth shall stand. Enmity and lust have dug many a grave for it. Intolerance has persecuted it. Many a Judas has betrayed it with a kiss. Many a Peter has denied it with an oath. Many a Demas has forsaken it for worldly pleasure and pelf. Heaven and earth may pass away, but the word of Truth shall not pass aWay——it shall stand forever. It will forever console, justify, and make free its friends, while it will as certainly and un- ceasingly Whisper the sentence of condemna- tion in the consciences of its betrayers. “ The Shaker.” BY MARIA WITHAM, ENFIELD, CONN. Hail, lovely SHAKER ! What with thee can compare In beauty, and goodness, and truth, ever rare ! No dew drop, that glints in the morning sun’s beam, Can brighten and bless like the truths of thy theme. How I long for thy coming, thou herald of peace ! Thou fountain of goodness ! l\Iay’st thou ever increase! On, on, o'er the earth, and bear on thy page Glad tidings of truth, both to youth and old age ; And teach all mankind false opinions to leave, To use God-given reason, and light to receive. Thou glorious volume, which in wisdom art made, May’st thou understandingly, ever be read, And, as thou advancedst, let my zeal improve, And glow with the ardor of consummate love. Correspondence. rrnn SHAKERS’ POSITION. The following letter was written sometime since as a reply to a Professor of an Eastern College who, convinced of the “ungodliness of the age,” particularly illustrated in the social relations of life, paid us a visit, ad- dressed our family, etc., and upon his return home, sent us a letter entreating us to aid, by material means, the scheme of founding an institution, in connection u'z'th ours, that would have for its object the proper reproduction of human beings, “such as would make Shakers !” OFFICE or THE SHAKER,§ 20th, 1872. PROFESSOR H.: Your lengthy appeal, ad- dressed to myself, came duly to hand, and in reply would say: You ﬁnd yourself in water so deep, that you cannot consistently wade, and you must either swim above the Water or you must be drowned. Your thorough inves- tigations of our faith and principles I admire, and your objections of making these a ﬁnality, are received with all due respect. You termed us “liberal,” and thus we mean to be, so that we will not engage in warm debate, even for our side; believing that the spirit of truth Will create sufficient commotion in any soul, which, like yours, has spiritual aspirations, yet would not give up the desires of the soul for ﬁeshly, generative lusts. You esteem marriage, in its upright condi- tion, to be the 916 plus ultra of human bliss. Carried out, as you can mentally picture it, We admit would yield an eartlzly heaven, and very many with you devoutly wish this ever had been, or ever can be realized. It is a Utopia. Thousands have been just where you are in their convictions—-they have seen that “the earth, earthy,” was not “ the spirit, heavenly,” and, writhing in an agony of fear, lest the true presentiment of the cross should cut elf all the idols of their carnal imaginations, they pray and plead that the good God will not be so unmerciful as to lead to the abandonment of the husband and wife relations. The lusts of the ﬂesh, even in their most exalted and admired uniform-—in legal marriage, and as properly conducted as the very best are capable of———these still, are the grand shoots from the corrupt tree, from which all the minor ﬁbres draw sustenance. We have been studying this subject for nearly an hundred years, and are satisﬁed that a failure will follow every attempt to sanctify the ﬂesh through the order THE SHAKER . 8'?’ of marriage, while shines the spiritual light from the Christian heavens. _ VVe are willing you should attempt the scheme of which you speak, though not with our means; and though we should rejoice at an exalted condition of humanity on the ani- mal plane, yet we shall expect to record your scheme “another failure.” The ﬂesh, in its most gloriﬁed habiliments, is a subject of Christly condemnation; yet, unwilling to part with it entirely, you and many others seem wriggling in a torment that evolves a thousand plans for its salvation. But remember, that not one of a herd of swine will believe the swill hot, regardless of the warning shrieks of the sufferers, untileach has burned his snout! I would refer you to “ American Socialism,” before you attempt any ideal plan for chris- tianizing marriage, and you would then be better aware of how your proposition would result. You labor under a misconception, concern- ing our position, which I thought I had dis- pelled : It is, that we refrain from marriage, because of its corruptness. Not so. Even though the Utopia you seek could be found, we could not unite in its support; for above the whole order of earthly coalition, do we through a life of Clzrist aspire ; and away from all worldly elements, pure or z'mpure. VVe have found something so much better than the most perfect connubiality, that as “ the sun’s meridian blaze forbids the stars to glow,” even so, does the order of earthly beings sink into insigniﬁcance before the halo of our pure, angel faith a11d practice. In this light of the subject, how base it would appear and be in us to aid in sustain- ing a breeding institution, when we know that all the desires that would then be called to action are, at best, so inferior to the life prin- ciples of Christ, as to make the scheme dis- gusting in its every phase ! Not so, Professor, your convictions, unbias- ed by ﬁeshly passions, convince you that we can never prostitute our consecrated property from its holy intent, to sustain you, or any of your, or others’ selection in the fruitful or “unfruitful works of darkness.” You, like many others, have had a call to higher things, and we suggest that you squarely face the music of your conscience; nor think the task given human nature, by our Christly precep- tors, is too unpleasant to be engaged in, and like Achan, seek to save some idol from anni- hilation. Be bold enough to obey your con- victions of right, and we will risk the rest. IVe would not force you to be a Shaker or Christian; but labor, if you choose, in the ﬁeld of generation, for its higher elevation. We ﬁnd that from the material it produces now, only a few good Shakers can be produced, and can only bid you God-speed in its im- provement, if your call is to nothing higher. But we would to God, your convictions, being where we think they are, that you would obey them, regardless of all fleshly cravings or faults of the law. You are only one from many thousands who are appealing, that we “come down from the cross,” against all ﬁeshly lusts, “that all men may believe on us !” But we prefer being the unpopular few who, walking the narrow way, have joined ourselves to the cross, “laid down our own lives,” and mean, voluntarily, there to remain, even amid the jeers and in- justice of the multitude who are walking the broad road—We being in the World, yet not of the world. And when life with you is sped, and indulgence can no more be effectually prose- cuted, ’tis then, mark well our words, that you, and thousands like you, will regret that you had not ceased battling for the flesh, and will- ingly united with us in a life that “ walks in the spirit, and fails to fulﬁll the lusts of the flesh.” The love of the world has drawn many bright stars to its plane; but the sin- cere, the resolute, and violent can alone with- stand its charms. Bidding you adieu, I am yours, etc., G. A. LOMAS, Ed. Shaker. PROF. H., Lewiston, Me. Novitiate Musings. BELOVED SHAKER :—Having come suddenly from the midnight of anti-Christian darkness to the full blaze of millennial light, that light shows me many things Which, though quite familiar to the experienced Zion traveler, are new to me. I experience, especially in our meetings, new and beautiful inﬂuences, which, from want of a more satisfactory term, I will call ministrations of the Spirit of God. It is needless to describe them further than to say, that they are golden and harmonious ; that they penetrate the whole physical frame, cle- vate the mind and soul from the grosser appe- tites of earth, and stimulate the spirit to fresh exertion to struggle upward. They vary in their character so much that no two are ex- actly alike. I am sincerely anxious to know, from the experience of larger hearts and wiser heads than mine: 1st. What is the source of these ministra- tions ? 2d. IVhat are their nature, consistency, properties ? 3d. What are the most favorable conditions for obtaining them ? 4th. Is it possible to reduce the obtaining of these ministrations to a science? 5th. Is this a proper subject for investiga- tion, or should we accept these ministrations without questioning their source? 6th. “lonld it be acceptable to furnish care- fully—noted experiences of the kind for publi- cation, so as to obtain information from many sources, and thus establish the truth by the experience of many witnesses P This last would involve careful noting of the kind and degree of the ministration, and of the state of the mind, feelings, and bodily system at the time of the reception. THOMAS J. Srnoun, Enﬁeld, Conn. Reply to Queries of Thos. J. Stroud. BY GILES B. AVERY. The subject presented by our brother is of vital importance to humanity. He denomi- nates the “new and beautiful inﬂuences” to which he is introduced in the Shaker meetings he attends, “Ministrations of the Spirit of God.” It is a term well selected to nominate the exercises of the Holy Spirit inspirationally upon the human soul in such a powerful de- gree, as to cause the mortal tenement some- times to tremble under the inﬂuence of its power, being overawed by a power so much superior to itself; at other times to be so ﬁlled with what might be termed a psychological magnetism, as to produce healing of the phys- ical frame, when diseased ; yea, even to raise the dead; in other cases to agitate powerfully the human frame, giving it many fold its o1'di- nary strength, and enabling the recipient of this ministration to perform feats, while under its inﬂuence, which would be impossible in a normal condition. For instance, to enable the unlearned to read well, and retain the faculty after reduction to a normal state; to cause the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and multitudes of conditions to be in- duced incident alone to supernal life. Our brother inquires : 1st. “ VVhat is the source of these ministra- tions P” - Answer. Their source is the Divine mind, combined with harmonious relations of the human therewith, either in the recipient of the ministrations, or in some other person in close sympathy therewith, as his or her inter- cessor. In some instances it is simply requi- site to be in a state of prayerful passiveness. There are instances where the condition of the recipient seems not to enter into the source at all, but so far as he is concerned, every con- sideration appears to center in the fact of his needs, and he is made the recipient through the harmonious relations and intercessions of his mediator or Elder, who is in sympathy with him. Question 2. “VVhat are their nature, con- sistency, properties ?” Answer. Their nature is supernal; their consistency, purely spiritual, intangible; their properties are: 1st, absorbing to the senses; 2d, overawing to the affections; 3d, dominat- ing to the will, during their exercise, but their effects may be dissipated by the after purposes and conduct of the recipient, or re- tained and enhanced at pleasure; 4th, inspir- ing, and influential sympathetically. _ Question 3d. “ W'hat are the most favorable conditions for obtaining them?” Answer. 1st. To stand, spiritually, free from any condemnation from the violation of con- scientious convictions of duty, or righteous- ness; in other words, free from sin. 2d. To give the soul to prayer. 3d. To surrender the entire will and desires to God. Question 4. “Is it possible to reduce the obtaining of these ministrations to a science ?” Answer. Inasmuch as there is a consecutive and consistent application of appropriate means to that end, as suggested in answer to ques- tion 3d, it might be said to be scientiﬁc. But “ ministrations of therSpirit of God ” are fruits of the kingdom of heaven; and Jesus said, truly, “ The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.” Question 5. “Is this a proper subject for investigation, or should we accept these min- istrations without questioning their source?” Answer. The fruits of the Spirit are proper subjects of investigation, in a spirit of holy 88 THE SHAKER. OUR ZION HOME. Tenderly. North Family, Jllt. L. M I 5.‘ ”isisles—:e—:I—+r:—;l—:~+:j—+-s——r~+:l~-—p~o+—g--—;—4~+—4—-l=~-p—g-t—g~..:§::: ,~:_-35 :;;::: :33 :§,:§,: ‘T“8“’-‘d‘l:‘d“d*’d:d‘i_“d'”“““d‘F”did*;"":l“‘—”E*1‘: BJEWL“ id 3' i 5 5 F E f ta 3 u 3 vi’ ii F 5' -' - it“ t A J t i i * A *- Lay“ at §—~r‘:i~fa‘E&:.—.i“:r‘:~ —-— ‘ -5 __l\._4_ .-.4 N *...h_ _4___ _:4_ . -:_*—‘‘r‘ : _ * _ ' _ : : _—' : :_._' I":_" %§-:_;’?l7:‘:_:-a—a—_3§J::;:7’:3‘-aN—l3’-a—_§_‘ _;; gr"; ' 1 . *0 a- 1-a—. fl at W‘ ___;._ 1 We need no earthly ﬂowers, To (look our Zi - on home, No ar - ti - ﬂ-cial radiance, To light her sacred dome; For an - gel gifts and graces, 2 Vlfhile transient pleasures perish, And fade as earthly ﬂowers, Our joys are for e - ter-ni - ty, Our home in trnth’s fair Dowers;Where heart to heart is blending, ._.\ _4.A . r~ I ,— . Js J rs I - N is . l M rs J : — — ' ' :7 -4__. ~__ _._— '_. '-:— y——1=:—l—v — — ‘——l—: E -—4~+- ~e— — — '— -— — -3- — ; 3 jA .§°§.:;:E:1::;§::§?F:§:E1TE:EE1:j:§EEj"§:§l:at_,_ 1:21:-,*_—_:H ' PE 5‘ 3 ! i:L F. 5-" -':i4ﬁ_.L l4L'gg - 1 K3 /'-\ ..r-E: __ _ _ .L_L 1.-- _' __ _ I-"A _ _ -5 - ~_ -- _e_ _ -5 - _'-; —-—?E?—«P:~ — - .:.s-_:—?:E:“§’§a‘§‘E-—1—_§ -_;;~;= er; 2 «- ~ +-= H r +— .s:—:- -4 4 -i--=—E3_:§_e.:E-3;F”:3-Z- ——r—r—-*.:~Lr*:-':3‘- ?—~—-1-—:* 1:-E:‘; —= ~"—' A - dorn with beauty bright, And God's transcendant glo - ry, Her mansion ﬁlls with light. In pur - i - ty and love, Where minis - ters at -tend - ing, Re-new from spheres above. \ Rh O,Ho1ne, sweet Home! Blest joys are thine. 0, Home, sweet Home! Blest joys are thine. /3\ reverence and godly carefulness. “Try the spirits,” etc. See “Tests of Divine Inspira- tion,” a Shaker publication (pamphlet). Question 6. “ Would it be acceptable to furnish cm'efully—11oted experiences of this kind for publication?” etc. Answer. VERY carefully-noted experiences might be published with proﬁt; but much, very much wisdom is requisite in selecting and preparing a report of such experiences to pre- sent to a mind largely involved in a worclly sense; for there is danger in presenting all spiritual and heavenly gifts to the unenlight- ened, lost it prove as the Gospel of Christ to the Jews, a “ stmnbhng block,” or to the mere wordly philosopher, as Christ’s Gospel to the Greeks, “foolishness.” These “ ministrations of the Spirit of God ” are transmissible from one soul to another, the most favorable conditions necessary being a'oneness of spirit between the minister and recipient, and desire of the recipient to receive. But, in certain instances, they may be so pow- erful, the love of God so great, and the needs of the recipient so ponderous, that they may be forced upon him even against his will. But their most general dissemination is sympathet- ically. Hence, some speculative worldly phi- losophers, uninspired by the gift and wisdom of God, would term all such pentecostal bap- tisms, moral or spiritual “epidemics.” But an epidemic is a disease, an abnormal condi- tion, by some irritating cause, inducing un- healthy conditions. Such is not the case with pentecostal baptisms, that are sympathetically communicated from soul to soul by the baptis- mal inﬂuences of the Holy Spirit. Such bap- tisms are charged with health to both soul and body. Some worldly philosophers have gone so far as to declare that the statements of a person so inspired by a foreign or another spirit as to be elevated above their normal capacity, are not proper subjects for belief. But, according to this rule, the ancient proph- ets, Jesus and his apostles, would all stand condemned. The factsare, that almost all the remarkable improvements of human society, either in morals, religion or in the arts, and labor-saving, mechanical inventions, may be justly attributed largely, if not entirely, to in- spirations from superior souls and minds, or souls and minds progressed to more elevated conditions than those attained by the recipient, or inventor, so called. There is such a thing as Divine revelation, and those souls who are the happy recipients of it, are elevated thereby above their normal conditions, mentally and spiritually ; but are such revelations to be con- demned as false, because of their elevating effects upon humanity? If so, there is no hope for our race. Do Good. There are many societies established for the improvement and happiness of humanity. VVe wish in these few words to give a hearty “ God bless” to the “ Societies for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Animals.” They are doing a noble work, and are worthy the sym- pathy and active aid of every humane member of society, capable of feeling sympathy and able to lend a helping hand. Our Bro. R. M. lVagan, Mt. Lebanon, N. Y., has some beau- tifully printed cards, with border, which aim to aid the good work. The cards contain a poem, beginning With, “ The man of kindness to his beast is kind.” Send for a dozen, ﬁfty cents. * Many thanks for the numerous replies to “ Notice to Believers,” from Believers and others. I/Vhile nearly all urge an enlargement, we mean to be content another year, at pres- ent size, with “ Extras.” * Harvested. ..__.. (Since last Issue.) At Enﬁeld, Conn., G. ‘V. Barney, aged 5'7. At South Union, Ky. A small child. Also, Cynthia Smithson, aged -—. Also, Betsy Berryhill, aged 83. Also, Margery Martin, aged 70. At Harvard, Mass, Lucy McIntosh, aged 91. The last announcement IS accompanied with : “ She did the works, hence knew of the doctrines.” PUBLICATIONS. Christ's First and Second Appearing - - $1 25 Dnnla\'y’s Manifesto - - - - - - 1 25 Millennial Church - - - - - - 1 00 Compendium ol'Shake1-ism - - - - - 0 50 Three Discourses on United Interests - - 0 50 Shaker Communism—Evans - - - - 0 50 Shakerism, the Possibility of the Race - 0 10 Tracts free, where postage is paid. MEMBERS OF SOCIETY ﬂppointed to answer Correspomlents, among whom are the Board ofﬂditors. Elder F. IV. Evans. Mt. Lebanon, Columbia C0,, N. Y. “ Galen 1l.ichmon<l. Shakers, N. Y. “ Calvin G. Reed. Sonyea, Livingston Co., N. Y. “ Simon Mabee, West Pittstiehl, Mass. “ H. S. ‘Kellogg, Tliompsonville, Conn., Shakers. “ Albert Battles, Tyringham, Berkshire C0,, Mass. “ Wm. Leonard. Ayer, Mass. Shakers. “ Jonas Nntting, Shirley Village, Middlesex Co., l Mass. “ B. H. Smith, Shaker Village, Merrimack Co., . N. H. “ Henry Cummings, Enfield, Grafton Co.._ N. H. “ John B. Vance, Alfred, Shakers, York Co., Me. “ Joseph Hrackett, West Gloucester, Cumberland Co., Me., Shakers. “ Chas. Clapp, Union Village, Warren C0,, 0., Shakers. “ Ezra Sherman, Preston, Hamilton Co., Ohio, Shakers. “ Stephen Ball, Dayton, Shakers, Ohio. “ J acob Kulp, Pleasant Hill, Mercer C0,, Ky. “ J. R. Eades, South Union, Logan Co., Ky. “ J. S. Prescott, Cleveland, Ohio, Shakers.
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ts0211
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 02, no. 12 (December 1872)
Publisher: Mount Lebanon Bishopric
Date: 1872-12-01
Place published: Albany (N.Y.)
Text: — desires.” THE SHAKER. “ I ‘WILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. , G. A. Loans, EDITOR. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO.,lN. Y., DECEMBER, 1872. ‘I0 12 Fmrr CEN'rs'rr;i2 ANNUM. Christian Self-Denial. “ Except a man deny himself. ”——-(of what ?) Christ. “Brave Conquerors! for so you are, who battle with your own affections, and the whole army of the world’s Shalcspeare. Human nature hates restriction; it can see no propriety in limiting a pleasant in- gdulgence; it worries, frets, scolds and galls under the failure of full satisfaction. VVe know there is such a thing as satiety; we can eat and drink until food in its very best form becomes loathsome-—we can indulge all the senses to the exhaustion of natu're—-yet nature, in this exhausted con- dition, pines’ at its limits, and does not thank God for the boundary. ...
Show more— desires.” THE SHAKER. “ I ‘WILL SHAKE ALL NATIONS, AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME; AND I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.” Published Monthly, by and under the direction of the Mt. Lebanon Bishopric. VOL. II. , G. A. Loans, EDITOR. SHAKERS, ALBANY CO.,lN. Y., DECEMBER, 1872. ‘I0 12 Fmrr CEN'rs'rr;i2 ANNUM. Christian Self-Denial. “ Except a man deny himself. ”——-(of what ?) Christ. “Brave Conquerors! for so you are, who battle with your own affections, and the whole army of the world’s Shalcspeare. Human nature hates restriction; it can see no propriety in limiting a pleasant in- gdulgence; it worries, frets, scolds and galls under the failure of full satisfaction. VVe know there is such a thing as satiety; we can eat and drink until food in its very best form becomes loathsome-—we can indulge all the senses to the exhaustion of natu're—-yet nature, in this exhausted con- dition, pines’ at its limits, and does not thank God for the boundary. In a country whose laws extend to its subjects the largest liberties—a country, in which “ Young America" is trained from the cradle to think that obedience to parental authority is of infantile length only, and then to feel, that toido as he pleases is his inalienable right—’tis here, that self-denial is at a discount, and self-gratiﬁcation at a premium, more than elsewhere. ’Tis_ here, that true liberty is misconstrued, and the silver years, if they are reached, are left to teach, that “he alone is free whom the truth makes free,” and that the teachings of truth are strongly ﬂavored, with “ touch not, taste not, handle not.” He is not free who does as he pleases (unless he pleases’ to do rightly), but the worst of slaves, to the worst of tryants——the passions. Jesus taught, and practiced self-denial, and for this, was very unpopular with the world. His ideas were accepted and practically carried out by an unpopular few; while he was given the choice of relinquishing his doctrines, or of dangling from a three-cornered ediﬁce until life should ebb away. And we opine, that were the millions of profcssedly Christian people, compelled to practice what they profcss——real Christianity—they would soon renounce, all claim to the title! ‘Vere there not educated adepts, dealing out explanations of ‘ what scriptural self- denial does not mean, in a. manner that permits the self-adulation and gratiﬁcations of their auditors, there would soon be only as many Christians in name, as in practice ; while the present popularity of the name would then become the synonym of con- tempt! With a large respect for religious sincerity, we cannot hold from saying, that humanity are so prone to indulgence, that they have trans_formed genuine Chris- tianity into a requirement much better adapted to their desires, and most assuredly Without the sanction of its author. The grand truth will one day be discovered, that the terms “Self-denial” and “Self- gratiﬁcation” are antipodes, and not synonyms. We are constrained to ask of popular Christians : Where is your self-denial and cross? IVherein is your life, other than carnal men and women choose to have it? Does not popular Christianity suit the masses exactly, and is it not very diverse from the life of Jesus, whose Christianity, though unpopular, was eminently genuine 5 and practical ? We ask for no needless excoriations; we plead for none of the excruciating practices of wild fanatics, who would lacerate the body for the good of‘ the soul, and mistakenly ﬁnd themselves the same; but we do plead for that Christian self- denial, practiced by Jesus, and taught to his disciples, with the injunction, “ Follow me ! ” - Our investigations and conscience will not permit us to make the terms “Self- deny” and ‘‘ Self-gratify ” identical. VVe admit, our perverted senses would have had Jesus remarked: “Unless a man gratzfy himself, in every conceivable man- :ner, he cannot be my disciple;” but to the horror of our sensual appetites, they ; are to be denied and cruciﬁed, or we can- not attain to a fellowship with Christ! Ihet us be assured, that the “rer.ZeezmTng blood of 0hrz'st,”' will ultimately appear to all as t}Ze:p-mct'2'caZ' life of Jesus; and that the one will never cleanse us from our iniquities until we adopt the other. As professing Christians, let us be practical ones; if Jesus is our example, let us live as he lived—let his self-denials be ours. Never let us make the charge, that we cannot live as he did, else we make Jesus most unreasonable in saying: “Let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” And. let us here admonish the Pastors of the large variety of churches, to preach Christ, unbiassed by any creed of human invention; preach Christ, as Jesus lived ;_ and forget not to remind your ﬂocks, that the virginal celibacy of Jesus; the “all- things-in-common” principle that he urged; the non-resistant element in which he lived, and keeping himself “ unspotted from the world,” cost him just as much, and no more self-denial, than is required of us who profess his discipleship, and hopefully expect to share in his heaven the fruits of Self-denial. Let each one practically learn our Savi0ur’s name, taught in the school of Christ—Sclf-denial. ”"_ Peter, The Christ. BY E. MYRICK. “ SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES,” _. ‘5 For in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me; and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life. Eull well ye reject the (present) com- mandments of God, that ye may keep your own traditions.” c ‘ or This exhortation of Jesus, to “ search the Scriptures,” was to renew their faith in the prophecies which testiﬁed of his mission. -He did not say go back into. a semi-barbaric age, when just revenge was tolerated, making “ of none effect by your old traditions ;” but think ye have eternal life-;” and I am now" declaring them unto you. The ﬁrst and greatest is supreme love to God, and second, fraternal love to man. all the law and the prophets. chapter, wherein is recorded the sublimest idea of hislife——-the Fatherhood of God. He- said, “ I am the Son of God.” And again, ,‘the son of man as well as they. v“W'hosoever spcaketh a word against the- son of man,. it shall be forgiven him ;, but whosoever speaketh against the holy ghost,” God, “itgshall not be forgiven him.” Thus admitting equality with other “‘ sons of men,” and recognizing the divine relationship, as they become. “ sons of God.” He asked them (his disciples,) “ But Whom say ye, that I am ?”' And" Simon Peter any I swered and said, “ thou art the Chri'st,,the-son’ the “new commandment” of universal love- to those inspirational truths. by which “ye- On these two hang-~ Read John 5th, 17th, and remainder of the- Our Father declaring others to be sons of’ God as really as himself-—~claiming also te.be- or anointing, which constitutes a child of ' 90 THE SHAKER. of the living God.” Omitting the interlude of blessing and conﬁrmation, we have the direct response of Jesus: “I say also unto thee, that thou art, (i.e. so are you) Peter,” and upon this rock—“ this primary principle of Fatherhood in Deity, and Sonship of humanity in Christ”-—Will I build my church; and the gates of hell (the false systems of theology, with their Adamic practices, war, triune God, and vicarious atonements) shall not prevail against it. By a slight change in punctuation, is not the analogy in the context more complete? and does it not give a better rendering of the meaning Jesus intended to convey ? The common error that Peter, signifying rock, should be the foundation of an everlast- ing church—-who at most could be but an active agent—is fraught with grave conse- quences, When solomnized by a creed, and draped about With kindred, damaging phrase- ologies. Supposing Jesus had said, thou art Thomas, and upon this twig (the scripture name of Thomas) will I build, etc.? Reason fails to support the long accepted belief, that the declaration to Peter bore any relation to him, or the signiﬁcance of his name. But to the parental and endearing relationship, existing between the inﬁnite and ﬁnite souls, this was the rock, the basis and eternal principle on which to build. And it was this revela- tion to Peter, which Jesus hastened to bless and conﬁrm. “And I say also unto thee,” “That thou art,” Christ, in good degree, And “ blessed art thou, Simon," Brother- "Son of the living God,” the Father. 0 Father make them one with me, Even as I am one with thee; We have one master, the Christ spirit, An heirship such as each shall merit. This declaration of Jesus, that Peter was “Christ, the son of the living God,” which also applies to all who became one with him, by obeying Christ as he did, does not pre- clude the second distinctive advent of Christ in a representative personage—“ like unto the Son of Man”—the Daughter of Man——Ann, “the Christ”——the Daughter of the living God.” And this is the second appearing of Christ, in glory, supplanting that which was in part. “Beloved, now are we Sons and Daughters of God.” Christs, Saviours, “a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, clothed in white robes, and palms of victory in their hands.” “ Singing salvation to our (dual) God. Blessings, and glory, and Wisdom, and thanks- giving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto [and from] our God forever and ever.” “Search the Scriptures,” which testify unto us such glorious truths, and we will come unto them “ that we may live.” “To DAY:”—This is the name of a Health (P) Journal, by Dio Lewis. It is quite interestingly arranged for the general reader. But it is so far from being a radical Health Reformer, we doubt its necessity. Let it go deeper than aught else, or let it suspend. ”" The Impending Evil. BY F. W. EVANS. “The Wise man (or people) seeth the evil afar off, and hideth himself.” In these United States, there is in process of formation a Church-and-State party. It is already larger than “a man’s hand,” and combines together the master minds of various sects; being composed of all those who con- found religion and theology, and spiritualism and religion—the old country originated de- nominations, the Catholics, Episcopalians, the dissenting Methodists, Baptists, Luther- ans, Calvinists, including the Russian or Greek Church, etc., who are, at the present time, Church-and-State establishments in the Christian War Governments of Europe. Can any rational person have a doubt that what these theological bodies do in England, France, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Russia, Canada, and the South American States, to- day, they will do in the United States as soon as it can be effected? or that the practical rule of a Church-and-State Government will be the same here as there P “Is thy servant a dog P” asked Haziel of the Prophet Elisha, When he informed him of what he would do to Israel ; and the blindness of Haziel, respecting his own character, touch- ing religious persecution, appeared to be com- mon to human beings. Some of the most conscientious and religious- ly sincere, but theologically erroneous, persons I meet, believe that none but theologically correct men (according to their standard) ought to be legislators. These think the race has progressed beyond religious persecution, and that they will not again “ do this thing.” To them, the ﬁre and faggot, the rack and pulley, are things of the past, and could not be reproduced. The believer in war, when possessed of political power, (human nature being un- changed) will always “think that in killing heretics, he is doing God good service.” How often have peace people thought that Christian wars were ended. But Christian war, and Christian religious persecution will only die drowning in the blood of the martyrs, which war Christians have shed, locked in each other’s arms. Theological errors (which are the seeds of religious persecution, such as) Fz'a'st, That the Douay Bible, King J ames’s Bible, or any one of the Dissenting Bibles, is the “ Word of God.” ;S'ecoml, That the priesthood are infallible interpreters of the Bibles. Thircl, That some men, as Adam, Noah, Abram, Moses, and seventy of the Elders of Israel, “ saw God,” the Supreme Being and conversed with him “ face to face.” Fourth, That the will of Deity creates and makes a thing right or wrong; so that the invasion, robbery, and spoliation of whole nations, or those of Canaan, by Joshua, at- tended by the inﬂiction of rape and murder, was doing God great service. These dogmas, and their practical illustra- tion in the Bible history, have been the basis I of similar treatment by Christian demons, like the Crusaders, the Duke of Alva, Cortes, Pizarro, Cromwell, the Duke of Marlborough, and the New England Puritans, when they killed heathen Indians and pious Roger VVilliams, or when they hung peaceable Quakers, and burnt (as a Witch) a spiritual medium on Boston Common. Nearer home. The above are good enough illustrations of what theologically mistaken, religious souls will do, when they have the civil power in their hands, through a union of Church-and-State. But, when We ﬁnd a contemporary of Mother Ann Lee—her John Baptist, the Angel-representative of Spiritu- alism, as she was of religion—the learned and gentle seer of the North, Emanuel Swedenborg, holding the above named dog- mas as premises, and carried logically to the same conclusion of “ thinking” that the kill- ing of heretics was a Christian duty; and affirming that the most innocent and lamb- like of all the sects which had come up in Babylon—Christendom——and the very people out of whom Shakerism arose, “ought to be put to death,” we stand aghast ! confounded ! and conﬁrmed in the fact, that theological errors produce religious persecution, as an acorn produces an oak tree; and that no theology should ever be permitted into the now simple and pure American Constitution. I quote from the “Debatable Land,” by my old friend and former associate, R. D. Owen, pp. 231,2. “Premise: Jehovah himself descended, and as- sumed humanity.” “ Speaking of those ‘ who are called in the world Socinians, and some of them Arians,’ he (Swedenborg) says: ‘The lot of both is '*‘ * ”“ that they are let down into hell among those who deny God. These are meant by those who blaspheme the Holy Ghost, who will not be forgiven either in this world, or in that which is to come.’ “ Even worse than this is the cruel spirit, aggravated by the assumption of false pre- mises, in which he speaks of those whom he ought to have commended and hailed as spiritual brethren. VVe have it under his own hand, as divinely revealed to him, that the Quaker worship is so execrable and abominable, that, if Christians but knew its true character, ‘they would expel Quakers from Society, and permit them to live only among beasts.’ And this-—think of it——from one who deemed himself the penman of God ! the recipient and inditer of truth unmixed with error. “In SWedenborg’s Diary, under date Oct. 29, 1748, he says: ‘The secret worship of the Quakers, sedulously concealed from the world, was made manifest. It is a worship so wicked, execrable, and abominable, that, were it known to Christians, they would expel Quakers from Society, and permit them to live only among beasts. They have a vile communion of wives, etc.’ Again, Oct. 28, 1748: ‘They are indomitably obstinate in their aversion to having their thoughts and doings made public. They strove with me and the spirits who desired (but in vain) to know their seerets.’——(See Emanuel Swe- denborg, his Life and Writings, by William White, London, 1867, vol. 1. pp. 386, 387). TI-IE SHAKER. 91 “The poison of intolerance, in its most malignant type, still works among a bigoted portion of Swedenborg’s followers. The (Lon- don) Intellectual Repository is the accredited organ of orthodox Swedenborgianism. Its editor (sixteen years since, however), after stating his opinion, that ‘spirits, even the highest angels, have nothing to tell us in relation to doctrine and life, but what is re- vealed in the word,’ goes on to say: ‘We therefore conclude that it is not only dan- gerous, but impious, to seek to have commun- ion with spirits, especially in regard to any thing of doctrine and life.’ But he does not stop here. He tells us that there is good reason for the command, ‘so often repeated to the children of Israel, to put those to death who had familiar spirits, and who were necro- mancers,’ or, as in the Hebrew text, ‘asked inquiries of the dead.’ ”—-Intellectual Reposi- tory, vol. for 1855, pp. 460, 461. “Anything Worse than this, we may search the records of modern theology in vain to ﬁnd.” Let all theologies be vigorously excluded from the only free government on earth, “and forever conﬁne its functions to secular educa- tion, and the internal rights and duties of” its citizens. Devotion and 'Love.—No. 1. BY R. W. PELHAM. If thou hast wholly given and devoted thy life, thy all, and thyself to God, what is it to thee whether thou be in this part of space or that, here, or there, or two hundred miles hence, if so be thou art in obedience to God? If God be thy only treasure, and to do his will thy meat and drink, surely thou wilt be con- tent wherever thou shalt be placed; the gift of God not being conﬁned to places, persons nor things, but is always found where duty calls. By how much thou art attached to places and creatures, by so much thou lackest of being wholly devoted to God. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my redeemer,” said David. 0 how watchful and prayerful must I constantly be, to keep this holy, heavenly frame of mind, here expressed by the devout Psalmist. I must speak no word, indulge no train of thoughts, act from no motives, but such as I believe will be acceptable to the Lord. How constantly must I watch! How fer- vently must I pray! 0 how closely must I scrutinize and sift each thought, word and action, if all I think and do and say shall be done to the acceptance and glory of God. When thou shalt steadfastly reject thyself and be wholly resigned to do the will of God, thou shalt hear the divine voice within thee saying, “this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” It is written that “ obedience is better than sacriﬁce,” but obedience and sacriﬁce both are better still. I ‘We are often exhorted to labor for the quickening power of God, and it is certain that every soul needs it. But who has a dis- tinct idea what it is? Oh give me a “quickened,” tender, sensitive conscience. Let my moral sensibilities be deeply enlivened, that I may sense even the distant approach of an evil thought, and shut up every avenue of my soul against it. This is the quickening power of God which will eﬁ'ectually shield the soul from the least stain of pollution. We often talk of “ traveling ” in the gospel; we say we are determined to “go on” to “ persevere ” and “ go ahead ;” but we should remember, and never forget, that whosoever travels, is continually leaving something behind. It is impossible that we should become “ new creatures” any further or faster than, putting off the old, we get new ideas, new motives, new objects of affection, and new everything. Paul’s “new and living way,” only means “ a new way of living;” devoting our lives to God and not to self. Unless we can perceive in ourselves that we are loosing our relish for mere earthly things, and increasing in the love of those which are spiritual, heavenly and eternal, we may be assured that we are not traveling, not ripening for eternity. If we do not die, and die continually to that which is sensual and earthly, we shall never rise to that which is spiritual and heavenly. “I protest,” saith Paul, “I die daily.” . N o matter how much gift, power and spirit. of God others may possess, we shall not be able to apprehend it in them, nor receive it from them, unless we have a measure of the same. “No man can come to me,” said Jesus, “except the Father draw him.” Grace must answer to grace. We cannot receive the Divine Nature by imputation, but by impartation——not by proxy, but in our own souls. He is unacquainted with the love of God and true devotion, who feels to boast of his devotedness, and is expecting some outward reward for his secret devotions. How groveling and selﬁsh would he be thought who professed ardently to love a friend, and often visiting him and holding sweet converse, should be found secretly ex- pecting, or openly demanding, money as a reward of his time and pains ! SAD.——Between the 27th October and 5th November, the home of THE SHAKER was visited by two disastrous ﬁres. One at Second Family—the large barn with all of its contents—loss, at least, $11,000. The other at South Family, in which the loss was even greater. Three barns, wagon house, with accompany- ing sheds, with all their contents were swept away. Our dairies are well nigh ruined. VVe should rather have recorded these ﬁres as accidents——but are constrained to write incen- diairism! The object was robbery in the other families——this was attempted at each ﬁre——but proved a failure. VVe live in hopes of the arrest of the parties——and until then—— and afterward——will pray: “ God have mercy on their souls ! ” ”“ “ No Surrender.” BY VVATSON ANDREVVS. “The following lines were suggested to me by the noble leader in November number of THE SHAKER." This war-cry through the nations rings, And wakes the sleeping spheres; And Hope, replumes her drooping wings, And points to coming years. There's strength within these magic words—- There’s vigor in their sound, As backward roll the opposing hordes, And clear the doubtful ground. “On, up and on!” bright legions shout, Yours is the victory ; And Hope’s glad eye beholds the rout, While echo answers—" Victory." What though the ebbing tides disclose The fossils of the deep! \Vhat though it seems in vain, that those Bright saints their vigils keep! The laws that lead the ebbing tide, Bring the returning wave; Growth and decay, here, side by side, Their proper oﬂice have. The seed cannot be qujckened, more, Except it ﬁrst decay; And Cities, Nations, o'er and o'er, Arise, then pass away. But principles do not decay; And virtue never dies; VVhen all things else have passed away They reascend the skies. They reascend, but not alone- Their votaries go too, And sing: “ Thy will, oh God be done!" In songs forever new. Fashion. We copy below with great pleasure from teresting local—that which should be preserved in letters of gold. It is from the facile pen of “Will Wimble,” or F. W. White, whose future we will watch with brilliant anxiety. “ Strange, invisible power! A mythical queen, that has more followers than Chris- tianity, and whose mandates are obeyed more blindly and willingly than those of the most august potentate; whose reign is perpetual, whose tastes are capricious and whose whims are preposterous’. Whence she comes or where she abides, no human being can tell, but her will is communicated to mankind by some inscrutable instinct, and with a mar- velous submission her subjects follow and yield to her wildest fancies. The rich and poor, high and low, intelligent and dull, saint and sinner, are slaves to her desires; the wealthy and independent are the quickest to fawn upon her, and no matter how tyrannical her reign, they glory the more in their idol, and are her most eager votaries. Should man in his greatness rise to everthrow her man- dates, or refuse allegiance to her laws, Queen Fashion’s premier, Society, frowns upon him and he is cast into the disgraceful abyss of old fogyism and eccentricity. “ The notion is nearly everywhere prevalent that whatever is fashiouableis right; it would have few objections made to it if the reverse were as true, that whatever is right should be fashionable. If such were the case, not so many, as now do, would leave unpaid the tradesman and the state, to worship long and lovingly at the shrine of fashion.” the Albany Evvenlng Ti~mes—our most in- l 92 THESHAKER’. Theological Wrangling BY WILLIAM H. BUSSELL. The combative spirit is common to mankind. VVhether, as the phrenologists tell us, there is an original faculty in human nature inclining men to ﬁght, which, by an excess of growth, overbalances the other faculties; or there is some other cause for it, the fact is evident that adisposition to contend with each other has ever been prevalent among human beings. Some seem to quarrel from a mere fondness for strife ; others, however, seek some pretext to justify themselves for whatever contests they engage in. This is especially true of theological combatants. These are almost universally found in “the sacred orders; ” they have been set apart for the defence of the truth, and, of course, they must discharge their sacred functions. They have high authority for their line of conduct ;——“Earnest— ly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints,” is the injunction of holy writ, and nothing more is needed to ﬁre their souls with sacred ardor for God’s cause. Woe, then, to the unfortunate heretic who ventures to hurl a dart, however feebly, against the truth as they understand it ! The zealot for God’s holy cause, allows nothing to stand in the way of his divine rage. He smites*his foes on the right: hand and on the left. “Athanasius contra mundum.” is conspicuous on the banner which he unfurls to the breeze, and he bids deﬁance to every adversary. But, unfortunately for the peace ‘of society, some Arius is usually found to accept the challenge; and then begins the wordy strife, which ends, if not in blood, as in ancient times, yet in embittered feelings in those who engage in the controversy, and hostility more or less marked between those ’ who take sides with either combatant. But, thanks to the diffusion of better views respecting human duties and obligations, the rancor once existing among theological dis- putants’ is greatly softened. It is true there are parties still that look upon each other with suspicion, fearful lest something terrible may ensue by the prevalence of one or ’ another set of opinions; yet one cannot fail to see that there is in the present age a greater inclination than formerly existed, to discover what good thing there may be in this or that body of religious people. Let this continue, and the best consequences may be expected. For where there is a disposition to praise whatever good may be found, instead of look- ing after some heretical dogma, each body of people will be emulous of the good, and more ready to abandon their senseless, wordy con- tests about mere speculative views. And this, i in fact, is “ the faith once delivered to the .saints.” It was the faith of Jesus, who proclaimed the reign of Divine Love, and who referredihis adversaries to the good he had done as a proof that the doctrines he taught were of divineorigin. It was the faith of the Apostles, who .labored incessantly to form a church, distinguished by the love its members should bear to each other, and by the blame- less life they lived, so as to become an acceptable offering to their Divine Head. It will be found by those who carefully look at the matter, that Paul, theologian as he was, aimed to bring all the converts of Christianity to a unity in the life of Christ, and not to form a mere set of Theological Institutes; though unfortunately, contentious minds have since his day made his writings a. mere foot- ball on the arena of theological strife. There have always been those who have insisted that their peculiar dogmas shall be accepted by others, because to themselves these opinions seem of so much importance. And that is the ultimatum of their gospel. They do not seem willing to present with the strongest array of arguments they can com- mand, what seems to them to be truth, and then let‘ it rest to be accepted or rejected by others according to their own judgment. They want others to admit the superiority of their views, and, as a matter of course, of their judgment. Hence, they are ready to attack all opinions opposite to theirs, though these may have been as carefully formed as their own. There certainly can be no objec- tions to efforts for the discovery of every truth in God’s universe, and for the promulga- tion of the same; but why insist that we have the truth if we cannot proveit? And if we can prove what We present, there need be no fear but it will be ultimately accepted by all, though the discoverer’s name should be buried in perpetual oblivion. The life of Christ proves itself divine to all who accept it and walk in it, and there is no controversy respecting it among all such. It is the “shining light that shines more and more unto the perfect day.” Love, kindness, gentleness, ﬁdelity to duty, and peaceableness of conduct produce no strife. Those only who are destitute of these, but possess the opposite qualities, are the originators and promoters of the contentionstliat curse the world. “ The Day Dawns.” EDITOR SHAKER: If you think the enclosed “'0l‘- thy a place in THE SHAKER, as evidence that “the leaven which the woman (Ann) hid” is \vorl;irg, please insert. Such an article could not have found a place in the London Quarterly a very few _ve:n's since. Let us thank God and take courag'c—“’l‘he day dawns. ” Yours, JOHN \Vlll'1‘l-ZLEY. THE FEMININE ELEMENT IN THE DEITY. The London Qua,rte:rl_1/, in discussing the feminine element in our conception of God, says: “ To Protestants the worship of the Virgin is a superstition, graceful and beautiful in many of its aspects, no doubt, but, like all other superstitions, liable to run into extrava- gance, and to ally itself with fancies socially injurious and absurd. VVe are, therefore, dis- creet and prudent in not allowing this element to creep into our habits of religious worship. Nevertheless, we have something to learn from it; it indicates a want, an instinct which we have too long disregarded—the want of affec- tionateness, tenderness, and love in our con- ceptions of the Deity in His relations to us, and our relations to Him. The reason why our services are so cold, so dry, so formal, so fruitless of any sweet and genial results in actual life, is perhaps owing to our inaptitude or slowness to conceive of the feminine element in the character of our Creator, and to a no- tion that piety ought always to be manly, as we call it, and never womanly. If, however, any Protestant, believing in the superiority of his faith, contemplates the conversion of the Roman Catholics, he may be sure that he will make little or no progress (especially among women), until the defect of his cold sys- tem is cured, and his want supplied; until by him and his Church the Supreme comes to be regarded tenderly as well as reverently, with the affections as well as the intellect, familiarly as well as awfully, as a father that pitieth his children, as a shepherd that taketh the lambs in his arms. If from conceptions of dignity and respect, of power, awe, and majesty associated (and ﬁtly associated) with God, a certain order of minds ﬁnd it hard to supplement any softer or more commonly hu- man element, they will ﬁnd that whatever the effect may be as regards their personal religion, they will have very small inﬂuence indeed over the hearts of their fellow-men; they may teach philosophy, b11t they will not enkindle piety. They will ﬁnd that what they cannot add, humanity in general will add, because it instinctively must, and that if men are forbid- den by philosophy. to incorporate pity and soft tenderness into their ideas of Supreme Deity, they will fall back upon some other deity asso- ciated with the Supreme, less wise and power- ful, perhaps,‘ but more gentle and kind. Can we love the same being whom We honor, rever- ence, worship, and obey? VVe answer, Yes! provided we have presented to us the loving and lovable qualities of his character. Many clever people, however, seem practically to answer, No, because from some cause or other they fail to appreciate the sweetness as well as the light of the divine nature. But poor hu- manity refuses to be balked in its affections, and hence the worship of Notre Dame, instead (if N()t1'C Dieu.” VVoman’s Visitation. BY ALONZO G. HOLLISTER. Poor, oppressed, feeble woman, who has hitherto been considered mostly as an ap- pendage to man, useful or ornamental—a con- venient piece of household furniture, having no more rights than a born slave, is at last visited; and in the face of custom, prejudice, man-made laws, and the accumulated wrongs of sixty centuries, is liberated from her degraded vassalage, and enabled to assume her proper station beside the most exalted virtue—-a virtue which only one man had before her attained, and which was deemed so far above human capacity, that men ascribed it to Divine Power and ceased striving to reach it. Does not this event mark an era in human progress more signiﬁcant and full of promise than any that has preceded it? Wlhat more potent cause of human degradation and misery could exist, than for man to be bound by in- exorable law to woman, and woman at the same time denied her proper rights, trodden under foot, and evermore despoiled of purity and innocence, which alone give beauty and elasticity, with the sweetest graces to the TI-IE SHAKER. ‘‘."