emn. As it died away, the clear musical voice of a female was heard from the external circle, telling, in joyful cadence, how happy she felt as a member of that pure and holy community. To this many among the worshipers gave words of hearty concurrence. Another sweet female voice then commenced a hymn in which "Mother Ann" was celebrated. The entire body of worshipers formed into a single line, marched slowly around the central circle of singers, and as the strain ceased their hands fell gracefully to their sides, their bodies were inclined gently forward, and their thin hands were slowly raised and clasped over the waist. After a brief pause they commenced singing a lively spiritual song. The worshipers now formed four circles, with the singers as the central one, and held each other by the hand, the men and women separately. These circles symbolized the four great Dispensations-the first from Adam to Abraham; the second from Abraham to Jesus; the third from Jesus to "Mother Ann;" and the fourth the present, which they hold to be the millennial period. In this hymn they sang of UNION, as exhibited by their linked hands; and when it had ceased they all lifted up their hands, and gave a subdued shout-the shout of victory-the final victory of Christ in all the earth, and the triumphs of the Shaker, or Millennial Church. Three or four more songs and hymns, with graceful dances or marches, and the ceremouials drew to a close. While singing the last sweet song, the men and women took their respective places at each end of the room, and stood facing each other. Elder Evans then addressed a few words of encouragement to them, and stepping forward, thanked the au dience for their kind attention, and informed them that the meeting was closed. From that house of strange worship every "Gentile" seemed to depart with serious feelings. Whatever may have been the scenes among the Shakers in former times or in other communities, of which many have spoken with contempt and ridicule, it can not be denied that their public worship at Lebanon is dignified, solemn, and deeply impressive. We may differ from them in opinion as to its propriety, but we must accord to them great earnestness and sincerity. Their songs and hymns breathe a pure and Christian spirit; and their music, unlike any to be heard elsewhere, captivates the ear because of its severe simplicity and perfect melody. Their movements in the dance or march, whether natural or studied, are all graceful and appropriate; and as I gazed upon that congregation of four or five hundred worshipers marching and countermarching in perfect time, I felt certain that, were it seen upon a stage as a theatrical exhibition, the involuntary exclamation of even the hypercritical would be, "How beautiful!" The women, clad in white, and moving gracefully, appeared ethereal; and among them were a few very beautiful faces. All appeared happy, and upon each face rested the light of dignified serenity, which always gives power to the features of woman. On leaving the house of worship I was invited to the dwelling of the preacher, and there I spent the afternoon and evening with him, and some of the brethren and sisters, in pleasant conversation, the chief topic of which was their doctrine and discipline. They accept the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament (our common version) as the true record of the revelation of God to man, and appeal to them for all the proofs of the divinity of their great fundamental doctrines of the duality of God's nature as male and female, and the second appearing of Christ in the person of Ann Lee. From the Scriptures they also draw abundant evidence of the necessity of celibacy to the full possession of a true Christian life. In my allotted space, I can only give a brief summary of their faith. They have no creed, because they believe that the operations of the Divine light are unlimited. They believe that The Christ, a holy spirit, came from the immediate presence of God, and entered into and dwelt with Jesus of Nazareth, the most perfect man that ever lived upon the earth. Jesus predicted the second appearance of The Christ, when the millennium should commence. According to their interpretation and calculation of the mystical numbers in the prophecy of Daniel, the reign of Antichrist ended and the millennial dispensation commenced in the year 1747, when the work of preparation for the full display of Gospel truth was begun, under the ministration of James and Jane Wardley, of whom I shall speak presently. The Christ manifested in the person of Jesus was the revelation of the male nature of God to man; the same manifestation, in the person of Ann Lee, was the revelation of the female nature of God to man. Jesus thus became the second Adam, and the head of spiritual generations; and Ann Lee the second Eve, and mother of like off spring. Her work of establishing the true Church upon earth ended in 1792, when, according to their interpretation, the "fullness of time" was accomplished; and those who belong to that Church are the saints who shall "reign a thousand years." They believe that they, as a Church, possess all of the apostolic gifts; and that all external ordinances, especially those of baptism and the Lord's Supper, ceased with the Apostles, and that since their day no man had been truly sent to preach the Gospel until the dawning of this new dispensation. They believe it to be their mission on earth to gather in the elect; and that through Jesus Christ in the true (Shaker) Church God is reconciled to man. They believe that spirits of Shakers have also a holy mission in the future world; namely, to teach the spirits of those who have died out of the Shaker Church on earth the way to a higher sphere of enjoyment, to which alone the true believers ascend. Thus Shakerism is believed to be a sort of normal school for teachers of righteousness and purity in the spirit world. They believe that no man can be born of God until, in his Church here, he has become assimilated to the character of Jesus Christ, by abstaining from marriage and other defilements; that obedience to that Church increases a man's faith, until he comes to be one with Christ in the Millennial Church state; and that man is a free agent, having the privilege of accepting or rejecting the true light within him, and, consequently, it is in every man's power to be obedient cils are held. Under the ministry, who have supreme control, and possess the power of naming their own successors in office, are elders and eldresses, the sexes, in all cases, holding an equal position. The Lebanon community, consisting of about five hundred persons, is divided into eight families, for the sake of convenience, in each of which are two elders and two eld to the faith. They believe that the Gospel of ❘tral society, and the place where general counthe first resurrection-a resurrection from carnal appetites-is now truly preached in the Church, and that all who are born of God according to this new birth shall never taste of the second death. They believe that in the Christian world, outside of the Millennial Church, professed regeneration is partial; that worldly Christians, by retaining the marriage-relation, are not assimilated to Christ in the purity of his charac-resses, who have the entire direction of the after; and as a consequence of not tasting the happiness of the first resurrection here they can not escape, in part, the second death. fairs of the family, and to whom unquestioning obedience is given. The Society is a moral and religious institution, based upon the twelve ChrisThey believe that the wicked are punished tian virtues (the twelve gates of the New Jeruonly for a season, except those who fall from salem), namely, Faith, Hope, Honesty, Conthe true Church, for whom there is no forgive-tinence, Innocence, Simplicity, Meekness, Huness in this world nor in the next. They believe mility, Prudence, Patience, Thankfulness, and that Christ will never make any public appear- Charity; and upon seven moral principles (seven ance on the earth as a single person, but only in golden candlesticks), namely, Duty to God, Duty his saints; that the judgment-day is now begun to Man, Separation from the World, Practical in their Church, that the books are opened, that Peace, Simplicity of Language, Right Use of the dead are now rising and coming to judgment Property, and a Virgin Life. (that is, those who come out from the world, and attain to Gospel purity in the Shaker Church), and that they (the Shakers) are set to judge the world, because their Church has risen above the order of natural generation (discarding marriage), and become as Christ was, and that by this means heaven begins upon earth. They thus lose all their sensual and earthly relations to Adam the first, and come to perceive, in clear vision, the true character of God. And they believe that there is no full salvation for those who are out of the pale of the Millennial Church. They accept, generally, the doctrines of modern Spiritualism, and affirm that such manifestations have prevailed among themselves ever since the establishment of the Millennial Church. There were special manifestations throughout all of the Shaker societies, for seven years, commencing at Lebanon in 1841. The expressed object of these manifestations was the improvement of the young members of the Church, then gathered in. They finally ceased in 1848, but before the close the spirits informed the Shakers that they would soon reappear in the world; that these manifestations would spread throughout the earth; and that the effect would be to subvert all existing systems of religion. They assert that all of the songs and hymns used in their worship are revealed to them, from time to time, by ministering spirits, and that the singers meet once a week to practice the newly revealed production for the coming Sabbath. The music, also, is given to them in the same supernatural way. Sometimes children will break out into singing a song or hymn never before heard among them. The discipline of the Church is founded upon the asserted perfection of the leaders or teachers. The ministry at Lebanon consists of four persons, two men and two women, who have equal authority in spiritual and temporal matters. These constitute a sort of bishopric, which includes the communities at New Lebanon, Watervliet (Niskayuna), and Groveland. Lebanon is the cen All persons who unite with the Society must do it voluntarily. The rules and regulations are all laid before them, and it is impossible for a man, with his eyes thus open, to be deceived. The members are divided into three classes, the novitiate, the junior, and the senior class. The first includes those who, by faith, come into a degree of relation to the Society, but who choose to live in their own families, and manage their own temporal concerns. These are owned as brethren and sisters in the Gospel, so long as they live up to its strict requirements of purity of life. The second class consists of those who, having no families, join the Society, but retain the lawful ownership of their private property. They are a sort of probationers and may leave when they please, it being stipulated by written contract when they enter, that they are to receive no pecuniary reward for their services; and also, that, in the event of their presenting property to the Society, it can not be