© 00 mind, and wings to those aspirations which lift the soul heavenward ? \Vhat, but the enmity of the serpent work- ing in this channel? God said, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and be- tween thy seed and her seed.” The serpent’s turn was ﬁrst; and as long as man and wo- man loved to have it so, and mutually cherish- ed that serpentine nature, depicted in ancient lore thus: “ I ﬁnd more bitter than death, woman, whose heart is as snares and nets, and her hands as bands,”-no remedy could be applied. In such case, though every unjust statute on _the books had been erased, the cause that produced them, operating in the channel of “ clesirc” or lust, would still tyrannize over, and “accuse” those who should be, as brethren and as sisters. The private torture of domestic tyranny, through the operation of disorderly passions, is a far more grievous fountain of bitterness than all the laws of the statute books and public opin- ion added, as millions of sufferers can testify. But after having suffered enough from that enmity, and eaten sufficient fruit from that deadly root to desire escape from it at any cost, even to the loss of all things, God mer- cifully sends down a power to fulﬁll the “ It shall crush thy head ”—this was in Christ’s first appear- ing; “ and thou shaltlie in wait for her heel,” —at the second appearing. (Douay transla- tion). Expositors generally concede that Jesus Christ was the woman’s seed who was to crush the serpent’s head; but having only a glimmer of the true light, under the vail of antichrist, they do not appear to understand how it was accomplished, nor that the same work must be effected in every soul that would participate in its beneﬁt. His testimony, which was the exposition of his practice, we have in these words: “ If a man ‘come unto me and hate not his father, mother, wife, children, brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Never man spake like this before, and no wonder they were astonished at his doctrine, for even to this day, but a few of mankind have been able to receive, or even to compre- hend its true meaning. That is to come. As his was a mission of peace and good will to all men, he could not mean we should hate per- sons, b11t those selﬁsh ties of ﬂesh and blood which arise from these relationships, and that worldly self—pleasing life which produces and sustains them. I We have no account that Jesus ever taught hatred to anything else, and this shows us where and what the ser- pent’s seed is. pledge given in this promise: The serpent of perverted generation, as well , as natural reproduction, received a deadly wound from the life and testimony of Jesus‘ and his immediate followers, who, by their perfect obedience to the new creating word, received a power which returned the serpent’s enmity upon his own head. But after the fall of the Primitive Church, by its connection with the generative order through the unre- deemed woman, the artful doctors and creed mongers of antichrist’s kingdom, contrived, to heal the wound, and preserve the serpent to “ lie in wait” for the,woman’s heel. What further of the serpent treader is re- corded in the Prophet Micah? “Arise and thrash, 0 daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron, and thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people, and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the Whole earth,” by sundering the selﬁsh ties and crucifying the lusts of natural generation——the serpent’s seed—and devoting their substance to a sacred and united interest, spiritual and temporal. Here a daughter is represented as co—operating in the same work that was appointed for the son, to whom it was given to “ rule all nations with a rod of iron, and to dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” How did they obtain this power? By perfect obedience. As it is now the woman’s day, with the man, to hate the serpent and his seed in all their alluring, deceitful arts, to cut loose from their snares and bands, and root all their ties from her soul ; “ all the morning stars sing together, and the sons of God shout for joy,” while the work progresses. For “now has come to us salvation and strength, the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ.” lVe have both Father and Mother abiding with us; and spiritual sisters, and brethren, and child- ren are our relation; and these are the “ Vir- gins that rejoice in the dance, both young and old together.” Our Eden is restored, and if our trials are more severe than those of the ﬁrst Eden, our knowledge is greater, and so is the prize for which we wrestle; and with such faithful parents for exemplars, every honest, upright soul that cleaves to them must surely win. Christian Spirit. BY CIIAUNCY DIBBLE. Being in Saratoga, I was accosted by one who thought that the very chaste life the Shakers live, renders them too docile, unspirit— ed, unﬁt for social life or its enterprises. VVe disprove this fact, by enjoying the largest amount of imzocenit socialism of any class on the earth. lVe believe it to be a Christian enterprise, to cultivate love, peace, economy and industry, untinged by lust, VVe are professedly nonresistants~——thiS was a specialty in the character of the author of Christianity, and will be in his humble followers—but is not copied by those popularly called Chris- tians. If the indulgence of the lustful pro,- wars, extravagance or laziness. . peusities is a necessary stimulus to active life, such cannot be Christian life; and we abjure the enterprises that spring from such a source. Thousands of instances daily occur, that are specimens of the motor of animal, generative life; and while these stain the pages of civilized journalism, we will be con- tent, in being called spiritless by the world, if we can only be brimfull of the living spirit of Christ. Called. ( Since our last Issue). Joseph Patten, Octogenarian, \VestPittsﬁe1d, Mass. Hannah Blanchard, aged 85, Harvard, Mass. Robt. Fowle, aged 73, Canterbury, N. H. Work and Win. BY DANIEL ORCUTT. However diﬂicult the obstacles may appear to the novice in the self-denying Way, remem- ber, that if you commence the work with earnestness of purpose, your efforts will be crowned with success. A wavering, doubting mind never did, and never will accomplish anything worth naming. There is nothing like a ﬁxed, ﬁrm, steady aim in the gospel cause, that will ensure victory. The true crossbearer, by vigorous, persevering effort, wins crowns of bright glory. It has been truly said, that no excellence is gained with- out earnest labor. How did our blessed Saviour overcome, and win that bright crown ? And how did our ever blessed Mother gain that spotless robe which she wears? By resolute perseverance and patient toil.. Oh, how worthy of imitation! Now, what has been done can be done again ; and it is only those who Work, that win. Therefore in our passage to heaven over life’s rough sea, should billows arise to impede our progress, let us remember that constant, earnest labor will conquer all things. Be not discouraged at slow progress. VVork on, discarding vices one by one, and “adding to your faith, vir- tues.” Work patiently—W0rk and Win. Truth Courts Investigation. Nothing tends more to the improvement of the principles of light and truth in the mind of man, than a. free, candid, and unprejudiced inquiry, and a willingness to examine into the truth of any tenets or practices which are at variance with his natural inclinations and prepossessions. Prejudice operates upon the mind like jaundice upon the eye, which‘ pre- vents it from seeing objects except through a medium discolored by its own inﬁrmity, and therefore it cannot form any just or correct ideas of what it does actually see. It is to be lamented that popular excitement is often raised to the highest pitch by selﬁsh, designing persons, who, like puppet—show- men, keep themselves artfully concealed. Public good is generally made the plea to obtain the gratiﬁcation of private ambition or malice ; and whatever may be the ostensible object of the instigators, whether it be of a religious, political, or other nature, the medium of excitement is the same——the pas- sions are developed and prejudice created, the effects of which are in proportion to the estimated importance of the object held up to view. Of all the objects of popular clamor, none are more calculated to make an impression upon the mind of man, than the subject of_ religion. This has been used as a cloak for persecution in all ages. The public mind is agitated by designing and interested men against some person, principle or system of religion, which stands in the way of their ambitious plans. Such was the excitement raised by Demetrius and his interested coad— jutors against the apostle Paul among the Ephesians, who were persuaded to believe, that through the preaching of Paul, their 94: THE SIIAKER. religion was in danger, and “that the temple of the great goddess Diana would be despised and her magniﬁcence destroyed;” while the real danger apprehended was the loss of the lucrative craft of the prime mover of the tumult. In all ages, those religious persons and sects, however few or small, who, regardless of popular opinion, have presumed to think and act for themselves, and to advocate and practice virtue according to their own un- biassed judgment, have always been the objects of popular odium. And persecution against such has always been excited in proportion to the contrast of their principles with the popular feelings and opinions, and the self- denial which those principles required against the inbred propensities of human nature; be- cause such principles are viewed as obstacles in the way of the interested designs of aspir- ing ambition. The only efficacious remedy against the inﬂuence of such contaminating excitements, is calm and candid consideration, a sincere and impartial inquiry after light and truth, and a dispassionate examination of every principle presented to the mind that requires important action. The action will then pro- ceed from deliberate judgment, and not from the impulse of passion. In tracing the history of the human race, we rarely ﬁnd a heinous crime committed under the inﬂuence of calm consideration; but generally, if not always, under the excitement of some pernicious and baneful passion, and from some corrupt principle, which has been designedly instilled into the mind conformable to those passions. All evil speaking, all slanders, all defamation and detraction, proceed from these sources. No Wars, no tyranny, nor persecution, could ever be supported by any other principle. If ever the civil and religious liberties of this nation are overthrown, it will be done through the prevalence of these causes. When strenuous and increasing efforts are made to gain a religious ascendancy, and to obtain the passage of laws in favor of the opinions and views of popular sects who lay claims to orthodoxy, and when such laws are enacted to favor such schemes, and to operate against unpopular sects, then let the lovers of national liberty beware lest the consummation of these designs and exertions shall ﬁnally terminate in the baneful and dreaded com- bination of the civil and ecclesiastical powers to sway the destinies of our country. If this should once be accomplished, then comes an end, aﬁnal end to all the liberties and privileges, both civil and religious, which have hitherto been the distinguished portion of this highly favored nation. The utility of every principle and system must be tested by its nature and effects. VVe therefore request the reader to examine, can- didly and without prejudice, the tenets of our Society, and see if he can discover anything in the principles of its system incompatible with purity, justice, and charity—anything incon- sistent with the social and spiritual happiness, or anything which is not compatible with the free agency of man, or with the civil and religious rights bestowed upon us by our beneﬁcent Creator, and secured _to us by the free institutions of our country. All must be aware that obedience to Shaker principles requires great self-denial against the natural propensities of man. But surely, if we believe the testimony of our Saviour, (Luke xiv. 33.) this can be no proof that they are not the principles of genuine Chris- tianity; and whether they are approved or disapproved, or whether they are agreeable or disagreeable to the feelings of human nature, no one can have any reasonable ground of complaint, nor cause of opposition, since all are at their own option to embrace them or not. The faith and principles of our Society have been tested more than eighty years in this land. Originating from means apparently the most contemptible and inadequate, yet nevertheless, means destined to stem all the opposition of nature’s passions, to confront the pride and ambition of the world, and the persecutions of the bigoted votaries of popular religions, they have increased and grown, and been gradually unfolded and extended, and have been received by many, until they have established a people in the united order of harmony, peace, and social happiness, which continues to excite the increasing attention and wonder of mankind. If individuals who have belonged to these Societies have violated their religious faith and principles, and re- fused to reform, they have been obliged, from the nature and operations of the principles, to depart, according to the’ declaration of our Saviour. Every branch in me that beareth fruit, my Father purgeth it, that it may hear more fruit; but every branch in me that beareth not fruit, my Father taketh it away. (John, xv. 1, 2.) No violation of virtuous principles being tolerated among us, unfaith- ful members must of necessity lose their union and relation to the Body, and go out from us, thereby showing they are not of us. But it must be obvious to all, that persons coming into the Society must necessarily have a time of probation, in order to prove their faith and integrity, before their sincerity can be tested, and their ultimate union as faithful members be established. Hence, during this probationary trial, it cannot reasonably be expected that every one who may reside in this community, though they may assume the garb and adopt the language common to its members, will be faithful representatives thereof. It is by the well known and established principles of the Society, that every individual, professed member is to be judged. Therefore, whatever may be their profession, language, or garb, if they violate the sacred principles aforesaid, they are not in true union, nor proper representatives of the Community—and by this rule all men may know them.——Ba'ief Exposition. ‘ Personal Experiences and Testimony of Aaron Wood. I early embraced the everlasting gospel of Christ’s second appearing, which was revealed through our beloved Mother, Ann Lee, and those faithful witnesses of God who came with her from England. As I was intimately ' acquainted with these beloved witnesses, I feel it a duty I owe to God, to my own soul, and to the cause of truth, to make an honest declaration concerning my connection and acquaintance with them, and my knowledge of their character and ministration. In doing this, I shall relate a little of my own ex- perience before I became acquainted with them. When I was about twenty years of age, I was convicted of my lost state, and felt great concern for the salvation of my soul. I was sensible that I was daily increasing in sin against God, and I saw no way to escape his righteous judgment. I ﬂed to the holy scrip- tures; but I found these condemned me. They testified that, “ He that committeth sin is of the Devil.” I cried to God as well as I was able ; but found no relief—my trouble of mind daily increased. I attended the meetings of various denominations of professed Chris- tians; but could ﬁnd none that I believed really walked with God, according to the precepts and example of Christ. Thus my tribulation and condemnation increased for about the space of ﬁve years, until my life became such a burden to me, that I was tempted to put an end to my existence, in order to stop my career of sin. But thanks be to God, that he at length opened a way for my releasement. About this time, I heard of a strange people who were persecuted and imprisoned in Albany, for their religion. I went from Sheiburn, Massachusetts, were I then lived, to see them, and was soon convinced that they lived and reigned with Christ on earth. They spake the word of God to me, which was indeed “quick and powerful.” They taught me to confess all my sins to God be- fore his witnesses, and to take up a daily cross against all sin and all manner of un- cleanness, and to live a just, holy and pure life before God and all men. I had so much faith and confidence in them, that I was ready and willing to confess my sins, which I did faithfully, and brought them out, one by one, as I had committed them. And the blessed gift of repentance which I felt, cleansed and healed my wounded soul, and releasedime from the fear of death and the torments of hell. And I can testify of a truth, that in obedience to the faith which I then received, I am saved from the commission of all sin. In my ﬁrst visit, I did not see Mother Ann. She had been previously moved from Albany to Poughkeepsie, and imprisoned in that town. This was in August. In the fall I wont to see the Elders again, and staid with them one night in the prison. After Mother and the Elders were released from prison, I went to see them at VVatervliet ; and from this time I was with them the most of my time. I journeyed with them from place to place ; and was with them in nearly all the places where they visited. I have suffered much persecu- tion and afﬂiction with them; and I thank God that I was counted worthy to suffer with them. I have been beaten and wounded by wicked, persecuting mobs, till the ground was besmeared with my blood. At one time THE 4SI—IAKER. 95 ‘I Was knocked down with a club, and was taken up and carried into the house for dead. But these things were light in comparison with what l\Iother and the'Elders suffered by the hands of lawless ruﬂians. I am conﬁdent that nothing short of the power of God, could have preserved their lives through such severe suﬂ‘ering as I have witnessed. I was with them at the time Mother was so shamefully and cruelly abused by that outrageous a.nd horrid mob, which began at George Darrow’s, in New Lebanon, on the morning of the 2d of September, 1783, and which continued until dark; the bare recital of which is enough to make humanity shudder, and bring everlast- ing disgrace upon the inhuman actors in it. Shortly after this, I went with Mother and the Elders from New Lebanon to VVatervliet ; I continued to live there with them for more than a year ; and was daily conversant with them, dwelt in the same house and eat at the same table. I was there when Elder VVilliam Lee deceased, July 21st, 1784, and remained there till after Mother Ann’s decease, on the 8th of September following. Notwithstanding the evil reports that have been circulated abroad against Mother Ann, and the base charges of intemperance and lewdness, I can truly say, that in all my ac- quaintance with her, from first to last, I never discovered in her the least symptom of intem- perance or lewdness, nor any kind of evil what- ever. I always considered her to be the most godly person my eyes ever beheld. She truly loved and feared God, and taught the same to others. Her charity to lost souls was bound- less; and her severity against sin was like a ﬂaming ﬁre. N o Wonder the world hated her; for she was not of the World. Hence they hate her, and say all manner of evil against her falsely. In doing this, they bring the greatest possible evidence in her favor. And now I say unto you that utter false accusations : ye are the children of a persecu- ting generation. “ Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers ; that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel,” down to the suffering witnesses of God whom ye have persecuted and abused. Eulogium. Sister Lucy McIntosh, who, by natural death! lef't this, for the second phase of life, at the mature age of ninty-one years, was one of the very few remaining, whose identity with the society dates with its earliest history. Her steadfast, devoted, and unselﬁsh life, gave potency to her wise precepts; she preached by ex- ample. lmportant positions of care and trust have been honoured by her integrity, intelligence and fidelity. To those who knew her, she needed no other eulogy than her whole life. E. M. Shaker Communism. The revision of “Shaker Communism” was completed in London ; printed there ; has arrived; and we think it, excepting “The Compendium,” the best work for the times issued by our Order. We recommend the same, enlarged, improved, and full of the spirit that should imbue the Churches. Amen. We Will send post paid for Fifty Cents. Ho ! Second Adventists ! In the Second Advent excitement of 1843, there was a peculiar feature manifested by many of its participants. Miller, with many thousands of disciples, ﬁrmly believed in the personal appearing of Jesus at that time; all the ﬁgures of Sacred Writ, with barely one exception, were supposed to point to the year of 1843. So sincere and zealous were the believers, that in preparation to meet the Lord, they progressed “ from faith unto faith,” in an exceeding personal purity. Hundreds, if not thousands, were convicted of the im- propriety of the Works of the ﬂesh—of their non-fellowship with Christ—and long ere “the tenth day of the seventh month” arrived, these might have been found living as brothers and sisters in households that had previously lmoum them only as husbands and wives. They perceived that neither reproduction nor the relations for the same, belonged to the realms to which they aspired, and cheerfully relinquished the same. Disappointed that Jesus did not appear, many concluded that the Second Advent had already occurred, or that the same would be manifested in a spiritual manner._ They sought a refuge, and many found this in Shaker Societies, whose members were believers in the truth that Christ had appeared “ the second time, without sin unto salvation,” in one, “like unto the Son of Man”-the daughter of man—and having been led, by the Christ angels, to the practice of such personal purity, like unto the Shakers, they were evidently prepared for the Christ Baptism which they found, and were satisﬁed with in “ Now,” said Miller, “if there is a possibility of mistake in these calculations—and I do not see that it is possible——then is there but one possible solu- tion left, and this conclusively points to the year of 1873 ! ” The near approach of “the end” of all calculations, brings to the minds of Second Adventists the same noticeable peculiarity of sentiment, and we hope, of life, that was such a prominent feature in 1843. None needs to be a very critical observer, to notice in all the literature of these sincere lockers for Jesus, a marked similarity between their sentimeints, and Shaker life. issues of The Shaker homes and life. Before me are the last two World’s Crisis ; and for purity of sentiment, we challenge the heavens. IVhere such sentiment abounds, there are hopes that such testimony ﬁnds a response i11 active life. In testimony against all ﬂeshly corruptions of the mind and body, I present an extract from The Advent Christian Times, which will forcibly remind many of testimony in a Shaker meeting: “ Here the body is to be blameless and presented so, unto the coming of Christ. Here is an explanation of the question, ‘am I holy?’ Is my body blameless? Are there foes within? \Vhen temptation comes, is there a response to it in my nature? Am I contin- ually struggling to keep down my passions, lest they gain the victory over my love for Jesus? If so, then those passions are unholy and need something more than conquering. They need eradicating. The ﬂesh needs cleansing in order for the body to be blameless. The spiritual emotions may be all right, but the ﬂeshly emotions are all wrong. In this case the body is not holy, and I think we all believe the body is a very essential part of the man. Now then, am I holy? What shall we say to this inquiry ? Is it yes, or no? Let it be candidly considered and answered, even if we ﬁnd the response to be in the negative. . “A deliverance from this condition, so that a per- son’s carnal desires in the ﬂesh are dead, and the whole impulse of the body is spiritual, is the point under consideration. Can the body be controlled by the Spirit of God so that its emotions are not carnal but spiritual? A man ‘finds a law in his members waizring against the law of his mind,’ and the ques- tion is, Can he be delivered from this condition? “ This is as important a question as the one, ‘ am I holy,’ for if a person fully realizes that notwithstand- ing his love to God and his service, there yet remains the ‘sin in the flesh,’ it is very important to know Whether it must always remain there during mortality, or whether it can be rooted out now.” Such are the proper Christian convictions, and these will bring Second Adventists we hope, into the necessary tribulation, by which they will be led “ to wash their robes in the life of the Lamb,” by confessing their sins, and repenting of the same, by a thorough leaving off of all ﬂeshly transactions. Then will they be led to the advanced faith, made manifest in the Crisis. “Further, for a platform of Christian fellowship, true love will adopt one as broad as that laid down by our Saviour. On a certain occasion, being told that his mother and brethren desired to speak with him, he improved the occasion by stretching forth his hand toward his disciples saying, ‘Behold my mother and my brethren ! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.’ “ Brother, sister, how does your life compare with your profession? If you say you are abiding in Christ, to be consistent, you ought ‘ also to Walk even as he walked.’ " We would that Christ make an appearance in 1873, or before that time; and we doubt not, but “ those who look for Christ ” in their lives, “ to them Christ will appear.” We conclude with this assertion and prophecy: Jesus was cruciﬁed, his body buried; he ascended into the spiritual world; and no doubt has often visited the earth since. That which now so elevates the anticipations of Second Adventists, is the coming of the Christ Spirit that anointed Jesus, and will anoint many others. VVhen they are fully assured of their dis- appointment that Jesus will not appear; that their bodies will never rise ; that the resurrec- tion is spiritual, not carnal, we are ready now, as in 1843, to bless" them with a refuge, ﬁlled with consolation, and present them to Christ, for whom they have looked ; towards whom their testimonies have pointed, and for whose reception, We hope, they have en- deavored to keep their bodies in all purity. Then will they sing with us : “Are we ﬁtted, and prepared Tabernacles of the Lord ? Have we found the hidden pearl—Christ—the true Messiah? Look not for him at the tomb, For the Diviizg he's among ; There he'll meet you, there he'll come, and sit the Puriﬁer." * WE have received “ The Equal Distribution of Wealth,” being an Address of the Editor of Biughamton Times, N. Y. Its reasoning is good, but it puts so far off the accomplishment of its subject, that all may well dispair of the Millenium by the means proposed. So long as mankind have husbands, wives, children, they will never yield the point of private 96 THE SHAKER. GrOD’S UNIVERSAL PRAISE. D i . I; JJ [WE id 2 I I ld L 2 Let v__ 114! " - . I A . i . -4 ' ' l‘ . ! ! J. _ ‘;*—§~=*r+-hr”-¢+e+3":‘“;‘E¢“r=t¥=t:F==Fﬁ=#%=:4jt**==‘; _-:::Ir=:ra=a=a 1 Sing un - to the Lord a new song— Chant ye His praises sweet—— Let earth the joy-ful strain pro-long, With har-mo - ny re - plete. The sea shall lift its migh-ty voice, And all the isles shall sing. ' =ii§i3$-'1’°:"-?EiE$E:: 3 i§i’:J_§3S§H 1 1 r - U 5-“ the star-ry hea-vens re - joice; Let earth her tribute bring; "§§§—;%§2‘‘£?;E'Ei’f—;£”: : Egﬁﬁgi-“:1: North, Mt. L. 43 Ritard. J K J .1 F —a:t—a'~—a Iii-1 A - gain at - tune the heartfelt song, And bless His ho - ly Name. Green ﬁelds in glad - ness shall a-bound, And yield a rich in-crease; While for - ests ! . _ 1 J_ __; 1 _ !__J._ _ ’°‘____ _ J‘ .N _ .F_!j___ __ L , _ J ,_ _ L , _ %"~‘—=:~;*:;:~t*:‘ﬂFF—v4ﬁw~t*»-=-F~?~—F45F—E?aE*—~*r:=-tr—s~5-:H<r:HEd=~-—rr—r~r:e—eﬂ so < I— - ' Sal - va - tion doth to . . 4‘ j _ —. g 4: 41*‘ 1' -—--—-i2::t:;§E-.:u I?-~3P«f‘:§1i3E=‘-’$3Ei:—I:.=~—=:2”s H‘ *—‘*‘*a”: I” ‘er’ *+:'*3'5‘:‘*- shall with joy re-sound— The I Him- be - long, Let eve - ry voice pro - claim. an - theme of sweet peace. 4. —s2}__i___;i: _——1—+ ._i;a_:_}:_.-_:_[:$:i: —_ :-gﬂ possessions-—but cherish these to an extent, equal to the possibility of attainment. Let there be an “Equal Distribution” made to-day, and one year from to-day it would be far worse than yesterday. Jesus began his Work by the denial of those selﬁsh relations that will forever make the kingdom of heaven impossible, While actively engaged in. “ Follow Me, is the true rule.” * The Editor’s Appeal. To 0173 PATRONS AND FRIENDS :——With this issue of THE SHAKER, we complete Vol. Second. We have again presented ninety- six pages of information of our life, faith and testimony, for the small sum of FIFTY CENTS ! The actual cost has been much more. VVe have not presented a life and testimony that meet the “popular idea” of what should be the religious theology ; but rather, have dealt in truths that were unpalatable to the masses, yet known to be truths, nevertheless. By this comscientious course———the dissemi- nation of truth-—regardless of whether it pleases or displeases—it is almost a miracle, that We have been as successful in meeting our expenses. We do not believe there is a more radically religious monthly in the world -—-radical, so far as going down to the munda- tion of human Woes and loss, illustrating -their cause, effect and remedy, and aiming at the elevation of the Whole human race. We have not attempted to attain unto a ﬁnancial eminence; but rather, have from the ﬁrst, been humbly content to meet our expenses, while doing the greatest possible good in the least possible space, at the lowest possible price. VVhile we can feel, that the pulse of so large a part of humanity is with us, suﬂicient— ly to aid us with the small pittance asked for THE SHAKER, We mean to live to uphold the standard of CHRISTIAN RELIGION, as lived by JESUS, unbiassed and unmixed with human follies and ﬂeshly lusts. We are very grateful, dear friends, for your kindly recog- nition of the strife in which We are engaged—to live, here, as all expect they must live herafter ; and though our little SHAKER may not com- pletely, effect the desired end—the salvation of innumerable souls from a further commission of sin-—-it will be an educator for the life that is to come. There are thousands who do not feel able nor Willing to receive the saying: “Be a. Shaker!” but Whose admiration is challenged by the knowledge that there are some who can receive the saying “for the kingdom of heaven’s sake; ” and such pay a tribute to virtue, when they realize that our principles are “the salt of this poor earth.” From such, and from all who love virtue, purity and goodness—from all who are in- terested in our standing uprightly for Christ’s sake, and preaching the true gospel in our every-day life—-from such We look for aid in sustaining THE SHAKER, by sending to us of your substance, according to your ability, and love “ For the cause, that lacks assistance- For the wrongs that need rcsi.st:mce-—- For the bright hopes in the distance, And the good that all may do.” Again thanking you for past favors, We beg for the continuance of the same-—for the re- newal of the large number of subscriptions that expire with this issue. We promise to render in exchange, an increasing amount of true religious literature and song; to enhance the value of our medium by a greater variety of subjects; and generally, to devote our Whole soul’s effort for the best good of human- ity. VVe should not feel it dishonorable to discontinue for the present; but replies from every part of the Union, from all classes of individuals, give this question an emphatic negative. We shall, under this encouragement, “ run Well for another season ; ” and We hope to receive that tangible sympathy, Without which our efforts for humanity, but not our Io-re, must fail. VVe appeal, then, to all: Sub- scribe for THE SHAKER. Lend the Lord a half-dollar, and after many days it will return to you, in value, a thousand fold. And may you fare Well in our peace, love and blessing, until We meet on Canaan’s happy shore ; and there, with one Lord, and one life like unto his, “ We shall know of the doctrine,” and part no more forever. ’*‘ ﬁ®°’ Any one desirous of circulating a few copies of 'l‘IIE SHAKER, may obtain aselect parcel, on ap- plication to this office. "" 3§ Bound copies of THE SHAKER, Vols. 1 and 2 together, will be sent, post paid, for two dollars and fifty cents. Bound separately, each, one dollar and scvcnty-live cents. "‘ WE purposed an “ Extra” with present number, but our dreadful ﬁres have denied us the opportunity of preparing it. Should our DECEMBER issue be late, We beg the patience of our readers. * ﬁg’? To NEWS DEALERS, BOOKSELLERS AND S’l‘.\'l‘l()l\’E'RS.-—VVe want you to act as agents for THE Sl'[Al{1‘!R. On application, we will make to you the most reasonable terms. Send us your address, and try the sale of THE MOST RADICALLY RELIGIOUS l\ION’l‘HLY in the WOl'l(l—-THE SHAKER ! it SPECIAL NOTICE. With the beginning of next volume of THE SHAKER the management changes. The pres- ent editor retires to the position of Publisher; and the present, able head of the Nocitiate Orders of Shakers——Elder F. W’. Erans—— becomes its Editor, AND TO ,wHoM ALL SUB- SCRIPTIONS SHOULD BE A1)DnEssED. This is ct consummation long and devoutly wished for. Let the subscriptions be sent to him “fast and numerous.” * PUBLICATIONS. Christ’s First and Second Appearing - - $1 ‘25 Dunlav_v’s Manifesto - - - - - - 1 25 Millennial Church - - - - - - . 1 00 Compendium ofShakerism - - — - - 0 50 Three Discourses on United Interests ~ - 0 50 Shaker Communism—Eva-us - - - - 0 50 Shakerisni, the Possibility of the Race - 0 10 Tracts free, where postage is paid. MEMBERS OF SOCIETY ﬂppointed to answer Correspondents, among whom are the Board of Editors. Eldei-F. W. Evans, Mt. Lebanon, Columbia Co., N. Y. “ Galen Richmond, Shakers, N. Y. “ Calvin G. Reed, Sonyea, Livingston Co., N. Y. “ Simon Mahec. West Pittslleld, Mass. “ H. S. Kellogg, Thompsonville, Conn.. Shakers. “ Albert Battles, T_vringham, Berkshire Co., Mass. “ Wm. Leonard, Ayer, Mass, Shakers. “ Jonas Nutting, Shirley Village. Middlesex Co., Mass. “ B. H. Smith, Shaker Village, lllerrimack Co., N. H. “ Henry Cummings, Enﬂcld, Grafton Co., N. H. “ John B. Vance, Alfred, Shakers. York Co., Me. “ Nehemiah Trull, West Gloucester, Cumberland Co., l\[e., Shakers. “ Chas. Clapp, Union Village, Warren Co., 0., Shakers. “ Ezra Sherman, Preston, Hamilton Co., Ohio, Shakers. “ Stephen Ball, Dayton, Shakers, Ohio. “ Jacob Kulp, Pleasant Hill, Mercer Co., Ky. “ J. R. Eades, South Union, Logan Co., Ky. “ J. S. Prescott, Cleveland, Ohio, Shakers.
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ts0212
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 03, no. 01 (January 1873)
Publisher: United Society
Date: 1873-01-01
Place published: Mt. Lebanon (N.Y.)
Text: ,__ IIOL III. F. W. EVANS, Enrron. SALUTATORY. _o_ As Eighteen hundred and seventy- three (1873) is to be our date for the next twelve months, we desire for you a joyful, Happy New Year. In accepting the chief editorship of our little paper, the burden is much lightened by the fact that I shall be sup- ported by the experience of my “well done” predecessor, Elder G. ALBERT LOMAS, who has kindly consented to continue his contributions, and, also, to otherwise help in the publication and management of the Shaker and Shaheress. His partial withdrawal is due to the heavy and afﬂicting losses by incendiary ﬁres in the beautiful village of Water- vliet, where he resides. We would that those who have so ruthlessly inﬂicted these losses upon a quiet and peaceable people were pos- sessed of a different spirit, and impelled by better motives. “But the wicked will do wickedly,” and “ one sinner de- stroyeth much good.” As one agency in saving and redeem- mg ourselves and our race from these ex...
Show more,__ IIOL III. F. W. EVANS, Enrron. SALUTATORY. _o_ As Eighteen hundred and seventy- three (1873) is to be our date for the next twelve months, we desire for you a joyful, Happy New Year. In accepting the chief editorship of our little paper, the burden is much lightened by the fact that I shall be sup- ported by the experience of my “well done” predecessor, Elder G. ALBERT LOMAS, who has kindly consented to continue his contributions, and, also, to otherwise help in the publication and management of the Shaker and Shaheress. His partial withdrawal is due to the heavy and afﬂicting losses by incendiary ﬁres in the beautiful village of Water- vliet, where he resides. We would that those who have so ruthlessly inﬂicted these losses upon a quiet and peaceable people were pos- sessed of a different spirit, and impelled by better motives. “But the wicked will do wickedly,” and “ one sinner de- stroyeth much good.” As one agency in saving and redeem- mg ourselves and our race from these existing and latent evils, from the an- tagonisms and animosities, envyings and divisions of interest in the present so- cial system, we issue this, our Monthly. We can sincerely and understandingly pray for those who seek our destruc- tion, as we also labor and pray for “the peace of the city” and nation where our lot is cast. Our all of character, life, and property is embarked in and devo- ted to the work of human redemption. We intend, in our whole lives, to return good for evil, and to do nothing but good to poor, suifering humanity. NEW PLAN. Agreeable to our fundamental idea of a duality in the Divine government of the universe, and also in our own Society organizations, the Shaker will hence- forth contain a department edited by Eldress Antoinette Doolittle, open to contributions from the Sisterhood of our Order; and to her such contributions, and other communications from females, MONTHLY. PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED SOCIETY. Mt. Lebanon, Col. Co. N. Y. January, 1873. both within and without the Shaker fra- ternity, may be addressed. It is conﬁdently expected that this ar- rangement will meet not only the warm approval of our own people, but also of our friends in the outer world, where Woman’s rights, duties, and privileges are being so intelligently discussed both in Europe and America. The very interested attention which Shakerism, as a system of ideas, has hitherto attracted from the friends of co-operation and community, and which it is now attracting from Spiritualists, it is also destined to receive from the advo- cates of peace, of temperance, of hygiene and physiology, and from the Woman’s suifragists and land reformers. Indeed, we invite all progressive minds and classes, all truth-loving, religious persons, from the most scientiﬁc ration- alist to the revivalist, to take the Shaker and Shaheress, and thereby help us to inaugurate the blessed era of universal virtue, wherein civil governments and all society organizations shall, by their organic laws, do as we would individu- ally be done by. The Shaker Communities are but as the seeds of the future, or as a handfull of grapes on the topmost branches of the “vine of the earth,” to show what the full crop will yet be, when the full- ness of the Gentiles shall have been gathered in, and humanity be harvested by the great reapers, Time and Truth. ?._.¢..._.:_ MAN ’S DUTY. By Elder Abraham Perkins. —o— Man’s duty consists simply in his being true to himself. VVith all the obligations he may be under to others, with all the cares, interest and regard to any living creature—to any earthly object coming under his observa- tion, with all his indebtedness and responsi- bility to God and high heaven, if found unfaithful in any respect, then he is untrue to himself. That his cares and affections may become universal and unselﬁsh, not circum- scribed and conﬁned to himself, his family, or special friends, his interests should be as broad as the Universe, and should reach the heavens, that he may be able to bless God and His Work, and thus ﬁnd his relation with FIFTY CENTS PER ANNUM. the Angels. Indeed, his cares and affections should extend down into the lower parts of the earth, to be able to meet his fellow—man in earthly conditions, and express a sympathy and love that would touch his soul. They should penetrate prisons of darkness where the ignorant, the vile and the lowest elements of humanity may be taken hold of; where minds may be enlightened, educated, devel- oped, and so elevated that man can live in God. Thus he would be able to comprehend his requirements, and become qualiﬁed to co—operate with Him, thereby becoming a saviour, to aid in the regeneration of the human race. For, through man’s agency, God has always worked to elevate human conditions, introduce reforms, reveal light, and open dis- pensations. And He has, by his Spirit, al- ways prepared the way, by raising up indi- viduals ﬁlled with knowledge, and baptized with power, sufﬁcient to capacitate other souls to be equal to his requirements; to give progress in teaching, leading, protecting, and bringing mankind nearer to Him. Thus deputized, man becomes God’s vicegerent upon earth, and opens the way for “ Saviours to come up on Mount Zion" to judge the earth. “Know ye not that ye shall judge even angels?” In all ages, from the days of God’s ever- lasting covenant made with Abraham, to the giving of the Law, through Moses, and the delivering of Israel from captivity, through Deborah, to the preaching of repentance through John the Baptist, who opened the way for a still greater work—that of salva- tion from sin—througl1 Jesus, Who, by his anointing, became “the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ; ” and still fur- ther down to the days of Ann Lee, the female Messiah, or Christ, whose testimony is before the world to-day a protecting, saving power unto those who accept and live it. Ye seekers after a redeeming Gospel, ye who would know its practical operations, examine critically the life and doctrines of the Churches of to-day; and, when you have found the body Whose members are “sav- iours,” as was Jesus, mark such Church as the Church of God, and there make your oferings. And let that Church which is not able to bear this investigation, no more name the name of Christ. And let the individual who is unable to endure this searching light of heaven, no more claim the appellation of Christian. Truth will prevail, despite the obloquy and revilings of man, and despite the dishonor brought upon the cause of Justice, of true - 2 and undeﬁled religion, by weak and cowardly pretenders of the Christian faith. And though, for a season, truth be crushed, yet “Zion will arise and shine,” and souls under its protection will alone triumph in glory. .__:+__...: THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER. By R. W. Pelham. _o_ To illustrate the true spirit of prayer and private devotion, we will consider the subject in the following light: A child that has pure love and affectioii for its father, runs to him with simple joy and delight at every opportunity; it holds him by the hand as long as the occasion lasts; is al- ways rejoiced to meet him, and sorry when duty requires a temporary separation. In these joyful interviews, it prattles forth, in simple confidence, all its sorrows and all its joys. It receives all the caresses and commands of its father with equal delight, and enters cheerfully into all his designs and wishes, having no desire but to please and do the will of its father. This represents the state of a soul, whose devotion is nothing less than his whole life given to God, and who embraces every opportunity of holding holy intercourse with the Father of spirits. In contrast with this, we may suppose a child full of self-love, self-will, and pursuits of its own, which, though it fears, does not love its father. It is taught that it must go, at stated times every day, and bow and perform certain other acts of reverence to its father, and that if it neglect, the father will punish it with the greatest severity. The same selﬁshness which prompts this child to pursue its own sports and mischief, may induce it to be very punctual in attend- ing to these times and forms of reverence, not because it loves its father, but because its selﬁshness makes it dread the threatened punishment. Hence, though it has no love for these acts of reverence, nor for its father who requires them, yet it will carefully perform them for its own sake. These acts of reverence form no part of its happiness, but are only per- formed to escape the misery of chastisenient. For this reason it always feels as if these requirements were a drawback from its hap- piness—-a hindrance of so much of its time from pursuing its own ends. Consequently it is always cramped, hurried, and confused when in the presence of its father; is sorry when the time of reverence has arrived, and glad when it is over. To set this in still another light, we may suppose a third child, which is not driven to these acts of reverence by threats and dread of punishment, but by promises of reward in apples, cakes and toys; such things as it loves. Now, as the father is not the object of its love, but the objects of reward which he has offered, though the child may be very" punctual in attendance, and have the appear- ance of love and zeal, perhaps equal to the ﬁrst-mentioned child, yet, as its motives are purely mercenary and selﬁsh, this external show of respect to its father, though spe- SI-IAKER AND cious, is unreal. Self is the idol of the child’s heart. As a proof of this, let the father with- hold his wonted rewards, and, though he be otherwise kind, you will see, a sudden change in the zeal of the child. It is disappointed of its mercenary expectations, and is full of murmuring and discontent. As soon, there- fore, as it gives over all expectations of receiv- ing any more rewards, having nothing to hope, and never having been taught to fear, it will throw off all restraint and wholly neglect to reverence its father. Thus will it be with mercenary worshippers of God, who serve him for reward and not from love. '\Vhile the child which truly loves its father will forget its cakes and toys, and forsaking them will run to his father and be wholly satisﬁed with his company, hearing his coun- sel and doing his will. “Verily, except ye become as this little child, ye can in nowise enter into the King- dom of God.” mm.-T..- THE ANGEL OF LIFE. By Elder H. L. Eaoles. __0._ It is certainly true, that the angel life is one of innocence and freedom from sin. But, as “ all have sinned and come short of the glo- ry of God,” the possibility of a sinless state, in this life, is questioned, doubted, disbelieved, by the world, professor and profane; they say, “ the child must make crooked marks be- fore it can make straight lines,” “ the girl must thrum discords, before she can produce harmonies,” etc. This is true; but, if the child always makes the straightest lines possible, it is all the time doing right; hence, sinless. The same with the music. But, should the child wilfully make crooked lines, which is not a necessity, this would be sin, but it does not follow therefrom, that straight lines and har- monies are an after impossibility. The ﬁrst difficulty says Cardaillac is this: “ The ﬁrst part of our life is ﬂed before we have the capacity of reﬂection and observa- tion ; while the impressions which we receive from earliest infancy, are from material objects. The wants of our animal nature, and the pri- or development of the external senses, all con- tribute to concentrate, even from the ﬁrst breath of life, our attention to the world With- out. “ The second, passes without our caring to observe ourselves. The outer life is too agree- able to allow the soul to tear itself from its gratiﬁcations, and return frequently upon it- self. At the period when the material world has at length palled upon the senses (which it invariably does at some period of life), when the taste and desire of reﬂection gradually be- come predominant, we ﬁnd ourselves, in a cer- tain sense, already made up, and it is impossi- ble for us to resume our life from its coni- mencement, and to discover how we have be- come what we now are.” “ Hitherto,” says An- cillon, “ external objects have exclusively riv- eted our attention (not necessarily so), but let us recoil upon ourselves; the scene changes, the charm is gone, diﬂiculties accumulate, in a word, every thing within repels, every thing without attracts, and thus it is our life runs like water through our ﬁngers—carried along, lost; whelmed in our life, and the reﬂective Ego which distinguishes self from its transi- tory modiﬁcations is never developed in the majority of mankind at all.” Now it seems that the possibility of obviat- ing the foregoing diﬂiculties to the angel life had not occurred to these philosophers. “I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” How much superior was the exalted and inspired wisdom of Mother Ann, who fairly cut this gordian knot by her teach- ing that all children should be taught to turn their thoughts within, on spiritual things, by the time they were four years old, and thus grow in favor of God as well as men, and retain their omgelhoool, that when the sec- ond stage spoken of should arrive, they would have a balance wheel to steady their action, thus entering into greater harmonies instead of beginning at this late day to thrum dis- cords. All who have neglected her advice have wofully witnessed the truths enunciated by these philosophers, and can fully sympa- thize with the feelings of a conscientious world’s schoolmaster who writes as follows: “ There is considerable enjoyment in teach- ing these boys. But oh! what abitter grief it is to watch the gradual course of their cor- ruption. Nothing seems to drive the angel out of them so fast as sexual vulgarity. There are boys here who were really cherubic when I ﬁrst came among them. With what yearn- ing tenderness I used to lean over them. They also have eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil——have become as gods—have discovered their nakedness, and so have be- gun to adjust the ﬁg leaves.” At this stage we must admit the diﬁiculties to be great, though not absolutely insur- mountable. The spiritual neglected; the cer- ebrum put to bed and sound asleep. The cry comes up “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?” A skillful one is now in demand, and if the spirti brain cannot be roused into action, the case is, at present, -hopeless. We must see the poor victims, one after another, prostrate before the god of this world, and lead for a season a life of sin, un- til the third stage spoken of arrives and re- ﬂection and reason return, when, if they have suffered enough, they may now take the Father’s advice, and begin to become as little children, and by confessing, repenting of and forsaking all sin, may yet be one of that in- numerable number which was seen, besides the 144,000 virgins who followed the Lamb, etc. But the danger is, that the mass of them will be swallowed up in some of the popular 1 sects of whom a certain writer says: “ The popular religions north and south are but devilish counterfeits of christianity ; they have ceased to be the light of the world. In- stead of being a terror to evil doers, they have become their safest hiding places,” etc. Hence, knowing and confessing themselves to be sinners, priests and people, they resort to avicarious atonement, of which, Gregg, in his “ Creed of Christendom,” thus pertinently discourseth: “ Sin contains its own retribution and pen- alty, as surely as the acorn contains the oak. Its consequence is its punishment. It needs no other, and can have no heavier. Its conse- quence is involved in its commission, and can- not be separated from it. Punishment (let us ﬁx this in our mind) is not the execution of a sentence, but the occurrence of an efect. It is ordained of God to follow guilt. This convic- tion, once settled in our understandings, will wonderfully clear up our views on the subject of pardon and redemption. Redemption be- comes then a regenerating process. We can be redeemed from the punishment of sin only by being redeemed from its commission. Nei- ther can there be any such thing as vicarious atonement, which is a relic of heathen concep- tions of an angered Deity, to be propitiated by oﬁerings and sacriﬁces. Punishment, being the result of sin, cannot be borne by other than the sinner. It is for orthodox dialectics to explain how divine justice can be impugned by pardoning the guilty, and yet vindicated by punishing the innocent. The sin which has absorbed our soul may be repented of—may be turned from; but in the case of a sin of which you have induced another to partake, you may repent of, you may, after agonizing struggles, regain the path of virtue, your spirit may re-achieve its purity through much an- guish, and after many stripes ; but the weaker one whom you led astray, whom you made sharer in your guilt, but whom you can- not make sharer in your repentance and amend- ment, whose downward course (the ﬁrst step of which you taught), which you cannot check, you are compelled to witness. What forgive- ness of sin can avail you there‘? There is your perpetual, your inevitable punishment.” It must be admitted that the sin here com- mented on, is, above all others, the most hein- ious, probably the last to be forgiven, but even this must sometime in vast eternity have an end, else the appalling doctrine of endless hell torments would be true, which is revolting when we remember God is good as well as just. Our good parent, Father James Whittaker, took a lively sense of its enormity when he publicly remarked that it was a “great consolation to him to know that no human beings could lift their eyes in hell and point to him as the cause of their misery,” and happy are all who can in truth say likewise. After all, friend Gregg to the contrary not- withstanding, there is such a thing as pardon. If thy brother trespass against thee, if he re- pent, forgive him, pardon him. So can a merciful God lift the sufferings from a soul that has repented and made all amends in his power. If he could not, then the attribute of mercy were unnecessary. “ Whosoever sins you (my successors), remit —— pardon — they are remitted unto them.” Jno. 20, 23. __.___._.¢____ DUAL GOVERNMENT. By Elder W. Leonard. _o_ “In the beginning God created man, and called their name Adam." Thus the race was started under generative law; and this law they were to bind upon their children. Their order was complete, and God blessed them, and said to them, “Multiply and have do- minion over every living thing which moveth on the earth.” If they stood upright the government would stand; if they fell, it would be broken. They did fall, and sorrow- SI-IAKERESS. ful have been and are the consequences to the race. By this fall, and their posterity “sinning after the similitude of their transgression,” we were all brought under the curse of broken law. Consequently man seized the power to rule over woman, and she lost her standing by his side, and all rights pertaining thereto. Reasoning from these premises, it is plain that it was not intended that the earth should stand exclusively under male power. The Patriarchal rule, the Law, the ﬁrst Gospel Age, the Witnesses, in both sexes, all point to a steady struggle to reproduce a dual govern- ment in these last days. The Church, brought in by Jesus, was still under male rule, which rendered it imperfect. Its founders and leaders saw and preached but in part. Jesus, reasoning from the pa-st, upon what was yet to come, predicted a fall- ing away. He foresaw that Christ’s second coming would be like unto a marriage; or would produce a Church governed jointly by man and woman, corresponding to the ﬁrst Adam, the ﬁgure. This government, as was predicted, com- menced with the Latter-day Church. Ann Lee, a great revelationist, received from the Christ Spirit the same light and principles that were lived out by Jesus. She estab- lished a Church strictly under male and female government, which has existed nearly a century, restoring woman to her place, which she lost by the fall. Ann Lee, and the best seers in her Order, predicted that dual governments would be- come universal; and the best evidence of the truth of their revelations are the changes which have come over spiritual and earthly governments during the last half century. Then, to suffer not a woman to speak in public, especially the churches, was the rule and not the exception. Many leading minds have seen and acknowledged the principles of this Church, but have stumbled at this dual government. They have hesitated, doubted, and stood back; and the Church has sadly felt the effects of such hesitation; but, like an army with banners, onward moves this new governmental idea in the civil and ecclesiastical world of thought. Half a century since, women could find no place as teachers, as public lecturers, critics on political matters, Voters, or preachers, as they now do. All this has a signiﬁcant meaning, and the question is, what will it grow to and end in? Who would have thought, in the days when John Endicott hung women in Boston for daring to speak in public after he com- manded them not, and found support from men taught in the old school theology, that, in less than two centuries after, halls and pul- pits would be opened to them by the hundred; or that scientiﬁc and legislative bodies would give them public hearing? Who would then have dreamed that, in the councils of this nation and from every quarter, a host of strong-minded men would speak out and demand for women the right of suffrage? Evidently such a condition of things is upon us; and who, in view of this can say there has not been a steady advance, toward a dual 8 government, since God established it in this Church and Order? For ages past, a period of universal peace has been predicted, from which innumerable blessings would ﬂow to nations and peoples. Be it remembered that this was to come in the latter days. Appealing to universal his- tory, are we to expect this millennial state to result from the rule of man alone? When political troubles have arisen among disagree- ing rulers, men have furnished swordsmen by regiments, and have always been ready to turn out their warriors instead of peace- makers. Men suffer greatly in war by their barbarity; but women have been by far the greatest sufferers. Millions of them have lost fathers, husbands, sons and friends who have been sacriﬁced upon the battle ﬁelds of the various nations of the earth. Besieging armies have indiscriminately slain untold numbers of mothers and in- fants. Mothers and daughters have been worse than murdered, and left to starve; they have been carried into captivity and sold as slaves, or left to perish by thousands in barren and desolate places of the earth. If noble women find their places in national councils, will they not look back on these bloody pages of history and strive to turn the weapons of cruelty into plow—shares? VVill they not labor to have the prophecies of the ancient sons of God fulﬁlled? Is not God pressing on this movement, in order to bring about this universal brotherhood for which the world, through the instrumentality of dual governments, seems stirred up to work and look? Man ﬁrst invented the still, and from it he has poured out the liquid ﬁre that has scourged and consumed large portions of the race. It has proved a curse to both sexes, and a moral desolation to all nations, ﬁlling prisons, lunatic asylums, and pauper houses, and turning the feet of many into the paths of sin and sorrow. No pen can paint the sufferings that have been brought upon our world by this terrible evil, and upon women in particular. Accord- ingly, we see her rising up in society, striving to banish the pest, and lift the curse from herself and children. Temperance reforms have not proved a perfect success: popularity and pride have required large revenues for support. States- men, ‘to collect these, have worked against these reforms. Their laws so encourage dis- tillation and importation remain in full force. Thus, those men who sit at the helm of power by law crush out all temperance ex- periments, and drunkenness still continues among all classes, statesmen themselves set- ting the example. Would this be if l/Voman had the ballot, and a place in the councils of the nation? Judging from their past ex- ample in temperance and other reforms, We think not. As long as navies and standing armies exist, and intemperance is thus sup- ported by law-makers, it is impossible to uproot prostitution. From the day that woman receives her political rights, which the age will surely grant, better laws and morals may be hoped for. The reform will pass through both Church and State. 4: For nearly a century the Shaker Church has stood under this form of dual govern- ment, and proved its blessings. Their spiritual and temporal government both stand in this Order, and they have never ceased to pray that, under the law of progress, it may yet ﬁnd its place in every land and nation upon earth. VVhenever this takes place, society will begin to realize the ruling power of this Church, what it is, and Where it originated; and, though it may be new to the age, they will find it as old as the heavens; that it be- gan in the morning of creation, and, instead of opposing, the rational, thinking classes will advocate it. From their own political plane they will cast their eyes upward, and see that, while they enjoy it on earth, the dual order exists in the mansions of the blessed. ..?.__¢__.___ BEAUTIFUL EXTRACT. -0- The following extract from Frederick W. Robertson, expresses the laboring thoughts of my mind better than I could ﬁnd words to do it with. The Bible and Inspiration are subjects of investigation fully in order at this present time. “ The INSPIRATION of the BIBLE is a large subject. I hold it to be inspired, not dictated. It is the Word of Cr0d—the words of man; as the former, perfect; as the latter, imper- fect. God the Spirit, as the Sanctiﬁer, does not produce absolute perfection of human character. God the Spirit, as an Inspirer, does not produce absolute perfection of human knowledge ; and for the same reason in both cases — the human element which is mixed up with the Divine element—else there could have been no progressive dispensations. Let us take the case, the history of the creation. I hold that a spiritual revelation from God must in- volve scientiﬁc incorrectness: it could not be from God unless it did. Suppose that the cos- mogany had been given in terms which would satisfy our present scientiﬁc knowledge, or say rather, the terms of absolute scientiﬁc truth. It is plain that, in this case, the men of that day would have rejected its authority ; they would have said ‘Here is a man who tells us the earth goes round the sun, and the sky which we see to be a steroma ﬁxed and not far up, is inﬁnite space, with no ﬁrmament at all,’ and so on. ‘ Can we trust one in matters unseen who is manifestly in error in things seen and level to the senses? Can we accept his revelation about God’s nature and man’s duty, when he is wrong in things like these ‘I’ Thus, the faith of this and subsequent ages must have been purchased at the expense of the unbelief of all previous ages. I hold it, therefore, as a proof of the inspiration of the Bible, and divinely wise, to have given a spir- itual revelation, i. e. a revelation concerning the truths of the soul, and its relation to God, in popular and incorrect language. Do not mis- take that word incorrect; incorrect is one thing; false, another. It is scientiﬁcally incor- rect to say that the sun rose this morning, but it is not false, because it conveys all that is required, for the nonce, to be known about the fact, time, etc. And if God were giving a revelation in this present day, He would give it in modern phraseology, and the men He inspired would talk of sunrise, sunset, etc. SHAKER AND Men of science smile at the futile attempts to reconcile Moses and geology. I give up the attempt at once, and say, the inspiration of the Bible remains intact for all that— nay, it would not have been inspired, except on this condition of incorrectness. “ Neologianism is a large word, and embra- ces an almost endless variety of views; but, to be candid, I look upon Bibliolatry with quite as much dislike as Arnold did—as per- nicious, dangerous to true views of God and His revelation to the human race, and the cause of much bitter Protestant Popery, or claims to infallibility of interpretation, which nearly every party puts forth. I believe Bib- liolatry to be as superstitious, as false, and al- most as dangerous as Romanism.” I think quite so; they are mother and daughter.—— ED. —.._:.__.‘_.—.__j— CELIBACY. By Daniel Frazer. _o_ “What are the efects of abstinence from eacercising the generative functions? ” Free- dom from all diseases of those functions. “ What does your eighty years’ experience contribute to physiological science?” It con- tributes the above important fact. “ What forms of disorder arise from such abstinence?” No speciﬁc form of disease is incident to a virgin life—the life we live. We enjoy better health than do those outside our body. “ How does it afect length of days? ” Favor- ably. The writer is seventy years of age; was thirty when he came here, and indorses the above answers in all their details. To philosophers and physiologists we say, form your theories according to the above facts, and we will abide the result. We assume that man is in possession of and manifests a two-fold life. The lower, represented by the baser propensities; the higher, by the attri- butes of goodness, truth, mercy, and all aspira- tions God-ward. In View of this assumption, the above questions may be summed up by one inquiry: “ (Ian men and women live, in the exercise of the higher, divine life, to the exclusion of the exercise of the generatice func- tions? ” We take the aﬂirmative of this ques- tion, and it is for philosophers, medical men and others, to show —— give evidence—that the position we have taken is untenable; when they do, We will meet them with an experi- ence of nearly a hundred years. And this experience is barely a drop to the bucket of the experience of past ages. In Thibet, celihate institutions have ﬂour- ished for thousands of years. The Brahmans and Ascetics of India can speak of their ex- perience also. To-day, China and Japan have their celibate orders. There, existence in these stereotyped civilizations is an inverted prophecy——that celibacy has existed in these countries for untold ages. The Therapeutw of Egypt present their experience. The Es- senes of Judea had their celibate communi- ties. The order of the Vestal Priestesses in ancient Rome lasted about one thousand years; and the monastic orders of Europe, down to the present day, about two thousand years. And, strange to say, before Columbus touched these shores, Mexico and Peru had each their own civilization, and celibacy was found in them both. From every quarter of the globe we have concurring evidence that, whenever man has made any progress beyond being a mere ani- mal, the law of the higher life has broken forth from celibate institutions. First in his- tory, and foremost in the ﬁeld, is Asia; next is Africa Europe responds for more than two thousands of years in similar manifesta- tions. Ancient America adds her quota of experience to the practicability of a virgin life. And lastly, the Shakers of modern America, in the sunlight of physiological law, and in all the well-understood relationships of social life, add their testimony to that of past ages, that a celibate life is not only prac- ticabie, but favorable to health and longevity. And it is a condition necessary to their wants— an essential preliminary to their hap- piness-—-the manifestation of the divine ele- ment in their spirits. Because of this life was Christ manifested in Jesus, to gather all into one fold, who progress above and beyond the procreative law. The idea that a virgin life is a contraven- tion of the Creator’s plan, seems to me to be one-sided, and certainly is a low estimate of man’s ultimate destiny ; and is not sustained by man’s nature, nor by the analogy of other created things. Human beings are as really subject to be reaped, as is the grain they sow. On this subject Jesus said: “ Cannot ye dis- cern the signs of the times ? the harvest is the end of the world ; the angels are the reapers, and ye are they on whom the ends of the world have come ”-—-the ends of the genera- tive life. In harvesting grain, the reapers gather the elements of their own bodies. So, in the harvest of the world, the angels gather those in whom the elements of angelic life are quickened. These, when gathered., will mani- fest the Divine civilization, in which are neither war nor want. “ Their bread and water shall be blest, and sickness taken from their midst.” The Shakers, as a people, are in the full realization of the former, and to the latter, freedom from disease, we are surely and steadily approaching. We take a prac- tical view (as did Jesus), that all are not pre- pared, as yet, for this life. But we think that humanity needs our example, to which, if they do not attain, they may approximate. From the wide-spread action of Spiritual- ism we anticipate greater results; its mission thus far has been to disintegrate old organiza- tions and ideas ; all their attempts to organize, heretofore, have made bad Worse. When its present phase is accomplished, we trust, as a wave of spiritual light has reached rudi- mental humanity, that it may be succeeded by a wave of light and warmth combined, neces- sarily convicting and organizing in its results. If the Spiritualists organize a higher, civiliza- tion on the generative plane, and, if the more advanced portion realize a higher ideal than we present, we shall be most happy. Outside of our Order there is a growing desire for a permanent amelioration of human conditions. Governments, which rule by brute force, as do lions, are not acceptable. The diseases that afﬂict humanity, especially those referable to the generative functions, are _ appalling. In the midst of plenty, and in the possession of the most productive agencies the world ever beheld, it is supposed that nearly twenty millions of persons in the Bri- tish empire alone, have, during the present century, perished from lack of food. The power to possess wealth and to increase See eighth page. gaaaesessa A. DOOLITTLE, EDITRESS. ..'s.‘.\Is APPEAL TO THE SISTERHOOD. _o_ The Shakers, who, as a people, were but little known or understood by the outside world (except through business transactions), were prompted by a sense of duty and the solicitations of friends to ﬁt up, on the ﬁrst of January, 1871, a small vessel called “The Shaker,” and release it from its moorings where it had been securely anchored in a quiet harbor through the storms of nearly a century, and trim up its tiny sails, and send it forth over the great waters on a mission of love. It contained, as they believed, many treasures, which might be a blessing to others of earth’s inhabitants, as they had been to them. The plain truths which this little craft con- tained were unpalatable to some, while others hailed with gladness any medium of truth, though small in the beginning, as a harbinger of a good time coming. Truth is potent in removing error and in breaking down idol worship in the form of churchal creeds and lifeless ceremonies. Those who had been famishing on the dry husks of theology, and whose souls were longing for living, spiritual bread, said: “Send, Lord, by whom thou wilt.” Such were prepared to read, consider, and understand. At the end of twelve months, the little voyager came back bearing good tidings. It had made many friends while sailing to dis- tant ports; and, although the waters were whitened with the sails of many large and powerful vessels laden with all kinds of wares, yet there seemed to be room enough for “ The Shaker,” and all had treated it with kindness and respect. Thousands were heard to say “Send out ‘The Shaker’ again; it has done us good.” Again it went forth, and, at the close of the year 1872, it returns (like Noah’s dove) to the ark, bearing an olive leaf. The meed that it brings is not praise merely, but the sound “It has been a blessing to us; we cannot do without it. Long live The Shaker! —‘It must not die.’ ” And now, in behalf of the Sisterhood of the Shaker fraternity, I would greet all the readers of our little sheet with “A Happy New Year.” This is not merely a compliment, a meaningless sound passing the lips, but is heartfelt; and we pray that the light of truth may illume your path- way, and that holy inﬂuences from angel spheres may surround you, and lift your thoughts and affections to things of enduring worth. This would augment the happiness of all. And, my dear sisters of the Shaker Com- munity, let me ask you all, as one, to unite, with renewed efforts, the coming year, to advance the good cause. Truth and virtue have always been maintained through indi- vidual self—sacriﬁce. Let us be thankful to be counted worthy to suffer, if thereby truth may be promoted. There is work to be done; a cross to be borne, and a crown to be secured; and woman must act her part. Let us be as SHAKERESS. angels in our own home; strew fadeless ﬂow- ers———innocence, purity and love—in life’s pathway. This will attract angels from higher spheres, and they will commune with us. We shall, also, feel the blessing of our good brethren, who have resolved to eat the fruit of honest toil. When they go forth to plow the ﬁeld and sow the seed, they will return to their peaceful home with gladsome hearts, know- ing full well that they will meet kind—hearted, Grod-fearing sisters, who will welcome them, and administer to all their necessities. How many magnificent dwellings there are at the present time, in our own country, with beauteous surroundings of shrubbery, choice fruits, and ﬂowers of varied hue, and frescoed walls, and ﬂoors overlaid with costly tapestry within, that are destitute of all those essen- tials which make home desirable and pleasant. Luxury is there; but the white-robed angel of peace does not ﬁnd shelter. Better and more to be desired is the humble cottage, with a scanty morsel, where peace dwells, than a king's palace where envy and strife bear rule. And 0, how many men there are at the present time who, by the unreasonable de- mands of their wives and daughters, in the eager pursuit of the goddess Fashion, are com- pelled to resort to unjust measures to procure means for such extravagance! Ah, woman, how art thou fallen! Instead of being an angel—friend to lift man up in the scale of moral purity, your mediumistic pow- ers are turned to demoralize him. Let this be alesson for the daughters of Zion to study. By it let us learn to regard the law of use, and not be content to live upon the labors of our brethren, and eat the bread of idleness; but toil with them ; aid them in all the duties of life; rejoice with them in prosperity, and suffer with them in adversity. Do any of our outside friends ask VVhat are the social conditions and spiritual enjoyments among the Shakers? We answer: True friendship; brotherly and sisterly affection; devoid of sensuality in our domestic rela- tions; and, in our religious associations, we, in concert, raise our hearts and voices in prayer and praise; and feel that the heavens bow down while we become lifted up in spirit to meet loving messengers from higher spheres, who feed tlwe spiritual part, (which cannot subsist upon gross, material things,) with immortal food. This, to us, is real joy. _._~_,____ SELF-DISCIPLINE. By H. Ballard. ..o_ Conversion of heart, to my mind, is the correction of one’s life; and this is the result ofconviction of one’s sins — a conviction deep and heartfelt. Were there more of this con- viction in the Churches and in the schools; if, in every family, each individual were en- joined to carry into life, moral principles and religious truths, would not society be more beneﬁted, than in all or any belief in preach- ing, that alludes to some righteous being, but requires no righteousness in our own lives? In my Shaker home, in which I have en- 5 joyed peace and plenty for more than thirty years, purity and righteousness are enjoined; while good works are the rule and not the exception required of the members; and these are taught as requisite to a Christian charac- ter, in a Christian community. The early training of the child is quickly apparent in the human character. The phys- ical constitution of the child is the foundation of the physical man or woman. Proper food, cleanliness, and a good, moral training for the correction and direction of the child, creating activity in virtuous ways, greatly add to its future character and happiness. Discipline should not be outgrown with childhood; but, as the primary branches of education are to the collegiate course, so should be the discipline of the child to the adult in riper years. Self-government should be more severe than was the paternal; the moral and spiritual faculties should rule the animal passions; thus proving that individual improvement is the basis of general reform. “He that ruleth his spirit is greater than he who taketh a city; ” and those who are able to bring every thought, word and action into submission to the law of Christ, stand forth noble specimens of humanity, a praise in the earth. From childhood to mature age, life should be a continuous unfolding of bet- ter existence, of superior principles, “pro- gressing from faith unto faith; ” as one position is gained, we should be prepared for another and advanced movement. A progress is called for from Christian pro- fessors, from the plane of Adam and Moses, up to the life of Christ. The discipline will consist of thoroughly dropping the genera- tive practices of humanity, and adopting the life of the heavens—heaven on earth. Pas- sion subdued, peace ensues; the earthly or natural exercise of the passions abandoned, the spiritual or heavenly element is given the full control. This is a. Work all must per- form for themselves; this is self—discipline for an eternal existence. Said Jesus: “ I indeed lay down my life of myself, no man taketh it from me.” This was his discipline, self—dis- cipline, and of him, as our exemplar, let us “learn; for he was meek and lowly in heart ” —— disciplined for the heavenly life. Tm TRUE ESTIMATION. If is often said that knowledge is power, and this is true. Skill or faculty of any kind carries with it superiority. So, to a great extent, wealth is power, and genius has a transcendent gift of mastery over man. But higher, purer, better than all these, more constant in its inﬂuence, more lasting in its sway, is the power of character—that power which emanates from a pure and lofty mind. Take any community, who is the man of most inﬂuence? To whom do all look up with reverence? Not to the “smartest” man (physically), not to the cleverest politician nor the most brilliant talker, but to him, who in a long course ofyears, tried by the extremes of prosperity and adversity, has approved himself to the judgment of those around him -— of all who have seen his life as worthy to be called wise and good. * SHAKER AND MISSION. By Jane Uowom. ._o_ In perusing the columns of THE SHAKER, as it reaches our midst, on its Gospel mission, I am forcibly reminded that we need such in- ﬂuences as it brings to bear, to awaken in our minds those latent aspirations for spiritual food which appear to slumber in our breasts, with- out fully considering, as we should, the great necessity of seeking enjoyments, in a spir- itual point of view, and rejecting the fitful pleasures of time, which will perish. Not that the teachings heralded by that pa- per are wholly or in part different from the faith heretofore taught, and by the faithful lived, in the different Shaker Societies, for a goodly number of years; but I trust the time has now come that light and knowledge will become more widespread, and that, through the columns of this much-cherished paper, many will learn where to look for truth and righteousness, who are walking in darkness without knowing the way of life, or the re- quirements of God to mankind. Seeing there is a strong desire on the part of the contributors to our paper, to dissemi- nate true Gospel principles, and not suffer their hands to become slack, or their hearts to wax cold, with regard to spiritual things, so, in this light and in this hope, we rejoice that the way which God has marked out to be a “ sa- vor of life unto life, or of death unto death” to all, maybe handed down as an immacu- late treasure to those who have not been so favored as ourselves, but who might perchance receive the Gospel, believe and be saved; I concluded, though very weak the effort, to throw in my mite to uphold, so far as may be, the cause we are struggling to maintain. In casting my eyes around to see-the neces- sity of aspiring for andlooking beyond earthly and transitory things, I see those who have walked in a humble, Christ—like manner; in short, have lived simple Shaker lives, and de- nied themselves of all earthly enjoyments, and have lived pure and chaste before God; their shining examples and virtuous deeds irradi- ate their countenances, until they seem like diamonds of light in our midst, and reassure us that we too may become the Worthy recip- ients of God’s favor, being harvested from the earth by our own virtues and godly life. So, with these views on what does and will bring true happiness to the sojourner here in time, we are much pleased to see the efforts made, on the part of Believers, through THE SHAKER, to enlighten the minds of mankind as to what constitutes a true Christian; and how nearly the requirements of Believers comport with the life and teachings of the Saviour, who are able to say, “We are the way, the truth and the life; follow us as we follow Christ.” God’s chosen people have ever been called upon to sacriﬁce their earthly desires and pro- pensities; consequently, if we reach the goal they reached, less effort by us than they made cannot secure our eternal happiness. Then, how comforting the thought that the way of life is made plain, and that, in addition to the life and example of Jesus, we have the way also marked out by Mother Ann which consummates the way of life, and con- ﬁrms our faith in the plan of salvation as taught in this our day. There is a fullness of light and peace, beyond which we have no aspirations; but with it our souls can rest se- cure, feeling sure that, although the number may be small who will become true heirs of heaven, yet feeling conscious that there will always be a remnant who will retain the tes- timony, and consequently maintain the prin- ciples of the Gospel through all succeeding ages. Who then, but an ingrate, can reject so high and holy a calling, to work out salvation here in time, and endeavor with their might to be eyes to the blind, and ears to the deaf, and a light to souls dead in trespasses and sin? this is certainly the duty of Zion’s children; hence itis plain that all our endeavors should tend .to elevate the human race, by ever pressing onward and upward, and in this way be a light to earth’s weary pilgrims on their heav- enly journey. TM. I WANT TO BE A SAVIOR. By Anna Dodgson. —o—— How often we are cheered by the sweet sound of the little chant, “I want to be an angel, and with the angels stand,” as it comes from the lips of bright-eyed, juvenile innocence. And who is so hardened that her soul, upon reﬂection, does not aﬂirmatively respond to the desired want? But I am thinking that for mature years, Where fur- rowed brow, dimmed eyes, and whitened locks bespeak experience in this world of ours, we might with propriety sing of wanting to be, or becoming, saviors. 0, how our world needs practical salva- tionl And is there not already a call for saviors to arise and stand on Mount Zion? I want to be a savior and on Mount Zion stand, With self-denial for my shield, and sword of truth in hand; To live a life that's sinless, in innocence and love, With wisdom of a seraph, and meekness of a dove. I want to be a savior: then saved I ﬁrst must be From selﬁshness and envy; from worldly pride be free ; From base, low, groveling passion, I must have wings to rise, Not seeking worldly glory, but reaching for the prize. Like Jesus Christ our Pattern, the lowly Nazarene, Performing acts of mercy, each savior must be seen, And boldly chiding error, With stripes, if needs should be, Completes a savior’s mission, as by the word we see. We have two holy Patterns—Christ Jesus and Christ Ann, Who’ve taught us to be saviors, and form’d and laid “ a plan,’ By Which each human creature Who ceases from all sins Becomes a Christ or Savior, whose mission here begins. Then come, 0 come, ye saviors, and stand on Zion’s hill ; There boldly rear your standard, your mission to fulﬁll, To save from sin and sorrow all who will hear the call, Be resurrected, born again, and freely give up all. A practical salvation, in thought, in word and deed, Brought forth by self-denial, is what our world does need ; And manya blessed savior now on Mount Zion stands, With crowns upon their heads, and harps within their hands. ’ HENRY VINCENT ON THE SHAKERS. __o__ “I contented myself with the re- sults I saw before me, and thought them suffi- ciently remarkable to command the respectful and thoughtful attention of the Church and the world. “I saw a community of men and women of all ages living a pure celibate life, under the same roof, full of sweetness, love, and gentleness——~ a happy family of brothers and sisters. I knew that many of them had been married men and women before they were led, by a religious principle and motive, to ‘crucify all worldly lusts,’ and enter into what they regard as the millennial state. I know that this life had been lived by monks and nuns, who were excluded from each other with a prison-like rigor, under lock and key, and bolts and bars; but here I saw a spiritual family—the once husband and wife entering upon a new life in the daily presence of each other——and that this chaste community had tested this life of purity for seventy years, without any cloud arising to dim the lustre of its chastity. “ Of course we all exclaim, ‘How can these things be?’ And the proﬂigate and the base * >l< * raise the yell of laughter; but the Shakers’ modestly reply, ‘Not unto us, but unto God be all the glory.’ The world laughs again, and slanders; but the answer is the FACT of this life, which this people lay open to the gaze of all the world. I saw, moreover, a people who will not hold private property—— a people who rest securely and in perfect harmony and prosperity, upon a community of goods. The dream of Utopia is here real- ized. They work hard; they enjoy the fruits of their industry; they live simply and fru- gally. For ten years they have ceased to eat swine, or to drink alcoholic drinks, except under medical advice. “ I saw that this community of goods sprung from a deeper motive than a social or econom- ical truth. Indeed, in one of their publica- tions I found this paragraph: ‘ They could not understand how so—called Christians (brethren and sisters) could be members of the same religious body or Church, and be divided into rich and poor in the things of this temporary world, but who are vainly expecting that in the world to come they will all be willing to have eternal things in common.‘ Thus their communistic idea springs from a religious mo- tive, and such a fact is worthy the contem- plation of thoughtful men. “I inquired into the internal working of the Community, as to how disputes or misun- derstandings were settled, if they unfortu- nately arose. I was told that here again they adopted the Christian plan, speaking to the brother or sister alone, and, if that failed, ‘tell it unto the Church; ’ and that so far all had moved on with harmony, and no serious difficulties had disturbed them. Another thing I have also seen in relation to the Shakers: Every one in America with whom I have spoken speaks highly of their moral character, of their truthfulness, of their hon- esty in their dealings with their fellow men. All bear this testimony, with the exception of those degraded people who believe there r\J\a§r\r\ are no such things as virtue and truth on the earth. “Surely the success of this community must have a cause. What is that cause? I do not pretend to answer the question. But it is a question worthy of an answer. Many similar experiments have totally failed. Why has this succeeded? Within the past forty years, the Owenite experiments in England and America have failed; but S/zakerism is at living and triumphant fact. Let me urge upon divines and scholars, in their rambles through America, to visit the Shaker Com- munity at Mount Lebanon, and if they are disposed to inquire, ‘How can these things be? ’ my answer is, ‘Come and see.’ " mm A NOVITIATE. _0_ DEAR SHAK1«:R.—Ever since I first saw you, I loved you, and ever will. Every time you have appeared to me you have awakened earnest thoughts in my mind, and sweet feel- ings in my heart. I have looked upon you as an expression of the condition and spirit of our people; the people among whom I am happy to be counted. You go out into the world to tell its children what we are, what we think, how we feel ; and I am thankful to you for that. You try to let them see our character as a people; you try to make them understand our ideas about God and our du- ties to him, about life generally, and more es- pecially about the beautiful relations we are called to hold to one another in our peculiar sphere; you try to have them appreciate our feelings of sympathy for our fellow—men, of pure and true love to one another, of deep reverence for our Divine Parentage, whose will, revealed to us through worthy mediums on earth, is the rule of our lives. Thus, al- ways ﬁnding you engaged in this noble work of enlightening the minds of men, in regard to these things, doiyou wonder that your monthly visits to me have been seasons of great pleasure? And still there is one thing that I have felt, and that I would like to say, through you, to my young companions with whom I love to be united in every good work. The beautiful life that we are called into, in- spires the mind continually with new thoughts and ideas. Not one step can be taken, not one word spoken, not even a feeling can enter the heart of a true Believer, without his faith tak- ing hold of it, and judging whether it be for God or for self. This is a great work. To youthful minds whose powers and energies have not been wasted in a worldly life, and for its selﬁsh relations, it shows every moment higher and better ends to aim at; such youth- ful minds it accepts as virgin soil to till— grounds that have been but too long neglect- ed. I feel exceedingly interested in these la- bors to reclaim the realms of nature in the human heart to their Lord, and it gives me great joy and courage to know that there are so many who have turned their attention in this direction; that I have so many young companions fervent in their feelings and ear- nest in their resolutions to carry on the work of God in their own souls, cost whatit may. I have often felt the power of love and sym- SEEAKERESS. pathy ﬂowing from heart to heart among those who are being redeemed. By being a little more willing to express our thoughts and feelings, we might do one another some more good, stimulate one another to new exertions, to gain gifts that are worth possessing, gifts of heart and mind, the power to feel truly and deeply, to think soundly, and to express ourselves simply and acceptably. Being now near the beginning of a new year, I feel a de- sire to enter a covenant with my young breth- ren and sisters, to pay more attention to these things, to devote more time and labor to studying the laws of our Order, which are as important to us as are the laws of the natural order to those who adhere to it. And if ever we should be called upon to communicate the fruits of our labors to one another, we should be as willing to give as we are to receive, and we should ﬁnd fully as much blessing in the former as we are ﬁnding in the latter. EMIL BRETZNER. ?.,_____ [From the Albany Express.] THE OUTRAGE AT THE WATERVLIET SHAK1-:Rs SETTLEMENT.-—-The following letter, written by one of the sisters of the Watervliet Soci- ety of Shakers, to a sister at New Lebanon, describing the situation of affairs at the for- mer place, will be read with interest : SHAKERS (Albany County), November, 1872. Dear Eldress Antoinette : In a recent letter you sent to me, you thought it would be some time before you wrote again. We feel no claim on your precious time in that direction, yet we do beg your love and sympathy, in these trying times for soul and body. To be aroused from our beds by two extensive ﬁres in one week’s time, and then the insecurity which we con- stantly feel, has so unnerved us, that it is impossible to get a good night’s rest, although the brethren keep a constant watch; and again, the burden and wear upon the strength of the brethren, with so much upon them, make our hearts ache. The barns and sheds for our oxen, cows, and young stock, with all that we had to keep them through the winter, gone, together with all the cats, which we had for the horses, was there stored for threshing. The oat crop has been a failure for several years past, and the brethren have had to buy. This season it was good; had enough to have carried through to another harvest. We can courageously endure privation, and labor hard, but, when night comes, it brings with it such a feeling of horror that we long for an eternal day. If we sleep, we are only frightened that we have been to sleep. When the bell strikes it is the knell of fear; and still feel that all that has been is unac- counted for. We know of no personal enmity, no rivalry in business, or any thing unusual on the part of Believers; but we do know that there is a very low state of morals at the present time; robberies are committed very frequently; men are seen masked; hen- roosts are robbed, and various places pillaged. This has been going on until it has grown into a regular organized band of desperadoes, '7 who, seemingly, have no other object than to rob and secure money. On the morning of the ﬁre at our place, two men were seen and sent away from the Church Family’s office; two men were also met running toward the Second Family. On the evening of the ﬁre, two men tried to get into the office at the Second Order, which leads us to think that the object of ﬁring the barns was to draw the brethren away from those places, and leave them unprotected. We know no other way than to be faithful in duty, and fervent in prayer, looking to the higher powers for protection. Now, perhaps, your motherly spirit would like to know how we shall make out, as we depend so much upon the dairy for the sup- port and comfort of the family. I will tell you : As we have, late years, kept more milch cows through the winter, we have not laid down our winter supply of butter, as former- ly; therefore, under our present aﬂliction, not being able to keep but a few cows, we have agreed to have one-third of our meals with- out butter, and to lengthen out our shortning for pies, to do with one-third less pie. As we have a good supply of apples and potatoes, we can live comfortably. Even a piece of bread and a cup of cold water would be a sumptuous meal, if we could only banish our fears for the future, and go to our rest in safety. Do not forget us in your prayers, nor with- hold some of those strong spirits which encamp around about you, to come to us, to inspire us with strength and courage. VVe have no less thankfulness for the Gospel of salvation, and the privilege to be Believers, on account of our recent affliction, but will toil on to the end of life’s journey. Yours, in afﬂiction, HARRIET. mm; WASTE BASKET. _0_ Write and educate yourself and others. No well- meant effort in mental discipline is lost ; it is even as in spiritual things, “ where no labor in the Lord is ever in vain.” Words are mediums through which to convey ideas ; the knowledge and use of them is often termed education. But what if a person should know how to speak and write with all the tongues of men and angels, and yet lack ideas, would they not be learnedly ignorant? as when possessing the gift of tongues, of healing, of knowledge, and all spiritual gifts, yet lacking the gift of charity, or love, they are nothingwhen judged by the standard of true Gos- pel travel of soul. Write, therefore, for the Shaker and Shakeress. The contents of the “Waste Basket” will rise up and claim its due share of honor in its support. At any race of half a dozen men or horses, do each one win the prize ? or can only one win at a given time? Write, therefore, and keep the Waste Basket full, and The Shaker well supplied with good matter. “ What is the chaﬂ’ to the wheat ?” saith the Lord. Why, without the chaﬂf there could be no wheat; it is as necessary as a Waste Basket. Therefore write, meditate: and re-write on one side of the sheet only ; after preparing as best you can, and it having passed the ordeal of the society’s local ed- itor, send it neatly folded, ready for the Waste Basket, for we must have plenty of matter for our Shaker and Shakeress, as we could not make even a world out of nothing. .._..__:§__.____.. “ WE.” _0_ The usual editorial term of " we ” is no lon er a subject of doubt. But the world has waited ong for the SHAKER and SHAKERESS to illustrate the point by giving it a dual signiﬁcation. * SHAKER AND SHAKERESS. Andante. BEAUTIFUL SHORE, rit. <<;____ 13> L l\ L 4' P A L I § L ! a n I Am“ -.~ W-D " ' F " el 4‘; H‘rx“l'==3'i‘d-J “. i’ L‘ r J_’-Jﬁ ‘ *1 ' 3 5L9 . . ‘J’ l‘—F 5 1 Jwjﬁl J ___#_fgi :‘i- laud Uldl I 01 U §'5'odal_LCIDUU|D_ - -nr -4 1 p p I. Time’s dark bil -lows and tempests may roar, Yet will I sing of that beau-ti 2. Glad - some the spring of that fair happy land, Blossom and fruitage in glo - ry 3. Pil - grlms who tar - ry, your time yet abide, Slowly re - ced - mg is life’s eb- -ful shore, Where the chill winter of life shall be o’er, Ne’er to return to the soul. ex-pand, While the soft breeze from its emerald strand, Scent-laden ﬂoat to hing tide: O - ver its sur - ges your spi-rits shall glide Safe to that beau-ti - ful shore. us here. 9 on n n 3 1- -- ﬂu hlbrap - 1- - - QHUZETF ' Tllo'p.=vi‘55F9=i 9:‘ l i i 5.559} ' l/ ‘l. /. MT (W i ‘ ' 1‘ ‘Tl U u lWl I - l .' I ll $71 l V at 1; ; . I V ' 'l 1 1 J l_1' ' '1” V V VI VV // V V V A rtt. n L hlx N. NA s, .. H. lJ:. yn1_.l/ .' .1 -N. . . .1. A1 '1 1. N_' ' ‘N __ In '1 “. L.ll H H lll # 'l| o”}_:||l Jl _ _|| ‘ ““‘J"lLi"d ‘EL 3.’ aalza-ﬁe: . H w—a- . . « i‘.J w : : :1 ‘W v V fa: i. gt‘ 9 up ID? i Blcst summer laud, free from sorrow and gloom, In fadeless beaut Love builds its mansion all pearly and bright, Rising in grandeur in rose-tinted light: Hap - py the tho’tl If our hearts are made pure, We an in - her - it-ance there shall secure. y our spirits shall bloom, While the earth casket in-her - its the tomb, Sea-sons su - per-nal will roll. ’Tis for the blessed, whose robes are made white, Heavenly homes have been rear’d. Hope still conﬁdes in the prom — lses sure, When here ourjourney is o’er. (Continued from fourth page.) it, without creating any, the antagonism be- tween the accumulative products of labor and the laborer, the condition of the productive class, part.icularly the agricultural portion, reveal a state of things too awful to contem- plate. A war establishment to kill and to destroy, is at the same time associated with extensive missionary efforts to preach a gospel of peace which they do not possess. We must be borne with, when we designate such a civilization a Satanic form of human life, the organic law of which is “ the love of self at the expense and neglect of the neighbor.” To bring about a distant approximation to our form of human society, we ask for the elevation of humanity to the practice of the law— “ the love of self, and the neighbor as self.’’ The organic law of our Order is: “He that is greatest, shall be theseroant !” To those who wish to enjoy a Divine form of social life, we say, “Come and see” Whether such operates among us or not. A} THE LITTLE QUAIL. By Richard McNemar. _o_ Traveling once along the way, Thinking of this latter day- How much progress we can make, Since our lives are not at stake. Ancient saints could little gain, Still by persecutors slain; Now protected from the foe, Saints can have full time to grow. Next I thought, If sinners knew That we thus our safety view, Would they not yet try to kill? Could they not our Vitals spill? Through my mind this thought I cast, While a log I closely passed, Where a little quail did sit Fair and easy to be hit. Instantly I made a stand, With a stick I raised my hand ; Thrice I struck with all my skill, But no Vitals did I spill. L nce my stick just grazed his tail, But the well-protected quail, Sound and nimble took its ﬂight Through the forest, out of sight. Instantly the spirit spoke, “ As this quail escaped thy stroke, So the wicked strike in vain In the great Messiah’s reign.” 0, what wonders I did view As the little creature ﬂew! Every ﬂutter of its wing Seemed to cry, “ The Lord is King." Had I then an army seen. Full of rage and cruel spleen, I should felt no more surprise Than amidst a host of ﬂies. While the cross of Christ I bear, Under his protecting care, Every danger I shall shun, Till my work is fully done. He who gave this striking sign Has stretch’d out his meas’ring line : Persecution’s at an end ; Now we may with Christ ascend. Blessed day how bright and clear! 0 what fruits the saints can bear! Righteousness through every stage, Now can grace this GOLDEN AGE. _j___.}____j_. THE CHURCHES OF OUR LAND. By Cecelia Devyr. ._..o_. Loud ring their bells, and loud their organ tones Pour the grand anthems that by art were given. Wealth, learning, eloquence, their proud dominion hold : But what of God, of Life, of Love, of Heaven? A seeming ﬁtness blends all outward things— Concordant sounds and softly mellowed light; We almost list the rush of angel's wings, And watch for saints in radiant robes of White. Can heap’d-up shams the Inﬁnite allure ; Or ﬂatt’ry charm the all-embracing mind ? Can systems that oppress and spurn the poor Be brought to God, and His acceptance ﬁnd? Is He deceived by fashion, pomp, and show? Can grandeur hide disease, deceit and sin ? May every wickedness the heart can know Come to these temples and gain entrance in ? If stern, misguided hearts go forth no more, The Martyr's unrelenting ﬂre to light ; If ruthless persecutions cease to pour Their venom'd darts with wild inhuman might. Does there abound that precious gift of God- Faith in the good that is, and that which yet may be ? Is Christ-like charity their basis broad? And is the'r focus — Truth — unmarr’d and free ? When youthful manhood, full of noble zeal, An offering makes of his unfolding life, "‘ rtt. ' . A ' ‘ . ' . A ' 0 ' __ lginz ' Ti in i i - E LU .= F 1‘ 9 l ’r "‘l'—:l:l*—.T ix‘ D +9 ll 2, El " g gjl? 1' ' 4 F" in’ _’ V V ' V V V V g I V V I 'V V V g 1 V V 5 I [N. 17., Mt. Lebanon] Is there an inspiration he can feel, To meet his ardor and award his strife ? And does the soul of woman bear no fruit, Nor spread its branches like the olive tree ? Beneath the ban that bade her to be mute Must her expanding powers forever be ? Alas l alas! the altar’s ﬁre is dead ; God's Spirit meets the soul no longer there: But canting mockery gives stones for bread, And scorpion answers to the cry for care. Our prayer ascends, 0 be it thus no more; Come, sweet refreshing from the Source Divine, And spread true Brotherhood “ the wide world o’er,” Which poet-prophets saw in “ auld lang syne.” Let Truth reveal to science Nature’s laws, Let faith not die ’mid superstitions dim ; For truth and science both shall seek the Cause, That gave all souls one universal hymn. Write God, write Goodness, on the nation's heart, Not with a legal pen by man’s decree ; But let iniquity the land depart, And make the young Republic pure and free. SHAKER AND SHAKERESS. Addresses of the Local Editors and Publishers. Elder F. W. EVANS, Mt. Lebanon, Col. Co. N. Y. G. A. LoMAs, Albany, N. Y. Shakers. CALVIN G. REED, Sonyea, Living’n 00. N. Y. SIMON MABEE, West Pittsﬂeld, Mass. H. S. KELLOGG, Thompsonville, Conn. Shakers. .. ALBERT BATTLES, Tyringham, Berkshire Co. Mass. WM. LEONARD, Ayer, Mass. Shakers. J oNAs NUTTING, Shirley Village, Middlesex Co. Mass. B. H. SMITH, Shaker Village, Merrimack Co. N. H. HENRY CUMMINGS, Enﬂeld, Grafton Co. N. H. JOHN B. VANCE, Alfred, York Co. Maine Shakers. NEHEMIAH TRULL, West Gloucester, Cum- berland Co. Me. Shakers. CHARLES CLAPP, Union Village, Warren Co. 0. Shakers. EZRA SHERMAN, Preston, Hamilton Co. Ohio. Shakers. STEPHEN BALL, Dayton, Ohio Shakers. JACOB KULP, Pleasant Hill, Mercer Co. Ky. J. R. EADES, South Union, Logan Co. Ky. J. S. PRESCOTT, Cleveland, Ohio Shakers.
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ss0301
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 03, no. 02 (February 1873)
Publisher: United Society
Date: 1873-02-01
Place published: Mt. Lebanon (N.Y.)
Text: Vol. III. E Nﬂ©NOFE£LYo PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED SOCIETY. liq No. 2. \ F- W. EVANS, FIFTY CEN'rs Em,,.0R_ Mt. Lebanon, Col. 00. N. Y. February, 1873. PER ,_NNUM_ “North Family Sabbath Morning LOVE’ , “Deg 25’ 1872: Ext/r t f 0013 REShPI(:) 1:DE¢l:a(ieEdoct 20th 1372 , ' (IO roman 77.018 8 07‘, . g . THE BOND OF OUR UNION. “ To the Elders. May the blessing of our _0_ :0: CHRISTMAS and New Year, with all their joys and sorrows, have come and gone throughout our happy land, but not so their remembrances. These remain, and, like new- mown hay, send forth, from the storehouse of memory, a fragrance very grateful to the providers, but still more so to the recipients of and participants in their festivities. As these have been religiously rational, so will the pleasures of the past be ever present- always “ green,” a “joy forever.” The people of God, of the latter day—the day of His spiritual “power”—were to be emphatically “ a willing people.” The North Family, whence the “Shaker...