reclaimed when they leave. The third class consists of those who, after long experience, are prepared to enter fully into a united and consecrated interest. This class constitutes what is called church order, or church relation. This relationship is formed after the most mature deliberation, and is binding, because, according to the laws of justice and equity, there can be no ground for retraction. They dedicate themselves, and all they possess, to the service of God and the support of the pure Gospel, forever." Minors may be admitted as covenant members of this class or order, and when of age may be received into full membership. These covenants are fair and honorable; and it is alleged that during a period of sixty years, since the permanent establishment of the Society, there has never been any legal claim entered for the recovery of property presented to the community. Obedience, as we have observed, is the great law of the Society. The leaders have absolute authority, and the people implicitly obey them. To them the laity make confessions of all their sins; and they believe that the ministry, by means of the "Gospel Glass of Perfection," can not only see through and through every member of the Society, but can behold the state of the dead, and survey the whole world of spirits, good and bad. Such, in brief, are the leading doctrines of the Shakers, and the main features of their organization and discipline. The management of the temporal affairs of the community is committed to trustees, who are appointed by the ministry and elders, and these are legally invested with the fee of all the real estate belonging to the Society. They transact all commercial business; and it is the unanimous testimony of those who have had dealings with them, that no men are more just and upright than they. The chief business trustee of the Lebanon community, and whose name is best known abroad, is Edward Fowler, a middle-sized man, about sixty years of age. With him I visited the various industrial establishments. These are situated in convenient places in various parts of the village. All of them are supplied with the best implements, and are conducted in the most perfect manner. I can do little more, in this paper, than give a bird's-eye view of them. THE HYDRAULIC PRESS. Explanation of the Press.-A, the cylinder; B, the platen; C, the hopper into which the herbs are placed, and fall through the platen upon the movable bed ƒ, turned by cogs; D, a plunger which presses the herbs; e, the orifice in the platen through which the plunger drops; h, another plunger that pushes the pressed nected with the power below; O, the driving-wheel. herb-cake through the lower bed, i, into the trough, K; n, m, apparatus con basement is devoted to heavy storage and the horse-power by which the press in the second story is worked. That press, seen in the engraving, is one of the most perfect of the kind. It has a power of three hundred tons, and turns out each day about two hundred and fifty pounds of herbs, or six hundred pounds of roots, pressed for use. This performance will be doubled when steam shall be applied to the press. The herbs and roots come out in solid cakes, an inch thick, and seven and a quarter inches square, weighing a pound each. These are then taken into another room, where they are kept in small presses, arranged in a row, so as to preserve their form until placed in papers and labeled. During The the year 1855 about seventy-five tons of roots The Herb House, where the various botanical preparations are put up for market, is a frame building in the centre of the village, one hundred and twenty feet in length, and forty feet in width, and two stories and an attic in height. There are some spacious out-houses connected with it. The lower part is used for the business office, store-rooms, and for pressing and packing the herbs and roots. The second story and attic are the drying rooms, where the green herbs are laid upon sheets of canvas, about fourteen inches apart, supported by cords. one hundred feet. and herbs were pressed in that establishment. | poses, is a large frame building, thirty-six by About ten persons are continually employed in this business, and occasionally twice that number are there, engaged in picking over the green herbs and cleansing the roots brought from the medicinal fields and gardens. The extra labor/ers are generally females. These fields and gardens cover about seventy-five acres, a portion of which is devoted to the cultivation of various herbs and vegetables for their seeds. The Extract House, in which is the laboratory for the preparation of juices for medical pur It was erected in 1850. It is supplied with the most perfect apparatus, and managed by James Long, a skillful chemist, and a member of the Society. In the principal room of the laboratory the chief operations of cracking, steaming, and pressing the roots and herbs are carried on, together with the boiling of the juices thus extracted. In one corner is a large boiler, into which the herbs or roots are placed and steam introduced. From this boiler the steamed herbs are conveyed to grated cyl inders, and subjected to immense pressure. The juices thus expressed are then put in copper pans, inclosed in iron jackets, in such manner that steam is introduced between the jackets and the pans, and the liquid boiled down to the proper consistency for use. Some juices, in order to avoid the destruction or modification of their medical properties, are conveyed to an upper room, and there boiled in a huge copper vacuum pan, from which, as its name implies, the air has been exhausted. This allows the liquid to boil at a much low er temperature than it EXTRACT HOUSE. |