Show moreVol. III. E Nﬂ©NOFE£LYo PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED SOCIETY. liq No. 2. \ F- W. EVANS, FIFTY CEN'rs Em,,.0R_ Mt. Lebanon, Col. 00. N. Y. February, 1873. PER ,_NNUM_ “North Family Sabbath Morning LOVE’ , “Deg 25’ 1872: Ext/r t f 0013 REShPI(:) 1:DE¢l:a(ieEdoct 20th 1372 , ' (IO roman 77.018 8 07‘, . g . THE BOND OF OUR UNION. “ To the Elders. May the blessing of our _0_ :0: CHRISTMAS and New Year, with all their joys and sorrows, have come and gone throughout our happy land, but not so their remembrances. These remain, and, like new- mown hay, send forth, from the storehouse of memory, a fragrance very grateful to the providers, but still more so to the recipients of and participants in their festivities. As these have been religiously rational, so will the pleasures of the past be ever present- always “ green,” a “joy forever.” The people of God, of the latter day—the day of His spiritual “power”—were to be emphatically “ a willing people.” The North Family, whence the “Shaker and Shalceress” issues, is the head of the Novitiate Order (composed of three families), where all ﬁle inquirers into Shakerism, who come to Mount Lebanon, do congregate, and where all new converts to it ﬁnd a home, during their initiatory and probationary period of the new life, into which they may have been ushered. Anciently, one asked, “How are the dead raised, and with what body do they come forth?” Modernly, many ask, “How can you Shakers and Shakeresses, who are dead to the world, and to its (to you) sinful plea- sures, enjoy Christmas and New Year, or any other social HOLIDAY season .9 ” And we make answer, that “Godliness is proﬁtable to all things, to the life that now is and that which is to come ”——to all things relating to the soul and body. Our Christmas and New Year’s tables did not “groan under” adulterated, poisonous compounds, and costly viands, either liquids or solids; nor did they groan over the ruined health which the consumption of such things occasion; for, although bountifully supplied, their contents were gustatory and enjoyable to the palate, and agreeable to and easily digested by the stomach. This, though earthly, is no triﬂing blessing in this day of artiﬁcial dress- ing and feeding, and of superﬁcial, highly- seasoned cookery. flhen we had a mental feast of spiritual union and love; hearty, happy greetings from soul to soul, and presents from all the Brethren and Sisters to the Elders, as the Representatives of the Family. These were in the form of little missives, of which the following are specimens, the ﬁrst two from the more advanced in years and experience, and the last from the youngest convert to our Order: Heavenly Parents ever rest with their repre- sentatives in care—the Elders-—and bless them with Heavenly courage, fortitude and Divine Love, and when their labors of love are closed, may an abiding peace be theirs. "Be so kind as to accept from my spirit, on this occasion, a Christmas blessing. ' T “D. F.” ANOTHER. “Beloved Parents: It is with deep feelings of love and respect that I address you at this time. I am truly thankful for your heavenly ministrations, so fraught with wis- dom and love. “I bless you for your fatherly and motherly tenderness to all your little ﬂock. Justice and mercy are yours to impart; while con- demning the evil you cherish the good. The spirit of Jesus, and of our ever blessed Mother Ann, shines brightly in your daily lives, which to me is evidence of the true and holy anointing wherewith ye are anointed. I know that I am blessed in many ways, and have cause of great thankfulness for my privilege in the Gospel. I feel especially thankful that I am permitted to live and asso- ciate with those in whom I have the utmost conﬁdence as Leaders and Watchmen in Zion. “I love and bless you, kind parents, and it shall be my constant labor to strengthen and build up the walls of our Zion, according to my small capacity.’ In this way I can gain and retain your love and blessing, which I hope ever to possess. LEVI.” ANOTHER, FROM THE YOUNGEST IN PRIVILEGE. “ Izfy dear Elders .' I am happy that I have this opportunity of expressing my growing love and respect for you, and of acknowledg- ing my appreciation of the inﬂuence you are holding over me. My prayer shall ever be, that I may prove myself worthy of your love and conﬁdence, and, at the sacriﬁce of every thing earthly, I pray that I may be simple, and keep my union with you perfect at all times. Hoping that you may live long to encourage others, as you have encouraged me, is my sincere wish. “With kind wishes, and the compliments of the season, I am yours sincerely, “ELMER.” Thus it is, that from the heaviest and most faithful burden bearers to the babes in Christ, the love of truth and goodness, of God, of each other, and of humanity, is the only real Bond of our Union, that holds us together in a Community of goods, in an arbor of Peace, with the Communion of Saints. “ I see, by this week’s ‘Medium,’ that the Bishop of Chester takes the position that Jesus was the ﬁrst to enter Heaven ; and that even David was not in the (Christ) heavens, although more than ten centuries had passed since his death.” Turning to the October (25th) No. I ﬁnd the following: “ The Intermediate State. A Ser- mon on the Intermediate State by the Bishop of Chester, just published.” “ The clergy, for many years, have regarded the intermediate state of the soul (between death and the physical resurrection) a sealed subject, until Dr. Bartle, Principal of Fresti- ﬁeld College, Liverpool, brought out his novel work, in 1869, entitled ‘Hades,’ for which he was charged with heresy. Now the Bishop of Chester comes to his support, making his own views on the ‘ Intermediate State’ identical with those expressed by Dr. Bartle in his work.” —E’d. of “Medium.” Dr. Ba/rtle: In Hades, we read (p. 113) : “The por- tion of Scripture from the Acts proves that the soul or spirit of Christ was in Hades; because St. Peter declares that God did not leave it there. It must of necessity have been in that region, other- wise its removal thence would have been an impos- sibility. (Page 38.) Death is simply the separation of soul and body.” Page 194. “ We ﬁnd St. Peter stating that the patriarch David, who, he said, was both dead and buried, yet had not at that time ascended into the Heavens, although his death occurred a thousand years before.” Page 226. “With St. Paul, to die was gain; but the crown of righteousness would not be given him till that day; meaning the day of judgment." Chapter VII. “ Let it be clearly understood, then that the expression ‘sleeping ’ implies ‘ waking ; ' and, therefore, whenever we ﬁnd the word ‘ sleep- ing ’ used of the deceased, it never means that the soul is in a state of unconsciousness." Page 202. “Hades is a Greek word, and literally means the invisible place,‘ and the word ‘hell,’ in its primary meaning, signiﬁes the hidden place; and in this place it is almost identical with ‘Hades.’ ” The editor of the “Medium” presumptu- ously advises these two great Orthodox lights (or balls of darkness) to attend some of the seances, and there learn that the disembodied souls of men and women have no idea of at- tempting to gather the identical materials or their long-ago discarded bodies. As to the day of judgment, it is when a man (or woman) brings himself (or herself) to judgment by the confession and the discontinuing the com- mission of sin— missing the mark.—Ed. Postscript of a letter since received, dated De- cember 8, 1872: , “ P. S.-—I sent you a London ‘ Standard,’ in which you will see our good friend, Mr. Hep- worth Dixon, has been ﬁguring in Court. Sir 10 war J. Eastlake, counsel for defendant, is reported elsewhere to have spoken in the highest terms of the Shaker communities, saying that ‘ Dix- on's description of them was the redeeming feature of all his books.’ ” I shall not fail to either write, or send you a paper every week, until I come amongst you. — E’. J. W. BERLIN, CAMDEN Co., N. Y., December 18, 1872. Editor of “ SHAKER AND SHAKERESS: ” It is a source of joy to me, to know that the Shakers are sending forth, into this wilder- ness world of sin, Christ’s doctrines of “ peace on earth, good will to man.” Since the com- mencement of the late war, the rising genera- tion have been taught, by the popular clergy, and the religious papers, that war is an essen- tial part of Christianity; that men shot down in battle, while ﬁlled with hate and wrath, and striving to kill those who had never injured them, are taken directly to heaven, and crowned as saints and Christian martyrs, and placed on thrones of honor and glory at the right hand of God. During the war, ministers went to steam- boat and railroad stations, to take leave of soldiers leaving home for the scene of slaugh- ter, and there went through the blasphemous ceremony they call prayer; and then pre- sented the soldiers with ﬂags and New Testa- ments, and exhorted them to go and ﬁght manfully, like Christian heroes. And should any one have been faithful enough to the true testimony of Christ, to declare that Christians never did, and never can, ﬁght, he would have been denounced as a heretic, a traitor, and antichrist, and threatened with forts, prisons and assassination. There was not a priest, nor a paper, to be heard of, that dared to say that God is true, and that Christ is the Prince of Peace. Seeing and knowing these things to be so, I wondered whether God would permit the ris- ing generation to grow up under the teachings of this Balaamitish priesthood, with none to tell them that their preaching was antichristian lies. But, in the darkest hour, “ The Shaker” appeared, saying emphatically and truthfully, “ Christians never did, never can, ﬁght! ” And now I rejoice with joy unspeakable, and have only to add: Go and prove to honest inquirers after truth, that all the Churches that believe in and practise war, are but the “ synagogues of Satan,” with no shadow of right to name the name of Jesus. This you can readily do, beyond all controversy or cavil, by comparing their practises with the precepts and practise of Jesus, as set forth in the New Testament, in which they all profess to believe. Your friend, JEREMIAH HACKER. We receive requests like the following: “ I should like to see some of the internal workings of your Order published in your very excellent paper, if consistent with your rules, etc. I feel satisﬁed that your mode of life has a purifying tendency, producing a content- ment and love that the world knows not of.” In this number we shall somewhat minister to this demand. Nocitiate experience of T. Stroud, of Enﬁeld, Connecticut. He thus writes: “ December, 1871. On the 6th inst.,thinking SHAKER AND to confess what I believed to be the last of my bad sins and thoughts, and feeling that, in my own strength, it was impossible — that, indeed, it was like taking my life —I entered into such a labor of prayer as before I had never been able to bring myself to. I knelt, in strong cries to God, was absorbed in intense abstraction ; and there fell upon me a remark- able power, as of a wave of electricity ﬂowing through me. It came and went suddenly, and another succeeded. * * * I went in all earnestness, and confessed in deep humil- ity. At night, a few minutes after retiring to rest, this power returned, ﬁlling my muscular system, as though charged from a strong elec- tric battery. I remember that I lay and specu- lated upon the nature of this spiritual opera- tion. The shocks lasted in full force for two and one-half minutes, and the effects for hours. The charging process commenced in my breast, and proceeded upwards to the top of my head, and downwards to the tips of my ﬁngers and the ends of my toes. “ Knowing that there was no visible agency to create electricity, I was forced to the con- clusion that it came from an invisible source. But, whether directed by some intelligent beings or agents, under some general law or otherwise, I am unable to determine. It has been often repeated, but always when my mind and feelings have been earnestly engaged in endeavoring to gain power over some evil passion or propensity of my fallen nature.” ._:__¢...___ THE SHAKERS. By A. B. Bradford, late Consul to China. :0: “ A city set upon a hill that cannot be hid.” IN the valley and along the sides of a mountain which ﬂanks the Hudson River, in Columbia county, New York, .dwell the Mount Lebanon Society of Shakers, one of a number of settlements that compose the Shaker Community of the United States. Besides this one, New York has two other settlements; Massachusetts four; Maine and New Hampshire each two; Connecticut one; Ohio four, and Kentucky two. Each of these has one or more “ Families ”—oﬂ'shoots that branch out from the parent stock, and are helped, by common consent, to independent landed estates. As this remarkable people are almost wholly unknown to us in Pennsylvania, I propose, on this occasion, to give some infor- mation as to their origin, their religious views, their community principles, their econ- omy, by which I mean their mode of living, and any thing else that occurs to my mind of interest to you concerning them. Of course, what I have to say does not purport to be a thorough discussion of a most interesting subject, but only a few items of fact and thought——all the result of a visit I made to Mount Lebanon during last summer. v 1. THEIR ORIGIN. When we read J osephus’s History of the Antiquities of the Jews, we ﬁnd that there was a class called Essenes, who, although they make no ﬁgure at all in the New Testament history, produced great effect in the Christian Church. These were, no doubt, the prototypes of the Shakers. To this class Jesus of Nazareth belonged; from them he got many of the ideas which he inculcated in his public teachings, and by their rules he regulated himself in regard to a celibate life. If any one will make himself acquainted with the history of the Essenes, he will ﬁnd it hard to discover in their system any thing to criticise, unless it should be on the sub- ject of marriage. For while they allowed marriage to be a good thing for those who occupied a lower plane of spirituality, for themselves, “they neither married nor gave in marriage, but were as the angels of God in Heaven.” A second class of Essenes, to meet the obvious objection that the race would run out on their principle of celibacy, did practise marriage; but it was the marriage of love, not lust. It was to provide offspring that should be strong to bear the responsibilities of human life. Truth is the daughter of Time; and Time goes long with child. These embryonic ideas of the Essenes, and some other wise people among the Greeks, two thousand years ago, in regard to the right method of propagating the race of human beings with a view to their im- provement, have come to the birth in our day. We have new college professors who have dis- covered at last the old secret, that the same laws for improving the lower order of animals, if applied rigidly and scientiﬁcally to the human species, would, in due time, make it certain that every child born, being sent for, and not coming by chance, would come into the world beautiful in person, intelligent in mind, happy in disposition, and good in char- acter. I live, I shall die, in the hope that, in a century or so, if the world preserves its peace, and gives science and religion a fair chance to solve their problems, that the human race, in the four respects I have named, will not occupy the low plane we now do, but when every mother’s son shall enjoy the inheritance he is entitled to by virtue of his human origin. The Shakers then, whether they intended it or not, are, I think, a reproduction in our age of the severe morality and heroic life of the primitive order of the Essenes, one of whose chief characteristics was celibacy, and to which order Jesus of Nazareth belonged. 2. THEIR RELIGIOUS VIEWS—MO'I‘I-IER ANN. As science reveals to us the magnitude of the universe, and the comparative nothing- ness of the planet which forms our dwelling place, the mind is oppressed with the thought that the individual may be overlooked by the Almighty Father in the care He exercises for the whole. Hence it is natural for every child to love its mother best, since tlsy mother, by her watchfulness, knows and cares for the small and multifarious needs of her offspring. So, the human soul, when on the one side it speculates like an angel concerning God ; on the other, brings its human wants and weak- nesses with it, and longs to ﬁnd in the Divine character the maternal idea. The Jewish Psalmist expresses the feeling which every properly—developed man evinces, who takes an outlook upon the vastness of the universe, when he exclaims, “ As the hart panteth after the water brook, so panteth my soul after Thee, Oh God.” Theodore Parker, in those wonderful prayers he offered in the beginning of his religious services in Boston, seemed to regard God as Dual —- as possessing the peculiar love of a mother for her child, as well as that of a father; and therefore with great reverence, yet with the deepest ﬁlial feeling, and with a marked effect upon his audience, addressed God as a dear Father and Mother, If this childlike trait of character is devel- oped as men become spiritual, it is not diffi- cult to see that, whereas the Shakers regard Jesus as a Divine Prophet, and believe in his mission, yet, to meet their conception of the dual character of God — to satisfy the longing for a mother’s love, which all men feel when they think of their loneliness in the great universe, they should accept Mother Ann Lee as an avatar of the Christian economy, as Buddha was in the Brahminical, and as Mohammed was among his countrymen, and that they should yield her honor and rever- ence. According to the old ideas, that ruled the world until astronomy and geology corrected them, man was the center of the universe. For him alone the sun shone by day, and the moon gave her light by night, and the stars of heaven twinkled in the ﬁrmament, and the seasons rolled around, giving the beauti- ful alternation of summer and winter. But now we see that man, glorious as he is in intellect, and more glorious as he is yet to be in the future, is only an incident in the vast creation—that he has come up from a low origin to his present place by the great law of evolution, which is to carry him onward still in his grand career. But we must pay the price of every thing we have, and if we glory in the results of scientiﬁc research, and are proud to know what the telescope and the spectroscope have revealed of the magni- tude and composition of the universe, we must experience a reaction and feel oppressed and discouraged at the comparative nothing- ness of the world we inhabit, and the ephem- eral duration of the generations of man, as one appears upon the stage to-day, and to- morrow passes away into the oblivion of eternity. If, then, science, from a material point of observation, represents man as a lonely orphan, calling for his father and mother, from a moral point of view, and on a level which the multitude have not reached, but which has been attained only by the spiritu- ally minded, it may represent the dual nature of God, and meet the desire We all feel for a 1nother’s sympathy and love, as well as a father’s care For reasons such as these, probably, the “Shakers have an uncommon reverence for woman as such. In all their affairs of gov- ernment and advice she is the equal of man. Her desire and right to lead a celi- bate life are religiously respected and pro- tected, and although the tongue of slander, as might be expected, has in some cases viliﬁed the Community, there is no person who has made himself acquainted with them that for a moment suspects any thing against their character on this score. The grand idea in their religion, to which all the rest is auxiliary, is, that for them, as true believers, making Jesus their model, a celibate life is the highest Christian attain- ment. To carry out this idea as an end, they use, as means, simple diet, constant, but not exhaustive labor, natural periods of rest, free- dom from worldly associations, the most per- fect cleanliness of person, and of all their sur- roundings; in short every thing that will enable them to maintain purity in heart, speech and behavior. In noticing the com- plete victory which strong men and beautiful women have achieved over what they call the generative lusts of the ﬂesh, I could not help saying to myself, give me this stern unbending principle, this lofty, organized devotion to an idea, and let me infuse it into an army of a hundred thousand men, and I could conquer the world ! Away then with the sneering sus- picion that the continence of the Shakers is only an outside show, and that human nature is too strong for such restraints. The relig- ious instinct is a part of human nature, and it can control all the rest. The history of monks and nuns,of anchorites and ﬂagellants, proves that when men and women really feel an act of self—sacriﬁce to be a duty, they can accom- plish it; for the will is controlled by the strongest motive, and it is the prerogative of the human soul to pause in the moment of temptation and call into its presence all the opposing motives, and thus stand strong in its integrity of purpose. Some of us affect to pity the Shakers, in their retirement from the world and their cir- cumscribed limits of enjoyment, and practise of a celibate life. But they don’t thank us for our pity. The principle of compensation comes to their aid, and when they compare the miseries of the world with what the world calls their privations, they are more than thankful for their quiet and happy homes. How little do people dream, When, in our pres- ent type of civilization, they see thousands of men and women swirling around in the vortex of temptation, and going down, the victims of vice and of overwork, that there is a sweet home among the Shakers where temptation is comparatively unknown; where vice is a stranger; where contentment and plenty reigns; and where what shall we eat? what shall we drink? wherewithal shall we be clothed ? ——those three questions that produce the eternal moil and turmoil of the world, and keep up the courts of law, and ﬁll the peniten- tiaries with victims, never harass a single soul! Some, indeed,sickened with the empti- ness and heartlessness of society, strike their sails and heave their anchors when, on the voyage of life, they approach this haven of rest. Others wish to introduce their children SHAKERESS. there, if they cannot go themselves. One New York lady has three daughters at Mount Lebanon, all endowed with beauty and talent, and their education is conducted by the best of teachers, in one of the best and most thorough schools I ever knew. 3. THE SHAKERS ARE ALL SPIRITUALISTS. Before the Rochester knockings, the fame of which has become world wide, these people claimed to hold communication with de- parted spirits. In this, except among the followers of Swedenborg, they were alone among the churches. I have often wondered at this fact ; for the ﬁrst article in the creed of all the Protestant churches is the dogma of the plenary inspiration of the whole Bible ; and both the Old Testament and the New clearly teach that living men may hold con- verse with the dead; in other words, that the dead have only departed from our sight by assuming the spiritual body of the resurrec- tion ; that they still live, still take cognizance of us, and sympathize with us, and afford us help and comfort. This is as clearly taught as human language can teach it in the Scrip- tures, and especially in the recorded interview which King Saul had, through the woman of Endor, with the departed Prophet Samuel, in 1 Samuel, 28th chapter. The record states that Samuel actually appeared to the king, and announced to him the issue of the battle which was to be fought next day. Whoever reads the passage attentively will see that clairvoyance was then practised; that me- diumship was the connecting link between the two worlds, and that when conditions were favorable, it was possible for those in this world to receive truthful communications from those in the world of spirits. This passage of Scripture history was robbed of its meaning by M. Henry, the commentator, who said it was not Samuel who appeared to Saul, but the devil personatiny Samuel. We, however, live in a day when the ipse diwit of a clergyman will not overrule both facts and philosophy, and this passage stands as it was written With all their reverence for the Bible, the Shakers do not regard it as a ﬁnal revelation, teaching for good and all what we are to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. They do not believe that God, as a Father, has forsaken His children upon the earth, leaving behind Him only a composite book, made up of sixty-six tracts, which have been exposed for centuries to interpolations and alterations that have given birth to all the jangling creeds of Christen- dom, and that are known even in their present condition to but only a small portion compara- tively of the human race. On the contrary, they believe that Heaven still vouchsafes its revelations of truth and duty to mankind everywhere, as in the olden time, when men went to “inquire of the Lord.” They think that God commissions his angels and the gloriﬁed spirits of just men to give to mortals who, on the high plane of holy consecration, keep their minds in a state of receptivity, that knowledge of the present and the future, and that sense of duty which all men feel to be so desirable. When, therefore, our age was surprised by what was believed to be communications from the spirit world, it was nothing new to the Shakers, who, in their retired position from the busy world, were familiar with the idea. This explains the sympathy which everywhere prevails among the Shakers and the Spiritualists, and which, on this one subject, forms a bond of union between them. —Beaver (Pa.) Radical. __j._¢_.j_. N ON-ORIGIN ALITY. By J. S’. Prescott. _o_. “ There is a divinity which shapes our ends, Rough-hew them as we may.” Man did not originate himself, and there- fore cannot comprehend his own existence. Solomon, who was wiser in his generation than many others, said that there was “ noth- ing new under the sun.” An apostle said, “ Since the fathers fell asleep, all things con- tinue as they Were from the beginning. The 11 history of the world to-day is “history re- peating itself.” Jesus, the author of primitive Christianity, did not claim to be the originator or source of truth, because truth existed before him. He said, “To this end was I born, to bear witness unto the truth.” This was his pecu- liar mission, and in the execution of it, although violently opposed, he proved his ﬁdelity and faithfulness, his steadfastness and integrity, to that degree that he was called “ the faithful and true witness.” His memorable sermon on the Mount, containing the “golden rule,” which meets with a hearty response in every man’s breast, was not original with him, but was one of the maxims of Confucius, a Chinese philoso- pher, who lived long before him. Then where was the originality? Not with Jesus, nor with Confucius, but with God. For the principle existed in the creation of man, and was worthy of being handed down to the latest posterity. When Columbus discovered America, it was called a “new world,” but such was not the fact. America was as old as any other part of the globe—it was new only to those who discovered it, and on this right of dis- covery the King of England based his claim to give charters to English emigrants to lands belonging to the Indians, who were then the original inhabitants and proprietors of America. William Penn called in question the justice of the King's claim, and argued the point with him at some length, in which might.” The facts are that the English crown was largely in debt to the Penn family, and King Charles ro- posed to liquidate those ‘ old claims” by ce ing vast territories, three thousand miles away, be- longing to the North American Indians. Penn accepted the payment, after first provln to the king that he ad no more moral or legs. right'to the lands thus proposed to be ceded or chartered, than the American Indians had to the island of En land. Penn inquired of the king how he won d feel and act 1:‘ some American Indians, cruising about in some of their big canoes, should discover the little island of Great Britain, and straightway should take formal pos- session of it, an then proceed to ap ortion it out as hunting and ﬁshing grounds for t eir seve- ral chiefs. ‘ Zounds,” said Charles, “I should think it a great piece of impudence, and would ﬁght them with my army and na.vy—my brave English soldiers and sailors.”— ED. And when Wm. Penn came over to Amer- ica, before settling a colony himself, he called the natives around him, under the shade of a large tree, and there made a treaty with them, on the most friendly terms, offering land he wished to purchase of them, by which he gained their entire conﬁdence, and secured their friendship. He looked upon them not as savages, but as the legal owners of the soil——-as children of the forest———and treated them kindly as such, and they, in return, ever afterward called him “Father Penn,” and do the same to this day. This was placing originality where it be- longed. The inﬂuence of this admirable example of Wm. Penn, and his “Peace Policy” toward the aborigines of our coun- try, is still felt in the old Quaker city of Philadelphia in “brotherly love,” and no doubt has more or less inﬂuence on the policy of President Grant’s administration toward the present races of Indians. If a man writes a history, and records facts, those facts did not originate with the historian-—they existed before him—all he had to do was to compile them, and bring them up to the surface in book form, and bear witness to the truth of them. The Bible is held sacred because of the truth it contains; but the truth itself did not originate with the Bible, nor with the compilers of it; it existed before either of them. Then, where was the originality? Not with the Bible, nor with man, nor with the Son of Man, but with God. So it is with the revelations given in our day. If there is any truth in those revela- he obtained the victory of “right over _ them a reasonable compensation for all the ' 12 tions, that truth did not originate with man nor with woman, but with God. All that mortals can claim as to originality is their mediumship—being called to bear witness to the truth revealed——and if they fail to do this, they fail to fulﬁl their high and holy calling. “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord.” It is now generally admitted that God is dual —-Father and Mother—that these di- vine attributes do exist in the Deity, and have always existed, from time immemorial, yea, “from everlasting; ” that the dispensa- tion under which we live is emphatically the Reign of the Eternal Father and Mother prin- ciples; hence, mercy is mingled with judg- ment. Truth is applicable to both sexes, it being both male and female ——self-existent— hence it is written, “As for the truth, it endureth and is always strong; it liveth and conquereth forevermore. With her there is no accepting of persons or rewards; but she doeth the things that are just, and refraineth from all unjust and wicked things, and all men do well like of her works.” “Neither in her judgment is any unright- eousness; and she is the strength, kingdom, power and majesty of all ages. Blessed be the God of truth. And with that he held His peace. And all the people then shouted and said, ‘Great is truth, and mighty above all things.’ ” “True to Thee, my God, forever, True unto Thy word and way, I will stand, and no aﬂiiction E'er shall turn my heart astray. Dee within my soul are anchor'd Fait , and hope, and love divine, And my early vows to serve Thee Hold me, ho d me ever Thine.” -m-—-QT. CHRIST A COMMUNIST. By William A. Pratt. _o_ COMMUNISM is denounced by Christians as opposed to the spirit of their religion. That it is opposed to the egotism and self-righteous- ness that is so marked a trait among those who style themselves Christians, cannot be denied; but it is not opposed to Christ’s teachings. The recorded sayings and doings of that re- ligious hero show every where a commun- istic spirit, and it is reasonable to suppose that what is unrecorded partook in a greater degree of that same spirit, for biographers are prone to conceal the more unpopular qualities of their heroes. The kingdom of heaven, so often spoken of by him, instead of being construed into a mys- terious spirit home for a select few, I believe can be understood better in a common-sense way—to have reference to an ideal earthly home of a communistic nature which he ‘hoped to institute as a home for his followers; a home into which no man could enter unless he was born again, or in other words until he be- came dead to the customs and conventionalities of society as it now is and became like a little child again with a mind more impressible to natural habits; a home into which he said it was hard for a rich man to enter, doubtless for the same reason that it is hard to get rich men in our day to enter a community on account of their selﬁshness; ahome where, if treasures were deposited, no fears need be entertained of their destruction by moths and rust, for in such a home every thing will be utilized for the good of all, and nothing hoarded up for the gratiﬁcation of a selﬁsh few, where thieves could not exist, for every thing would be com- mon property, and where there would be no distinctions of age, rank, or sex. . The Golden Rule, enjoined by Christ upon SHAKER AND his followers, contains the essence of all his religious teachings, but it is not practicable outside of a community. An individual, ad- hering to that rule in the present homogene- ous state of society, is like a sheep among wolves and must certainly be devoured. The ﬁrst Church instituted by Christ’s im- mediate followers, wasa community, moulded, doubtless, after the fashion of that which they had so often heard described from the lips of their master. Let sectarians denounce, then, as they will, our communistic theories ; they know not what they do, and therefore should be forgiven. Did they read the Scriptures with their own in- stead of dead men’s eyes, they would see that to be a true follower of Christ is to be a communist .— The Communist. _:._.___.‘.j.._—:- SPIRIT COMMUNICATION. _.0j AURORA, N. J ., Aug. 14, 1872. To Dr. G. Haskell: “Spirit Child: Through the Divine assist- ance of spirits from higher spheres than the material plane of life, I have been permitted to come here and communicate a few thoughts expressive of my views of the Resurrection- life of the Shaker Institution—as we view it, another and higher plane of spiritual ex- istence than the animal, sexual or social plane in the external life. In this you are educated that a life of true sexual moral pu- rity, or womanly virtue, is the only road that leads to true happiness —— the happiness that leads through the endless, spheres of present and future spiritual existence. As the ‘hap- piness of the future depends upon the life of the present, you know what your early in- structions were. The principles taught by true Quaker Friends do not differ so widely from the Shakers as do those of the world. “As these were the principles you were taught when a child, and the principles im- bibed and practiced till you arrived at mature age, what I would here express is my thanks to the good Father of all life, animate and in- animate, that the Shakers have an existence in the land. I consider it the saving Institution of the age. In it is cultivated true spiritual- ity and strict morality, and all the higher af- fectional elements of the nature of the indi- vidual are cultivated in the highest, grandest and broadest fraternal sense; the Fatherhood of God, the Motherhood of Nature, and the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of all Humani- ty’s children, as they become quickened in spirit, resurrected from a life in the flesh——— that more glorious Resurrection-life of the Spirit. Hoping this will reach you, and thanking the friends for giving me this opportunity of communicating to you, I am yours in spirit, RUTH BARRY. To 17. W. Evans and Antoinette Doolittle. —j—————.———.__—.———a TRINITY DUALITY. —o— A Trinity is an innovation upon the theol- ogy of the human race. All mankind —-from the most enlightened nations and classes down to the most benighted heathens—— believed in the duality of the Deity until the creation of the Trinity by antichrist. How- ever distorted their views of the character of the Supreme Being might be, this one truth, that God was Male and Female, still remained to them. It is an axiom even with the Chinese phi- losophers, that the world was created by the male and female principles. It remained for the smoke from the bot- tomless pit of antichristian, sin, ignorance and spiritual darkness to becloud and obscure this most beautiful, simple and self-evident of all truths. Mosheim, in his “Ecclesiastical History,” says, that “Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, was the first who ever made use of the word Trinity to express the distinction of what divines call persons in the Godhead." And Maclaine saith: “The Christian Church is very little obliged to him for his invention. The use of this and other unscriptural terms, to which men attach either no ideas at all, or false ones, has wounded charity and peace without promoting truth and knowledge. It has produced heresies of the very worst kind.” Mosheim continues : “There were deplorable divisions kindled, throughout the Christian World, on the subject of three persons in the Godhead. So that the Emperor Constantine, seeing the ﬂames of controversy daily spread- ing through the empire, called the Council of Nice to settle the question. At this ‘council the Emperor—the great ‘infallible’ head of the Church—took one side, and, ﬁve months after, changed to the other; and the Trinity became an orthodox doctrine by vote and by authority.” And thus men have worshipped, and still Worship, a triune monster, having no exist- ence, and whose “likeness” or “image” does not exist, and therefore cannot be “clearly seen” in any part of the universe of God, visible or invisible. All the religious sentiments of the ancients, whether written or oral, attest the principle of male and female in Deity. Not only do the Gentile records universally conﬁrm this fact, but in the Hebrew writings and Scrip- tures also the same truth is maintained.— Ed. _______,____ CELIBACY AND LONGEVITY. .—0._.. By Elder Richa/rd Bushnell. Now in his 82d year. A brother whom I esteem as one of the best men now living upon the earth. —Ed. It has often been stated, by physicians and others, that a. married life is more conducive to longevity than an unmarried life. Now, if the term unma/rvied, is meant to include all such as are not joined in lawful wedlock, no doubt the statement may be true. For, of both sexes there are vast numbers whose lives are incompatible with decent modesty, and much more so with a life of chastity and virgin purity. But, as it regards a life of entire abstinence from sexual commerce, or carnal indulgence of any name or nature, I think the following will dis- prove the above statement : In the society at Mount Lebanon, within about ten years, there have deceased, of male and female members, 36,- whose united ages average over 86years. The great majority of them came into the society in their youth, and lived a virgin life, agreeable to the faith and principles of Believers. And there are now living in the Society four members, who came in their youth (under twenty years of age) one of whom is now in the 102d year of her age; another over 98; and two in their 92d year; also, about ten or twelve more, whose ages are between 80 and 90 years. Most of them united with the society at an early period of their lives. See also our report (on page 45 of the June No. for 1871) of afamily of ten——eight males and two females—- all of whom but one, who is now living and in his 95th year, died among Believers. Their respective names and ages, (which average near 62years) are given as above.—Ea:ehanges, please copy. gttaaesess. LA. DOOLITTLE, EDITRESS. r..‘p‘.p‘. ‘.- PAUL AND THE BISHOPS. _o__ WHEN the bishops of Rome, in solemn con- clave, decided that they were sole arbiters of theological truth (an erudite historian asserts they almost conceived they were Deity itself), and created an imaginary Triune God for man to worship, did they not falsify the declaration of the inspired Apostle Paul, who testiﬁed that “the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead?” Monstroslties do not proceed from Deity. Creative forces are orderly, and they form and produce their kind. The creation is a reﬂex of the Creator. If We pass through the-whole realm of the natural, which is a correspondence of the spiritual, where shall we ﬁnd the likeness of a Triune God—three male beings conjoined in one? Do we not see the dual principle, positive and negative, male and female, manifest in all of God’s creation, from man, the apex, down through all grades of animal life, con- tinuing to the vegetable and mineral king- doms? Can we marvel that the imaginary Trinity in the heavens should be reﬂected upon the earth, and a duplicate be formed here? The ruling power on the earth, at the present time, is a trinity of doctors of divinity,,civil law; and physio. Through the God Trinity, which man has formed for man to worship, the sun “ of Divine revelation has been darkened, and the moon (ruling earthly governments) turned to blood; ” and through the power and in- -.ﬂuence of the trinity of doctors, the war spirit has ruled. Doctors of divinity have invoked the blessing of the Holy Trinity up- on tlie deadly weapons of war, and the doc- tors of law, through the power vested in them, have forced fathers, brothers, and sons, to leave all that was dear to them on earth, and enter the ranks of those who were march- ing to the gory battle ﬁeld, there to face the cannon’s mouth; while the doctors of physio followed in their wake, ready to amputate shattered limbs, and bear the bleeding and dying to hospitals or to the grave. But thanks are due from many hearts, that, in the fullness of time, the light of divine revelation has pierced the dark clouds which, through a false theology, have for centuries been gathering over Christendom. Now the cloud is lifted, and we see a Heavenly Father and Mother, instead of three male Gods in one. We have caught a glimpse of the true dual God, ﬁill of wis- dom and love, and begin to understand the mission of the Christ Spirit manifest through earthen vessels. The angels who came to Jesus and Ann, and ministered to them, always sang the song of peace and good will. The spirit and element of war can never enter the inner spiritual Christ heav- SHAKERESS. ens; nor go beyond the world’s trinity of gods. And 0 how joyful we feel in believing in a Heavenly Mother! Children in nature love and revere their father, who provides for them; but who can understand and feel their needs, and supply them, like a true mother? Her ears are ever open to their cries; and, when in distress, she gathers them to her bosom. No longer do We remain in a semi- orphan condition, having a Father in the interior heavens, without a loving Mother. And, as this beautiful truth shall come to be more generally recognized and ac- knowledged, their dual likeness will mani- fest itself in the outward governments; and in the various relations of life, woman will occupy her proper sphere, and all will event- ually see that the visible creation is an out- growth from the invisible, and that it is God’s purpose that we should all progress from inharmonies into the beautiful, good, and true. __._+_____ IS WOMAN A SLAVE? By E. H. Webster. -:0: John Stuart Mill says, “The law of servi- tude in marriage is a monstrous contradiction to all the principles of the modern world, and to all the experience through which these prin- ciples have been slowly and painfully worked out. Marriage is the only actual bondage known to our _law. There remains no legal slaves, except the mistress of every house.” Strong, brave words! but are they true? Paul said, “The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband.” If she has not possession of her own body, and is in subjec- tion by the law to the will of her husband, who, though exhorted to be her saviour and deliverer as Christ is of the Church, We fear that the charge must be admitted. Paul gives, as the occasion of this servitude, that, although “man was ﬁrst formed, wo- man was first in transgression ; and if it were any more excusable in man to sin in conse- quence of the seduction of the woman “whom the Lord had given him for a helpmeet,” than it was in her to yield to the serpentine nature which allured her, he certainly has the case. The consequences resulting seem evidence that her part and lot was exceedingly sorrow- ful. “Thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee.” A condition of freedom was prophesied of in the forty-ﬁfth Psalm, under the ﬁgure of one who is called to leave her father’s house and all her kindred. “ The 7cz'ng’s daughter is all glorious within.” She, as well as the virgins, her companions, who follow her, accept the heavenly Bridegroom, instead of any earthly marriage, and serve Him with gladness and rejoicing. Jesus who was most emphatically woman’s friend and Saviour, alluded to her sad condi- tion when speaking of the weeping women who followed him: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children; for behold the days are coming in which they shall say,‘ Blessed are the barren,’ ” etc. “ THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.” His new manner of life broke the spell of slavery for all who would live it, whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, bond or free, and they could henceforth “serve the Lord day and night in his temple.” “ Ye are the temples of the living God.” “The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” “Ye are 13 bought with a price, be not ye the servants of men.” BE WITHOUT ANXIOUS CARE. Searching and critical as is their meaning, we ﬁnd a whole volume of tender and pa- thetic teaching in those simple Words of Jesus to Martha, when troubled, that Mary was not more active with her in temporal care and ministrations, “Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” “Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful.” He did not directly say that her burdens were unnecessary; but the inference is fair, that he considered them not more needful than the one which held Mary a learner at his feet. From his lips such teachings as these are often found among his utterances: “Seek ﬁrst the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, and all needful things shall be added,” etc. So to the multitude of women to whom life is more a season of anxious care 2 “What shall we eat, and wherewithal shall we be clothed?” do not the words of Jesus most ﬁttingly apply? “Thou art anxious and careful for many things;” but there is something more of life than these; there is something more necessary, the neglect of which can never be compensated with any earthly gain. How we belie our profession, and trail it in the mire of earthliness, when we subordinate the higher, the spiritual and eternal to the sordid and earthly; and is it any marvel that with such a maimed and distorted Christianity, earth still groans under the slavery of sin? In what church or home would the lowly Nazarene be recognized, could he return? “Careful and anxious about many things!" but not of the one thing needful. Careful that the body be well fed, and clothed, and housed l Careful that the latest style be faith- fully adopted, and the outward fair and irreproachable; but not equally careful that the soul be growing beautiful in the sight of angels and the pure in heart. The Martha and Mary type may still be found on the earth. The one too material and engrossed in the carking, consuming cares of life to heed the beatiﬁc vision, which still whispers to her in every lull of world- liness; the other too exclusively spiritual. To our mind nothing shows more plainly the subjection of woman than her voluntary slavery to dress. Whether it be to please a husband, or to secure one, it matters not ; the slavery is there, and obliges her to sacriﬁce health, conscience and gleams of purity and holiness which have ﬂitted by all souls who have had any comprehension of Christly pro- fession and imitation. “Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again.” Strange, yet sublimely rudimental, transform- ing you from the earthly into the spiritual. One badge or sign of your freedom, or ser- vitude, is the dress you wear. If it is fitly symbolized by the “white raiment pure and clean,” modest and useful apparel, though mocked at by the worldly, it may prove you to be in possession of the principles and integ- rity which will yield you a solace and joy such as can be found in the banquet halls of none but those who are truly married to the Lamb. Man is more free; but, while showing most deeply the contamination consequent on having a burden—bearer at hand, instead of a companion, he has suffered far less than woman in many things. He has had the hardihood, after years of tinsel and ruffles, to discard them all for a more suitable, warm, and convenient clothing, while woman, hampered with conﬁning skirts, shriveled and squeezed with pain producing ligatures, is so deformed that one would never imagine her part of that humanity that was “created upright.” Submitting to fashion, which she despises, and which the better part of men also despise, but have not the strength to 14 lift her above (for who would be seen with a plain or unfashionably-clad female friend), evidences her weakness and imbecility. From whence, then, is to come woman’s rescuer and freer? Christ did it, when, in the person of Paul, he declared that in Him “there was neither bond nor free, male nor female,” etc. Christ did it again in every woman, who, like Mary, dared to learn Christly principles. Christ did it in Ann Lee, who ground the head of the serpentine nature in herself, and taught her followers to do the same. And those only become most truly free who thus gain the victory over themselves, and become redeemed from the earth. “Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” —Harvard, Mass. _._M.§:_...__—_._ WORK OF THE PRESENT. By Anna White. __Oj Time, with hour-glass in hand, marches on with great rapidity; none can stay its pro- gress. Science has kept pace with time as it passed, and has brought forth many inven- tions, through which great results are pro- duced. Telegraphic wires now almost belt the earth from pole to pole, and bear hourly tidings of weal or woe from continent to continent. One nation can commune with others beyond the isles of the sea; and friends can greet friends with kindly salutations in an almost incredibly short space of ‘time. Fleet vessels, impelled across oceans and seas by the power of steam, like so many ﬂoating palaces upon old Neptune’s broad ex- pause, all bespeak the growth of ages. Modern inventions may compete with this honored sire— Time—in swiftness; but are not more constant and steady in their ﬂight than are the “sands of life ” as they fall from Time’s measured glass. And, as we are borne along on life’s journey, eternity opens her pearly gates to our mental vision; and, as immortal beings we peer out into the unknown future, as before us it rises in grandeur and beauty. We sing of the “better land,” where brothers and sisters will “meet to part no more.” Very few profess to believe that the partial, selﬁsh relations of the generative order will be recognized there; but all seem to think that, by some metaphysical process, parents and children, husbands and wives, etc., will be changed into angels, and that-God will show particular favor to them ; and that families from the earth-sphere will be re-united in heaven. But, may it not be asked: what makes that land, to which we are all hastening, the better land ? Is itrthe place, or the changed condition of individuals, that will augment their happi- ness? If it depend upon changed conditions, cannot that change, by some means, be effected now ? and thus produce the ability to sing and speak of the good time that has already come, in the present? Is there not too much indulgence in ideal dreams of the future, to the neglect of present duty, or failure to comprehend it? Would it not be better to cast about, and see if there cannot be found an existing order on the earth where the will of God is done, “as it is done in heaven ? ” and, if not successful in ﬁnding it, why not make individual efforts to establish such an order of things? Is the price too great? Would it require too much self-sacriﬁce? Or, is it more convenient to wait until compelled by what is termed death .3‘ God loves the cheerful giver; and he will not fail to reward all who will diligently seek him, and make willing sacriﬁces to promote his cause. If this were done, then would our eternal parents be honored; and every such one SHAKER" AND _a—- would be a blessing to humanity; and would be able to render due praise to the past; to revere the good and true, and reject the false; and to sacredly hold to all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which have come down to us as an inheritance. Thus should we all live in the present, doing the work of our own time properly and proﬁt- ably, receiving beautiful inspirations of the Spirit to aid us ; and should be fully prepared for the great future, in which we hopefully expect to wear the laurels that we have justly earned. So we will say: “Let time continue its march, hour-glass in hand.” We would not lessen its speed; and there will be no cause of regret, if every duty is well done. -—Mt. Lebanon. . TO YOUTH. By Lucy J. Osborne. ‘-0- While perusing the November number of THE SHAKER, my attention was particularly drawn to the article headed “Angel Eyes are Upon Us,” and to the beautiful poem ap- pended thereto, entitled “ We are Seen.” Those sentiments appeal so directly to the conscience, that it seems to me they cannot fail to awaken thoughtful considerations in every reﬂective mind, and I felt an ardent desire that all youthful readers, whose eyes might trace those impressive lines, should feel the great necessity of “applying their hearts unto wisdom,” and of remembering that youth is the time to form a good char- acter, and so lay a foundation for future use- fulness and happiness, which can be done only by self-culture. And if youth and children could be impressed with the all- important truth that “ God is Light,” and that their every action is open to the inspection of angels, and must eventually be brought into judgment, would it not be a powerful inducement to many to speak the truth, and to live more innocently? And would it 11ot lead them to honor their parents and guardians, by obeying their counsels, thus ﬁtting them to become useful and ornamental members of society? Many temptations beset the youthful mind, and if all could be impressed with the simple truth, that it is far more noble to acknowledge a fault than to dissemble, and seek to hide it, how much trouble of mind and remorse of conscience it would save. I earnestly and affectionately exhort my young friends to lay aside all that vain and foolish pride which would hinder them from confessing their faults. Remember that “God is Love,” as well as Light. He is merciful and forgiving, and all souls belong to him. He is not a respecter of persons, but of character; and his love ﬂows to all repentant hearts, whether in savage or civilized nations ——in the palace or the humble cottage. Let us trust in Truth; there is strength and beauty in it. Let it be our motto, and it will prove an unfailing friend to both aged and youth, in sickness and health, in life and in death.- Hancock, Mass. __j?_*.:—j—. HANNIBAL, Mo., November 16, 1872. Dear Brother Frederick : Please accept my thanks, and the ﬁfty cents for “ The Shaker ” another year. I would not be without it for twice its price. Its sweet inﬂuence comes to me like angel whispers from that better land, cheering me along the sad and lonely way of life. 0 when may I join those “brave conquer- ors,” for so you are, who battle with your own affections, and the whole army of the world’s desires. God bless you for the good you are exerting. My heart is with you all. SYLVINIA JENKINS. FORGIVENESS. Bu Rhoda Blake. .j0._— Forgiveness is a lovely grace. Any one who can, in sincerity, say to an enemy, “Thou art forgiven," feels the peace of Heaven. Such possess the spirit of the dying Jesus, when he said “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” But, were the mur- derous designs of his persecutors changed by his tender words? Did his forbearance de- stroy their venom, or appease their cruel rage ? Ah, nay; but it was the crown of his own glory, and a lesson for all succeeding genera- tionsl With sorrow, not malice, he viewed their unsubdued passions; and, while they reviled, he was tender and compassionate. The cross which He had borne proved effec- tual in that hour of trial and need, and he triumphed over that measure of death and hell which compassed his enemies How unlike was the spirit of those persecuting Jews, when compared with the Heavenly Dove spirit which the lovely Jesus possessed, which was genuine forgiving love. This power of for- giving love is gained by self-denial, watchful- ness, and prayer, and ﬂows from true princi- ple; it is not emotional, nor circumstantial, and will not ﬂee the grasp when tried in the furnace of aﬂiiction. A loving, forgiving spirit is not the companion of pride, hatred, and revenge; between them, there is no concord. The Christian spirit teaches love and forgive- ness, not merely in word, but in deed, and possesses a healing power. When Jesus, through the anointing of the Christ Spirit which rested upon him, healed the sick, the halt and the blind, of their physical inﬁrmi- ties, his word to them was, “ Go and sin no more.” And now, the united voice (or word) of the dual Christ Spirit, which administers a healing power to sin sick souls, as well as to diseased bodies, is “Deny self; take up the cross, and bear it; go, and sin no more.” In this, “the two anointed ones ”—Jesus and Ann —— are our exemplars. Jesus, according to Sacred Writ, rejected the tempter when he promised all the kingdoms of the world to him, if he would serve him and bow down to the principles which constitute the world; but he bade the tempter depart, and bowed his spirit in submission to the will of God. It would appear that the power of forgive- ness, depends upon the co-operation of the forgiven, with the forgiver. Peter said “ How often shall I forgive my brother? till seven times? Jesus answered, until seventy times seven.” against thee seven times in a day, if he will repent, forgive him.” Sinning against human- ity, and our own bodies, often arising from ignorance and force of circumstances, can more easily be forgiven, than sin, or rebellion against spiritual, divine light, given to guide and lift the soul into union and communion with God. This is called sinning against the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit. Those who thus sin to a great extent, do not often repent so deeply that forgiving love and power can reach them.— Mt. Lebanon. -—?-:¢_.j-— PROMPTITUDE. By Martha J. Anderson. ._..0—. “Delay shortens life, and abridges industry; while promptitude enlarges both.” This is an essential element of character, and should be incorporated in every person's code of individual laws, to enable them to properly and proﬁtably perform the work assigned them in life’s busy sphere of action. Said one anciently : “ To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” But dilatoriness, and disinclination to labor, allows proper seasons to slip by un- improved, while goou purposes are too often frustrated for the want of descisive action at the right moment. There is a competency 01 Again, “If thy brother trespass « ' its members, who should each fulﬁl their u1r¢u\nr time for the fulﬁlment of noble ends and aims, if we rightly improve the present. It is pro- crastination that breaks the golden threads of life’s fair web, and causes us vexation. Like a weird ghost, he haunts the scenes of our daily avocations, and plausibly guarantees a pleasanter time than that which now is for the accomplishment of our allotted duties; but the by-and-by only superadds to accumulated labors; and, when necessity assumes her rule, we are fretted into a state of fevered excite- ment, and then leave our work but half per- formed. It is not ﬂtful strokes of zeal That add the most to human weal, But patient labor, hourly wrought, Has wealth amass’d and increase brought. But few persons are habitually prompt; a natural disposition to ease, combined with mental inertia, incapacitates the many for necessary activity, which incites to prompt- ness of action. It is well to be punctual; better to be ready beforehand, meeting ap- pointments, fulﬁlling agreements in an or- derly and punctual manner, keeping pace frontguard of the marching hours. Promptness is a point of culture that all may attain unto by self discipline. Those who are dilatory should feel the just censure which persistent tardiness often incurs from those who know the precious worth of time, and are instant in duty. Some individuals are regularly inattentive to regulations, be- ing a little late on every occasion. If the bell rings at the accustomed hour, it is ﬁve or ten minutes too soon for their convenience; if a special call is made for concentration of labor on some extra branch of business, their leisurely movements in preparation leave them in the rear of the active, who are prompt in every motion, evincing an interest to sustain and carry forward to its ultimate any project the intent of which is for mutual beneﬁt. Such have, for their motive power, deter- mined will. It is just this push-ahead and promptness that completes the thorough busi- ness man and woman, gives character and effect to any enterprise, and makes the ma- chinery of life run smoothly. The blacksmith draws the red-hot metal from the glowing furnace, but does he form his model after he has taken the iron from the ﬁre? Not so; he is ready to strike while yet the heat is luminous, and the material malleable, that he may fashion it according to his will, and the living sparks that ﬂy tell us that to “strike while the iron is hot” is not a meaningless phrase. Here is a lesson for the young, who are now moulding their characters on the anvil of life (for good or evil just as they will it). Now is the time to straighten the crooked places, while there is ardency of purpose and pliancy of will. The hammer of truth is effective in shaping aright; do not delay to use it with wakeful vigor, to the end that you may be ﬁtted for useful and substantial members of society, the healthful condition of which is dependent on the qualiﬁcation of oﬂice so perfectly and actively that a glow of health and invigorating life may add to the structure, strength and beauty. Delay has stamped on human acts the blight of misspent time and uncompleted purpose, while magniﬁcent thought-built project towers reel and crumble to the dust for the want of solid foundations, laid in ac- tual labor and experience. ’Tis hands that do and hearts that bear Which lift the burden, lighten care, And give to life an aspect fair In this wide world of ours. So, let us heed each burden-freighted mo- ment that speaks of the blessed “now” to do and bear, that light-winged they may glide into the sunny side of eternity, to smile on our future existence. “We should cultivate that althletic frame of soul which rejoices in SHAKERESS. abundant occupation, that we may ﬁnd the sweetness of that repose which follows ﬁn- ished work, and the zest of that recreation in which no delinquent feeling mingles, and on which no neglected duty frowns.” —.j__§_j___._ EVOLUTION. _._0_. IT was held, by philosophers, that all worlds were originally projected from their respec- tive suns, and were then in a gaseous nebulous state, owing to the intense heat of those lumin- aries; and that, as they cooled, they became planets, and are now gradually condensing, and will continue so to do, until they fall back into their respective suns, to be again projected in the form of gaseous nebula. PROPHETS. —o— By whom were the Prophets inspired? Or whence came their rythmical song ‘Z That Avators have play’d on their lyres, As they march’d with the ages along? Was it not by the angelic throng, Who inhabit Eternity’s strand, The Christs of the innermost spheres, Who await the Deiﬁc command? The heaven of heavens their home, Where all primal cells were ﬁrst form’d: By these all creation has come, Have never by evil been storm’d. From thence were the Prophets inspired, ’ Mid the races and nations of earth: Prophetesses, too, tuned their lyres, As they sang of the heavenly birth. Pure glory on glory I see, For ever and ever advancing, Rolling on like the billowy sea, With the grandest of music enchanting. To the sun, the bright sun, we ascend, Returning from whence we proceeded; As planets, when roll’d to the end, In oceans of ﬁre are bathed. Ed. .____._.¢______ ANALOGY. I ' By Marcia M. Bullard. —'O—- DEAR EDITRESS—ObSe1'Ving' in the January number of the “ Shaker and Shalceress,” an appeal for the Waste Basket, I contribute my mite for the support of this honorary append- age of an editor. v While contemplating the beauties of God’s work with his creatures from the earliest ages to the present time, I see a beautiful analogy of the past in the present. That work which was foreshadowed in Israel ﬁnds its anti—type in Zion. In ancient Israel, animal indulgences were atoned for by animal sacriﬁces ; thus typifying the present work of God, wherein the animal nature of man and woman is slain, and the inspirational inﬂuence of Divine Love lifts the soul above the base desires of that nature, up to a higher plane, illumined by the light of his countenance. VVhen I look abroad upon the face of the earth, and behold the Spirit of God “ moving upon the waters,” striving to raise souls from the horrible pit of indulgences, by the many reform movements in operation, I ask, is there 15 one spot on this fair earth so far redeemed from the blight of sin, that purity can reign supreme ?—a place where woman no longer forms a part of man; but, as pre-ﬁgured in the prophetic allegory of creation, is taken from his side, and made an independent entity, united to him only in works of righteousness, pure love, kindly feelings ?—where the highest aspirations are to form the Angel character, by a total denial of all wrong appetites, and unchaste desires, thus completely ruling over self .9 And an echo rolls across the troubled waters, from the dual-masted “ tiny craft,” in answer: There is! and we delight to bear the glad tidings of peace, love and joy in the life of Christ to all people. ._:____§.___j.. TO CONTRIBUTORS. :01. Write, but not unless you have something to say upon some one or more of the Principles of the paper. Having an idea, express it in the fewest words possible, and in the strongest terms at command. We wish to accumulate matter for several numbers of the paper ahead. — Ed. ._M.§.—j:—. GONE HOME. 2.0.: Since last account published in our paper we have the following obituary report : At Canterbury, Polly Kimball, aged 94, de- ceased Sept. 5th, 1872. Stephen H. Mead, aged 13 years, drowned Nov. 1872. Catharine Lyon, aged 72, deceased Dec. 9th,1872. At New Leb- anon, Dorcus Sweet, aged 39, died Nov. 18th, 1872. Nov. 20th, 1872, Mercy McLean, aged 83 years. At Watervliet, N. Y., Alexander Youngs, business agent of Second Family, aged 57. His demise is a sad bereavement to this family—deceased Dec. 29th, 1872. At New Lebanon, Elder Daniel J. Hawkins, de- ceased Jan. 15th,1873. He was brought up from infancy in the Gospel of Christ’s Second Appearing, was a trustee for about 40 years or more; at the age of about 81 or 82, was appointed leading Elder of South Family, which place he occupied until his demise at the age of 92 years. _.__M._;_j—:__ TRUTH OF INWARD LIFE. -—o—- The truth cannot be compressed into a ser- mon. The reply to Pilate’s question, “What is truth,” cannot be contained in any verbal form. Think you that if Christ himself could have answered that question in a certain num- ber of sentences, he would have spent thirty years of life in witnessing to it? Some men would compress into the limits of one reply, or one discourse, the truth it took Christ thirty years to reach, and left unﬁnished for the Spirit to complete. The truth is inﬁnite as the ﬁrmament above you. In childhood both seem near and measurable; but with years they grow and grow, and seem further off and further, and grander and deeper, and vaster, as God himself; till you smile to remember how you thought you could touch the sky, and blush to recollect the proud and self-sufiicient way in which you used to talk of knowing “the truth.” Truth is made up of principles; an inward life, not any formula of words. Grod’s character—spiritual wor- ship ——the divine life in the soul. How shall I put that into a sentence, ten or ten thou- sand? How could Pilate’s question be an- swered except by a life? The truth, then, which Pilate wanted —— which you and I want —— is not the boundless verities but truth of inward life. Truth for me; truth enough to guide me in this darkling world; enough to teach me how to live, and how to die. ——E W. Robertson. 16 SHAKER AND SHAKERESS. BLESSINGS FOR THE FAITI-IFUL. ENFIELD, N. H. ‘V P11 -P- 2. A cloud in the day I’ll spread o’er my ﬂock; A pil-lar of ﬁre, by night, -P--F #- 1. Saith God, Unto those who keep my way pure, I’l1 open my fountains a-hove; On those who are faithful, my blessings I’ll pour, And comfort their souls with my love, Shall lead them, and show them I am their sure Rock, And they my peculiar delight. be 1m - to them a kind Parent and Friend. And they shall be children of mine; My wings of protection shall o’er them extend, And make them in glory to shine. Then, he not dismay’d not yet be ye cast down; Fear not, though some trials you meet; But wing your way through to my mansions in heaven: You’1l there have a beautiful seat. LINCOLN AND STANTON. By Cecilia. Devyr. --0- Strange was their station, call’d to guide a strife That shock a continent from sea to sea ; To order death along the ranks of life, And wrap in ﬂames the blessings yet to be. ’Twas.their’s to speak the word of stern com- mand That gave the inspiration to the hour, As if they knew an earnest spirit-band Sustain’d and aided every human power. They struck with deadly shafts the monstrous crime That ﬁends had fortiﬁed with walls of lies ; They made it feel the weight of judgment time In crimson earth, and more than crimson skies. They made the wrath of man conduce To aid the plans of Wisdom and of Love ; To turn the raging passions into use, They sent the Vulture to precede the Dove. ’Twas their’s to make the red-mouth’d cannon speak, And call the warrior to his gory ﬁeld; And it was their’s to screen the low and meek, And be, for God, their guardians and their shield. When storms of fury swept across the land, We sought protection only from on high ; They broke the cloud, to show us Mercy’-s hand, And bade us on the Nation’s heart rely. In faith we prayed that duty might be done; . That Freedom might her heritage possess ; That peace and victory, through terrors won, Should “ come to stay,” and banish all distress. And is not prayer a focalizing power, To draw the ﬁres of truth, to burn the dross? Ah, well we proved it in that fearful hour When human vision saw but human loss. ’Twas not for party, nor for section proud, That Zion’s ardent supplications rose; But that the land should be with right endow’d, And God should his progressive laws disclose When hung the Proclamation’s shining page All bright-triumphant for the world to feel, Then came the spirit of unconquer’d rage, And stamp’d it ﬁercely with a sable seal; And it became the death-decree of him Who was the instrument of hosts unseen, And then a passport through the valley dim, And through the gates that weighty forces screen. But Prophecy, the child of fervent prayer, Gave Zion light to view a future grand, And bade her faithfully herself prepare To aid the work immortal spirits plann’d. We saw the tears that mingled near and far Wash from that seal the blackness of its face ; And now it beams a brilliant changeless star, The pledge of freedom to an injured race. How gratefully our hearts recall that time ; How place we Stanton close by Lz'ncoln’s side Amid his toils, his sacriﬁce sublime, And ’neath the burdens of whose weight he died. One balmful thought, to which he oft referr’d, And drew its solace round his closing life, Was, that his heart compassionately heard The claims of Zion to be free from strife. Oh, not with hero-worshipers we bend ; But honor give to whom is honor due: Pray God to bless whoe’er will truth defend, While yet perchance “ they know not what they do.” Mt. Lebanon. _____..§___._._. ANCIENT PILGRIMS. By Julia Johnson. _o__ Lord, make our spirits whiter-- White as the driven snow ; Like to the ancient pilgrims, Who suﬂ'er’d here below. Give us a heart that’s humble, Touch’d with the martyr’s zeal; Clothe us with truth and wisdom, And make pure love our seal. Fill us with thoughts of heaven, Of worthiness, and prayer; And with thine arm, 0 save us From ev’ry earthly snare. Lead us unto the fountain Whence flows the living strea -- Sweet waters of repentance, Which will the soul redeem. Where bloom the fairest ﬂowers ‘ That ﬂourish here below ; Where walk the brightest beings That earth can ever know. 0 lead us, Holy Spirit, Down in the lowly vale, Where fear and mortal bondage The soul cannot assail ; Where tears of sinful sorrow Flood not the pure in heart; Nor sense of earthly yearning, Life’s piercing pangs impart. Lord, make our spirits whiter- White as the driven snow; Like to the holy ancients Who conquer’d death below. Hancock, Mass. ._m___§.m..__ INDEPENDENT TRACT SOCIETY. ——o— The subject of this society is to counteract the efforts of ecclesiastical despotism, seeking to unite Church and State in the United States. 25 cents means membership. Address A. B. l)AvIs, Clinton, Mass. Why should we not accord to the second christian dispensation the authority for a reve- lation of God correcting the theological views of former revelations, since the attainment of absolute truth is a work of progress? Our credentials are to be found in the work of God itself among us. G. B. A. SHAKER AND SHAKERESS. Addresses of the Local Editors and Publishers. —.0.— Elder F. W. EVANS, Mt. Lebanon, Col. Co. N. Y. .. G. A. LOMAS, Albany, N. Y. Shakers. CALVIN G. REED, Sonyea, Living’n Co. N. Y. SIMON MABEE, West Pittsiield, Mass. H. S. KELLOGG, Thompsonville, Conn. Shakers. ALBERT BATTLES, Tyringham, Berkshire Co. Mass. WM. LEONARD, Ayer, Mass. Shakers. JoNAs NUTTING, Shirley Village, Middlesex Co. Mass. B. H. SMITH, Shaker Village, Merrimack Co. N. H. HENRY Cummves, Enﬂeld, Grafton Co. N. H. JOHN B. VANCE, Alfred, York Co. Maine Shakers. NEHEMIAH TRULL, West Gloucester, Cum- berland Co. Me. Shakers. CHARLES CLAPP, Union Village, Warren Co. 0. Shakers. EZRA ESHERMAN, Preston, Hamilton Co. Ohio Shakers. STEPHEN BALL, Dayton, Ohio Shakers. JACOB KULP, Pleasant Hill, Mercer Co. Ky. J. R. EADES, South Union, Logan Co. Ky. J. S. Panscorr, Cleveland, Ohio Shakers. ‘
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ss0302
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 03, no. 03 (March 1873)
Publisher: United Society
Date: 1873-03-01
Place published: Mt. Lebanon (N.Y.)
Text: Vol. III. iﬁ gﬁs /s\ “ F. W. EVANS, EDITOR. PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED SOCIETY. Mt. Lebanon, Col. Co. N. Y. March, FIFTY CEN'rs PER ANNUM. @ 1873. ENGLISH SPIRITUALISM. “_It does move.” ——0.__ THE contest that is raging in England between Protestant skeptics and Spirit- ualists in relation to supernatural events, is not generally known by Americans, both parties being ﬁrm believers in the prin- ciples involved, and in the facts produced by them in the past. The Church of England and its sectarists, are continually and persist- ingly teaching faith in the “miracles” and spiritualistic phenomena of former ages, and in preceding dispensations. Spiritualists, while adhering to that belief, add thereunto faith in the recurrence and occurrence, in our own day and generation, of all the super- natural phenomena of former times; as re- corded in authentic writings or scriptures of the Jews and Christians; and not excluding similar reliable records by other races and nations, whether so re...
Show moreVol. III. iﬁ gﬁs /s\ “ F. W. EVANS, EDITOR. PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED SOCIETY. Mt. Lebanon, Col. Co. N. Y. March, FIFTY CEN'rs PER ANNUM. @ 1873. ENGLISH SPIRITUALISM. “_It does move.” ——0.__ THE contest that is raging in England between Protestant skeptics and Spirit- ualists in relation to supernatural events, is not generally known by Americans, both parties being ﬁrm believers in the prin- ciples involved, and in the facts produced by them in the past. The Church of England and its sectarists, are continually and persist- ingly teaching faith in the “miracles” and spiritualistic phenomena of former ages, and in preceding dispensations. Spiritualists, while adhering to that belief, add thereunto faith in the recurrence and occurrence, in our own day and generation, of all the super- natural phenomena of former times; as re- corded in authentic writings or scriptures of the Jews and Christians; and not excluding similar reliable records by other races and nations, whether so recorded in or outside of their Bibles. The spiritualists are waging an aggressive war, and have made repeated onslaughts against the established Church of England and her daughters, the “dissenting” sects, as they lay intrenched behind the scientists, headed by Prof. Farraday, and with some- what a similar chance of success that Lord Cardigan possessed when he “rode into the jaws of death” with his intrepid “six hun- dred.” The British press, like the walls of ancient Babylon, surrounding all other institutions, have pursued a system of masterly-inactivity tactics — dogged silence. It has stood immo- vable in its towering contempt, presenting to Spiritualists a front impregnable and unassail- able with any hope of success. Some two years ago, the “ London Dialec- tical Society” was formed, composed of about thirty-six distinguished, lcarnedly — scientiﬁc men, with the avowed purpose of “laying” all the spirits that had been “conjured up” by the Spiritualists. After attending sednces and critically examining the modern supernatural manifestations (a fair and rational mode of procedure, and the very one the Church and its sects should have adopted), the result is, itself, the most wonderful of all hitherto pub- licly known spiritual phenomena. For these thirty-six scientists, under the lead of H. G. Atkinson Esq., F. Gr. S., having spent two years attending the seduces of thirty-two of the most distinguished Spiritualists, begin- ning with Emma Hardinge and ending with Home, the aristocratic medium, thus report: “ Your committee, taking into consideration the high character and great intelligence of many of the witnesses to the more extraordinary facts, the extent to which their testimony is supported by the reports of the sub-committees, and the absence of any proof of imposture or delusion as regards a large portion of t e phenomena - and, further, having regard to the exceptional character of the phenomena, the large number of persons in every grade of society and over the whole civilized world, who are more or less inﬂuenced by a belief in their supernatural origin, and to the fact that no philo- sophical explanation of them has yet been arrived at, deem it incumbent upon them to state their conviction that the subject is worthy of more seri- ous attention and careful investigation than it has hitherto received." The statements of witnesses are given at length, embracing an accurate description, ampliﬁed by cross-examination, of some of the most remarkable phenomena which have been witnessed. This important evidence may be thus summarized: 1. Thirteen witnesses state that they have seen heavy bodies———in some instances men — rise slowly in the air, and remain there for some time, without visible or tangible sup- port. 2. Fourteen witnesses testify to having seen hands or ﬁngers, not appertaining to any human being, but life-like in appearance and mobility, which they have sometimes touched, or even grasped, and which they are therefore con- vinced were not the result of imposture or illusion. 3. Five witnesses state that they have been touched by some invisible agency on various parts of the body, and often, when requested, when the hands of all present were visible. 4. Thirteen witnesses declare that they have heard musical pieces well played upon instruments not manipulated by any visible agency. 5. Five witnesses state that they have seen red-hot coal applied to the hands or heads of several persons without producing pain or scorching. 6. Eight witnesses state that they have received precise information through rappings, writings, and in other ways, the accuracy of which was unknown at the time to themselves or to any persons present, and which, on sub- sequent inquiry, was found to be correct. 7. Three witnesses state that they have been present when drawings, both in pencil and colors, were produced in so short a time, and under such conditions as to render human agency impossible. 8. Six witnesses declare that they have received information of future events, and that in some cases the hour and minute of their occurrence have been accurately foretold days, and even weeks before. The work also contains communications, letters and statements from many persons.” T‘??? THE LONDON TIMES. -20: As Cyrus, in his siege of Babylon, after ﬁnding that he could neither breach the walls nor successfully storm the gates, simply turned the river Euphrates, and, with his whole army marched in on its dry bed; and from the inside, himself opened the gates, so have the spiritualists turned the river of feeling and public opinion in England, respecting Spiritualism, by the report of this dialectical committee. And now the great gates of the city, the London Times, are actually opened. The hitherto silent “ Thunderer” did, last year, report a “Shaker” lecture, that in- cluded Spiritualism, delivered in St. George’s Hall, while it would not lisp one word of a preceding lecture delivered by Emma Har- dinge on Spiritualism itself, in the same hall. To-day, its mouth and columns are thrown wide open, in the cause of modern super- naturalism, and the whole English press are sure to follow in its wake. The “New Dispensation ” opened by the cotemporary and “John Baptist” of Ann Lee —— Emanuel Swedenborg— is progressing toward its destined ultimatum, a permanent and reliable means of communication between this earth and the spirit world, that will effect aradical revolution in all existing national and social systems, in Church and State, preparatory to the ﬁnal unfoldment of two distinct orders. It was spiritualism that pre- saged the downfall of ancient external Baby- lon, in which a great assembly of her lords, her priesthood and savans, saw the supernat- ural hcmd, writing on the wall, at the time of their midnight revels, “ weighed in the bal- ance and found wanting! ” Modern spiritualism is also perpetually prophesying the downfall of our mystical Babylon. Justice is holding the scales, and the disembodied souls of men and women in the spirit world, who, in their earth life, have suffered from, as they have partaken of, the evils and plagues of our modern Baby- lonish social system, are pronouncing and executing judgment. From the inner heav- ens the cry is heard, “Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues.” In ancient Babylonia Cyrus found the then chosen people of Grod—the J ews——-who had incorporated spiritualism as one of the ele- ments of their system. Josephus records how the Jewish priesthood, issued from their temple and city in gorgeous religious proces- sion, to meet the “conquering hero,” who was marching upon them, they showed him his own name in their sacred writings, as a prophesy of the very events then transpiring of which himself was the principal———the chief actor. And he, having previously seen the procession in a vision, had been instructed how to treat them, as they had been super- naturally instructed how to receive Cyrus and his army. ——-——+—-——— ~ SPIRITUALISM AND SCIENCE. __0._ (Reprinted from the TIMES of December 26, 1872.) IT is now nearly twenty years since the late Professor Farraday made public the result of his investigations into the then fashionable mania of table-turning. With apparent con- clusiveness, he proved that the mysterious movements which were at that time the new nine-days’ wonder of the world, arose from unconscious muscular action; but, such is the tenacity of a belief once received into the mind, this solution of the pseudo-marvel seems to have satisﬁed few but those who were pre- pared to accept it by previous disbelief. Spirit- ualism and its adherents never heeded it; they went on their way rejoicing, and rose day 18 by dayCon stepping-stones of their former selves to mysteries wonderful and still more wonderful. Our Australian correspondence of this morning shows that the spiritualist epi- demic has reached the Antipodes, and that it has already attained the dignity there of hav- ing its own Press, and, still more, its own schis- matics and sectarians. That in a generation which boasts itself to be one of exact science and plain matter-of-fact, a belief should have been so long-lived, and should have grown even to such proportions that Mr. William Howitt, one of its chief fanatics, can number its adherents at “twenty millions,” and that it should have attained to such an age and vitality without its falsity having been demon- strated to the satisfaction of all but the very ignorant, is strange indeed. It is evident either that the subject is surrounded by unu- sual difficulties, or that in this matter our scientiﬁc men have signally failed to do their duty by the public, which looks to them for its facts. We believe the latter to be the case. It may be said, and is said by some, that spiritualism was long ago investigated and proved to be a mass of imposture and delu- sion; but, as a matter of fact, this is not so, for there has never been undertaken an inquiry of that impartial, authoritative, and thorough nature which alone can decide a prejudiced controversy. Our savans, too much preferring to give themselves up to such matters as the descent of men from monkeys or the fertiliza- tion of the world by means of mossy stones falling through space, have forgotten that, however absurd the phenomena and parapher- nalia of spiritualism may be, the sifting and settling of the whole matter, once and for all, would be a practical beneﬁt, for which the age would thank them at least as much as it thanks them for recondite theories and abstract speculations, half of which are only laid up in print for the next generation to ridicule. Mr. Home himself attended at one of the meetings, and gave evidence as to his “ levita- tions ”and “ elongations,” relating among other marvels, the generally-known story of a seance at the Tuilleries. He tells us of alady who was in the habit of seeing “heads in her lap at night. They were quite luminous ; there was quite a glow about them.” The Master of Lindsay, now Lord Lindsay, and well known for his various scientiﬁc knowledge and re- searches, deposes to have seen Mr. Home elongated eleven inches, ﬂoating round a room in an arm-chair, “ pushing the pictures out of their places as he passed along the walls ” of a room at Mr. Milner Gibson’s house. Lord Lindsay also testiﬁes to Mr. Home having ﬂoated out of a window in Victoria street eighty-ﬁve feet from the ground, and in at another on the same story. He has seen Mr. Home in full light standing in the air seventeen inches from the ground. Mr. G. H. Lewes, in a letter, full of sound maxims, cautioned the committee not to con- found “ the cause we do not know with an unknown cause ;" and Professor Tyndall was willing to “ pay due respect to the invitation of such men as Mr. Wallace or Mr. Crookes, and to witness whatever new phenomena they were in a position to show him.” Mr. G. H. Lewes gave golden advice when he said, “ Distinguish between facts and infer- ences from facts.” Mr. William Howitt asked whether the Dialectical Society, after having determined the truth of spiritualism which had “ now received the assent of about twenty millions of people in all countries,” would proceed to investigate tho correctness of the theory of the Copernican system, of gravita- tion, or of the circulation of the blood; for spiritualism, he considered, “ stood fairly on the same basis of fact.” These extracts from its pages may serve bet- ter than any thing else to give our non—spiritu- alistic readers some idea of the marvelous proportions to which the faith, which at ﬁrst was a mere turning of tables, has swollen in these latter days. Such was the Report on Sptrttualism, and our readers will probably agree that, if it proves nothing else, it proves that it is high time competent hands undertook the unravel- ing of this Gordian knot. It must be fairly and atiently unraveled, and not cut through. The slash of an Alexandrian blade has been SHAKER AND tried often enough, and has never suﬁiced. Scientiﬁc men forget that in the matter of Spiritualism they must make themselves fools that they may become wise. They must con- form to the conditions imposed; even in con- juring one has to do as much as this. They must meet the “mediums” on their own ground, and, if possible, cut that ground from under their feet. To take an extreme case, Spiritualists assert that certain phenomena are only manifested in a half light, or in the dark; scientiﬁc men refuse to meet them under these conditions, and what is the result? Causes are not ascertained, delusions are not exposed, impositions are not detected, and the company of fools are conﬁrmed in their belief. Surely a scientiﬁc man is a match for a me- dium, even in the dark; and surely the one can bring his science to bear wherever the other can bring his “ mediumship,” whatever that may be ! We will suppose that the man of science consents to sit at a dark seance, and that something happens which he cannot explain. What then? He is not compromised or converted, and, without being in the least so, may go again and again, and it will be strange if by dint of precautions and expe- dients he cannot sift the whole matter in a very few sittings. It is owing to the stiffness of scientiﬁc men, and their refusal to meet the Spiritualists on their own ground, that this matter has not been settled long ago.” Thus is the wisdom of the wise confounded and their worldly greatness humbled. Mother Ann said, while in vision, “I see souls in the world of spirits who have lately set out to embrace the gospel, and I see them under the beautiful operations of the power of God. I saw Ezekiel Goodrich ﬂying from one heaven to another.” She spake of another soul who had “risen from the dead and come into the ﬁrst heavens, and was traveling on to the second and third heavens.” All of which goes to show that, while there may be chem- istry, astronomy and even spritualism, with- out Christianity, there can be no Christianity Without spiritualism, ancient and modern. “These signs shall follow.” They shall lay hands on the sick and heal them, as truly as did Jesus and his apostles, and do many won- derful and good works, under the head of Christian Spiritualism. — ED. ..j._¢._.____ SOUL PETRIFACTIONS. _0_ By Giles B. Avery. Petrifaction and death seem almost synony- mous. “The soul that sinneth shall die” is a truth uttered from the mouth of Grod’s proph- ets and witnessed to by the whole human fam- ily. Soul life is the beatiﬁc benediction con- ferred on man by the redeeming Gospel of Christ. “A crown of life" “Eternal life” is the bountiful reward of righteousness. Not long since we were reading of the petri- fying wells of England. According to the statements of our author the waters of these wells are pure, clear and limpid in appear- ' ance, and pleasant to the taste ; but, so charged with silicate of lime, that, as their spray rests upon an object exposed to the air, where the moisture becomes evaporated, they coat that object with stone; or, if it be porous, they charge the pores with stone, so that, in a few months, its whole substance becomes, as it were, changed to stone. The most delicate vegetables, as tiny mosses and flowers, exposed to the spray of these Waters, are turned to stone; even bird’s nests, and eggs —— the germs of future life —become petriﬁed! As on we ......,.......,..,,.,.,.,.,,,.,.,,,..,,,_,.,.,,,.,.._,.,.,.,,,. read, and drink in the full sense of this narra- tive, our spiritual senses were quickened. _ A thrill of inspiring pleasure welled up in our heart, in the contemplation of our opportuni- ties for the attainment of “eternal life,” ﬂow- ing from the heavenly fountains of inspira- tion and love, and fever its wells of salva- tion and joyous blessings. The beautiful plants of gospel graces, cherished by these pure and living waters, appeared fresh and green, decked in vernal bloom and gorgeous beauty transporting to the senses of the Gos- pel Traveler, and ﬁlled us with raptures; and our spirit instinctively poured out praises to God that a soul life, capacitated to appreciate and drink up this inspiration, was vouchsafed to the pure in heart. Succeeding these transports of joy, a sad- ness indescribable seemed to pal! our spirits as peering into the spiritual conditions and haunts of men, we saw myriad millions or our race whose souls were petriﬁed with the stony waters from the wells of sinful worldly pleasure entombed in spiritual death! Many of these waters, like unto those of the petri- fying wells of England, are pure to look upon, clear and limpid, pleasant to the taste, and cheering to the senses, but, alas! charged with soluble stone — limpid death —— piercing every pore of the being and charging every ﬁbre and sprig, yea, even the ﬂowrets and germs of future spirit life, with death, —stonel Slowly, imperceptibly, but surely, petrifying the very soul itself, converting its lively sensibilities to stolicl death. Changed to this petrifaction human beings could be, for a time, in the angelic society of the pure and good, who were quafﬁng inspira- tion from the overflowing wells of salvation — the fountains of life, and love, and heaven —— and yet be utterly insensible to their bliss! And, if this insensibility to heaven be not hell, vainly is the spirit of man gifted with sensation. To those thus petriﬁed by sinful pleasure, the most gorgeous ﬂowers and luscious fruits of paradise were no better than the bitter apples on the slimy, murky beach of the sea of Sodom; all, all are without delight; for the perceptive faculties are entombed in stone ! —— stone so dense that repentant waters may not permeate the being. Hence, for such there is no forgiveness, as forgiveness is predicated on repentance. But these can only be relieved from their sarcophagus through sufferings of emptiness, hunger and solitude; hence, though they eventually have a resur- rection, it is not of life, but of condemnation; and their revival into spiritual life must be slow and painful, like the evolutions of soil from the granite rock. This condition is the result of sinning against light, and the knowledge of the truth! It is a warning to those that are at ease in Zion I —an admoni- tion to those who sit in heavenly places, and bask in the sunbeams of truth— not to partake of the pleasures of sin, which petrify the powers of sensation. Soul life, ——eternal life, —senses able to regale upon the odors of the flowers of heaven, and taste the sweetness of the fruits of Para- dise; to enjoy the melodies of the angel choirs, and drink up with gustation the wine of consolation newly expressed from the clusters of the heavenly vine, are alone the rewards of a virtuous Christian life of virgin purity I —— Jlfount Lebanon. —_M:§_M—-—- “ INFIDELITY ” or skepticism to the warring the- ology of Babylon, is one mark of a true Christian. __:_¢._—_... INQUIRIES. .+. By Napoleon Brown. To THE CHURCHES UNIVERSALLY-—LEr THOSE ANSWER WHO WILL. Did Jesus do what he taught? Did he love his enemies, and do good to those who hated him? Did he bless them that cursed him, and pray for them who despitefully used him? And when they smote him on the one check, did he turn the other, also? Did he do unto others as he would have others do unto him? Did he loan to every one that asked him, hoping for nothing again? When he taught to judge not! did he judge? Condemn not! did he condemn? Forgive! did he forgive? Did he cast the beam (if he had one) out of his own eye, that he might see clearly to pull the mote out of his brother’s eye? Did he forsake father, mother, brothers, and sisters, and all worldly relations with its goods and possessions? Did he crucify his carnal life? If so! Who are his followers ? —Pleasomt Hill, Ky. :—éj_+__.__.<. TIME. By Daniel Orcutt. _.0_ “Time and tide wait for no man.” We are constantly reminded of this truth, as we leave days, weeks, months and years behind. And, are we becoming better, as golden opportunities come and go? We are cer- tainly growing better or worse. PVM'te1', how stands the verdict regarding yourself? You must know, if you are true to your own conscience. Having lately crossed the line which separates 1872 from 1873, what is your ultimate aim for the present year? Your aims may be good. But good desires, without corresponding efforts, will not beneﬁt you. If you make earthly pleasure your ultimate aim, you will certainly fail of ﬁnding real happiness. “For what is earthly pleasure? ’Tis like the snow- ﬂake on the river. One moment there, then gone for ever.” The desire to be like the meek and lowly Saviour, unless that desire calls forth daily practical obedience, will not make you like him. If you would live with Jesus in heaven, you must live to Christ on earth. The time allotted you for heavenly discipline, and for holy living, like the current of a mighty river, is swiftly passing. Therefore, give earnest heed to the injunction, “Work while it is day.” For “to-day is gold, to- morrow is dust.” Resolve to be so pure in heart that you can “see God” in yourself; and act fully up to that purpose; then the work of redemption will have commenced. Will you make that resolve? The prudent mariner, when sailing in windy latitudes, sweeps the horizon with his glass, to ascer- tain if there are signs of a storm. As night approaches, he shortens sail, sets his watch, and keeps a good look-out. If prudence be necessary when applied to things of time, how much more so when applied to our reli- gious life here, and to the life which is to come? For the soul is of more importance than the body; and time is of less. impor- tance than eternity. “A prudent man fore- seeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.”—Enﬁeld, Conn. ASHAKERESS. AMERICAN SLAVERY. THE WOMANJS SUFFRAGE QUESTION--THE CASE OF SUSAN B. ANTHONY. .:o—. THE case of Susan B. Anthony, who was arres- ted on charge of illegally voting at Rochester, at the late presidential election, was before the United States District Court, Judge Hall presiding, at the city hall, yesterday. The court room was crowded with spectators, among whom were Miss Lydia Mott, Mrs. Jane Hoxsie, Miss Phoebe Jones, and other ladies. Judge Henry R. Selden, of the counsel for Miss Anthony, brieﬂy recited the facts that at the late presidential election, held in the 29th congressional district, Miss Anthony appeared before the registration board and was regis- tered, and at the election she appeared and cast her ballot, and it was received and counted the same as the others, and the cause and the sole cause of her arrest is, that she was a woman. If this proceeding is sanctioned, she will be punished simply because she is a woman. He asked her discharge because she had a constitutional right to offer her ballot and express her choice as to whom she desired for her rulers. The right of woman to vote is not an appropriate matter for con- sideration here. It is not claimed that, under the State constitution, Miss Anthony is entitled to vote; such authority can only be found in the laws of the United States. He cited the ﬁrst constitution and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments in support of his position. He held that the 14th amendment, although the fact might have been overlooked by its con- structor, gave to all citizens, whether men or women, the right to vote and hold office, and that therefore Miss Anthony, being a citizen under the constitution, in being taxed, etc., pos- sessed all the rights and privileges of a citizen, together with the political right to hold oﬂice and vote; and the constitution of the United States did not give to any State the right to restrict the right of suffrage. Mr. Selden’s argument was quite lengthy and exhaustive. Judge Hall said he was of the opinion that Miss Anthony had no right to vote, and de- cided to discharge the writ of habeas corpus, but denied the application for her discharge from custody, and allowed the case to go before the supreme court of the United States, where he understood, they desired carrying it.- Albany Empress. Susan B. Anthony is, or she is not, a human being. If she is a human being, she may do wrong, and may be punished for that wrong under laws which she had no part in forming, and by executive officials of those laws, whom she had no voice, or choice, or vote, in electing. Is that republicanism, or is it Church and State slavery not yet abolished? _._.j...__¢..;_j.j PENALTY vs- TRANSGRESSION. By Nicholas Briggs. —o— . BELIEVING that God is just, and that strict justice will be impartially awarded to all his creatures, we conﬁdently anticipate reward for faithful obedience to his known behests, and corresponding punishment for transgression. The law of penalty and the law of recom- pense are co-existent; a comfort to the virtu- ous; a terror to the vicious. They are inex- orable laws, governing our moral and spiritual as they govern our physical being. They do not well who ignore retribution for sin, or at least imply as much in their specious arguments ; and while we may respect the sin- cerity of their motives, we must condemn the sophistry and deplore its inﬂuence. Rogues and libertines ﬁnd eminent satisfac- tion in the idea that future punishment is a myth — an antiquated notion. We rejoice that ecclesiastical thunder no more terriﬁes the masses ; that the dogmatism 19 of fanatical religionists, and the arbitrary creeds of pseudo-reformers, no longer fetter the minds of intelligent men and women. We hail, with inﬁnite pleasure, the era of free thought and speech ; but every Christian, every true lover of mankind who desires to behold virtue as the acme of all aspiration, would have philosophy and science co-operate with religion in ameliorating the condition of our race. Inevitably we are social beings. Our desti- nies are as closely interwoven as the twigs of the climbing vine. Being virtuous ourselves we breathe purity on our brother and sister, who are therefore made better and happier for our existence. We illuminate the little world in which we move with a holy light that pierces the dark places, turning gloom and despair into beautiful hope and trust. Our conversation is elevating and soul—inspiring, and our daily life gives tone and color and health to society. But when men are low, and gross, and sen- sual, this inﬂuence is deadly poison, infectious and contagious ; a moral Upas, near which no good thing can thrive. Bad men draw down society to their own level, and ﬁendishly exult in defacing the image of God; but this exul- tation is succeeded by remorse for the suffer- ing and ruin they have caused, and despair at their own degradation. They have condign punishment, a veritable hell, grim and terri- ble. “ The present is hell, and the coming to- morrow adds new torture to the curse of to- day.” In further elucidation of our subject, we will present a little parable. A poor man receives notiﬁcation from a distant country that, by appearing in person within a speciﬁed time, he may become the possessor of sufficient wealth to render him comfortable for life. He succeeds in obtain- ing money with which to prosecute his jour- ney, and embarks with bright anticipations for the future. On the way, through cruel robbery, his little all is lost, and the delay thus occasioned is fatal to his bright hopes, for, by his non-ap- pearance the property passes into other hands. Formerly he had managed, by dint of indus- try and economy, to eke out a. comfortable subsistence; but now the disastrous disap- pointment proves too great for him, and he turns to intoxicating drinks to forget his sorrow. The robber, the author of all this trouble, is at last touched with remorse, and seeking his victim, tenders in full the amount of which he had despoiled him, penitently expressing sorrow and asking forgiveness. The injured man replies: “ Restore me wealth, which through you I lost — honor and position in society, which but for you I might now be enjoying. You are the cause of all my misery; restore me, therefore, to happi- ness, ere I forgive you.” The application and relevancy of this sup- posed case are apparent. If a man deviate from the straight road to Heaven’s Kingdom, he may, by carefully re- tracing every false step, regain the true path; and though he ﬁnd himself behind his for- mer comrades, and the loser of much valuable time, still the misfortune is conﬁned to him- self, and he has done no injury to other souls. But if he mislead a fellow-pilgrim, the case becomes more complex. He ﬁnds, after taking 20 observation and ascertaining his position on the chart of life, that he has not only hiimseif to restore to rectitude, but his brother also. His victim may have wandered into many by- paths——may have beco111e entangled in bogs and morasses; he must be sought, extricated, and toiled for until he is again restored to Heaven’s road. The penitent may have to work years, aye ages, to effect this ; but justice demands that he shall retrieve the results of his own conduct, dire as they may be. Is not our reasoning logical? Is not our conclusion reasonable? By simply tracing back effect to cause, and contrasting our orig- inal error with its logical result, injury, per- haps irreparable, to ourselves and other souls, have we not indeed a full penalty for trans- gression ? —— Canterbury. .m_+.m_._ THE PRESS. [Evening Register, Hudson.] _0__ “THE SHAKER AND SHAKEREss.” This is the title of an exceedingly neat quarto publi- cation, issued monthly by the Shaker Society at Mount Lebanon, and ably edited by Elder Frederick W. Evans. While it must be a powerful auxiliary to the Society in whose interests it is conducted, from the high tone of its general contents and the literary ability it displays, it cannot fail to be popular with a large class outside the Shaker community. We welcome it to our table. . METHODIST SERMON. —o—— “The .ﬁrst requisite with a little child is not to teach it the Lord's Prayer, or ask it, What is God? -— What is heaven, or hell? But teach it to take care of its health; teach it physiology ; teach it, as it can understand. simple facts in science. “ Just so with men and Women who tell me they are ready for heaven, and know exactly Grod’s in- tentions about the race. Why, they cannot tell you the difference between a cabbage and a goose ! They know about God, and don’t know one simple law of health! Ready for heaven, and so ignorant of themselves, they bring children into the world with not enough physical stamina to live! And why? Because, by debauchery and sin, they have entaliled on their children their own rottenness and wea ness. “ We must learn to raise children aright before we talk of religion. Religion, I insist, is last, not ﬁrst. We must learn all about this world before we study the next world. Better learn to boil potatoes than study theology. “ hy have we so many skeptics in the church ‘P Why do not our young men attend church? because they have been taught authority—— authority all their youth up, instead of being taught to rely on their own strength——to stand on their own two eet. “ First, that which is natural, said old Paul. He was right. First, know the laws governing your own bodies ——ﬁrst, know of this World : first, study science, and then build your religious faith on that science. “You cannot get science fromfthe Bible. The fath- ers of the church tried to do that, and a ﬂat world, with angels above the molten heavens, to drag the sun out of a pit in the morning, was Bible astron- omy. This is all wrong. We have begun at the wrong end. The true law is science first, and then religion.”~—Bann of Light. True science is Shaker theo1ogy.— Ed. __m_+.j_—:- CARD. :01 LEBANON SPRINGS, November 10. In the Banner of October 26th I regret to see the revival of an error which went the rounds of the press some months ago, and which, at the time, I denied by published cards. Please do me the jus- tice to state—- 1. As I regard the Shaker order as a testimony against “ the pollutions that are in the world through lust,” I have never desired their renuncia- tion of celibacy. 2. As I consider the greater part of their disci- pline as eminently protective of the celibate life, have never desired the abrogation of any rule that prohibits shaking hands and kissing. 3. As I View their societies as nuclei for some of the purest and most reﬁned of human souls, I deprecate their dissolution, unless that God shall build up for poor humanity some equally as good or better “ covert from the tempest.” Yours for truth, J. ROBE. SHAKER AND [From the Irish.) THE BLOOD. 30:. Six thousand years after his era began, The astonishing fact was discovered by man, That the blood in his body does not remain still, But rushes along like the race from a mill. Certain vessels called arteries, hidden within The body, conduct from the heart to the skin, While others called veins throughout every part Of the system conduct from the skin to the heart. The heart every instant gets ﬁll’d with new blood, Prepar’d as you’ll see, from the air and the food ; AI1(i_ this new blood is driven throughout the Whole rame, As from a force-pump by the force of the same. The blood in its passage leaves everywhere Some of what it has got from the food and the air, Which is all taken up, ere a moment be gone, To replenish the tissue, the fat and the bone. Throughout the whole structure——bone, muscle, ors in- Where the arteries end the veins begin, And changing its colour from red blood to black, The blood enters the veins and is so carried back. Whpln the old blood arrives by the veins at the eart, It is mixed and churned up in a chamber apart, With a thick milky ﬂuid, nutritious and good. Whi<131h tfhe (sltomach and bowels have drawn from t e oo . It is then driven off by a similar force To the lungs,where the air cells receive it, in course ; Where at every breath it takes up through the skin The material parts of the air within. Thus regenerate, vigorous, lusty and red, And once more forced back on its fountain head, To the artery chamber it rushes amain, And is ready to start upon service again. What we get from the air is equal in weight To what we derive from the food which we eat; But what we breathe out, I must tell you once more, Is of poisons the worst, as I told you before. In a much clearer light you now may perceive Whzltt it's hoped you’ll hold fast and devoutly be- iev That for health and enjoyment the very best fare Is the soundest of food and the purest of air. Then show that you value your blood and your skin, Remove every nuisance without or within ; Obey all the laws that are made to that end, And regard the inspector of health as your friend. If your house has a taint. employ in good time Either carbolic acid or chloride of lime; But of all disinfectants the earth is the best- Smells covered by earth are for ever at rest. With all these precautions don’t fear any harm, And yield to no panic or foolish alarm; When the enemy comes, be brave but prepared—— Survey your defenses and stand on your guard I ._ “ IT is not what we eat, but what we digest, that makes us fat; it is not what we read, but what we remember, that makes us learned; it is not what we earn, but what we save, that makes us rich.” m As the wild waves that ﬁercely contend in mid ocean touch gently the shore, and speak in the low, soft music of broken ripples, so will the heart, once tumultuous with passion, when brought under self-control, breathe holy love as it nears the promised land of rest. ..j:__ To love the unlovely, to sympathize with the contrary—minded, to give to the unchari- table, to forgive such as never pity, to be just to men who make iniquity a law, to pay their ceaseless {hate with never—ceasing love, is one of the noblest attainments of man, and in this he becomes most like GOd.——-THEODORE PARKER. ..j?_¢j.;——...... FAITH is not a light thought that sweeps across the brain to be condensed and fall in tears; it is not a mere emotion like the wind that rises powerfully, then dies into the still- ness of the air; neither is it like the light- ning’s ﬂash that gathers force to dissipate, and return from whence it came; nor the fra- grance of the ﬂower borne away by the pass- ing breeze, but it is a life germ planted in the soul; and by cultivation and growth it gains strength and lifts the heart to high and holy aims, and opens the vision to the beauties of a new angelic life. OUT WITH IT. HOW many kind thoughts die unborn; how many kind words are stiﬂed unspoken. Hearts hungry for a word of appreciation and praise, would leap for gladness if they knew the kindness that we feel toward them; but while they plod on in doubt and darkness, we stiﬂe kindly aspirations, and the cheering thought and sympathizing word dies within our hearts and makes no sign. Why need we be so reticent concerning things that are good? Most people are outspoken enough when angry and discontented. They ﬁnd fault boldly, with a relish ;x but words of praise are with them exceedingly few. It is true that he that ﬂattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet. We are to avoid ﬂattery and fulsome praise. But yet, when a glow of honest admiration or approval rises within our hearts, why not out with it, and let it gladden others as it cheers us‘? How happy families might be if every thought of thankfulness manifested itself in speech and action from day to day. How many a home, now dreary and uncomfortable, might be made joyous with light and sunshine, if we would not only rebuke with ﬁdelity, and reprove in love, but would also show i11 words and deeds our sense of gratitude and approval when we can honestly do so. —E;vch0mge. _.:_+___._ T0 SUBSCRIBERS. _0_ THOSE Wishing to subscribe for THE SHAKER AND SHAKEREss will please enclose ﬁfty cents, with their address very plainly written. Full name, town, county and State. We intend that the original music shall be worth the half dollar. -j-———}—m__ THE WASTE BASKET! --O-— THAT bug-bear of impecunious writers of news- paper articles, the receptacle of the effusions of many ambitious aspirants for cheap notoriety, to you, poor suffering humanity, is much indebted. Among newspaper and magazine writers of all descriptions and grades there is a continuous striving to excel in making all of theirarticles agreeable and readable. It is a positive necessity that their productions shall tickle the public taste. It is a matter of bread and butter to them. No editor in the world would think for an instant of publishing an ill-written article, no matter how great the truth advanced. Though he may treasure the idea, and, at a future time, produce it in a more acceptable form, still the original is ﬂung ignominiously into the Waste Basket. Disagree- able matters of news, police items, etc., are worked into as pleasant a shape as possible. It is the righteous fear of the Waste Basket, and the con- sequent diminution of the means of living, that brings matters of fact and fancy to us in a piquant, pithy form. By this same benefactor of mankind are we saved from the inﬂiction of numberless wretched love stories with the inevitable con- clusions. So ought we not to recognize in the Waste Basket, an institution proper of every sanctum editorial, the wholesome dread of which makes us brush up our memories for the almost forgotten rules of punctuation and rhetoric? Then long live the Waste Basket! and let us unite in keeping this appendage of the “Shaker and Shakeress” full to repletion. We shall ﬁnd on trial, that the more we Write, the better we Write. Write an article for every issue, for a year, and let them all be consigned to the Waste Basket; still, be not discouraged: for an idea in some one of them may suggest a train of thought to another mind, the expression of which may be fraught with value to mankind. I close with a promise and a wonder- ing; apromise to do the share of one at least in this direction, and a wondering as to the company amongst which this article will ﬁnd itself, when oonsigned to the “WasteBasket.” E. gaacsessx A. DOOLITTLE. EDITRESS. FREEDOM OF THOUGHT. _0_ IN days of yore we had so much veneration for our sires and grandsires, and such entire conﬁdence in their opinions, that we felt safety in thinking and believing much as they thought and believed. Occasionally an erratic indi- vidual would venture to strike out for him or herself an independent course of action; but such were sure, while striving to get the wheels of their car of progress out of the old ruts in which they had been accustomed to run, to feel the strong pressure of conserva- tive public opinion. This was grievous to bear. But times are gradually changing, and conservatism is yielding to the progressive tendencies of the age. All now claim the right to think and act freely for themselves, independent of the past. Human ideality of to-day is raising a higher standard of truth and right to gather around; for the present generation is reaping the beneﬁt of the ripest experiences of the most coherent thinkers and philosophers of former ages, which is of priceless worth; and may be proﬁtably used as auxiliaries to present superior attainments. The present is so closely allied to the past that, as seen in vision by the prophet Ezekiel, “The wings of the living creature,” which rolled forward the wheels of progress in the past, touch the wings of the living spirit which is at work in the same direction to-day. There is no break in the march of progression. “The living creatures ” of each dispensation move straight forward ; “ they turn not as they go.” We live in an analytic age. By the accel- erated action of the brain, ideas are increased, minds are expanded and go deeper into cause and effect than at any previous time; and reason, as a God-given power to humanity, asserts her right to the throne, in matters relating to the theological views and religious sentiments, as really and freely as in natural science. The civil polity protects all law- abiding citizens in the exercise of perfect liberty of conscience, and guards the rights of all persons, irrespective of nation or color, in their theology and religion. The American ﬂag, wherever seen, is an ensign of human freedom. As it ﬂoats in the breeze, it inspires hope and gives promise to all people of a glorious emancipation from bondage, civil and ecclesiastical. Under this banner have arisen the Shaker Societies, constituting the most unpopular body of professing Christians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Their radical testi- mony against all sinful indulgences, teaches that those who do not deny all sensual pleas- ures—all the lusts of the ﬂesh and mind —must suffer in their own bodies and souls the penalty of every violated law, irrespec- tive of the meritorious vicarious sufferings of Jesus of Nazareth. These Shakers, who, from deep religious conviction, subject themselves to stem self- discipline, are now beginning to be heard. SHAKERESS. Thousands who do not feel prepared to walk with them in full communion personally, who cannot say, “Not my will, but Thine O God be done,” and thus consecrate their all of person and property, do nevertheless rejoice in those who throw themselves into the burning crucible of spiritual and religious truth, that they may thereby become puriﬁed and reﬂect the image of the heavenly Reﬁner. They, too, will help uplift humanity to a state of moral rectitude on the earth plane. In blessing they will be blest by higher intelli- gences, and by progressive degrees will event- ually be led by the spirit of truth up to the plane of spiritual life, to unite with those who are forming the angelic character. Many of this class look hopefully on, and anxiously await the coming of our little “Monthly,” to learn if it is well with us, and to see if the star of hope is still brightly beaming over our pathway, which leads to the heavenly home, the “ city which hath founda- tions whose builder and maker is God.” Wliile in the present, as in the past, we realize that “struggle is the condition of vic- tory,” and that only “through conﬂict can de- liverance come,” we yet say, God be praised! Our “reward is with us,” and We feel that Heaven’s blessing rests upon our labors, and that truly “the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places.” j: REST. By Flortnda Sears. __0_ THERE is a rest for the people of God. In days gone by—those days of which we read in the New Testament when Jesus and the Apostles received the Christ, and by the power of the Father were commissioned to preach salvation -— brother Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, after wisely philosophizing on the subject, declared, “ There remaineth a rest for the people of God.” Learned divines have used this text, calling upon their hearers to believe on the man Jesus, and thus insure to themselves this promised rest. But, notwithstanding the darkness, the true light has dawned upon us and a star of hope is arising. Who, from a distance, or within the precincts of our home, will solve the problem, and divine how this rest which still remaineth for the people of God is to be entered? Brother Paul further says: “He that hath entered into that rest hath also ceased from his own works.” Thus it would appear we must become “ new crea- tures, new brothers, new sisters, new fathers, and new mothers; ” that is, spiritual or heav- enly beings, instead of continuing earthly and’ natural. Again, our New Testament brother rejoices, inasmuch as “ we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our inﬁrmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.” Why do we ﬂatter ourselves that the promised rest can be ob- tained in any other than a sinless condition? Then let all enlightened spiritual Christians “ come boldly to the throne of grace, that they may obtain mercy and the remission of sin, by confession, as did Jesus and Ann, by the confession of their faults, ere they received the anointing, or the Christ, which constituted them the saviours of the world. Those who thus enter the promised rest are God‘s people. To them the ﬁres of hell are quenched, and they fear no torment, no judg- ment to come; their lives being “ hid in Christ” with Jesus and Ann. They are the virgins who follow them whithersoever they go , for they are no longer of the number who 21 are “like the troubled sea, whose waters can- not rest.” VVe may therefore conclude that the people of God, in the highest sense, are those who really and practically live the nearest to Him, by letting the Adamic life pass away that they may become “ new creatures,” actuated by the Spirit of Christ, as the life of God in their souls. Such will feel no more sorrow nor sighing—the fruits of sin and wrong-doing. —Mt. Lebanon. :.—_:.¢..____—_. PURE IN HEART. By J osephtne Deming. __0_ JESUS said “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” See Him where and how? We behold His handiwork in the outward visible crea- tion. The sunbeam, and the tiny ﬂower —the grasses and fruits—-the trees with their lofty waving branches—and the murmuring rill, as well as the mighty surging ocean ——all bespeak a great producing cause. We admire the beauties of Nature, and through them adore the Wisdom that formed them, and the hand of Love that gave them as gifts to humanity. But there is a conscious- ness in our hearts, that a deeper sense of God is needed; that the outward senses, even if properly directed, cannot supply the inward cravings of the soul. We must draw nigh unto Him in spirit, and so thoroughly purify our hearts from all that is sinful and vain, that we can commune with heavenly Messengers, who are sent unto us from spirit spheres to quicken into more life, and produce in us more purity of heart, that we may have still clearer perceptions of God. This alone can satisfy the unutterable long- ings in the human soul, for the Heavenly Father’s blessing, and the love and tender care ofa Heavenly Mother. And when we receive this sweet inﬂuence, our hearts go out in love to our brother and sister in Christ, in whom the image of the Divine is found; and thus we see God in man and in woman, the crown- ing work of his hands, in a higher and more spiritual sense, than in any mere external thing. Purity is the basis of all true and enduring friendship. What is there in all of God’s creation so noble as Alan, when he stands uprightly, i showing forth the image in which he was created? And what being so lovely as Woman, when really pure in heart? Then why should we not see God in them, and rev- erence Him there? What can give greater happiness than to be loved and cherished by them, and to dwell in their presence and par- take of their heavenly inﬂuence? Blessed indeed are the pure in heart! They dispense light, love. and comfort to all around them; and I would gather to such, and learn to be like them—— beautiful in spirit—lowly in heart-— and free from all contamination of a worldly, selﬁsh life. — Whﬂewater, Ohio. -———+¢-—-—- RELIGION. By Alice Grey. :0? RELIGION is the only true basis of happiness. “Pure and undeﬁled religion,” outﬂowing from Wlisdom and Love, is soul—purifying and exalting. We may be intellectually wise, and may possess great scientiﬁc knowledge and be morally correct in our habits of life; but we cannot form perfect characters without religion. A mere profession, or belief in some theo- logical creed, will prove ineffectual, unless we live out the law of Love; and we shall be left in the cold, barren region of selﬁshness, toil- ing for, and feeding the animal part of our natures, instead of the higher spiritual facul- ties of our souls, which would lead us to con- demn error in our own lives, and to look chari- tably upon the faults of others. 22 True religion will teach us to be tender and compassionate; to be as ministering angels of love and mercy to the fallen and lowly, and to take them by the hand, and walk with them in the path of virtue. Thus shall We help to lift them up to better conditions, by practically showing the power of love, and the worth of that kind of religion, which will not allow us to stand with folded hands, and see a brother or sister in need or distress, and coldly say, “ Be ye warmed and clothed; ” neither in a Pharisaical manner boastingly say ——“ I thank God that my condi- tion is otherWise;” for “He knoweth the proud afar off.” Pride is incompatible with true Christian religion, which ﬁlls its subjects with humility and love.——Wh1'tewater, Ohio. -—————++——— IN the October, 1872, number of “ THE SHA- KER,” edited by Elder G. A. Lomas, was given a succinct account of a meeting which he at- tended in a pine grove in Canaan, at the “ Social Gathering,” of the three families of the novitiate order at Mt. Lebanon. He made mention of a conversation that took place at the time between six y.0ung sisters, which he thought worthy to appear in print. Some of our outside friends have since urged its publication; for they were anxious to see it. Though somewhat lengthy for our small paper, we have concluded to publish it. It was prepared by the sisters expressly for the occasion, and was repeated from memory. DIALOGUE. ——o—_ THE GOSPEL WORK-——-ITS PRESENT AND FUTURE INCREASE. MARGARET PA'1‘TER- CHARLOTTE BYRD- SON. SALL. ANN OFFORDD. MELISSA SOUL and MARTHA ANDERSON. MARGARET CLEVE- LAND. MARTHA.—— We hail this year, 1872, as the Twelfth Celebration of our Social Gathering, and as the centenary of the opening of the Gospel. In reviewing the past, from the ﬁrst stages of the work to the present time, we ﬁnd much that is interesting and instructive to the thoughtful and observing mind, and encouraging and hopeful to those whose aspira- tions are spiritually directed. I propose to trace the onward progress of a system which, though small in its beginning, embodied the germs of scientiﬁc, moral and spiritual knowledge, which, by culture and growth, would become widespread —a revela- tion of truth that was and is destined to shake the foundations of the old heavens and earth, and bring to perfection a plan of true har- monial development for humanity. We who are in the enjoyment of the good that has been accumulated and conserved by the consecrated lives of those who were pio- neers in the cause, with their faithful succes- sors, can testify to the permanency and valid- ity of those principles which constitute a solid basis for a life in which the nobler faculties and God-like attributes of mind and soul can be unfolded, and, through the inﬂuences of increasing truth, rise to the altitudes of heav- enly perfection which the Creator designed all intelligent progressive beings should oc- cupy. MARGARET P.— Are you not mistaken in this being the centennial year? I thought it was not until eighteen hundred and seventy- four. ' MARTHA.-—— I referred to the revelation in SHAKER AND England, not to the actual occurrence in America. Am I not right in the assertion? ANN.— You are. Motlter Ann (Lee) received a baptism from the Christ sphere in seventeen hundred and seventy, when conﬁned in prison, on account of her advanced religious ideas. During her imprisonment she had a clear con- ception of the loss of mankind, and of the only means that would resurrect them into a higher life. For the space of two years, and amid great persecution, she openly bore her testimony against a generative life for Chris- tians; then she received a revelation of the work in America; and in seventeen hundred and seventy-four, by the aid of Divine power, she, with her little band of eight souls, was enabled to leave the shores of the eastern con- tinent, and through the guidance of the spirit of truth, was led to this land of freedom Where liberty of conscience is enjoyed. “ For liberty is the soul’s right to breathe, and, where it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight.” CHAR.— What you have said is in accord- ance with our record. While listening to Mar. tha’s expressed thoughts a desire for the in- crease and spread of this pure Gospel was stirred anew within my heart. With her I would turn and return the pages of this celes- tial work, and bring to open reﬂective view the increased outgrowth of Mother’s pure Gospel. We should be immortal teachers to mortals, developing to external and internal glory, that nature whereon is enstamped the seal of God. MEL.— We will note the progress of this Church, and, as we traverse the recesses of truth, strive to let the blinding scales fall from spirit eye-sight, that all who see and hear may be ediﬁed and encouraged in the upbuilding and sustaining of a cause, noble in its purpose, reﬁning in its character, and angelic and eter- nal in its life. MAR. C.—— What need was there of a Second appearing of Christ, when Jesus brought forth and promulgated a system of truth which alone was suﬂicient for human redemption? MAR. P.— How could he, without the aid of the Mother Spirit, bring forth a perfect sys- tem of truth that would redeem the race ‘I ANN.—— He could not. He did not commu- nicate all the truth that was revealed to him, and which governed His own life; surround- ing conditions would not admit of it. He said to even his nearest companions, “ l have many things to tell you, but ye are not able to bear them now ; when lam gone hence I will send the Comforter,” etc., which was undoubtedly the Mother Spirit, the esse of love. MEL.— Do we understand that the Christ is a direct unction from the Supreme, or from the highest order of spirits, who stand as media- torial agents for the revelation of those exalted truths which will uplift souls from the genera- tive life into the angelic and divine? CHAR.— The Christ baptism came from the highest order of spirits, who are as Saviours, ‘ lights to other worlds, sons and daughters of the seventh sphere, or Heaven; the only redemptive agents and mediators between supreme goodness and souls in this and in other worlds. MAR. C.— By other worlds, do you mean planets? It is true that scientiﬁc discovery has led to the conclusion that they are com- posed of material substances similar to this earth, and are inhabited by mortal beings who are adapted to their varied climates. Sir Wil- liam Herschel said, “ It would be no more foolish for a man to build twenty houses and only have one inhabited, than it would have been for the Creator to frame myriads of worlds similar to this (and in many respects excelling it), and then have only this one lit- tle dusty ball peopled with rational, intelli- gent beings ‘.?” But, do you suppose they are fallen and need redemption’s work, as we all admit the inhabitants of this world do? CHAR.-— By other worlds, I mean the six successive spheres or worlds, preceding the seventh, and also the planets, the inhabitants of which, whether fallen or unfallen, need the inﬂuence of the same spiritual agencies to unfold in them (as natural beings), the seed buds of eternal life. As was once remarked with inspired power, “ Mankind, whether fallen or unfallen, need the mighty power of God to resurrect them from the natural into the spiritual.” MARTHA.-— It is a broad and liberal system of theology that admits such universal dissemi- nation. A grand and lofty thought, the acme of which is the converging of all souls to one harmonious Center — Eternal Wisdom and love, the Creative Source of the universe of mind and matter. MAR. P.— Christ signiﬁes anointing. It was this Anointing Spirit that inspired the Wit- nesses of former days when they prophesied of the millennium, and uttered many truths in advance of the knowledge and life of the peo- ple. The divine unction has also rested upon the successors of Mother Ann, spiritually quali- fying them (in the order of leadership), to ad- minister the Gospel in its power, and increase to other souls. ANN. — Ancient philosophy taught that there was but “ one God, the Father of all ;” and its numerous deities were intermediate spirits employed as agents, for God was too pure to be approached by mortals. This ancient religion or theology is identical with ours, and We may consider all religions as merely progressive steps, by which the human understanding has developed itself in every time and place, and will continue to develop itself in the future. MEL.— May we not conclude that the evi- dent design of the “second appearing” was to reveal the female in Christ‘? Its intent also was progress, as prophesied by Isaiah: “To the order and beauty of Christ’s king- dom, in the latter day, there would be no end." MAR. C.—Eternal progress! beautiful thought. No popish or protestant creed, or thwarting priestly power could check its course ; but pure and simple in its unfoldings, it guided Mother and her little band to this land of freedom, to establish a Church that was too universal in its religious sentiments to ﬁnd continued existence under the com- bined Church-and-State government of Eng- land. MARTHA.—- Then we believe that the Shaker Order holds a closer union to, and more abid- ing relations with, the American government, than does any other organized church to its government ‘.7 CHAR.— We do. The effect of the American revolution was the institution of a republi- can form of government, which entitled all to an equal right in political and religious belief. Thus America became the land of free thought and free speech, as J. M. Peebles writes: “A land where the people, conscious of their God-given rights, and cringing before no cowled priests, feel themselves ‘ sover- eigns.”’ This prepared the way for the or- ganization of the Shaker Church (in America) where the unadulterated principles of Christi- anity were recognized and wrought out in the daily lives of its members. Hence the product of this Repiiblican Government was the estab- lishment of a spiritual government, moving in a corresponding line with the regulations of the civil polity, yet exceeding it in purity and holiness, although the interior order will be dependent for its increase of members upon the outward order. ‘ The progressive advance of religious ideas, - the rising wave’ of spiritual thought, and the wide diffusion of the holy teachings, and prin- ciples evolved by wisdom in the civil govern- ment, are the fruits of this union. And, as far as republican principles are diffused and acknowledged, so far will the abstract prin- ciples of true Christianity be extended, until all shall see and own their truth and validity. The growth of freedom and progressive rights which belong to humanity are embodied in both. N o sectarian creed, or fearful priestly symbol harass the soul, or make it a subject of terror by arbitrary laws; but true liberty is ensured to all who nobly and uprightly maintain the just principles upon which these two institutions are founded. Thus we see the civil and religious govern- ments advancing toward a genuine union ; and the Christian Church, established upon a true foundation, will be blessed and protected by the civil government, and they will co—op- erate and work harmoniously together, while the superior law in the spiritual order will be as a guide to the earthly order ; and both standing in relation to true principles, will toil in harmony with God’s creation, in the cultivation of the soil, and the hills and dales will unite with those who work the work of God. MAR. P.—— You have clearly portrayed the relation that will exist in the future between the civil and religious governments, when woman shall not be excluded from her right to aid in purifying and sustaining the consti- tution and laws of the natural order (which right is fully awarded her in the spiritual order). As this should precede and be as a light outside, we know the day will yet dawn when 'woman’s voice and inﬂuence will be blest by the Republic, even as it is in the Temple of Christ’s second appearing. ANN.— That will be a glorious day, Marga- ret; but you are rather fast ; you are foretelling the joys of the future. Let us go back to the past, and from that rise to the present, then to the future, as was our intention in this con- versation. MAR. C.—— Was Mother's testimony a new revelation, or was it a revival of the princi- ples of the Primitive Church, with an increase of spiritual life and power? MEL.—- The principles of truth vary in power and strength, according to the growth of mind, and Mother's testimony, with increased revelation, was a revival of the same princi- ples. Thus, the standard of truth was raised higher, with an increase of self-denial. MAR'I‘HA.——— Great and truthful principles have outlived generations, traditions and cor- ruptions, and have descended to us in the trans- cendent light of their heavenly origin. “ All good cometh from God, the source of light and SHAKERESS. perfection.” Important and elevating truths, manifested through chosen mediums and wit- nesses (and designed for l1umanity’s good) through past periods, have often been miscon- strued, and seemingly perverted, by coming in contact with those corrupt inﬂuences which result from man’s lost condition, and, through his inability to perceive, or unwillingness to accept and apply them practically, they have, for a time, been turned from a free and effec- tive course. “ But truth, although crushed to earth shall rise again ;” and, however deeply it may be buried in the debris of error, it shall be brought forth by the agency of that Almighty power, which overrules all things, to shine untarnished in the lustre of its divine light. MAR. P.—— We must not overlook the fact, that in the formation and regulation of the Church, much suﬁering was endured. Souls consecrated to truth freely gave their lives for those who should succeed them in future generations. We who are now in a greater fullness of gospel blessings do not compre- hend or realize the depths of sorrow which often overwhelmed their spirits. MAR. C. —And in this our day, many, not appreciating that fullness of blessing, would conceive the idea of great personal disadvan- tages and trial. This feeling arises from a lack of consecration and devotion to gospel communistic interests. We possess much greater strength with which to bear life’s need- ful burdens, and carry forward a noble and glorious spiritual work, than when, in Mother’s time, only eight souls were with her to sus- tain and minister the truth. We are surrounded with gospel relations, and number eighteen established societies (and bright spots they form in this broad free land of America), and, if there were in each society but one individual, true and faithful to gospel principles, would there not be more mediums for imparting the strength of virtue and the worth of goodness, than in Mother’s time ‘B (To be continued.) ._..___.+_._____. TO THE EDITRESS. By Emma Jane Neal. THERE is a line of deni)arcation between those who live a worldly life, and the practical believer in Christ. One of the apostles said, “ If ye be risen with Christ, set your affections on things above, for ye are dead (to the world), and your life is hid with Christ in God.” It seems diﬂicult for persons outside of a Shaker community to see and comprehend the source of our supplies; therefore they cannot believe that within the precincts of our home there is aught but monotony, a dull round of duties ; and they do not see how the great and growing desire for change, and what is called pleasure, can be satisﬁed, especially in those who are full of young life. ,, We are two-fold beings—have outward senses of hearing, seeing, etc., with which we hear and see external things, which, if not abused, are a blessing to us in our earth life. We also have spiritual organs corresponding to the natural. If We use the external to the exclu- sion of the internal, then all our enjoyment must be derived from the sensuous ; but if the spiritual senses are developed, and we learn to commune with angels, and with them climb the immortal hills of truth, and roam in the ever-verdant ﬁelds where we can cull ﬂowers 23 that will not fade, and gather heavenly fruit that is sweet to the taste, then we feel joy of enduring worth, and pleasure that will never die. If we ﬁll the Christian character, we shall neither joy nor sorrow as do those who live a worldly life ; but I am an admirer of the beau- tiful in nature, from which we may take use- ful lessons ; and I think an occasional change of air and scenery is conducive to physical health; yet we do not ﬁnd comforts or pleas- ures abroad that equal those of our own home and its surroundings. I recently took a trip into a north-western county of New York State, and I send to you a few lines which I penned on that occasion. Do with them as you think proper. Our jour- ney was performed partly by rail and coach, and partly by beat down the winding stream known as the Sacandaga. The scenery was wild, but varied and beautiful. Our little bark lay tethered to the shore, Which soon would bear us down the winding stream, Mid scenes beyond the skill of man to paint. Earth’s verdant carpet now we tread with care Unto the water’s brink. All things arranged, the signal given, we move. A thrill of mingled joy and fear pervades The mind, as o’er the laughing stream we glide But soon our trusting hearts the nerve relieves As in our worthy pilot we conﬁde, And, giving up our minds to nature’s gaze, Sweet inspiration ﬁlls the quickened tho’t With themes sublime from her vast book of lore. O erring man, puﬁ’d up with vain conceit Of thy superior worth, take lessons From the wild-wood’s beauty ; rare, sublime, it Breathes perpetual praise, an offering free, A grateful recompense for gifts bestowed, Outvying all thy feeble skill can give. The massive heights o’er which the wild deer bounds, Stand forth as monuments of silent praise, Save when the huntsman’s gun doth echo there, Or cry of wild beasts rend the nightly air; These, these alone thy sacred precincts mar. 0 nature fair ! enchanted with thy views, Thy broad expanse where meekly thou dost weave, In solemn stillness, rarest patterns pure, Of taste exquisite, wrought by skillful art, Without a boast of thy achievements great. The Author of thy gifts my soul adores. And, like the wild bird in thy temple pure, On freedom’s pinions let my soul take ﬂight, Far from the haunts of man’s ambition vain, There my small tribute offer at thy shrine - Unsoiled by vice which often treads the aisles Of sacred temples rear’d by human art, And from thy teachings learn henceforth to act In life’s great drama with untiring zeal, Not for ambition’s weak and worthless prize, But, like Thee, offering simple, pure and free, God—given powers to bless humanity. Thus, while we’re waited on thy bosom calm, Thou placid stream, winding ’mid verdure fair Through smiling ﬁelds and circling lofty mounts, Let these sweet hours their hallowed impress make Upon my life when cares and toils surround. In true reﬂection may I oft recall, And drink from memory’s spring the same sweet bliss Which ﬁlls my soul with tranquil thoughts of Heaven. —-Mt. Lebanon. 24: SHAKER AND SHAKERESS. Andante. GENTLE DEEDS. M1‘. LEBANON, N. Y. _ n _J “r.-’i . . I . I . I I I I J II j 'e I 4 I_ 5 I J l J—"J . . I J 5 I c L; = ¢ 4' ' -0 -o-' It -v- ' ' -0- 1 1 ]. Gen - tie deeds are ev - er form - ing Ver - dant spots with - in each heart; Whence shall spring the plants of vir - tue, Flow’rs that in - cense sweet im - part; 2. It is ours to be pro- gress-ing, And to toil with ar-dent thought, That our lives may mer - it bless-ing, And with ho - Ii - ness be fraught. 3. 0, it is a bless - ed h a- veu, Where no blight - ed pow’rs re-main; Where un - ho — ly strife is ban - ish’d, And pure love our souls en-chain. _ I I 3 D I7 It It 2 Iv I 5 9-4 Ir 05 L J[ -i_ 1'1-:04 1L D LWI imnlﬁ in 1 L I . I v Z WW I’ 4 3- ,.- 4 3 I - "F-+ i I" ' "~4°"" ‘— ' T I/ I I F ‘ I F I I I V I . I A ' J J . It 4 : - I V _ u _ —O—O—l—J ‘ -0 Such shall wa-ken thoughts most ho-ly; Bring to life some germ of love; Cause as - pir - ings true and last - ing, For the powers that lift a - bove. Morn shall 0 - pe with new de-sires; Eve-ning shall their strength increase; While the an - gels ﬁnd our spir - its Rest-ing in the realms of peace. Here in u - men we are leav- ing All the glit’ -ring dust of earth; Seek - ing on - ly the im - mor-tal, Which will give us an - gel birth. '.".*t.*' 2+- I" ttt.+.+++' (\-1-,1 L'‘' 111 1 gIL ' TI in 3:.‘ IL L L”“IILiL _[ ° . ——I— '1 c }2L—T ' P I, I, I— 1,1 ~ . . . . . . . . ‘ 1 - . ‘IF I I . 1' I A .. . ‘ r V I I I I I I I I I I i? 7 I F I I I I I I I l V I’ I THE SPIRIT I COVET. By Amelia Calver. _o__ Praying spirit of my Savior, In my heart 0, ﬁnd a place ; Help me, when the night is darkest, When upon the desert waste. When the day seems drear and cloudy, And sweet hope her powers resign, Blessed Savior, be thou near me; Prayerfal spirit, be thou mine. Peaceful spirit of my Savior, Canst thou ﬁnd a place with me? Give me power to calm the tempest, While upon Time’s billowy sea. I would have my words and actions Bend subservient to thy will ; That, should wrath my bosom enter, I can whisper “ Peace, be still.” Steadfast spirit of my Savior, Let me feel thy scepter’s sway, Then like thee, I’ll tread with ﬁrmness Duty’s path, in trial’s day. Like thee, I will stand unyielding To the lurking charms of ease ; Over self will reign triumphant, Seeking God alone to please. Fm'gIJve'ng spirit of my Savior, Take possession of my heart; When offenses grieve my spirit, Wilt thou then thy balm impart? Aid me to recall thy sorrows On the cruciﬁxion day, When in sweet and tender accents, “ Forgive them Father,” thou did’st pray. Loving spirit of my Savior, Let me in thy fountains bathe, Ready to renounce all pleasure Which a selﬁsh heart would crave. With thy inﬂuence for my guardian, I can for all others care ; Joy with them when joy aboundeth, Likewise of their sorrows share. Healing spirit of my Savior, 0 could I possess thy power, Gladly every pain I’d banish, Frail humanity restore. Tho’ I fail to heal the body, May I not the spirit soothe? Touch the wounded broken spirit, Healing with the tones of love? Blessed Savior, thy example E ’er shall be my “ Polar star,” Guiding, though ’mid trackless waters, Pointing on to realms afar. Prayerfal, Peaceful, Steadfast, Healing, Loving and Forgt'vt'ng ever, Blessed spirit of my Savior, O, I pray thee, leave me never. Mt. Lebanon. mm LINES ADDRESSED TO ELDER DANIEL HAWKINS, A SHORT TIME BEFORE HIS DEMISE. __o_ By Hannah R. Agnew. _o_ Thou worthy disciple, time’s journey is ended, Repair to thy treasure above; Bright angels are waiting in triumph to meet Y0“, VVith songs of rejoicing and love. With patience and zeal, you toiled in the vine- yard Of Him, who will justly reward; In health and in sickness, in joy and in sorrow, Devoted your all to the Lord. The rising and falling of many in Israel, You witnessed, and ﬁrmly you stood; ’Mid rough, beating surge, like a rock in the ocean, You braved the tempestuous ﬂood. In times of aﬁliction,the Lord has been mindful, His angels to guard you he sent; His hand was not shortened, his ear was not heavy, When humbly in prayer you have bent. Now hear the glad sound of “ Well done faith- ful servant,” Rejoice With your Savior and Lord; His cross you have borne, and His yoke you have taken; Receive your most glorious reward. Go meet the dear friends, who have toiled for the gospel, And suffered on earth with you here; Go rest where the wicked shall never more trouble, Nor sorrow’s dark shadow appear. Your crown is prepared, and your mansion is ready, Bright angels invite you along; Go join in the choir, and sing the sweet chorus Rejoice with the puriﬁed throng. 0, grant a free blessing to those you are leav- ing, Give love that will banish their tears ; Exhort all to trust in the Lord, and remember The prayer of the righteous He hears. And now, fare you well, loving father and brother, With full length of days you are blest; Like a well-ripened sheaf that’s prepared for the garner, So you are prepared for your rest. Mt. Lebanon. ..._.:+.._..__ SUSAN B. ANTHONY BEFORE THE CON- STITUTIONAL CONVENTION. ——o— BY permission of the Constitutional Con- vention, Susan B. Anthony appeared before that body, and delivered a forcible and earnest plea in behalf of female suffrage, in which she requested the Convention, in making their report, to suggest that the objection- able word male be stricken out of the State laws, so that women may enjoy that liberty which is their right, for, said Susan Anthony, it is just as certain that ultimately the fran- chise will be accorded women as that it has been granted to the negro; and by your hon- orable body assisting us now you will be simply performing a duty that, in the event of your failing, will be granted by your suc- cessors, and to them will be given the honor. :_—j+—jj- WHAT You CAN NEVER CATCH. —— Boys and girls, what is it that you can never catch, though you chase after it on the wings of the Wind ? You can never catch the word that has once gone out of your lips. Once spoken it is out of your reach; do your best, you can never recall it. Therefore take care of what you say. Never speak an unkind word, an impure word, a lying word, a profane word.
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ss0303
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 03, no. 04 (April 1873)
Publisher: United Society
Date: 1873-04-01
Place published: Mt. Lebanon (N.Y.)
Text: Vol. III. M®NTHLYo PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED SOCIETY. No. 4. O F. W. EVANS . FIFTY CENTS EDITOR ’ Mt. Lebanon, Col. 00. N. Y. April, 1873. mm ,_NNUM_ ME])[AT()RS_ Like some of the lower animals, humanity pervades the race; and also more or less _o_ in a Revolution, or in a Dispensation, can re- of the particular system of theology into Dons the central man, or woman, create Re- volutions in the Natural Order? and Dis- pensations and Epochs in the Spiritual?- Or, do the Revolutions bring forth their own heroes, and the Dispensations (under law) evolve their own Saviors? At those momentous periods of the world’s history, when there occurs a new Epoch, the earth becomes vitalized and impregnated by an inﬂux from the Parental Fountain, de- seending through Mediatorial Spheres, and directed by a. Spiritual Intelligence, who is God to earth during that time. A corresponding human being is in the new movement, and has to bear the judgment of the decreasing dark- ness, and of the increasing l...
Show moreVol. III. M®NTHLYo PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED SOCIETY. No. 4. O F. W. EVANS . FIFTY CENTS EDITOR ’ Mt. Lebanon, Col. 00. N. Y. April, 1873. mm ,_NNUM_ ME])[AT()RS_ Like some of the lower animals, humanity pervades the race; and also more or less _o_ in a Revolution, or in a Dispensation, can re- of the particular system of theology into Dons the central man, or woman, create Re- volutions in the Natural Order? and Dis- pensations and Epochs in the Spiritual?- Or, do the Revolutions bring forth their own heroes, and the Dispensations (under law) evolve their own Saviors? At those momentous periods of the world’s history, when there occurs a new Epoch, the earth becomes vitalized and impregnated by an inﬂux from the Parental Fountain, de- seending through Mediatorial Spheres, and directed by a. Spiritual Intelligence, who is God to earth during that time. A corresponding human being is in the new movement, and has to bear the judgment of the decreasing dark- ness, and of the increasing light. In humanity, there is an inherent-tendency to deify both the ruling Intelligence and the governing man or woman. Even in this our day, there are many thousands——-yea mil- lions—who thus deify the Spirit who, with such mighty power and wonderful manifesta- tions, brought up Israel out of Egypt. And, to them, the “God of the Hebrews” is the God of all Gods. And skeptics, like Hume or Paine, deride, if they do not blaspheme, through this theological error. Again. If the central man (or woman)- the anointed Lead in the new Era—- himself created the whole movement of human and spiritual forces, their failure, as free agents, to obey the Spirit, who “rides the whirlwind and directs the storm,” would neutralize and deaden the progressive forces, so that nothing would be accomplished. Then the Divine design would be frustrated, and thousands who would have been blessed by the new Deiﬁc Inﬂux —yea, all the inhabitants of earth —would have suffered irreparable loss, through the instrumentality of one insigni- ﬁcant individual. “In Adam's fall, we sinned all,” expresses the idea, and, were it true, it would have been better if he had not sinned at all. As Esdras exclaimed, “O Adam, what hast thou done? Thou hast not fallen alone, but all we which be come of thee I ” In the case of Noah, Abram, Moses, Jesus, ~ Ann, each one of whom could have been, and w$ tempted, and consequently might have fallen—-«yielded. For a “man (or woman) is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts, and enticed” to indulge therein. Had either one or all of these suc- cumbed to the drawings of their inferior pas- sions, would there, in such case, have been no Shepherd, or Shepherdess—no Leader- would all have been lost? By no means! produce a lost member, and even restore a missing head. When, with any portion of earth’s inhabit- ants, it is harvest time — when the fruit and seed are ripe—there is not one only, but a crop, so to speak—a class of souls who are identiﬁed with the principles, and baptized by and into the very spirit of the “times and seasons.” God is in them individually of a truth. And, under a law, which never fails, the real object and design of the Ruling Spirit —-the God of the Epoch —is invariably accomplished. How be it, as with Noah and his ship-mates, it may be in only eight souls. ‘But those eight men and women were as fully competent to the task of repeopling the earth as were the ﬁrst two, or as would have been eight millions. Out of an “army of the Lord,” who had been to John confessing their sins, and renew- ing their covenant with God and each other, to thenceforth obey the physiological laws of Moses, Jesus and his Apostles were but thirteen in number, chosen from the midst of “their fellows,” and were “men to be won- dered at " by the sense-indulging, disorderly Gentiles around them, who ate any or every thing, and came together as no “brute beasts” ever do. i ‘ Now, had either of these been disobedient to his “heavenly vision,” the holy Ruling Spirit would have elected another to “take his bishopric.” As it is always thus, “the Lord alone should be exalted," and not the person of the “Anointed” deiﬁed. No man, or woman, should be worshiped; it “ﬁlls the land with idolatry” and adolators. Those who “worship the creature ” -— Jesus-— more than the Creator,” and instead of Him, do as “greatly err” as would the Shakers were they to worship Ann Lee. “I saw an Angel ﬂy in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell upon the earth; and he cried, with a loud voice, saying, “Fear God, and give glory unto Him; for the hour of his judgment” —the day of judg- ment— “has come.” This Angel succeeded the Angel of Spiritualism, who “came down from heaven, having great power, and the earth,”—all who dwell upon the earth—- “ was enlightened with his glory.” As individuals gather, one by one, “from the East, and from the ‘Vest, and from the North, and from the South,” each one will bring in with him and her a portion of the One Spirit of Good——of Religion—which which they may have been indoctrinated: as the Jew, or Mohammedan, the Hindoo, or Christian (so called), or any one from either of the various sects of these great divi- sions, which constitute “the old heavens,” which must be supplanted by the “new heavens.” There being in all a tendency to idolatry, tender, conscientious souls, under this in- ﬁrmity possessing more religious zeal than theological knowledge, must be gently led by the hand, drawn by the cords of love, and by the inﬂuence of true religion, out of false theology. A true and good life will ultimately create a true theology. Theoretically, all believe in the progression of themselves, and of their system; but prac- tically, when it comes, they will be nearly unanimous in a determined opposition thereto. As the past history of our race has its ancient records; so its future history has been recorded by men and women “who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Christ Spirits ” (who, themselves, are existing in a perfect social state), who inspired them to portray and describe scenes in which they would be the chief though invisible actors. It is thus that the “testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” That is, the spirit of the Prophets is incarnated—externalized upon our earth— in human beings who, indi- vidually and collectively, are living out the principles of the coming Millennium. “ Of the increase and going forth” of this testimony “there will be no end,” or cessa- tion, until “ the kingdoms of this world be- come the kingdoms of our God, and of his Christ,” and all things upon this earth shall have become the reﬂex of the inner heavens, or spheres. “ See that thou make all things according to the Pattern showed thee in the Mount.” God is in the beginning, and man in the ending, of all “the times and seasons” of the progression of the race towards its ﬁnal des- tiny—a perfect Natural Order, and a pure Spiritual Order, distinct, yet co-existent- the true relation of Church and State. The elements in this work of judgment evolved a Woman as its centre of inﬂuence, and Leader. And around her has gathered a body of men and women who constitute the Church of Christ’s Second Appearing, whose foundational or basic principles are : Faith in a Dual God, as the Source of all Divine reve- lation, through Prophets and Prophetesses in all times, and amongst all peoples; a Recog- 26 nition of Spiritualism, as the “ waters of the great deep, in which can ﬂoat the Ark of Or- ganization. Its main timbers are, Celibacy, Community, Peace — the Gentile Pentecostal Christian Church. Illiis Church has been, is, and will continue to be the Medium of transmission, to the Natural Order, of the inherent and inalien- able right of every human being to all the ele- ments of existence, deﬁned and administered in the fear of God, by Rulers of both sexes— like Moses and Miriam (or Deborah) —as simple representatives and obedient servants of the whole population, male and female. Use, not pleasure, is the unchangeable law. Each to live for all, and all for each. Fox and‘ Swedenborg were fore—runners—“Wit- riesses” : Fox in the Religious element; Swed- enborg in the Spiritual. CHRISTMAS MUSINGS. —o— (E. My1~tck.) VVHAT do we commemorate, the birth, the life or the death of Him who came to do the will of Him that sent Him? His birth was but a preamble, and his death but a supple- .ment—the ﬂy-leaves to the record of a divine, unselﬁsh and heroic character. Let the service of the day be a renewed dedication and aspiration to a more faultless ﬁdelity to purity, truth and humanity-that we may “ grow in favor with God and man;” and that every conviction of right may ﬁnd a response in duty done. His gifts were patent to all the world. “Forbid them not to cast out de ils in my name.” To him it was better tl. an the ap- plause of men. “And inasmuch {as you have done a kind act to the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” He planted the good seed in the heart, the seat of life, where, by cultivation, it would absorb the whole being. He trained the philosophi- cal and emotional to attain higher human hap- piness than either alone could ever reach. He recognized an immortal relationship as superior to the Adamic, selﬁsh blood relation, which is severed by death. Through his mediumship, Jesus poured light into the world. And to-day we rejoice, not so much in the birth of a good man, nor in the attainment of salvation alone; butin that invaluable (though not infallible) light of progress, elevation, and spiritual reﬁnement, that shines in a life of Christian, virgin purity. In his life we have a pattern of digniﬁed meekness, sublime courage and blameless integrity; reverencing all times and all places, as they are hallowed by holy work. “ He liveth long who liveth well, All else is time but ﬂung away; He llveth longest, who can tell Most true things, truly done each day.” If we would claim a true relation to our Elder Brother, “the ﬁrst born,” we must become as “lambs slain,” (the animal life extinct); and yet, while we live on the earth, we may also reign over the earthly, generative, selﬁsh nature; banish alike pov- erty and riches; testify against disease, mur- ders, and all forms of our perverted natural powers. “Ye are the salt of the earth,” who would not “destroy life, but save it.” Moses enjoined the strict observance of the law of nature for the generative “child- ren of this world,” which would insure healthy offspring, that, preserving physical soundness, they might live, and be, and do good, and not kill one another. To balance this despicable, though popu- lar check on over-replenishing the earth, Jesus introduced a rational and philosophical check. the out-growth of the generative, by the virgin regenerative life; an innate and natural sequence of the physical, moral, and SHAKER AND intellectual, so beautifully characterized by the four living creatures (Rev. 4th, 6th, 7th,) which were “in the midst of and round about the throne, full of eyes before and behind.” “ The fourth was like a flying eagle,” mov- ing in the highest ethereal elen1ent——could bear the direct rays of the sun, and revolted at decaying bodies, a most ﬁtting symbol of man’s spiritual nature. If we would respect this Christian record, we must remember the character and attitude of the “FLYING eagle.” ._j..+.j__- GOOD RESOLUTIONS. —0-—- (Daniel Oﬁ'°O’rd.) MAKE good resolutions, and carry them out. They help the growth of virtue in the soul, and are as gentle breezes, or rays of sun- shine, or as showers that often fall upon ten- der plants. Some persons make good resolutions, but who, not attaining to perfection at once, become discouraged, and think it is of no use to keep making resolutions which are likely to be broken, and that it is only telling false- hoods, and does no good. This is all a delu- sion. Shall we, because one gentle breeze, or one ray of sunshine, or one single shower, does not produce a crop, say, It does no good? No one would be so foolish. So, because one resolution fails to bring us into the possession of any particular virtue, shall we therefore cease to strive? Nay! “God looks at the heart” and the intent of the soul, therefore let us make good resolutions, and keep them; and then renew, and keep renewing, till we attain to that to which we aspire .——Mt.Lebanon. @- CITY SET ON A HILL. PART II. ——o—- (A. B. Bradford.) 4. THEIR COMMUNITY IDEAS. The Shakers are one of the few Societies that have success- fully adopted the Essenean and Apostolic plan of a community of goods. The Mount Lebanon Society own seven thousand acres of land, on which has been bestowed‘ a vast amount of labor, and on which are immense buildings of the most expensive and perma- nent kind, and all in the most perfect state of repair. Miles upon miles of stone fence have been built, and, as the Shakers do every thing honestly and religiously, these landmarks, like the old cathedrals of Europe, will be as good as new when hundreds of generations shall have passed away. They have immense wealth in manufactories, and the preparation of herbs and garden seeds for sale; and their productions of all kinds command the market, because implicit conﬁdence can be put in the goodness of the articles they offer. Yet no man among Believers calls aught of all this wealth his own, but they have all things in common. By a division of labor and by the principle of co-operation, a small amount of daily toil by each person secures a vast aggregate of wealth. Yet they are not a money-making community. That is to say, the accumulation of wealth and an extensive business is neither the primary nor the secondary object of their Society. Believing that a competency is all we can enjoy, they are content with an income of thousands, where it might be, if they pleased, scores of thousands. Elder Frederick, who, by common consent, is a leading man among them, and veriﬁes C'arlyle’s deﬁnition of Koenig--king—able man, maintains that the only basis of success for a community is the principle of a celibate life. Marriage, it is alleged, creates selﬁsh- ness, and produces a. diversity of interests, alienations and schisms. This, it must be confessed, has been the case in the history of cooperative associations generally when based upon the community idea ; but whether it in- heres as a vice in the system, growing out of the necessity of the case, demands a doubt. But to run no risk, the Shaker, having no wife, jealous and exacting for her children, there is no motive to build up separate interests and create factions. The good of the whole re- mains the grand object of each one. If any brother or sister tires of this mode of life, and wishes to set up a family dynasty for themselves, they are dismissed with regret, but are not sent away empty. The Shaker Societies do not much increase their numbers. But, if the world only knew of their existence —if those who are dis- gusted with the hollowness of fashionable society, and are bowed down under the disap- pointments of life, only knew there was a haven of rest to the wearied soul, where peace, plenty and contentment reign, and where the cup of happiness is ﬁlled to the brim, the roads leading to their gates would be ﬁlled with travelers who, like Bunyan’s Pilgrim in the city of Destruction, would ﬂee for their lives and happiness to these quiet abodes. For adults of both sexes the induce- ments are: moderate employment, the most virtuous society, plenty in all its varieties, and freedom from all care as to the future. For parents who bring their children, the best of schools, and a thorough training in all the eco- nomical virtues which make life beautiful and reasonable. Gossip and neighborhood scandal, which poison the air of nearly every village in the land, are entirely unknown. Each member of the family has his, or her, place, and function; and order and neatness, with all their correlative virtues, prevail. For a person among the world’s people who is weak; that is to say, who cannot withstand tempta- tion in all its forms, and say to the Devil, “ Get thee behind me, Satan,” the Shaker family is the place for him or her. For here, one who desires to repent and forsake sin, and lead a life of purity, ﬁnds every person, and thing, and arrangement, calculated to sustain and strengthen. There are no temptations to evil; there are no suggestions of a mis-spent past to torture the soul by reﬂection; but for- getting the things that are behind, each person ﬁxes his eye upon the goal in the future, and girds up the loins of his mind to reach it ; and I have no doubt that if a Mary Magdalene wished to turn her back upon the past, and set her face Zion-ward, and asked the white- cloud sisterhood to help her in her endeavors to lay hold on eternal life, she would be treated with the same consideration as the other Marys who bless the place with their benign presence. Still, the Community is no orphan asylum, nor widows’ asylum, but only a home for all those who feel called and able to lead the beautifuil and quiet life they live —a life of industry, and of harmony, and of innocency. 5. THEIR NEATNESS AND TIDINESS. In the cranium of every Shaker, male and female, there is a ﬁne development of the organ of order, and all its cognates. Indeed,it is a pre- requisite, and sine qua non, in every appli- cant for brotherhood and sisterhood, that he or she be perfectly clean, not only in soul, but body, and that they keep every thing around them so. It is beautiful to see, as_one walks through all the departments of a family, how heaven’s ﬁrst law — order — reigns, and how perfect cleanliness prevails. Neither in house, nor barn, nor ﬁeld, nor shed, can be found any thing that would offend the eye or nostril of the most delicate and fastidious visitor. This perfect cleanliness has much to do with the moral purity of their lives. Degradation and ﬁlthiness of the ﬂesh go together; and so do personal and moral purity. There is a gospel in soap and soft water, for which the world is suffering, and it is the ﬁrst consideration in all reformatory institutions, whether for the body or the soul. A dirty Shaker is as rare an anomaly as a white raven, and I have never heard that any one of the Community became either crazy or criminal. Theagricultural interests of this country are suffering because farmers’ sons, as soon as they see a little of the world, become dis- gusted with farming and go to “ professions ” or swarm to the cities. It is the drudgery, the slovenliness and the want of plan and taste that disgust. Rural occupations are the most inde- pendent and pleasing of any on earth. Trades- men and professional men in Europe, and especially in England, live in cities and make money, only that after a while they may re- tire to the country and live natural and happy lives. Labor is cheap and they can execute saruxAm: plans. But, in our country, labor is dear and farming is both a drudgery and wasteful. The recklessness and waste on many a farm, in its expensiveness, eats deep into the year's productions. A young man, who contemplates farming as an occupation, would save money, in the long run, by paying the Shakers to take him for a couple of years and allow him to work with them, and to see and learn the thrifty way they do things. There are large, commodious sheds to accommodate farming implements of all kinds. You see no tool thrown down where it is last used, and lost; no Wagons standing out in the weather, week after week, and going into uselessness. There is a place for every thing, and every thing in its place. There is a regular 33/stein of farming which includes ﬁve years with its rotations of crops. No building is erected on a cheap plan, for all cheap things are dear, and well the Shakers understand the paradox. Their fences are all in order, their houses and barns are all painted. And in all their inte- rior arrangements an eye is had to oonvenz'ence and economy of labor. A young man trained to their habits, would not only make money in farming, but would take delight in his occupa- tion. Aplan which looks ahead five years, and brings money into a man’s purse annually, which he feels he has a right to because he has earned it, does away with the idea of ex- pensive drudgery, and makes him proud of his occupation; and party politics which, for its chances to indulge in gabbling, is so attrac- tive to so many young men in this country, has no attractions for him. With such industry and economy as the Shakers use, and with their large facilities for making money, they yet decline doing so. Their grand object is not to amass wealth,but to live the right kind of life. That their simple diet, their moderate labor, their perfect equanimity of feeling, and entire harmony of views and interests, tend to promote health and long life, is clear from their bills of mor- tality. 6. THEIR WORSHIP. To a person who is a total stranger to their religious opinions, the Shaker mode of worship would appear novel. But so would a Roman Catholic mass in the cathedral service appear to a Scotch Camero- nian, who, for the ﬁrst time, witnessed the formality. And so would a Church of Eng- land man regard “ fencing the tables ” on an old Covenanter communion occasion; or a Quaker meeting. There is a great advantage in being something of a cosmopolite, and see- ing other people’s modes of worship, and hearing their opinions. Steamships and rail- roads have brought nations into close proxim- ity with each other ; or, to use the late canny phrase of the Archbishop of Canterbury, they “rub shoulders with one another." Bigotry is a religious vice, which lives and thrives in its own poor half bushel. It has no idea that there exists any more world than there is in its narrow quarters, or if there be, that it is of any manner of account. Hence it con- demns all opinions and modes of worship, except its own. But bigotry is under sentence of death by the spirit of the age. The facili- ties of travel bring Brahmins, Buddhists, Mohamxnedans, and Christians of all sects, to- gether ; and being gentlemen, instead of boors and gahoos, they, with mutual respect, com- pare notes, and soon ﬁnd out that there is, underlying all their special religions, and forming the substratum on which they all are built, the grand, yet simple religion of Nature, the oldest and purest of all religions, the equivalent of Christianity, which Jesus and Paul authorize Saint Augustine to say, was always, and everywhere, in the world. Think- ing and candid men who are freed from the trammels of superstition, are fast beginning to regard the religion of Nature as the one true, universal religion; and that all the special religions are merely sects, based on it, only less pure, and consistent. Amidst these ameliorating inﬂuences, produced by travel and international communication, Shakerism, with its peculiar opinions, and its novel wor- ship, cannot be dismissed with a supercilious toss of the head, which the bigoted ecclesi- astic knows so well how to show, but advances its claim to the respectful study of all who feel interested in the different religious opin- SEEAKERESS. ions and practices of the human family. Men of note and ability, like Archbishop Hughes visit their establishments, where they are treated with marked hospitality, and study their system, and always leave them, as they must, with feelings of admiration for their quiet but heroic lives. I was present, with hundreds of others, most of whom were visitors from Lebanon Springs, and witnessed their form of worship on the Sabbath. At the proper time, the ranks opened gracefully after much singing of hymns; and one after another, Elder Frederick, and An- toinette Doolittle, addressed the assembly, and gave them such wholesome instructions in the practical duties of life, as they never got in their churches at home. Both the persons named are highly gifted as speakers; and, while they devote their talents in this line to the interests of the community primarily, they render on suitable occasions, important service to the world outside. 7. It would be a great mistake to suppose that on account of their celibate lives the Shakers are nothing but monks and nuns under another name. Monks live by them- selves, and so do nuns. But the Shakers are a Family, living under the same roof as brothers and sisters. Some people who still live like owls, in the twilight of the Middle Ages, imagine that the constant intermingling of the sexes under the same roof must pro- duce licentiousness. Upon this libel against God, and his children, our monastic colleges and female seminaries are built. But the »S’/takers, believing that the Almighty under- stands his own plans when he sends boys and girls into the same family, have found out by ‘induction what all might know by deduction, that the daily life of the sexes in the presence of each other, promotes and secures the moral purity and reﬁnement of both, and thus vindicates the ways of God to man. Some sensual mortals, who are themselves unfortunately the children of lust, instead of love, and who cannot understand that a man’s pure and ardent affection for a woman would protect her against himself, may entertain a suspicion that, after all, there may be improper intercourse among the Shakers. I believe this has never been charged against them, even by those who have left the Community, and gone back to the world. Shaker celibacy is an efect, and the causes that combine to produce it are many, and vari- ous, and powerful. I scorn the suspicion that men and women who esteem celibacy to be a virtue, and for them a religious duty, cannot, with all the motives drawn from heaven and earth, make that attainment. And I regard this fraternity of Christians as accomplishing their end in tlie great plan of the universe by showing to the world what a degree of per- fection human beings can reach, not only in the matter of a celibate life, but in labor, in diet, in giving to woman her proper place as an equal, in contentment,in honesty of deal- ing and in serene contempt for the empty fashions and pursuits of the world. Having said so much in just praise of the Shaker Community, I must now offer a word of just criticism. ._::...__:_ N0 EVIL. —o— (H. L. Eades.) THE quasi-philosophical doctrine of No EVIL is almost as darkening and pernicious in its tendency as that which teaches that “one man brought all sin into the world, and another one must take it all out. Or another one that, ignorantly lit-eralizing the scripture allegory of the creation of the man, woman and snake, affirms that the snake was the z'mmedz"ate, and Grod himself the remote cause of sin. He having created this trio, with afore- knowledge of the result, acknowledges his part in the transaction, by condescending to be born of a woman, and then permitting him- self to be killed, in order to exculpate man, satisfy his own justice, and appease his own wrath. Or still another doctrine, which afﬁrms that it was God’s Son, and not Him- self, that died, the Father having caused the Son to take on Himself the sins of the 27 whole world, which he “bore in his body on the tree,” and this to relieve His own mur- derers from the crime they were committing while destroying Him! Rejoice, O sinner, and sin away! Thus exclaims the zealot, “Bless the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world ! ”—-all that have been com- mitted, or ever will be. “Glory to God ! Not by works, lest any man should boast. You are not going to get me to mourn over my sins. But I know very well, if Christ has not taken them away, I am certainly lost, for their name is legion.” But another class will not admit that Christ died for the sins of the whole world, but only for those who have faith in their creed; the rest to be consigned to endless torment. Thus: A & B in actual life, are precisely alike. A believes whilst B doubts, and, as “he that doubts is damned already," B’s case is hopeless; so, for the same deeds, A goes to eternal bliss, and B to endless torment, and this passes for Divine justice. Byron seemed to be a doubter ; he says: “ A natural resurrection seems strange, and even absurd, except for the pur- poses of punishment; and all punishment which is for revenge, rather than to correct, is morally wrong; and when the world is at an end, what moral religious purpose can eternal tortures answer?” Having lately seen an article written with some ability, defending the affirmative of the proposition, “WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT,” in defense of the No Evil theory, has induced me to offer some criticism on the productions from a negative view of the subject There is a canon of logic which denies us the privi- lege of reasoning from a proposition that admits of two constructions, without show- ing which is intended. “ It is necessary,” says Locke, “in order to be understood, that the hearer should join the same meaning to the words used that the speaker does,” else they will be likely to convey darkness instead of light. It seems to me that noth- ing has been more misunderstood and mis- applied, than the following lines of Pope: “ All discord, harmony not understood - All partial evil universal good ; And spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite, One truth is clear, WHATEVER Is, Is RIGHT.” Those who so ﬂippantly quote this great author in defense of the No Evil theory, for- get to state that the argument, which closes with the above lines, is headed thus: “Of nature and the state of man with respect to the universe,” and not with respect to God, him- self, or society. He had no idea that l’l1S words could be wrested in defense of that Optimism, which declares that all things, moral, spiritual, and material, are ordered for the best. The existence of moral discord and moral evil is too palpable to be disputed by any sane man. A son murders his father; there is a “discord” in that particular family; but it only needs to be “understood” to make harmony of it. A “partial evil” it certainly is; but ’tis only necessary to include the universe with it to make it “right”(!) So on runs the sophistry. Hurricanes are par- tial evils, when some person’s property suf- fers by them, but they purify the atmosphere, and so, a little blood-letting by wars, puriﬁes society(?) Thus people strive to ease their consciences and harden themselves in crime. The article opens in this wise: 1st. “The material universe is the expression of the Divine character, and any thing which takes place therein, does so in obedience to law; and all effects are the expressions of Divine Power, consequently right." 2nd. “ God is as immanently present in the ﬂower as in the regeneration of the soul! ” etc. The ﬂower has violated no law; but it is a strange concession to speak of the regeneration of the soul, when it is in the universe,—a thing that “is,” consequently, according to his text, is right, and therefore needs no regeneration. But such inconsistencies are I the natural sequence of wrong positions. 3d. “There is no inharmony except in respect to the ﬁnite and individual; and that inhar- mony does not extend beyond the finite.” Here inharmony is fairly confessed; but, to assert that it does not extend beyond the ﬁnite-—leaves us still in harmony with the Inﬁnite——is freely admitted; for no ﬁnite act can change the unchangeable Inﬁnite; but having been created in harmony with God, if we break that harmony by disobedience, the only possible chance of restoration is by returning to obedience. Renan says: “If We cannot see God (in his entirety) we can powerfully feel Him ” —— who, through the conscience causes us to know his will, which, if obeyed, insures a harmonious relation of the ﬁnite with the Inﬁnite; all denial to the contrary notwithstanding. 4th. “The Omni- present Divinity is everywhere seen, prepar- ing the ﬁnite to become united with the Inﬁnite; capable of becoming, and destined to become, a living, conscious universe, begot- ten in the exact image of the Divine Father in esse and in existence.” , If we are to be in the “ exact image of God, both in being and in egristence, and become conscious universes,” then we are gods, sure enough! Than this, what more is God? Wherein shall we differ from Him? And if we are to equal Him in being and existence, why not excel Him? And so— “ Nobly take the high priori road, And reason downward till we doubt of God; Make nature still encroach upon his plan, And shove him off as far as e’er we can; Or at one bound o’erleaping all his laws, Make God mam’s image, man the ﬁnal cause.”—— or otherwise close with the pantheistic doc- trine, wherein “evil ceases to have an objec- tive reality,” and that unintelligent nature is the cause of intelligent man, and he only a Darwinian effect. In defending the No Evil theory, this writer seems to have taken his cue from the ethics of Aristotle, who, notwithstanding he could “ reprove the Greeks for allowing their child- ren to grow up as wild beasts,” and, as Plato says, “to be torn in pieces by their lusts as by so many wild horses,” yet he also affirms that “ the ﬁrst and absolute Good has nothing that is his own opposite.” Thus, it may be seen, that in the defense of “No Evil,” this great philosopher has fallen into the same palpable inconsistencies of all the lesser lights; where- in, if he is content, I now propose to leave him. “Behold, I come quickly, and my re- ward is with me, to give to every one, accord- ing as his work shall be.” ——Rev. xii. 22. South Union, Ky. ._____....¢.__..__._.. LINCOLN. __.0._ A warren in the New York Times, alter a careful reading of Lamon’s Life of Lincoln, makes the following deduction: “Mr. Lincoln was an i1iﬁdel‘—positii'e, absolute, thorough. He was entirely with- out religion; and not only without religion, but without any faith upon which religion of any kind could be founded. He believed in none of the-doctrines, or even the facts, upon which the Christian religion rests. The man who was always the champion of the poor and the oppressed, who was ever ready for per- sonal self-sacriﬁce, whose famous Gettysburg oration breathed the very essential spirit of the enthusiasm of humanity, had no faith at all in any divine revelation, none whatever in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, none, con- sequently, in the authority of his teachings.” If some of Mr. Linco1n’s devout friends had known all this ﬁve years ago, they would have looked upon his tragic end in the light of a dispensation. After all, it seems that all the Christian virtues may be linked with unbelief and paganism, for un- doubtedly, Lincoln was a kind-hearted, gen- erous, benevolent man. SI-IAKER AND ASSIMILATION. -0- (Wm. Bussell.) THERE is an inter-relation existing between all things in the universe, more or less inti- mate, according toithe peculiar character of each. This results from the oneness of Deity. Forms may be inﬁnitely varied, yet, such is the nature of substances themselves, they all attest the oneness of their origin; hence their relation to each other. Because of this relation they all have a transforming power over each other, varying according to condi- tions and circumstances. The central body in each planetary system not only attracts and moulds every one of its revolving spheres, but is itself attracted and modiﬁed by them. Each system also affects and is affected by every other system in the universe, while performing its sublime part in the never-ending dance. The earth, with its multitudinous inhabitants, is powerfully inﬂuenced by the atmosphere which surrounds it, and this in turn acknowl- edges the power exercised upon it by oceans, mountains, ﬁelds and forests. Whether Darwin’s theory of the origin of the human species be true or false, man is obliged to own his relation to all inferior existences, and even to feel, oft-times, that they have a controlling inﬂuence upon him. Often the face that was to be ever looking heavenward is downcast, and the entire person loves to exhibit its rela- tionship to the grovelin g broods of earth. The human system, by its excessive absorp- tion of life forces from both the animal and vegetable kingdoms, takes its rank even with the lowest orders. Its activity, which should surpass that of any inferior beings, is often so feeble that it becomes the slave rather than the master of all beneath. This is because of its failure to observe the Divine order of drawing the highest elements of life from sources above the human. The physical sys- tem of the brutes, when they are left free to act in accordance with their instincts, is main- tained in its natural vigor and order. That of man will be toned to the highest health and strength when the physical, the intellectual and the moral faculties are maintained in their proper order by the use of nourishment best adapted to each. ‘When the corporeal system is unduly cherished to the neglect of the mental and moral, then the man necessarily exhibits his close afﬁnity to the animal. He assimilates himself to the lower life, and by reason of the absorbing and transforming action thus induced, he invariably displays more than brutal passions. He has sunk below the proper plane of his own existence. Exam- ples of such abound in all history, so that it is unnecessary to particularize. The physical frame, when preserved in due order by a suitable degree of food and exer- cise, instead of being a hindrance to the growth of the higher faculties, may be ren- dered a constant aid to them just so long as its natural vigor lasts. Being a product of the earth, it returns to it at last, and is com- pletely assimilated to it; but if it has per- formed its part well, it has been an honored co-adjutor in the Divine Economy of rearing beings for the immortal realms. VVhen both the physical and intellectual natures are cher- ished at the expense of the spiritual faculties, something superior to the mere animal is cer- tainly exhibited, but still, man in his true dignity does not appear. What keenness of intellect was displayed by Napoleon! What rapidity of thought and action, as well as accuracy of judgment, on the battle-ﬁeld and in the affairs of State! Yet his wonderfully keen intellect but served to give a sharper edge to the sword he wielded. He was un- questionably adapted to make a powerful impression upon warlike nations. He changed and molded Europe, but left it, nevertheless, warlike still. Not till the superior faculties of man have that attention paid to them that their nature demands, will mankind cease to be a warring race. For the purpose of maintaining sound phys- ical health, one needs the food that the sys- tem can readily assimilate to itself, so as to preserve harmonious action between all the parts. Any one who is in the habit of observing the effect produced upon himself by the different qualities and quantities of food taken into his system cannot fail to see that his mental and moral faculties, as well as the corporeal, are affected by them. As a general rule, he ﬁnds that when the outward is in good condition, the mental and moral forces are in more harmonious play than when the reverse is the case; and when the central manufactory of physical health is disturbed, there is more or less disturbance throughout the whole man. The plain inference is, then, that the food which is taken into the stomach is assimilated, not only to the corporeal blood but also to the more internal or magnetic forces of the system. This fact gives greater force to the expression found in the writings of the Jewish lawgiver. “The life of the ﬂesh is in the blood.” The term used for life in the Septuagint translation is psyche, com- monly translated soul ,' meaning that princi- ple in the human economy that is the stimula- tor of its every faculty. In the Greek New Testament we have the same woﬁ as an equivalent expression to that which Jesus used: “What shall aman give in exchange for his psyche—his life or soul ? ” Deprived of this he is poor indeed ! The wealth of the en- tire world will not compensate him for its loss. The same care that is to be observed with respect to the food for the body should also be observed in regard to that for the mind. Some things offered as such must be abso- lutely rejected: others sparingly used, while others still may be accepted as daily nourish- ment. As a general rule, that which cherishes envy, jealousy, hatred, revenge, strifes, and contentions of every kind is to be discarded, though presented by the hands of the greatest masters of expression, and under the most attractive exterior. Though the cup be of the purest gold and set with numerous brilliants, it can never change the nature of the poi- son it may contain. Even the historian"s pages, which too often are but the mirror of human vices, are deleterious, if exhibited so as to make those vices attractive rather than repulsive. What should be a lesson of warn- ing and remonstrance may be so presented as to produce effects the very reverse. Wars are but the exhibition of the baser passions of mankind; but painted too often in colors that belong to their opposites, they serve to cherish these passions rather than to eradicate them from the human breast. Mental food, as well as that for the body, should be such as to produce harmony throughout the entire system. No other should be allowed to assimilate itself, and thus form a constituent part of our intellectual life. Otherwise mental disease will be the inevitable consequence, and restoration to health may not be effected without long-suf- fering and disagreeable remedies. Life is of various degrees, to the very high- est of which man is entitled as his inheri- tance. It is enjoyed, however, in its greatest degree, only by those who are in the posses- ion of sound physical, mental and moral health. The Divine Spirit breathes every- where, but, like the atmosphere, does not produce equal effects upon all. It may dwell in the innermost of man, but cannot be con- sciously enjoyed in its fullness, nor mani- fested in its proper effects, where there are the obstructions of physical, mental, or moral disease. Let every string of the human harp be rightly tuned, and celestial music will be produced. VVhen the highest inspira- tions ﬂow unobstructed into the inner life, they make an essential part of that life. They fashion it in accordance with that possessed in the highest heaven, where har- mony perpetually reigns among its blessed inhabitants. — Mt. illorris. SI-IAKERESS. 29 SHAKERESS. A. DOOLITTLE. EDITRESS. LAWS OF PROGRESS. ._.0_. WHAT is Time when measured with the eternal ages which roll in continuity through boundless space? When we look at the imperfect condition of men and things as they now exist, we often feel an intense desire for great and sudden changes, especially in theology and religion ; and that the pre- diction of the spirit through John the Rev- elator, “Behold, I make all things new,” should take effect immediately. An inspired prophet of olden time said (pointing to times and seasons which God hath reserved in his own keeping), “By measure hath He measured the times, and by number hath he numbered them, and he doth not stir nor move them until the said measure be fulﬁlled.” We cannot change the laws of progression which underlie all growth in material and spiritual things; but we may change our relations to them, and be instru- mental in helping others to do the same. If we sow a ﬁeld of grain, we must expect to give the seed time to germinate and grow. We cannot by any means get the stalk, the blade and the ear in one day. And when we plant a tree, if we understand the science of arboriculture, so that we feed and water it, and stir the soil around it at the proper time to produce healthy action, we may . accelerate its growth, but we cannot bring forth a full grown tree, however much we may desire to do so. The same laws which govern in the visible, are also operative in the (to us) invisible world of causation. In the spiritual, as in the material, we must bide the time. The All Father and Mother of souls, who watch so strictly over their children that “Not one sparrow falls to the ground with- out their notice, cannot look upon the condi- tion of suffering humanity with less interest and compassion than do mortals. Mercy and truth meet (in counsel) together, and fain would they gather souls under the blessed inﬂuence of righteousness and peace, and bind them with the cords of love. But “justice and judgment are the habita- tion of God's throne,” and his laws do not conﬂict. Justice must precede mercy. Spiri- tual death is the effect of violated law; and if souls sin unto death, they must ﬁnd repent- ance unto life; justice demands it. Then, mercy stands ready to bind up the broken- hearted and contrite in spirit, and give the sweet balm of consolation. As wecannot change, or force the laws of progress, how can we the most eﬁ"ectually co—operate with them to hasten our own spiri- tual growth, and ameliorate the condition of the race to which we belong? Grod sends angels to sow and to reap; but men and women are the mediums through which they work. The angels could accomplish but little without the agency of man and woman. The higher and purer our conditions are, the more effective will our labors be in helping others. It is not wise for us to neglect any known duty to—day, because there is an end- ess future before us; for each day has its appropriate work. If, step by step, we ascend the hill of progression in scientiﬁc knowledge and spiritual truth, the higher we rise the purer and clearer will be the atmosphere, and the stronger will our inﬂuence be in drawing others from the low plane of sensualism, and from their wanderings in the cold, barren region of naturalism into the realm of spiritual light and divine ideas, where they can com- mune with higher intelligences from the unseen world. ~ __é.__¢%___ “ THE CUP.” (Eldress Joanna Kaime.) __.0.__.. J ESUS said, “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with ? ” Often times, when a child under the paren- tal roof, have we read, with tearful eyes and bated breath, the glowing account of the cru- ciﬁxion of Jesus, as recorded by the Evange- lists ; and, in our childish indignation, de- manded of our parents to know why the great and good God suffered those cruel and wicked Jews to so ill-treat his beloved Son. Receiving an answer which served to con- found more than to enlighten us, we accepted the traditional 1 faith, that some how, or in some way, though never clear to our under- standing, we were to be saved by the shed- ding of His blood on Mount Calvary. But our thanks are due to an overruling Providence, that, in the second manifestation of the Christ Spirit, through the instrumen- tality of his followers, We have received knowledge of the true way of life and salva- tion ; if we would be harvested from, and rise above, the earthly plane, we must shape our lives according to the Pattern, and walk as Jesus walked, drink of the same cup of which He drank, bear the same cross and living tes- timony which is like consuming ﬁre to the nature of sin; then we partake of the same baptism. And, as maturer years and broader views were ours, we found still deeper, if not more painful, emotions steal across the brain, and sink into the heart, as imagination depicted the sufferings of Jesus in the lonely garden, on the eve of his “passion.” What mingling of pathos and sublimityl the human and Di- vine alternately controlling. The former, shrinking from the impending crisis, while, in the heaviness of his grief, he said, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death!" yet apparently denying himself of all the sym- pathy which that expression of sorrow might elicit from his disciples, he said unto them, “ Tarry, here, and watch.” Then he went forward to intercede with his Father, that, if consistent with his righteous will, the coming trial might be averted. Then, felling upon his face in agony of spirit, he prayed, “Oh, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me! ” Then there seemed to be a hea- venly ministration, borne on angel wings, overshadowing him as he softly whispered, “Nevertheless, not as I will,_but as Thou wilt.” Listen to the mild and gentle rebuke given to his neglectful watchers, on his return from his fervent intercessions, “ What! could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” Then, as if touched with pity for their weak- ness, and in seeming extenuation of the same, he added, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the ﬂesh is weak.” His disciples were not able to appreciate the grand and exalted character of their Lord and Master—their Elder Brother—until they were imbued with his spirit, and were baptized with the same baptism, which also constituted them “ sons of God,” for none before him had so fathomed the depths of man’s loss from God, or felt the bitterness into which his whole being was plunged. He (seemingly) felt the dissolution of every tie when forsaken by his disciples, and, in the moment of his supreme anguish, he cried, “ My God, why hast thou forsaken me! ” VVhat a world of agony was contained in that soul—thrilling cry, “Eli! Elil lama sabacP€.h..- thani I ” And did not Mother Ann Lee, who was called to prepare herself as a chosen vessel for the reception of ‘hrist Spirit in his second advent, drink of t e same bitter cup, even to its dregs? and by her cruciﬁxion to the world with all its affections and lusts, become im- bued with that Divine Unction from on High which prepared her to co-operate with Christ Jesus in resurrecting souls from the earthly order, or generative plane, and bring them forth into the New Creation, or regenerative life ? Verily, there are sons, and daughters too among us who have risen above all carnal ties, earthly affections, and sordid lusts, and can claim a true knowledge of, and relation to, this heavenly parentage. And, who can feel more grateful, or better appreciate, the advent and mission of the Mother Spirit, than her daugh- ters, who are so abundantly receiving beneﬁts therefrom? Then, let us not be content to remain inactive and unfruitful ; but be quick- ened to the angel life, by tasting the powers of the World to come; that we, by travel of soul and tribulation of spirit, may become “fruitful vines, mothers in Israel,” which our Heavenly Father and Mother (God) can bless. For, if faithful to the high and holy trust com- mitted to our keeping, we can with conﬁ- dence, lift our souls in prayer, asking Heaven’s protection, and claiming the promise that, “ Whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” Although more than eighteen hundred years have elapsed since that pre- cious promise was given, it is still full of inspir- ing hope. And who, but those who have wrestled with the strong worldly elements inherent in every human heart knows the in- trinsic value of those living words, still fra- grant with his tender love to erring man, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.” Oft—times in spirit, do we catch the echo of that wise injunction. which comes ﬂoating on the breeze like the whis- perings of some winged messenger of peace from the garden of Grethmeane, “Take heed, Watch! What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch / ” Brief yet comprehensive is the exhortation. It furnishes an instructive theme from which proﬁtable sermons might. be evolved. — Can- terbury, N. H. ?_—_+.M_. SOUTH HINGHAM, MASS. Jan. 12, 1873. Dear Friend .' In the afternoon of this beau- tiful day, I ﬁnd myself alone, or with no visi- ble companion at least, and am thinking how many things I have to be thankful for. Your little paper for January in its new dress is before me. I have read and re-read, and am very thankful that it still lives and goes forth to the world to teach and help truth-seekers. It is a welcome visitor here, and I am happy in its perusal, and always receive strength and inspiration as I read. I write in haste and inclose ﬁfty cents for the paper. Long may it continue. Yours for truth, M. D. B. j__¢_.___ HE is truly a man who is in full enterprise; who is perpetually planning new works ; who is constantly acquiring new thoughts; who is all the time opening new chambers; who is every day furnishing the rooms of his mind with new pictures and new furniture ; who is incessantly spreading for himself a new table with noble aspirations and endeavors, as the sign of soul life. Every man who really lives is living by a generous use of the future.- Beecher. 30 ~ DIALOGUE. -joj THE GOSPEL wonx—1rs PRESENT AND FUTURE INCREASE. BY 1l[argaretPattt'son Charlotte B3/rdsall Ann 0ﬁ‘ord Melissa Soule Jllartha Anderson Margaret Cleveland. MAR. P.— Certainly. Can we not see from this, that the branches of the tree of life “ whose leaves shall be for the healing of the nations,” have spread, and that beneath it many souls have found a pleasant and safe retreat; thus fulﬁlling ancient prophecy ? ANN.——As was remarked, the testimony of Christ’s Second Appearing, through the female, was a revival of primitive Chris- tianity, with increased revelation; for that in itself was not complete. There was room left for a great increase of faith and works relating to the physical, moral, and spiritual condition of mankind. Nor did those who laid the foundation of the Second Christian Church complete the structure. It was not given to Mother Ann to gather the people into Gospel order; during her ministry, they were scattered abroad in valleys and on the hill-tops. l\/lARTHA.——- Great wisdom and care were requisite on the part of those commissioned to gather the people into an organized body, to establish laws and regulations which would countenance a progressive, physical, mental and spiritual growth, and yet be for the pro- tection of the Society. MEL. — Our ideas of progress Would not lead us to discard true foundational princi- ples, but to build upon and expand them. This may be the criterion by which we can judge the worth of any progressive movement, if it does not deteriorate the pure spiritual life of the community. Many, in haste for onward advancement, would introduce refor- matory ideas and changes, without regard to the time or state of preparation for receiv- ing them, and by thus doing, would retard the progress of the work. MAR. C.—This is but the (lawn of the Mil- lennium. The spiritual faith of this life leads to a consecration in all things. Self-denial opens ,the door of revelation. What an amount of inspirational strength actuated those who lived in their little families, to give up all for the future glory of Gospel commu- nistic life. Self-sacriﬁcing devotion was their inducement. CHAR. -— The past is sacred on account of the holy life and strength of Gospel parents. The beautiful and true have attended the Gospel work in its varied stages of progress. Our unprogressed conditions open wide ﬁelds of labor wherein we may toil, and, like our predecessors, gain treasures of worth to im- part to others. In former times, compara- tively little attention was given to physi- ology; but now the light of the present reveals many physiological errors previously adhered to, which we hope to have suﬂicient honesty of purpose, and ﬁrmness of mind to leave for something better. MAR. P.——Greater attention is now given to air ,' for We acknowledge the fact, that We live by breathing; and the pure atmosphere is essential for this purpose. It is a satisfac- tion to glance at our well-ventilated dwelling, where we see space in the base-boards, and SHAKER AND apertures over all the doors for the admis- sion of air; while the self-acting Archimedian ventilators on the roof, create a strong draft and dispose of any vitiated air that might otherwise remain in our dwelling. Even with closed doors and windows, the atmos- phere is still good and wholesome. ANN. — In addition, we can range the ver- dant ﬁelds for pleasure, or otherwise enjoy the sunshine and genial summer air, with no fear or thought of persecution; but with a calm and holy feeling of inspiring life, we behold with joy and a spirit of blessing, the conse- crated labors of our good and Worthy brethren. MARTHA.—It is pleasant to gather the fruits of earth. They supply the place of am’- mal food in a great measure ; for very little of it is now required for our table. Swine’s ﬂesh has long been abolished, with other things, in the preparation of food, such as soda, salaratus, etc. Brown bread almost supplies the place of white, while our well-cultivated gardens, golden grain ﬁelds, and thrifty fruit orchards yield an abundant supply for physical health and comfort. ANN.——lt has been asserted that “a vege- table diet has a happifying inﬂuence on the mind, and tends to preserve a delicacy of feel- ing, liveliness of imagination, and acuteness of judgment, seldom enjoyed by those who live too much on animal food.” Franklin said that “ a vegetable diet promoted clearness of ideas, quickness of thought, and stability of action.” He spoke from experience; for his superior reason early led him to adopt a simple style of living. MEL.———Tobacco was formerly used to quite ' an extent among us, but was considered use- less and injurious. Some who had formed a habit of smoking, and had not strength, of themselves, to change, were assisted by spirits from the unseen world. Their love to the truth was strong, and their desire to increase with the work of God enabled them to make the sacriﬁce, which proved a blessing to them individually, and to the whole body. A spirit of self sacriﬁce, in regard to perverted ways and habits, is what the present generation need to possess. It should ever be our effort to simplify our needs, and curb our appetites, and thus bring ourselves to the condition of the philosopher, whose habitual prayer was, “O ye gods! grant me to have few things, and to stand in need of none.” MAR. P.——I should be pleased to know who he was. MARTHA.——Apolloniu8. He was born four years before Jesus of Nazareth, belonged to a wealthy Grecian family, and, though reared in the lap of affluence and ease, he early dis- carded all forms of luxury, donned the garb and habits of a Pythagorean philosopher, lived on fruit and vegetables, drank water only, and chose a celibate life as being best adapted to philosophic and ethical pursuits. He was endowed with remarkable mental powers and spiritual gifts, which, combined with a well- developed and perfect ph_7/stque, gave him a marked character. He was successful as a teacher of a rational system of morality and virtue. MAR. C.—“ The moral and intellectual status of man is grounded in the material ;” hence those things which pertain to the health and perfection of the physical body, are of great importance to humanity. There can be no high spiritual life sustained here on earth, except in connection with habits of wise bodily discipline—a truth yet to be recognized by many. CHAR.— While we view the increase of truth in the past in those particular points of ‘ which you have been speaking, we also behold the present growth in virtue and goodness. Truly those who plead for a broader platform, and complain of but little progression, are more than spiritually blind. Such evince their unfaithfulness to present light, a non-con- formity to united spiritual and physical in- crease. MAR. P.—There is ever a beauty and glory manifest in the Gospel work, to those who abide in its spirit of heavenly life and love. Shakers, or Believers, are becoming better known in the outside world; the purity of their lives is not questioned by those who are rightly informed; while their character for integrity and truth is Well established, especially with the more intellectual and spiritually-minded. ANN. —— The witnesses of God in the past fell from their rectitude, and lost their spiritual power through the friendship of the world. Through this medium, worldly attractions became strong. We are in danger from this source. It is an easy thing to turn light into darkness ; and there is greater danger of being allured and drawn away from true faith by the friendships of the world, than by its per- secutions. But, if members fail, virtue’s strongholds are still reliable; seceders take no strength from the body; God’s work remains the same, and will endure through eternal ages. MARTHA.—Human nature is everywhere the same. In all ages it has had the same wants and aspirations, and has been subject to the same inﬁrmities. As you remarked, a declension of members is not a declension of truth; but all, if they would advance with the body, must be united and keep pace with increasing revelation. Order and harmony are sure guides. MEL.— There is greater strength and beauty in the Temple when the weak and unreliable pass away. The cause of right- eousness and self-denial never presented loft- ier themes for thought and practice than at present. MAR. C. — This is a day of individual trial. The foundations of our faith are being tried. The everlasting Spirit of Goodness searches the heart, and tries the actions, to prove What principles we are actuated by. MEL.——The world may question our int- egrity ; and many inquire, Why cannot you live as purely, with your faith, outside of your com munity? But the Holy Spirit’s call is, “ Come up higher, above, away from earth.” The work of to-day is to aggregate souls into a heavenly union, to form a body for honest souls to gather to; a true type of angelhood in the heavenly spheres. ANN. —— There must be an Order above and in advance of the world, to govern and regu- late, or set in order those who forsake it. The spiritual is for that purpose. The present condition of society is no cause of discourage- ment. The future cannot be determined by the present. Like life, society grows from a principle divinely implanted ; it is progressing, bringing the World and its attractions to an ultimate. It is true there is not much increase of members to our Church at present. That SHAKERESS. 31 is because of the lack of the religious element without; yet many (by degrees) are ripening up to the Gospel work, which is the harvest ; and, ere long, a revival of religious and prac- tical truth will occur; then, “ where the body of Christ is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.” ' MAR. P. —Our Father and Mother have prepared a home, and are now calling their children to partake of the spiritual feast of goodness and love. For there are noble minds, to-day, endowed with power, and an under- standing of truth, who are disseminating the seed of Christianity, educating souls for the Gospel. For, “ what education is for one man or woman, revelation is for the whole human race.” ANN.——- Margaret, I listened almost breath- less to your last sentence, knowing that the ori- ginal writer did not include the woman, and you are aware that it is a day of woman’s rights, a subject upon which I am greatly inter- ested; for we know she is of more worth than to be a mere instrument of worldly pleasure. We see in our Zion-home women of strength and virtue, whose consecrated powers adorn and beautify the Temple of God. MEL.— The acknowledgment of the Mother Spirit in Deity is one grand step towards this ultimate. All who have progressed away from old contracted theological views, can see and appreciate the true worth of woman. MAR. C. — How beautiful is the social rela- tion formed between the male and female among Believers, where the inferior passions are kept in subordination to higher law! How true the manifestation of love in the sphere of daily duties, where the claims of both brethren and sisters are regarded with equal respect; and, as co-workers in a noble cause, each un- selﬁshly toils for the good of the whole. CHAR. —— This social and religious harmony is not only beneﬁcial to us, but to mankind in general. It is seed sown that will bear fruit in the good time coming, but is sustained only through individual personal “ sacriﬁce of sel- ﬁshness, and an expansion in the elements of universal love and ‘true philanthropy.” While listening to your comments upon woman, I thought how beautifully Eldress Antionette was inspired (in “ Past, Present and Future ”) to speak of the elevation of woman from phys- ical, moral and spiritual servitude. I know such truths will rest with weight upon minds who are exercised in this direction. ANN.—-I read and re-read the article with pleasure. Such truthful expressions are like sunny rays of hope illuminating the future. The love and union formed by kindred souls, who have Qommenced the work of regenera- tion, by being baptised into purity of heart and life, is the strongest of all bonds with which to hold soul to soul. It is unchanging through all conditions, and incites to constancy and truthfulness one with another. We intuitively repose conﬁdence in a relation thus formed, as when we pray we instinctively direct our inter- cessions to God; there our conﬁdence is placed. On the same principle we rely upon our faith- ful brethren and sisters, and trust their ﬁdelity. MAR. P. — This is the advantage which is only to be derived from a spiritual communistic life. We see veriﬁed, in our association, the say- ing of Jesus, “ Think not of the morrow, what ye shall eat, drink, or wear,” because, in our asso- ciated capacity, there are many who are inter- ested in bearing the burdens of life; and the orderly arrangement of spiritual and temporal leaders is a great blessing; it relieves us of much anxious care and thought respecting food, clothing and other things necessary for physical comfort and support. And, by ﬁrst seeking the spiritual part (the righteousness of Christ’s kingdom), all other needful things are added. MARTHA. -Henry Vincent remarked that “ Christianity levels all distinctions, save good- ness; it is the grand elevator of the human race!” And, we might add, where its true spirit is maintained, it digniﬁes toil, and trans- forms what is commonly deemed the drudgery of life into pleasant occupation, where right — not might —— is the rule ; because labor is equal- ized according to qualiﬁcation of membership. and ability to perform it. MAR. C. —— Persons who visit our communi- ties, not comprehending the true principles upon which the Institution is based, often inquire as to the number of hours we labor ; but we are not, for sordid interest, toiling with restriction. Duty is pleasant to us, we are in our own home; when more is to be done. then gladly we give more effort; when not so much, then less is required. We are not under task-masters, but are inﬂuenced by love and mutual friendship to one another, devoting our strength for the good of a noble and glorious cause. MEL.—One, speaking of consecrated toil, said, “ Prefer duty to diversion. He who is false to present duty, breaks a thread in the loom, and will ﬁnd the ﬂaws when he has for- gotten the cause.” CHAR.——0rder and discipline are the guard- ians of our home. If irksome to some, it is because they are not in the life and spirit that pervade it. Some are baptised into a gospel of ideas, but not into the Gospel of Love, which will produce practical works ; they receive faith intellectually, while their souls are untouched by the living inspiration and con- secration which permeate the body of Christ. ANN. — The more practical religion is, the better I like it. It is effectual for good, when it is carried into all the essential duties of life, instigating the spirit of industry, in making good roads, constructing fences, culti- vating the soil properly, preparing of food, clothing, 860. such as Christians can use and not abuse, marking all our labor with neatness, thoroughness and order. Here is a large ﬁeld for useful thought. In this we ﬁnd the most effective poetry,——“ a poem from the ﬁngers ends,” and beautiful pictures to look upon; and “ a picture is a poem without words.” MAR. P. — When I came among Believers I admired the order and practical utility of ex- ternal things. This I perceived was the result of an interior spiritual life ; and, in the ardor of my soul, I thanked God that I had found a people who were not stereotyped in their re- ligious belief ; but who, in the progress of spir- ituality could change their theological views. MAR. C.~—-Then, a distinction- is made between theology and religion ‘Z MEL. — 00/rtainly. Theology is but the science of religion, while religion is the germ of eternal life, which may be found in every human heart. Henry Ward Beecher says, " The way to begin a Christian life is not to study theology. Piety before theology. _Right living will produce right thinking.” MAR. C.—The cultivation of this germ has produced the increase of the past and present. And, in the liberal exercise of our faith, we are unbiased by worldly conservatism, believ- ing that this Church will eventually be the receptacle of every good, whether it be from Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, or Ma- homedanism, for we claim that all sects con- tain some truth. ANN.— It will also be the conservatory of science; for all truth centers in God. MEL. — Our minds should be open to the acceptance of scientiﬁc truth ; although it should come in contact with preconceived ideas, grounded in the mind, and forming a stronghold of individual experience. Our theology should correspond with science, or it is liable to be overthrown. It is a day of reason and investigation; the foundation of all systems is being tested. MARTHA.—-I rejoice that the time is ap- proaching when the voice of woman will be heard in governmental affairs ; when she shall help to enact laws that will bind Justice and Love in one inseparable band ; uplifting her sex from the thraldom of sensual and sexual sin- fulness, into the untrammeled freedom of per- sonal rights and privileges, such as man enjoys. Then shall a purer and more reﬁning inﬂuence pervade the council-halls of the nation, and a new epoch in civil history will hold a corresponding relation to the spiritual order under which we exist. MAR. C.— The Spirit of Divine Wisdom which regulated this infant church, stands as a balance between reformation and conservatism; and from the growth of the past we may judge of a greater increase in the future. “ As souls advance their ideas expand. Progress is an eternal law. The ideal beckoning the real to come up higher, there will ever be loftier, diviner attitudes to ascend.” CHAR. —The angelic voice of Truth has rolled in majesty through all periods. The laws of improvement bear each tone higher and still higher up the scale of holiness. The music of the sinless Angel of Love shall echo over hill and dale, over sea and land, until, in its glorious chorus, all nations shall blend, and the home of Virtue and Truth, that is increas- ing, shall begin its life in all, while the altar of holy resurrection shall be lighted in gran- deur with hallowed and varied offerings of souls from every clime. No longer will one toil in pain while another revels in luxury, for the soil and fruitage of earth shall be free, while over the homes of all will hover the heavenly dove of Peace. MAR. P.— True LOVE principles, gleaming in their divinity far and wide, will vitalize and draw many souls to Zion, where they will be planted as trees by the sides of living waters, growing in strength and beauty until they become as cedars of Lebanon. Then will they joyfully sing the “ Song of the Lamb” with those who stand upon Mount Zion. MARTHA — Joy we feel in thus reviewing What the march of Truth has wrought, And, while present light pursuing, Claim the strength through increase brought. Hopes for future bright are glowing, Love with wisdom interblends, Seed celestial they are sowing Of a life that never ends. Faith, endowed with gift immortal, Lifts the veil from spirit sight, Ope’s the gates to love’s bright portal, Leads the soul in wisdom’s light; Pierces through the mists of morning, And discloses to our view Grace and Truth the home adorning, Where all things are form’d anew. 32 SHAKER AND SHAKERESS. MUSIC SUNG IN CONNECTION WITH THE DIALOGUE. nkﬁu ‘ 1 ,1 I L 1 LI I I ﬂs awfrdidhi-”i"“"' FF /L J_ I A K A L g V V 1 = 1 J J l Ll l A 'I4 I A I ‘ll IWI: \_\]Z ‘L J! I I C] 4 V. 4 FL.“ ' I ' J NJ‘! (IJ C J l_LJ ' ' I V. AC ,,’ |: ‘J y v V V V i 1 v in. v y ‘I 1. Praise, rejoicing and thanks-giv-ing, Is the glo - ry of our songi While the an-gels from a - bove us, Waft the bles -sed strain a-long; 2. May the joy our feel - ings cherish.Thrill a chord in ev’ - ry heart! While the secret streams out—ﬂow-ing, Shall an an-swer true im-part; 0 5 I A I 1 L 4 . J .| ynugunéz j jjnn I l l I J ‘EL 1 ii I . I 1 J [§"%‘-*."f:é.J‘déill##i4'é-ﬁJi'-£7 main Min; liJ5-5%’ ! ;/ 3- V 1" 1 'L 'UU1g-U’-UJ:l'C=‘i1:" -ii c‘ néf ‘Tis for promised joys unmeasured, For delights that ne’e1' will wane, For the rapture pure be - fore us, And the hope for he - ly gain. And we call on all to join us In our Joy-ous fes - tive song! While the waves of life dance mer-ry, And the heart is glad and strong! Chorus. con spirito. ' : cl \Ve will swell the f gladsome chorus, Till bright hosts around us throng, And with harps of sweetest m Yea We’ll swell the gladsome chorus, Full, un - broken, ric'h and strong; Till it ﬂoats apd ﬂoats ﬁt pl u - sic, Join our u - ni - ver - sal song. 1:.-round us, This our u-ni - ver-sal song. F-N CT68. <;__:- “ SCRIPTURE OF TRUTH.” —o-— (O. C. Hampton.) While wandering alone o’er the bleak hills of sorrow, And sadly exploring the regions of earth, The present all gloom, with a darker to- morrow, An alien to comfort, a stranger to mirth, Before me arose a magniﬁcent Temple, Whose windows were brilliant with rain- bows of light, Whose beautiful mansions were airy and ample, With glory supernal enravish’d my sight. This Temple was built at the foot of a moun- tain (The mountain of Arrogance, such it was called) Where long I had wander’d in search of a fountain, _ O’er crags of despair round its summit so bald. The Fountain Eternal of all consolation— The Well of Salvation — I journey’d to ﬁnd, Whose river so clear thro’ the calm habitation Of Holiness, ever continued to wind. At length a grand Temple, that stood in the valley, Attracted my eye with its beautiful sheen: I thought, if the vale with its beauty would tallv, Nor painter nor poet could pencil the scene. In haste I repair’d to this exquisite Temple, More costly by far than the Temple of old; Its plan of construction, tho’ sacredly simple, In aspect sublime was romantic and bold. And in that low valley meander’d a river, With calm ﬂowing waters and music serene, Which still keeps in majesty rolling for ever, The sweet-smelling woods in perennial green. And here was the Fountain of blessing frater- nal Whose Lethean waters all sorrows remove, And, tho’ cycles are gone, yet the ﬂowers are vernal, That bloom on its banks in the garden of Love. And in this vast Temple the poets and sages, The, Prophets and Saviors for all the lost world, Whose wisdom and virtue (in bright glowing pages, As rivers of life, through the nations have purl’d) And soul aspirations, in love are recorded: They have written their lives in the books of the Palm, ‘ Have ﬁnished their race, have been amply re- warded, And left u their story in song and in psalm. Their heavenly oracles — rapt inspirations — In unfading splendor, are there to be found; Their joys and their sorrows, and ﬁnal salva- tion, In “ Scriptures of Truth ” in profusion abound. How oft have I open’d the doors of this Temple, To search out its oracles hidden therein, That, in sore aﬂliction, would show some example Of sweet resignation in dark sunless scenes. As those who had travel’d in sorrow before me, And left me their holy Evangel to trace, In patience to wait when the shadows are o’er me, And how to rejoice when abounding in grace. When doubts and uncertainty thicken around me And darken my path with the shade of their wings, I enter this Temple: What light is around e! In What promises holy ! What heavenly things! When gloomy forebodings, or malice, or anger, Are brewing afar in my horizon dark, I haste my escape from this region of danger, I hide in this Temple, I rest in this Ark. In many sore trials and weary temptations, This Temple enchanted has furnished relief, And thro’ the long past it has lighted the nations, In their bright day of joy, and their dark day of grief. Long, long live this Temple 1 the structure of Ages, Long let me recline in its shadow serene; Long let me converse with the saints and the sages Who’ve lived out their day, and have passed from earth scene. The Good of all times, in their travail and trial, In unison striving the same race to run, Abounding in patience and stem self-denial, To press for the glories they fought for and won. 0, thanks unto God, who in mercy provided This beautiful Temple such records to hold, Where pencils of sweet inspiration have glided And faithfully painted “ the doings of old.” Then, long live the Archives of Saints and their sorrow, Their triumphs in grief and assurance in doubt Until the Great Day, which will know no to- morrow ; Let the light of the “ Watch-towers” never go out. DAN.X; 20, 21: “Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee ‘.7 and now will I return to ﬁght with the prince of Persia : and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.” “ I will shoW thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth ; and there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your prince.” From which it appears that the “ Scripture of Truth” existed, and was studied in the Spirit World, long before the modern Bibles ——Jewish, Catholic, Greek or Protestant — were made up. Indeed, they are not yet com- pleted, as in England a commission is now re- vising the “ Holy Scriptures” — the Protesting Bible. As Rabbi Wise says, “the happiness of man ‘ depends on no Creed and no Book ; it depends on the dominion of truth, which is the Re- deemer and Saviour, the Messiah, and the King of Glory.” The belief in a creative God is inferred from design in creation, and though there are difficulties the other way, reason triumphs in the proofs, and faith overcomes the diﬁiculties. THE SNOW STORM. -0- (Mary Whitaker.) What kindness of our Father, To spread a mantle o’er All dark and ugly features, Which face of nature borel All draped in lily whiteness, The rocks and mountains’ side; Alike the vales and hill—tops :— Thus would our Maker hide Our darkest wrongs with whiteness, Our weakness and our sin, If we beneath the covering Of Mercy would come in. This is the Lord's pavilion ; It covers all below; As doth the rain and sunshine, So doth the mantling snow. 0 when shall we consider What God for us hath done; And in that loving kindness Deal kindly with each one? Canterbury, N. H. —___._¢.:___... FLATTERING TITLES. As Mr. Mrs. Sir, Lady, &c. are inadmissible with us, please write your full Christian names, which will determine whether the writer is male or female. THE SHAKER. BOUND copies of “THE SHAKER,” vols. 1 and 2. will be sent, postpaid. for two dollars and ﬁfty cents, and 9. Contents added. ......0: OBITUARY. ELDRESS ELIZA FITTS, Canterbury, N. H.. Feb. 14th, aged 55. ABIGAIL MUNSON, Mt. Lebanon, March 1st, aged 101 years, 11 months and 12 days. SYLVA Soorr, Union Village, 0. aged 74. JAMES AMPHLET, Union Village, 0. aged 64. fl It
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Subjects: Shaker -- Periodicals
Identifier: yhm-sha-ss0304
Is part of: Hamilton College Library Digital Collections, Communal Societies Collection, Shaker Collection

Title: Shaker Manifesto, vol. 03, no. 05 (May 1873)
Publisher: United Society
Date: 1873-05-01
Place published: Mt. Lebanon (N.Y.)
Text: Vol. III. F. EVANS, Enrron. iv E REGNTHLYO PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED SOCIETY. . Mt. Lebanon, 001. C0. N. Y. May, 1873. w No. 5. Furry CENTS PER ANNUM. EXCI-IANGES. PUBLICATION OFFICE, MT. LEBANON, N. Y. ADDRESS SHAKER & SHAKERESS, NoTF. WEVANS. MEDIATOR. PART II. ._o_ THAT system, institution, or individual, who possesses the most light and truth and the purest inspiration, is the best prepared for, and the nearest to, the “kingdom of heaven.” To such were the oracles and promises and prophecies committed. The children of Abraham, by natural gen- eration, had many important advantages over those whose parents disregarded the natural sciences that were practically operative in the Mosaic economy—godly agriculture and physiological knowledge relative to nutrition and reproduction——that has no parallel in history. “The land is mine, saith the Lord ” —-the Hebrew God. And the priesthood divided the land to each tribe, family, and person; while the historian of the future, —the Prophet...
Show moreVol. III. F. EVANS, Enrron. iv E REGNTHLYO PUBLISHED BY THE UNITED SOCIETY. . Mt. Lebanon, 001. C0. N. Y. May, 1873. w No. 5. Furry CENTS PER ANNUM. EXCI-IANGES. PUBLICATION OFFICE, MT. LEBANON, N. Y. ADDRESS SHAKER & SHAKERESS, NoTF. WEVANS. MEDIATOR. PART II. ._o_ THAT system, institution, or individual, who possesses the most light and truth and the purest inspiration, is the best prepared for, and the nearest to, the “kingdom of heaven.” To such were the oracles and promises and prophecies committed. The children of Abraham, by natural gen- eration, had many important advantages over those whose parents disregarded the natural sciences that were practically operative in the Mosaic economy—godly agriculture and physiological knowledge relative to nutrition and reproduction——that has no parallel in history. “The land is mine, saith the Lord ” —-the Hebrew God. And the priesthood divided the land to each tribe, family, and person; while the historian of the future, —the Prophet, —- caused the “meek to inherit the earth,” and allotted to each one a “vine and a ﬁg-tree ” growing thereupon. The Jew gloried in his superior physical organization; but his eyes were inverted, turned back, while staying himself upon the spiritual gifts of his ancients,— the saints, Prophets and Prophetesses, Noah, Abram, Moses, Elias or John the Baptist,— and upon their wonderful works, great faith, and their sufferings and self—denial, yet he exalted their personalities just as the same spirit to-day ex- alts Jesus and Ann. “Whom makest thou thy- self? Art thou greater than our great ones?” The Jew was blind, and “knew not” of the saints and saviours then in Jerusalem. These had to be their own witnesses, by their works, to which they appealed. VVho worship the persons of the dead past will persecute the persons of the living present. Idolaters “hate him who reproveth in the gate" of the new city that is coming down from God, through Christ, out of the inner heavens. It was their own doings when the people of Israel, through faith in Moses and in the God of Israel, —the spiritual Being who inspired him and constituted him God of Egypt, and of Pharaoh, its king—allowed themselves to be led into a wilderness where there was none of the food to which they had been accustomed, and they had the con- sequences to endure. The righteous were self-denying with oc- casional murmurings and some backslidings. But they frequently rejoiced and triumphed in the prowess of their great national guardian spirit, “their” God; while the rebellious, during the “ten temptations” that befell them, often, in their hearts, turned back into Egypt. They all died in the wilderness. Their progressed children, raised upon a vegetable diet and under strict observance of the propagative law (common to all the infe- rior animal creation), went into the land of Canaan under the guidance of the only two of the righteous who remained, out of the million who came up out of Egypt. Could they have done any more under the guidance and lead of the original million? Was not the end of their faith attained? ’ Each individual did now “possess the land,” they had their portion. They had also a perfected order of generation. No money, no monopoly; neither speculation nor commerce; riches nor poverty; merchant princes nor railroad kings. N 0 rings nor Credit Mobiliers; no police, nor magistrates, nor courts of justice, except the temple and its Levites. “ Of doctors ” —— quack or regular —Adam Clarke says “they had none; ” for “the Lord their God had taken from them all sickness,” by keeping them from the causes that induce it. It was “Church and State,” with the Church left out. This Mosaic civil government bears the same relation to the present worldly civil go- vernments, that the Jewish Pentecostal primi- tive Church bears to the present churches of Christendom. With the help of the “spirit of prophecy,” these two governments are straight edges, to show the crooked ways of Church and State in Babylon. Worldly, selﬁsh communism seeks to level wealth and poverty; to disband the twenty million soldiers of civilization, by arbitration ; and to legislate the social evil and drunken- ness out of existence; when it is only the Christ Spirit that can accomplish these good deeds, and give to mankind the Millennium. For the poor would gladly be rich, and the slave would be pleased to become the slaveholder. From many babel pulpits the cry ascends, Alas! alas I ye are taking away our gods and our priests, and what shall we have left? Even the “Word of Grod—our holy Bible” — is undergoing revision! Is not this the point when the “holy In- quisition should again come in, to extermi- nate heretics? Can we not get our Jewish ﬁghting God, and our marriage-attending Saviour, “the chief Ruler of all national con- duct; and the holy Bible, as the supreme Ruler of all national conduct,” into the Consti- tution of these United States, to save us ? “A tree is known by the fruit it bears ; ” and, when any system of theology stimulates the evil passions of its advocates, making them “hateful, and hate one another,” (as they do all through the six hundred sects of Christendom, and that too on mere points of belief,) where both parties are wrong, is it not evident to every honest, thinking mind, that these are believing the theology, and practising “the doctrines of devils” ? They (each of them being a “natural enemy ” to all the rest) never agree, except (like Pilate and Herod) when it is to plot some mischief against the only civil government on earth that does not interfere with liberty of conscience; and upon whose soil the profes- sors of all the thousand theologies of earth can meet as human beings, in perfect equality. And, seeing that the Government of these United States is not any more a Christian than it is a Mahometan, Hindoo, Jewish, or Chi- nese government, any one of the thousand sects in the nation has the same right to put its God, and Avator, and Bible, into the Con- stitution, as has any and every other one. How, much better it would be, if they would “put away all sectarian bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil- speaking” against unbelievers, who do not “put bread into their mouths,” and learn to be “kind one to another, tender-hearted, for- giving one another,” as the best Way to pro- mote “pure and undeﬁled religion.” Jesus and Ann said they were “the way, the truth, and the life; ” and, when perse- cuted for it, they proved it, by praying for and doing good to their persecutors. Those persons of to-day who are anointed with the Christ Spirit, and who bear the sins of the people, and minister the power of protection and forgiveness, are as really Jesuses and Anns—— Saviours —- as were any persons in the past. And we should feel as free to respect, honor and love them, as we think we should have respected, honored, and loved those of former times, had we lived when they were upon earth. “If ye had be- lieved in Moses, ye would, also, have believed in me,” for I obey Moses. The spirit of antichrist leads to the wor- ship of the man—the person of Jesus but denies that, in our own time, the Christ has, or can “come in the ﬂesh” of other persons, , as Mediators. 34: SHAKER AND TREAOSURE. “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” —MATTHEW, 6:21. IN whatever we take an interest, wherever our affections are placed, to whatever object or enterprise our feelings are attracted, and there we give our solicitude and care, there is our heart and soul, there are our riches — treasures corresponding with the amount of affection and labor bestowed. Such objects are liable to become idols, permanent idols of the heart, gods of worship. Unto such, we infer philo- sophically, we give our strength and support. not only while the soul is tabernacled in earth, but they being treasures of the soul, we cling to them when mortality is put of. Is not man the mind? Hence man is the soul, which changes only as it becomes de- graded and lowered, or as it ﬁnds progress. It is therefore ignorance,or a weakness of the human heart, to suppose that physical death converts the soul, and that then man becomes another, or a “ new creature.” “ In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be ;” and Job tells us, there is hope in it. The mortal is dropped and cast off ; the immortal eternally lives, and, wherever it exists, is capable of the reception of increasing light, and consequently progress. Otherwise, why the mission of Jesus to the souls of the departed, that “ were dis- obedient in the days of Noah ? ” lst Pet. 3 : 19. That service implies progress; his mission was to preach salvation in those prisons to the ignorant and wicked; to enlighten them, ele- vate them, evincing that they were capable of receiving his testimony, and also of being saved by it. Otherwise, the mission of Jesus must have been not only fruitless, but foolish. Those antediluvians, realizing their lost con- dition from disregard to the preaching of Noah, found‘ justice incorporated in the char- acter of the Almighty, as He did not leave them in their ignorance, without providing a means of rescue from wrath and judgments eternal, by and through the saving Gospel of Jesus. Here they became interested in light, which attracted their minds ; and they sought relief in giving their hearts to his testimony, which began to furnish their souls with trea- sure. In this we see not only the wisdom,but the inﬁnity of God, leaving not even the pris- ons of darkness beyond the grave so closed as to prevent the visitation of mercy, and thereby deprive the ignorant of light and means of protection. God, our Heavenly Father and Mother, is a rational Being, just and merciful, abounding in every consistent means to meet the rightful wants of his creatures ; so equitable in the distribution of justice, that He will bestow nothing unearned, as a permanent blessing. His laws are immutable: obeyed, they yield a just recompense, affording freedom of spirit, and protection, and justiﬁcation of soul; dis- obeyed, man reaps the fruit of condemnation, his soul is brought into slavery, on every side his way becomes hedged, his path is strewed with perplexing and troublesome obstacles, and his life is sold to bondage and suffering. Thus, of all earthly means of rescue or relief he becomes stripped, he loseth the control of that which he seemeth to have, and it becom- eth not his own; therefore even that which he hath not is taken from him. Matthew 4: 24. Thus, left to himself to pay the utmost farthing for transgression, he ﬁnds little, within or without, but weakness; and, being robbed of strength, the power of attraction acting upon goodness is measurably lost, and those energies calculated for the exaltation of the soul, are still weaker for action. Man’s only alternative in this condition, however powerless and weak,is humiliation, and cries to the God of Heaven for help. Realizing, when brought to destitution, that salvation is not found in an arm of ﬂesh, he discovers that his only reliable strength is in God; his only refuge, in heaven. His interest being awakened in that direction, he seeks a treasure there; and, deriving an evidence of unfolding truths, his soul becomes convicted. Learning therefrom, that Gospel riches are obtained only by sacriﬁce, only by closing the senses against the admission of ungodly in- ﬂuences, giving no place in the heart to self- ishness, allowing no indulgence of appetite or passion that would stain his moral or religious purity —— that would animalize his soul or lower his condition or character in the sight of angels ; and learning also that he is not his own, he resolves, whatever the circumstances, and however great the sacriﬁce, to become a Christian, that his life and all pertaining thereunto must be and shall be consecrated wholly and forever unto God and the main- tenance of truth. This is the “narrow way, and few there be who ﬁnd it.” Elder A. Perkins, Enﬁeld, N. H. THEOLOGY vs. RELIGION. —o— MODERN ideas and conceptions of Religion and Theology are so inextricably mixed and con- founded together, by education and custom, that the terms seem identical, or synonymous, so much so, that Theology has become sur- rounded with a halo of holiness, and is credi- ted with the generous and noble promptings of our better feelings, to the sanctiﬁcation of the most absurd and meaningless forms, for- mularies, and ceremonies in the worship of God. Theology is of the intellect ; while Religion has its root in the affections. “ God is Love." Hence, “ pure and undeﬁled Religion,” expres- ses itself in good works; Theology, in words and believings. Religion is constantly seek- ing for more light, evolving new truths from all sources, wherewith to beneﬁt humanity, without any regard to creedal Theology. For her love is universal-— God expressing Itself through creation. Theology has installed herself as dress-maker in chief to Religion. But Religion gives her a great deal of trouble, as she is constantly out- growing her raiment; nor will she be clothed by rule, or wear the costly garments cut out for her, except fora short season. That which Religion plants, she soon plucks up ; and that which she builds, in her next mode of change, she pulls down. While Theology is stationary —stereotyped — always looking back, and going backward for perfection. Theology insists that religion shall take the best of human souls to heaven, to praise the Lord in glory, and sing psalms to all eternity. While Religion persists in remaining upon earth, being intent upon redeeming its inhabi- tants ; is anxious about our moral characters, and spiritual Welfare; would fain look after our poor mortal bodies, and save them from the doctors; is deeply interested in the laws and rights of property, and in a proper and equal disposal of land. She would gladly ex- terminate all the vices so prevalent among mankind, and which produce armies and na- vies, that, in their turn, breed slavery, poverty, and destitution of the elements of existence. When, by the inspiration of the Almighty, Religion succeeds in elevating some one indi- vidual as a Reformer, Leader—a doer of good —“ above his fellows,” like Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, or Ann, back comes Theology in.. great haste to “ kill” and embalm the Avator, for all future generations, in coming ages, to idolize and worship. , Religion toils and works forever, to make us rational, comfortable, and happy here. She would condescend to teach us what and how to eat, to dress, and sleep; how to work, how to build well-lighted and ventilated houses and barns; and how to cultivate our land, so as not to raise disease-creating produce therefrom ; how to meet the thousand and one conditions of life with common sense. But “ Piety ” be- comes offended, and old Theology is horror- stricken; and so we languish to-day, vainly hoping for the “coming man” (or woman), the opportunity of to-morrow. The world needs men and women whose hearts are full to overﬂowing with religion, who will heed her behests; those who can walk the streets of life nerved and unmoved, while the ﬁnger of ridicule is pointed at them ; when malice, scorn, and misrepresenta- tion assail them, who can forego —pass by —- gold, pleasure, and ambition, untainted, while loving and seeking to help and uplift human- ity ; and who dare to worship at other thrones than that of dead Theology. It was Theology, not Religion, that caused human beings to malign, persecute, burn, and crucify each other in the name of God or Christ. It has not been Religion, but The- ology, that has held and practised the “ doc- trines of devils ;” sacriﬁcing and embittering the lives of millions of earth’s inhabitants. Whereas, Religion molds the hearts of her adherents, in all races and nations, into a unity of purpose and action, breathing peace and good-will, and recognizing the equal rights of all peoples, and of both sexes. Thus, by its fruits, proving its Divine origin from the one Fountain— GOD -— who is Wisdom and Love. The Theology of a past cycle distracts the human mind, by conﬂicting with the inspira- tion and revelation of the present cycle. It drives men into antagonisms and animosities for mere diﬁerence of opinion ; making them “ hateful, and hating one another.” It is the sensual gratiﬁcation of the animal appetites and perverted passions, so common among men and women, that causes the ex- treme ignorance of physical and spiritual truths that almost everywhere abounds. Therefore it is, that “light is sown only for the righteous ” —those who practice self- denial. Indeed, it is effete Theology — not Religion — that is now seeking to restore the cruelty and horrors of the past “ dark ages,” by put- ting its imaginary Trinitarian God, and the man-made Bible, into the Constitution of our common country. This insidious attack upon liberty all good citizens should unite to resist and to counteract. Thomas Smith, Canaan, N. Y. ____.,__H GENEROSITY during life is a very different thing from generosity in the hour of death; one proceeds from genuine liberty and benevo- lence ; the other from pride or fear. ' MANY thanks and—-blessings on you, dear a generation would grow up in ignorance of the j and have sunk almost into despair at the prac- , the world with creeds, theories, and mysteries, \ “SHAKER ANGIE SHAKERESS.” friends, for sending out into this benighted, confused, strife—mongering, lust-polluted world your precious paper. Your pointed testimony against selﬁshness, lust, and other vices, which the churches of the world tolerate, is opening the eyes of honest truth-seekers, and strength- ening and encouraging the weak and faint, who have been made so by the high pro- fessing and low prejudices of those who claim to be the Churches of Christ. Were it lot for the “ Shaker and Shakeress,” the rising true Christian spirit and principles, being taught as they are, by their own divines, that God is a God of war; and that, instead of being saved from sin and its consequences here, they must wallow on through ﬁlthiness till death places them in better conditions. Thousands who have been seeking the truth, tices of the fashionable churches, but know not where else to look for good, are now bless- ing you for the plain truths and teachings sent forth to them in your paper. For, while others are blinding and bewildering which neither they nor anybody else under- stand, you are making the highway of holi- ness so plain that a child may understand it. You conﬁne or apply religion to daily life. “ Turn from that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good, in all your thoughts, words and acts,” is the true Christian and the true Shaker doctrine ; and, when people obey, they will soon see the absurdity of sinning all their lives, and then asking to be made clean and whole by the blood of one who died eighteen hundred years ago. We shall all ﬁnd just as much salvation from sin and its consequences, here and hereafter, as we work for, and no more. The death of a thousand men called Jesus, or Christ, never will entitle us to salva- tion, here or hereafter, one whit further than we possess in ourselves the Spirit of Christ, and work it out in our daily lives. Teaching people that Christ suffered for our sins, that we may spend our lives in transgression, and then, on our death-beds, make a dodge by the devil, and land in heaven pure and perfect saints, all ﬁtted for immortal glory and hap- piness, is one of the greatest sins or errors ever committed, as it gives liberty to travel through life in sin, and to enter, without pre- paration, a state of existence whose very begin- ning requires that all the faculties and powers of our souls should be trained to the highest perfection. If men had ever been taught the great truth that salvation and happiness, here and hereafter, depends on our own individual efforts in our daily lives to purify ourselves from all sin and wrong-doing, we should now have a very different state of society. The “ Shaker and Shakeress,” is now teach- ing these blessed truths ; and may the Father and Mother of all that is good, and all the holy angels, aid in impressing the importance of these truths on the world, and the Churches of the world, which a false theology has cov- ered with almost Egyptian darkness. I rejoice to see that you are bearing a testi- mony against putting God and Christ into the Constitution, which would be opening the door for the union of Church and State, which would ﬁnally lead to the rekindling of the ﬁres of persecution, that were extinguished with the tears and blood of millions of those who were the real salt and light of the earth, and, for want of whose righteous teachings, the world has been groping in spiritual dark- ness ever since. Man, without a Divine spirit to control and guide him, is the same in all ages; and, if we give graceless priests, who believe in pauper- houses, prisons, the gallows, and in war, power to lord it over the world, they will persecute those who cannot conscientiously indorse them as severely now as did their brethren in the ages that have passed. And then, what mock- ery, what rank blasphemy, to put the name of God, who is Love, and of Christ, “ the Prince of Peace,” into the Constitution of a Govern- ment whose country is ﬁlled with forts, arsen- als, powder—houses, with a standing army and navy, and which is now spending, thirty mil- SHAKERESS. lions a year for war purposes in a time of peace ! Would God and Christ accept the ofﬁce and honor which these ignorant fanatics are endeavoring to force upon them? Go on in your good work: the holy angels, and the hearts of all pure men and women, must be with you. Jer. Hacker, Berlin, N. J. GOVERNMENT. “Where there is no government there is no God." THERE is some inherent virtue in all the vari- ous forms of human government. An empire, or despotism, under the direction of one will, capable and good, is vastly more happy in its conditions than is a democratic State without self—control. An aristocracy is but another name for gov- ernment by the best minds. And who will say it is not better than misgovernment by a rabble. Wild tribes elect their own chief- tains, and these chiefs are governed by a council of their wise old men. True republics embody the best qualities of all human governments. When a people have become sufficiently enlightened to protect themselves from being ruled by designing knaves, they should govern theinselves. Their ﬁrst step may be to elect an aristocracy, com- posed of their most able minds, to make the laws; then to elect an officer, or officers, to execute them; these, answering to the execu- tive head of an empire, enforce the laws made by the people through their aristocracy; but, under bonds to administer for the common good of all. For the misrule of a mob is no worse, in principle, than that of a despot; but is more showy. A theocracy, or government by the Inﬁnite, through the ﬁnite——the spiritual through visible channels——is evidently what the per- verseness of man’s nature requires. It is becoming a question, whether, in this country, man has not, already, more liberty than he will use aright. Uncontrolled, un- regulated license, will as assuredly pervert all government in the future as it ever has in the past. In his lowest condition, man needs protection against his fellow. In his intelli- gent state, he needs protection against his own sinful pleasures. Uncivilized, he is in- capable of a true spiritual government, as it would soon degenerate into a superstition. Enlightened, he becomes voluptuous; for the means of sensuous satisfaction, have far out- grown the only power which can curb the desires, and hold them to their legitimate use—the present and future good of hims lf and his fellows. Believing that God overrules human affairs for the ﬁnal good of the race, We perceive design in bringing those wandering Arabs, or sons of Jacob, to dwell near the highly civil- ized Egyptians for four hundred years. Could they live for so many generations in close contact with the most enlightened people of the day, and not have the truths of civiliza- tion born in them? And what could better ﬁt them for a theocracy, and to be led by the one man who had the noblest spiritualistic development ? It is safe to predicate, from the lessons of history, and from the result of stern facts in the present, that the race cannot—will not ——unaided from above, govern itself with justice. For no material or intellectual forces can ever reach the spiritual nature, which, alone, has power to subdue those desires and passions of the earthly man, which, defying all law, is termed “that lawless.” Hence, when man can see the Inﬁnite in the finite, he will have a government mani- fested in human beings, who possess the highest spiritual development of the day and time ; and the governed will realize that their freedom of desire and action may be greater than their power of restraint, and so yield obedience to God, as seen in his “ image." Thus, the culmination of human govern- 35 ment will be spiritual, which takes into the account man’s highest attributes and well- being. It will be of God, through the peo- pleﬁ and for the people, and of their own free WI . G. H. Hamster, Mt. Lebanon. [From the Albany Morning Express.] UNION OF CHURCH AND STATE. VIEWS or A PROMINENT SHAKER. j0...._ Mr. LEBANON, COLUMBIA Co., N. Y., March 15, 1873. Editor jllorning ﬁpress .' RESPECTED FRIEND: I send you a copy of my St. George’s Hall lecture, and a pamphlet. I hope your life may be spared until you can look through them. It may be that you will be the better prepared for the interesting change, after digesting their contents. If good) came “out of Nazareth,” why may not light come out of Shakerdom? If we must have a union of “Church and State ” in this nation, I propose that the Sha- ker Church be the one to be thus united to the Civil Government. There are grave reasons why this union should be consummated. The President has already extended a fraternal hand toward the Shakers’ Order, saying, “I believe that our great Master is preparing the world, in his own good time, to become one nation, speaking one language, and when armies and navies will be no longer required." This is his language; it is ours. Here is a basis of union with our Church not to be else- where found. It is self—evident that a Civil Government, having such a “high and holy faith” in Millennial principles, that will eventually exterminate sensuality, poverty, slavery and war, can form no permanent union with any of the churches of Babylon, Christ- endom -—churches who believe in, and have, for 1260 years, practised war— holding their prisoners as slaves --thus creating poverty, rich and poor, bond and free, male and female, Jew and Gentile, who, vociferously denounc- ing the brotherhood of Humanity, never agree except when baptised into, and whilst bathing in the stagnant waters of the “Social Evil: " in that they are one ﬂesh. “What concord hath Christ and Belial, or what fellowship hath light with darkness ?” What union can there ever be between a civil Government that “believes” in the Pow- ers of Peace — the Millennium — and ﬁghting churches, who carry the “Bible in one hand, and Sharp's riﬂe in the other? ” By all means, let us have a union of Church and State. But let it be between a peace- “believing” Government on the one hand, and a peace practising Church, on the other. This will follow: The Shaker Church, “ren- dering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s," will let the Civil Government, then to be com- posed equally of male and female oﬁicers, the executives of laws protective of person and property, without discrimination of sex, coloi' or nationality, attend to all civil matters be- tween one citizen and another, relating to “ the life that now is,” and the Shaker Church will, under the inﬂuence of Spiritualism, regulated by religious inspiration, occupy itself with the far more important affaiiﬁ of ‘f the world to come.” And at the same time knowing, 36 SHAKER AND as none others can know, that the “price” of good, once gained, is “eternal vigilance,” it will see to it (geese did once on a time save the Roman citadel), that no one of the adulte- rous, worldly churches, that “believe ” in war, its causes, and sequences, shall ever in- tervene between itself and the Civil Govern- ment of these United States, which is a home for persons of all kindreds, tribes, peoples, tongues, nations, and races, with all their an- tagonizing theologies and diversities of Bibles. "Let us have Peace.” F. W. Evans. SHEPHERDS. “ I am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, gggeam known of mine; and they shall hear my I CAN indeed testify to the truth of these words. Christ’s Spirit is “ known” and felt by my hungry soul. I rejoice to ﬁnd him in so many. Some time back, he was not to be found in any man or woman upon this earth. But now we are blessed with the presence of the heavenly Bride and Bridegroom. The kind, loving Shepherds in Zion, possess the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ and Mother Ann, and are worthy of their inheritance, be- cause they have lain down their lives just as did Jesus. They are true followers of Christ. They do not go behind, and drive their sheep, but they go before, and all the good sheep follow. It is something of a cross to follow Christ; yet I rejoice that my lot is cast among faithful cross-bearers. La/rz Erickson, Pleasant Hill, Ky. DOES THE WORLD MOVE“! :.o.__. As a whole or a part, is humanity moving on an upgrade? Much depends on the standpoint from which the view is taken. Go down into tnrmoils—— the scrambles for place and for pelf — go down into the condemned little diﬁiculty gclept “ the social evil”— stay there long enough to get your perceptives obfuscated—— and should you be asked, Does the world move ? you might say, as did Ezekiel when asked, “ Can these dry bones live?” “ O Lord, Thou knowest.” But here let us quit these regions and go up —higher up— up to the highest parts of the earth— the parts that come nearest to the heavens —- nearest to angels and God. Now cast about, and what do we see ? We see some splendid specimens of the race Homo — intellectual, political and moral. Com- pared with the ‘ homos ’ of former periods, these specimens we see now are almost divine. Herein lies the grand secret of the differ- ences, to wit: In olden time ‘homos ’ got up gods in their own likeness ; now, these ‘ homos ’ get themselves up in the likeness of God. This makes a difference, we see. What though these approved editions are not yet the many? we must confess they are not. They are the few. But they are prophe- cies of the future many —the poetic few. Now just look ahead a few centuries. What do you see‘! We see this planet peopled with the like- ness of God as the waters cover the sea; this is what we see. 0. P. .j_.+_.:_.__ THE Duke of Somerset in his “ Christian The- ology and Modern Skepticism,” thinks that the gender of words has a great deal to do with our religious beliefs. He insinuates that if the word for spirit, which is feminine in Hebrew, had not become changed to mascu- line in the Latin, one or more of the Trinity would be of a different sex. -‘rs-s.ru.o— KNOWLEDGE oV_S- RELIGION. Religion is the salvation or the curse of mankind. What is religion, but the inpour- ing or outpouring of the soul—action, mo- tion? All the actions of a man or woman is his or her religion. Every action that brings happiness —heaven—is true religion; while every act that results in unhappiness—hell —is false religion. There may be as many degrees of heaven and hell, as there are of heat and cold. Knowledge is the saving or Christ principle, which deters human beings from doing what ignorance would leave them to do, wrong. The great cross of to—day, for mankind, is work; to work for their bread, and to work for knowledge that will bring lasting happi- ness. Men work for knowledge to get money, to obtain land, to secure the notice of other persons, and to be honored one of another; to become politicians, lawyers, doc- tors, preachers-—auy thing that is popular with mankind. But to seek and work for that combination of physical, moral, intellectual and spiritual truth, which would result in human happi- ness — heaven — is a cross that not many can bear. So few are willing to ﬁnd heaven here upon earth, that they seek not for it; but look away into the future, to some great place above. Friends, heaven is no particular place, but a condition as attainable on earth as in any other place, or sphere, or world. Reason and experience teach me that the only way to heaven is right living; and that the know- ledge and practice of right living is religion. Aaron Evans. “ To know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hath sent, is eter- nal life." —Ed. ._m.__.__ RESPONSJRILITY. Emu Contributor is-accountable for his or her own sentiments or ideas. It is the duty of Editors, being responsible to Authors, to prepare matter for the press. Writers should be “A little deaf, a little blind, If happiness they’d surely ﬂnd,” Or, otherwise, write only what has been well thought out. Better write two or three short articles, than one too long. It is no more advisable to “catch the hare before you cook it,” than it is to have some- thing to say before you say it. Yet, as the only way to prepare a population for a repub- lie, is to establish one; as there are no means by which a child can learn to talk, except prattling; and as only those who go often into the water, at the risk of going under, be- come good swimmers, so it is with compo- sing—-putting ideas into words. Therefore write, that you may learn to write; ﬁrst being certain that already you do not know how. All Contributors, whatever become of their contributions, have our CORDIAL THANKS. Each one is expected to do better next time. We quote, or copy, for information. And never indorse by implication. ....o_. No one who has honestly endeavored to express his thoughts in prose, and failed, should be cen- sured too severely for resorting to poetry. :j—.———+—jj—— DUAL.—— The latest originality in the way of newspaper titles is found, of all places in the world, among the Shakers of New Lebanon. For two years they have issued a journal called The Shaker, which was the organ of their sect throughout the country. Lately, however, they have recognized the Woman’s Rights doctrine, by terming their paper The “ Shaker and Shalceress.” This is certainly a striking, if not a euphonious title.— Buﬁalo Express. J IN FIDELS. *0... “THE new inﬂdels have nothing whatever in common with Voltaire or Paine, probably do not sympathize at all with either the spirit of their. writings or the separate opinions they advocated. They are not controversialists any more; they are not theologians. They make no war on particular dogmas—such as Trinity, atonement, depravity, perdition, literal inspirations. Those of them who profess hostility to Christianity, do it on grounds that neither Paine nor Voltaire would have com- prehended —that even Parker did not occupy. Those who profess themselves Christians, do so for reasons peculiarly their own; they decline to receive Christianity as a doctrinal system, and but partially accept it as an ethical system. They regard it rather in the light of a symbolical illustration of their own moral sentiments, of sentimental value purely, or as the natural and legitimate development of one line of history. The rest classify Christianity among the great religions of the race, give it its place in history, appreciate what it has done, commend it for what it is doing, but seek elsewhere for their guidance and authority.” “Between ‘French Inﬁdelity,’ therefore, and American Rationalism, there are worlds of differ- ence. They scarcely touch each other at any point. In spirit, method, aim, principle, conclu- sion, they are essentially unlike. They start from a different goal, proceed along a different track, issue at a different point. The atheist does not copy Diderot; the materialist turns his back on Helvetius; the deist forsakes the ways of Thomas Paine; even the mocker has a fashion of his own, quite unlike Voltaire’s. There is no excuse for naming them in the same breath but partisan bitterness; and whether or not that can be ac- cepted as an excuse, we leave our readers to judge.” TWELVE REASONS WHY N0 RATIONAL BEING SHOULD USE TOBACCO. 1. THE habit is at war with temperance. Tobacco is an intoxicant. It is a part of the merchandise of dram-shops and an incentive to drunkenness. The toper, rebuked by a. professed teetotaler, with a quid or a cigar in his mouth, might pertinently respond: “ Physician heal thyself.” 2. The habit is a se1f—indulgence in ﬂ rant con- ﬂict with the self-denying spirit of t e Divine Founder of Christianity. It numbers among its slaves more than 150 millions of human beings. It hinders moral reform, and it impedes progress. The habit is essentially ﬂlthy, and “cleanli- ness,” says the proverb, “ is next to godliness.” Ladies of reﬁnement involuntarily shrink from the man who chews, or snuifs, or smokes, unless custom has rendered them indifferent to these vile practices. 4. The lips of a tobacco chewer, or habitual smoker, are swelled and saturated with a disgust- ing poison, the gums are spongy and tender, and the whole month and throat affected by its use. 5. The habit of using tobacco is inconsistent with the character of a Christian gentleman. “St. Paul," Bishop Hooker tells us, “was em- phaticall a gentleman.” Would he have poisoned the air with sickening smoke, or deluged the floor with liquid ﬁlthiness? Never! 6. The habit injures the voice. The smoker articulates huskily. The chewer often croaks. The snuﬂer speaks through his nose. '7. The habit is costly. Oﬂicial statistics show that more money was spent for tobacco in the United States during 1871 than for bread—the stair of life. ,000,000 for tobacco in its various forms. $200,000,000 for ﬂour within the year! 8. The habit often lowers the self-respect of those who practice it. _ “I love my pipe,” said a clerglyman, “but I despise myself for using it.” 9. he habit disturbs the regular pulsation of the heart. Tobacco users are thus in constant danger. Many fall dead suddenly. 10. The habit weakens the mind. It enfeebles the memory. paralyzes the will, produces morbid irritability, diseases the imagination, deadens the moral sensibilities, and is, therefore, an “ assault and battery ” on the nervous system, the intellect and the soul. 11. The habit is a rebellion against Conscience. Those who indulge in it know that it wastes time, money, strength. and life, and tramples on the laws of Nature, which are the laws of God. Hence it is a sin. 12. The habit is as contagious as the cholera. Every mature smoker or chewer infects dozens of youths with a desire to follow his pernicious ex- ample. Thus the evil spreads. Bondsmen of “tobacco,” break your chains! After a month of abstinence you will not care for the poison, and within a year after our self- emanciplation, you will loathe it. It is od’s com- mand t at you do yourself no willful harm. For this reason, added to those already placed before you, give up the use of tobacco forthwith and fmibgver. av. SHAKERESS. A. DOOLITTLE, EDITRESS. PROPHETS. _o_. MODERN prophets have read and re-read the predictions of the ancient Seers, and inhaled the breath of inspirational life from them; and have so much admired the high-toned eloquence and purity of thought and language ﬂowing through them, that they have bowed and done them reverence. Many, while pe- rusing the touching Bible story of Abraham, when he journeyed with his beloved son Isaac from Beersheba to mount Moriah, have honored him for his ﬁrmness of purpose in yielding obedience to the call of God to him, and have admiringly followed him at a dis- tance, and beheld his courage and faith, when he set his face toward the land to which his God was about to lead him. Slowly, but ﬁrmly, step by step, he ascended the mount, ready to sacriﬁce his dearest loved one on earth, to evidence the greater love that he felt to his God, whom he professed to serve. But how many, in our own time, possess faith enough to sacriﬁce their Isaacs, when called to do so? Ah! says one, “ We have fallen upon dif- ferent times! Our God is tender and com- passionate! He saw A.braham’s faith and felt his sore trial and grief, while proving his integrity to principle.” And God said “I will make a great sacriﬁce once for all! ” And He sent his only Son into our world as a ran- som for the race of man, and thus released us from the performance of such painful duties. Now, all that remains for us to do is to be- lieve on his Son, and rely upon his atoning blood that was shed on Calvary, and chant requiems of praise to him, and all will be well; for he loves us so well, he will wink at all our transgressions, and cancel all our debts for us. Our earth—life is short, and we pur- pose getting all the pleasure out of it that we possibly can, and trust to his merits for the future.” , Many have revered the character of the Leader and Deliverer of ancient Israel, as they have traced the history of his travels through the wilderness, and his patient endur- ance and perseverance with that murmuring and oftentimes rebellious people. He was possessed of human frailties as well as they ; and was a partaker of all the trials and temptations to which they were subject, which he resisted, and encouraged his people to do the same; and he became a practical law-giver by carrying the principles and laws, which he enunciated, into effect in his own life. There is grandeur and beauty in the account of his approach to mount Sinai with the sev- entypelders, who were commanded to worship afar off, while Moses, alone, was allowed to draw near ; how, in vision, they saw the God of Israel, whose‘ feet were placed upon sap- phire stone like unto the body of heaven in clearness; and the communings of the Spirit with Moses on the Mount, the burning bush; the voice of the trumpet; the thunderings and lightnings, and the cloud which rested there. SHAKERESS. '\I But we would ask: Have those signal manifestations of power any particular bear- ing upon the people of this generation? Have we nothing to do but to read, wonder, and admire? Or, were the dealings of the God of the Jews with the people, at that time, written and preserved for the admoni- tion and beneﬁt of succeeding generations? How much easier it is to think well of cove- nants that were made with our fathers, a long time ago, than it is for us to make new covenants, which require new sacriﬁces. The code of laws given through Moses, still pos- sess great power; and there is a spirit at work, seeking to infuse new life into them, that they may take practical effect in a physical and moral point of view upon the habits and lives of the people of our own time. The Mosaic Dispensation is the basis upon which the Christian Dispensation must rest. If we destroy the one, and render it ineffectual, we shall do the same by the other. And, when we acknowledge God's power in ages past, and profess to believe in the fulﬁllment of prophecy in the future, yet are unwilling that those prophecies should be fulﬁlled in our time, and take effect in us, be- cause of some sacriﬁce that we must make, and a cross that would follow as a sequence, then we give evidence of the want of liv- ing practical faith and true honesty of pur- pose. God will not be mocked with vain and empty professions. If we cry “Lord! Lord!” we must have corresponding works, or He will not know us in the covenant of re- demption. He will own and honor only those who, through a spirit of unselﬁsh devo- tion, honor Him. GORRESPON DEN GE. _0_ Dear Sister Uapen : How do you and yours prosper, and how in particular does your soul prosper? For I do not believe you are one who ever can become so absorbed in worldly cares as to forget its interests; although, like all human beings, you may mistake in the manner of protecting and advancing those interests. _ You and I were well acquainted in time past, as you may remember, holding in com- mon much experience and many opinions; but it is a long time since we met. You thought at that time (if I mistake not), that you, by a transient visit, knew some little about Shakers, suﬂicient to justify you in rejecting their principles and practices. Since I became acquainted with both the one and the other, I have not ceased to be astonished that so many good, honest, piously- disposed people, as far as I can see or know, decide about and pass over this important question: “What can this people mean by their profession and practice?” On my ﬁrst and last visit to Dorchester, my old and much- loved home, I called upon a sister occupying a prominent position in the Church, express- ing to her the delight I felt in ﬁnding a people who were really Christians. She said, “Oh, wait, sister, till you have lived with them a while; you will not stay long after you really ﬁnd them out.” Well. I have tried it tw._enty- ﬁve years, and have failed to ﬁnd any thing of what she darkly hinted. Do you remem- ber what you once thought of a married life, as to its effect upon the spiritual life, and the text you gave me, when I urged you to take care of Brother Capen’s children ? You told me very truly and wisely, that Paul said, a married woman would care for the things of 3'7’ the world, how she might please her husband, but the unmarried was free to care how she might please the Lord, and keep herself holy in body and spirit. You also reminded me how women, we had both known and hon- ored, had counted themselves as having fallen from their high state of holiness, when they entered on a married life, or at least as main- taining their profession with increased trial and uncertainty. Yet, with all this, how slow have I and others been to discern the truth. It would ill become me, who have been in darkness so dense, to fault my friends because they may be slow to see light; for not- withstanding my zeal and earnestness in those days, looking back upon them it is plainly to be seen, that, in spiritual things, I did not know my right hand from my left; and can only be thankful that I had as little inﬂuence and did so little evil. Whatever may be thought by those who count themselves good and wise, it will be seen in the end, to be a great attainment to really know the ﬂesh from the spirit, and to which we are really giving in our adhesion; for the word is, if we sow to the spirit we shall reap life eternal: but, if we sow to the ﬂesh, we shall of the ﬂesh reap corruption. If, instead of crucifying, we will persist in culti- vating, the crop will be abundant and sure; for, whatever man may be, God is not mocked or deceived. You, my dear sister, may think it passing strange that I should name this plain scripture to one who has quoted it so often in public and in private, as I have heard you. Still you are aware that it is the expe- rience of yourself and others, that we may read and quote Scripture and imagine our- selves familiar with its meaning. Yet, after awhile, the heavens may open and a ray of light fall upon the subject in question, giving it a signiﬁcance and importance not seen before. What, let me ask, in all humility, are the aﬂ"ections of the ﬂesh, if not those originated and fostered by its ties? And how came we to be so blind as not to see it? I think no soul can understand this matter until they clearly know that the light and call of the Gospel concerns the body as well as the soul, the former called to be a ﬁt temple for an indwelling holy spirit. This (it seems to me) must be something very different and opposed to the uses to which the ﬂesh consigns it, i. e. a prey to the lusts of men, I grant you, in many cases, a willing prey. Justice requires that we admit this truth, but does this fact lessen the degradation? Surely not! On the contrary, it has been maintained, by wise men and thinking women, that the darkest feature of slavery was that it rendered some of its victims willing to remain slaves! There, sister dear, I have written what was in my mind, and prayerfully hope it may do no harm. It is a blow aimed at the root of all sin ; and, in this day of the world’s history, it seems not best to spend much time or strength lopping branches, if one has any hope of reaching the root. A more pleasant subject upon which to write might be found: could there be a more important one? The loss and consequent misery of humanity is a sad subject, but it looks to me that, if tongue and pen be con- secrated to the highest use of this hideously- fallen world, delicacy and modesty, which have been so long and persistently ignored in the commission of sin, must of necessity be laid a little on one side, while we grapple with the deadly monster. If the vail cast over the face of all nations is ever effectually rent, every son and daughter of the second Adam should feel like contributing their mite dismissing forever overweening delicacy and worldly mock—modesty. Nancy Fairbanks. Harvard, Mass. NOW that woman begins to protest, she will not be so much oppressed as heretofore by her stronger half. 38 MEDITATION. —.O__ DAVID said, “the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.” Many beneﬁts are derived from serious and candid medita- tion, and much is lost for the want of it. Those who, without due reﬂection, eagerly rush forward in pursuit of pleasure are often surrounded by difficulties and dangers from which they cannot extricate themselves. Bitter regrets and remorse of conscience have fallen to the lot of those who have yielded to the impulse of evil passions in- stead of giving place to calm deliberation upon cause and eﬁect. A proper use of the reflective powers of mind would prevent atrocious crimes, would stay the murderous hand, restrain the fraudulent heart, and lead to works of virtue and love, which would not only give individual happiness but would be a blessing to others. How often we see the young and inexperienced, who are self—reli- ant, move on in their own will, regardless of the counsel of parents and the cautious of their dearest friends, until they plunge them- selves into irretrievable ruin, bringing guilt and shame upon themselves and blighting the fond hopes of their best friends. 0 that all would learn to heed the voice of conscience, and reflect and consider wisely, and let the monitor within warn them of danger, and assist them to examine the mo- tives which prompt to action! In thus doing, integrity might be maintained, unblemished morals preserved, and direful effects averted. There is peace and serenity in calm medi- tation. In the hour of reﬁection and con- templation, we enlarge our conceptions of the Creator of the universe, and of the laws which govern the creation. Those who are thus exercised can say, as did one anciently, “O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” The beauty and harmony of God’s works unfold to the view as we study his laws, from which we learn the practical duties of the present life. and how to pre- pare for that life which is eternal. Hallowed and blest is the hour of meditation! Our hearts would expand, and our conceptions of the Divine would be enlarged, were we to fre- quently consider his unbounded beneﬁcence in giving to mortals a rational, understand- ing mind, capable of inﬁnite expansion and reflecting the likeness of our Eternal Parents. Elizabeth Sears, Mt. Lebanon. FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY. ——0—— INSPIRATION from the higher spheres should be ever welcome to our hearts, whether per- taining to the work of the present time or to the greater glory of the advancing Millennial Day. In this way, how often do we feel the Spirit witnessing with our spirits that the promises of God are sure, and that to the in- crease of his work there will be no end. He hath purposed to have a people on the earth who will do his will, and live in obedience to, and in harmony with, the original laws of their own being, and keep pace with increas- ing light, and who will from principle perform every duty. Prophets in all ages, when under the guid- ance of true inspiration, have pointed to such a people and work. How earnestly did the prophet Isaiah testify of a coming people, who should be washed from all ﬁlth and be purged by the spirit of judgment, and be reﬁned by the spirit of burning, until all that remained in Jerusalem should be called holy, and have the'r names written among the living. And, for her glory and defense, the cloud should overshadow and form a covert by day from the heat and storm, and the fiery pillar should be her defense by night; and a tabernacle should be formed, wliereunto those who were weary of the conﬂicts of life, and (through prolonged struggle) had battled against error, could ﬂee for safety and ﬁnd rest. Why should we fear to meet the shaking Work promised through the same Prophet, and SHAKER AND ﬂee to the cragged rocks for a hiding place? The strongholds of sin are destined to be shaken, and Babylon must fall! Her walls will crumble; the elements are already at work, and the process of disintegration is going on. And, as human efforts cannot thwart the purposes of God, would it not be wiser and better to co-operate with the Divine will, and bless the agencies sent to pull down the false, and to establish the true; and thus help to hasten the time when science and religion will walk hand in hand, that order may be estab- lished in the world of mind and matter, and that pure and undeﬁled religion, which will mold the character, and ﬁt the soul for the society of redeemed spirits in regions super- nal, may triumph over all? Jane D. Knight, Mt. Lebanon. FRUGALITY. How inﬁnitely wise and bountiful, is the great Creator of the world; yet in all his bounty He allows no waste. Of the four elements earth, air, ﬁre, and water, of which the world is composed, there is nothing wasted. Man may make use of these ele- ments, but he cannot destroy them. The decomposition of matter in the vegetable kingdom is a preparation for giving life to another growth. The majestic trees of the forest derive strength and vitality from their own foliage, and in all the works of Nature we see this important truth veriﬁed, that nothing is "lost. Jesus when on earth went about distributing blessings. His example of feeding the ﬁve thousand with ﬁve loaves and two ﬁshes, and when the meal was passed, of commanding them to “gather up the frag- ments, that nothing be lost; ” is one worthy of imitation and attention. Mother Ann was remarkable, both in prin- ciple and practice, in regard to prudence and economy. She was frequently known to wait until others had ﬁnished their meal, then go to the table and make her repast of the frag- ments, and say, “It is good enough for me; it is the blessing of God, and must not be lost! ” Her counsel to her children was, “You must be prudent and saving of every good thing.” Let us follow her beautiful example of frugality, and gather up the fragments. For this was the pattern which Jesus did set, and his good example we should not for- get. The practical Believer in Christ will heed the counsel of the Apostle, who said, “ Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” A modern poet says: “We_ﬂnd of those bounties which Heaven does give That soine live to eat, and some eat to live; That some think of nothing but pleasing the taste, And care Very little how much they may waste.” Eldress Anna Irving, Enﬁeld, Ct. VIRGINITY. WE hail the “Shaker and Shakeress,” as a Life Boat to the shipwrecked mariner, giving to every honest passenger a safe passport to a higher and still higher sphere. I beg a seat in some corner, for I am a life passenger, bound heavenward. May’st thou plough on and o’er the surging billows of darkness, big- otry, and superstition, until thou hast reached a haven in the great universal heart of hu- manity. ' I realize that I am enjoying the great privi- lege of being one of the Latter-Day virgins, and amcalled to form a true Christian charac- ter, to live pure, as do the angels in heaven. In sincerity of heart, I pray, “Thy kingdom come ; thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” Virginity, Honesty, Chastity, and disinterested Benevolence, are the great and good principles which rule in that kingdom, and they whose characters are conformed to those principles, will possess it. Virgin Parity is the first principle upon which the Christian or Shaker Church is based; but it is not gained, nor maintained, without heart-struggles and soul—sufferings. _o— The natural man is groveling and selﬁsh. His tendency, without spirituality and the cross, is downward; but, in a true virgin state, he is continually reaching forward, looking upward, aiming higher. To great heroes and conquerors of nations, what a shocking disappointment, when, by self-examination, they learn the important truth, that “ the least in the kingdom of heaven,” who govern themselves, are greater than they. Though the greatest of sages and heroes of fame, Have left on record an immortalized name. Yet the greatest achievement that mortals can gain, Is over themselves in victory to reign. And such of all nations, from beggars to kings, The Lord hath decreed shall inherit all things. “ Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Also, “ the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Those who are truly meek, and form the pure virgin character, realize the truth of those beautiful promises. Such are able to see the source from “ whence come wars and ﬁglitings ; ” that those who are “ pure ” will be “ peaceable.” The only way to become true subjects of the kingdom of heaven is by an honest confession of all sin, accompanied with repentance ; and to crucify the sensual nature, in thought, word, and deed, by denying every animal appetite. By thus doing, the soul is clothed in vestal robes, and the Christian, virgin character is formed, whose love is pure, unselﬁsh and never- failing ! 0, I will prize my glorious call, For life et_ernal give up _a , Make straight my pat in purity, For truth alone can make me free. If I possess superior love, ’Twill elevate me far above The vain and transient ties of earth, Where I can ﬁnd the second birth. But, where is one of common sense Who would, but for a recompense Of life eternal, peace and joy, Their carnal life and loves destroy ? No others can; ’tis those alone Who make the cross of Christ their own, Who daily in his footsteps move; Such reap the fruits of virgin love. . joj “ And the earth helped the Woman.” Triumphant at last. 0, frail portion of man, Herald thy vict’ry through God’s holy plan ; Earth shall assist thee ; thy virtue shall reign ; Stand by man ’s side and its power maintain, Hearest thou not the wise Prophet declare, Arise,Virgin Daughter, thy garments prepare l Kings shall adore thee, thou heavenly Bride : Emblem of Purity, stand by his side. Riches and honor, with blessings unseen, Emanate from thee, thou glorious Queen. Sound it aloud, —“ New salvation hath come!” Seek it through Father and Mother as One. Although seasons vanish, ﬂowers perish, Luminaries disappear, Other ﬂowers will bloom as fragrant, Other lights will shine as clear. And those past and present seasons Tell of others yet to come, Bringing with them untold blessings, Far surpassing those now ﬂown. Time is passing; but Progression Moves along with lightning speed : Though great nations live, and have lived, Others yet will those exceed. Yea, the long sought-for Millennium, Though its star we dimly see, Soon o’er earth will spread its mantle “ As the waters do the sea.” May we leave to our successors Foot-prints on the shores of time, Of good deeds and noble actions: Be their mission more sublime. Nancy L. Rupe. Pleasant Hill, Ky. ___j¢__._.__. The serial Dialogue, in tract form, price ten cents, single. Five dollars per hundred. Ad- dress Editor. OBITUARY. ELDER WILLIAM MANIRE, Pleasant Hill, Ky., March 25, aged 73. LUCY HORTEN, Water-vliet, aged 81. NANCY PIERCE, West Glouster, March 7, aged 75. SHAKEBESS. 89 THE FAMILY RELATION. —o— IT has always been surprising to me that Bible Christians—- those who profess to take the Bible for their rule of life and practice, should be so tenacious of minor points, while this subject — the Family Relation — on which so much of their own happiness, and that of their posterity depend, is treated with such neglect. When a child is born into this world, it comes under the law of its parents. The ﬁrst commandment given to the child is, “ Honor thy father and mother ”—“Children obey your parents.” The law of the parents is binding on the child while it is a minor. If the parents are law-abiding, and bring up their children in the fear of God, if they pro- voke them not, if they forbear threatening, and set a godly example, then they may with conﬁdence look for a blessing to crown their efforts. When children arrive at maturity, they come under another law, which frees them from the law of their parents. By mutual agree- ment, they take the relation of husband and wife. Now the man is to “ forsake father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one ﬂesh.” In the book of Malachi, the question is asked and answered, “ Where- fore one ? That he (God) might seek a godly seed.” If none had children but those who produce “a godly seed,” surely there would not be so many more mouths than bread to ﬁll them. The race has become wonderfully degene- rate; and, as the curse comes not causeless, would it not be well to seek for the cause, and if possible ﬁnd the remedy? Are men and women living according to either Law or Gos- pel, in their family relations? If not, will they not be held accountable‘? Suppose you, that there was a requirement made which it was of no consequence whether it be complied with or not? Let us see what the require- ment is. (I am speaking to those who acknowledge Bible authority). St. Paul said, “ Wives submit yourselves to your own hus- bands, as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church. Therefore, as the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it.” The Apostle, after stating what Christ has done for the Church, and for what pur- pose, goes on to say, “ So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies; and let their wives see that they reverence their hus- bands.” And St. Peter tells them “ not to let their adorning be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and wearing gold and put- ting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man (Woman) of the heart, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Likewise ye hus- bands, dwell with them according to know- ledge Eiccording to science —scientiﬁcally], giving onor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered.” References could be multiplied to a much greater extent, but these may suffice, to show the vast difference that exists between the Bible requirements, and the practice of those who profess to be governed by Christian principles. The above are some of the requirements by which people should be governed in the natu- ral or generative order; and were these pre- cepts religiously observed by both parties, we should soon see a very diiferent state of things. Divorces would be less frequent. And if the results of divorcement, as stated by one superior to Moses, were observed, there would be but few who would be willing to marry her who had been put away: “ I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whoso marrieth her that is put away, doth commit adultery.” ‘ But there is a holier state than that of matrimony; for even those who were said to be “ holy women of old,” when in the works of generation, had to bring their sin ojfering after being excluded from the congregation for a prescribed length of time; thus show- in the need of regeneration and obedience to a igher and holier law. But so long as the wife’s desire [lust] is to her husband, so long will he rule over her; for this is the marriage covenant, and is and will be binding so long as she remains on that plane. The “law of Christ makes us free from the law of sin and death.” There was a “new covenant ” spoken, which was to supplant “ that which was old and ready to vanish away.” It was said of Christ’s second appear- ing, “ that to those who look for him, he will appear the second time without sin unto salva- tion.” In that day, they who were not able to bear a full cross were tolerated ; but the Apostle said that he “ could not speak to them as spiritual, but as carnal.” And he told them that the time was short when this indulgence could be allowed. “It remaineth that both they that have Wives be as though they had none. I would,” says he, “have you without carefulness. He that is married careth for the things of the world, how he may please his wife. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord. There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit. But she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.” Now, those who have lived up to the require- ments given to those in the natural order, have had a discipline which will be of great beneﬁt to them when they advance to the higher (or spiritual order), or to the work of regeneration, where it is required to give up all, and make an entire consecration, according to the words of Jesus Christ, when he said, “Except a man forsake all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” On one occasion, the disciples said to him : “ We have left all and followed thee, what shall we have therefor? He replied that they who had followed him in the regeneration, should have “ a hundred fold more in this world; and, in the world to come, eternal life.” Under the ﬁrst law the man was to “for- sake father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they twain were to be one ﬂesh,” with the injunction, that “ what God had joined together let not man put asunder.” Let us consider how they were joined together. They mutually agreed to live together as man and wife, and were pronounced such by the officiating party.- Now, have they not the same right to agree to live no longer as husband and wife, but as brother and sister, that they may rise to a higher plane, and, by the cross and self-denial, devote themselves to the cause of God and humanity? Where is the “ putting away? ” By the first agreement they became one ﬂesh, by the second, one spirit, by being joined to the Lord. When we have consecrated our substance, time, and talents, to the cause of God, and the salvation of our own and other souls, then can we with conﬁdence pray, “ Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven ;” for then our prayers and efforts will correspond, showing that we pray in faith. Ruth Webster, Union Village. WASTE BASKET. —o— I AM pleased to learn through the “ Shaker and Shakeress ” that there is a waste basket ready to receive contributions, and I am en- couraged to make an offering therefor, lest it may not be well ﬁlled. Were I able, I would gladly aid the little sheet on its mission, for I feel a deep interest in it. It is always wel- come as it makes its monthly visits to our mountain home, so richly laden with treasures of wisdom, and good, wholesome truths, so essential to the life and growth of all true Believers. It has come to us as a bright-winged Angel of Peace, and the mature thoughts and new ideas, fresh from spirit spheres, which have found expression through its columns, have given strength, hope, and comfort to many weary but patient travelers up progression’s steep ascent. And, when I reﬂect that the “ Shaker and Shakeress,” on its errand of love, is visiting so many towns and hamlets, and is read by thou- sands of people, not only in our own country, but also in foreign lands, I regard it as the most important missionary enterprize ever en- gaged in by Believers, and one that all should feel an interest in sustaining by every means within their power. If, by self-sacriﬁce and individual effort, we can advance the cause, and aid in the great work of human redemp- tion from the thraldom of sin, and from the blinding and deafening inﬂuences of anti- christian errors upon the spiritual senses of the unenlightened, how thankful we should be to give our best efforts in this direction. We may plead inability; but shall we, dear Shaker friends, take our ease, and act the slug- gard’s part, and cast all the responsibility upon others, who are already struggling and toiling to the extent of their powers‘? Nay, let us all work together for the upbuilding of the Gospel of Christ, which breathes peace and good will to the sons and daughters of earth. By so doing, we shall manifest our love to God and to humanity, and an appreciation of the noble efforts which many have made, and are still making, to carry forward the work of soul elevation. Rhoda R. Hollister, Mt. Lebanon. “ SHAKERESS.” .:0._. To the “ S’hakeress,” we send Sisterly greet- ings, acknowledging your important and glori- ous mission. We hail the new C'ap(tion) of the “ Shaker.” It ﬁts admirably. Now the “daughters of Zion have come forth, clothed in needle work, ﬁnely wrought with gold ;” and, in those spotless garments of purity, are, by their most glorious “ Queen,” presented to the King. “The Lord will create a new thing in the earth; a woman shall compass a man.” Glo- rious era! What a theme for reflection 1 VVhat a realm of light is revealed for explora- tion 1 Millions have sought thee in prayer and anguish of soul, but were not thus favored in time. May the blessed “Shakeress” prosper and be true to her most needful duty, which is to seek out her poor fallen sisterhood, and bind up their many wounds, and, upon their sensi- tive, emotional spirits, pour the balm of hope and consolation, to dry up those numberless unseen tears that are dripping, dripping away the physical lives, and impairing the spiritual growth of their souls. Up, then, then favored of the Lord, there is work to be done. The strong must bear the inﬁrmities of the weak, and Heaven requires all your talents. “ Where there is no vision the people perish.” Virgin daughter, tune the inspirational harp of Purity. May the cords thereof be touched, and the new song of the “ hundred and forty and four thousand” be re-echoed from pole to pole. And may the portals of Heaven never more be closed to mortals, or hidden from their comprehension. Nancy L. Rape. ——.o_— FAITH is not merely belief, but it is the conﬁdence derived from love to the Lord. The devils believe, but they have not faith. because they love not the Lord; they are not willing to intrust all to him. There can be no faith without love or charity; and the effort to get into a religious life by trying to believe that God will save us by so—called grace or the atonement

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