testimony against the lustful gratifications of the flesh as the source
and foundation of human corruption; and testified, in the most plain and
pointed manner, that no soul could follow Christ in the regeneration
while living in the works of natural generation, or in any of the
gratifications of lust." [Footnote: "A Summary View of the Millennial
Church," etc.]
In a volume of "Hymns and Poems for the Use of Believers" (Watervliet,
Ohio, 1833), Adam is made to confess the nature of his transgression and
the cause of his fall, in a dialogue with his children:
"_First Adam being dead, yet speaketh, in a dialogue with his
children_.
"_Children_. First Father Adam, where art thou?
With all thy num'rous fallen race;
We must demand an answer now,
For time hath stript our hiding-place.
Wast thou in nature made upright--
Fashion'd and plac'd in open light?
"_Adam_. Yea truly I was made upright:
This truth I never have deni'd,
And while I liv'd I lov'd the light,
But I transgress'd and then I died.
Ye've heard that I transgress'd and fell--
This ye have heard your fathers tell.
"_Ch_. Pray tell us how this sin took place--
This myst'ry we could never scan,
That sin has sunk the human race,
And all brought in by the first man.
'Tis said this is our heavy curse--
Thy sin imputed unto us.
"_Ad_. When I was plac'd on Eden's soil,
I liv'd by keeping God's commands--
To keep the garden all the while,
And labor, working with my hands.
I need not toil beyond my pow'r,
Yet never waste one precious hour.
"But in a careless, idle frame,
I gazed about on what was made:
And idle hands will gather shame,
And wand'ring eyes confuse the head:
I dropp'd my hoe and pruning-knife,
To view the beauties of my wife.
"An idle beast of highest rank
Came creeping up just at that time,
And show'd to Eve a curious prank,
Affirming that it was no crime:--
'Ye shall not die as God hath said--
'Tis all a sham, be not afraid.'
"All this was pleasant to the eye,
And Eve affirm'd the fruit was good;
So I gave up to gratify
The meanest passion in my blood.
O horrid guilt! I was afraid:
I was condemn'd, yea I was dead.
"Here ends the life of the first man,
Your father and his spotless bride;
God will be true, his word must stand--
The day I sinn'd that day I died:
This was my sin, this was my fall!--
This your condition, one and all.
"_Ch_. How can these fearful things agree
With what we read in sacred writ--
That sons and daughters sprung from thee,
Endu'd with wisdom, power, and wit;
And all the nations fondly claim
Their first existence in thy name?
"_Ad_. Had you the wisdom of that beast
That took my headship by deceit,
I could unfold enough at least
To prove your lineage all a cheat.
Your pedigree you do not know,
The SECOND ADAM told you so.
"When I with guile was overcome,
And fell a victim to the beast,
My station first he did assume,
Then on the spoil did richly feast.
Soon as the life had left my soul,
He took possession of the whole.
"He plunder'd all my mental pow'rs,
My visage, stature, speech, and gait;
And, in a word, in a few hours,
He was first Adam placed in state:
He took my wife, he took my name;
All but his nature was the same.
"Now see him hide, and skulk about,
Just like a beast, and even worse,
Till God in anger drove him out,
And doom'd him to an endless curse.
O hear the whole creation groan!
The Man of Sin has took the throne!
"Now in my name this beast can plead,
How God commanded him at first
To multiply his wretched seed,
Through the base medium of his lust.
O horrid cheat! O subtle plan!
A hellish beast assumes the man!
"This is your father in my name:
Your pedigree ye now may know:
He early from perdition came,
And to perdition he must go.
And all his race with him shall share
Eternal darkness and despair."
[Footnote: It is curious that the Jewish Talmud (according to
Eisenmenger) has a somewhat similar theory--namely, that Eve cohabited
with devils for a period of one hundred and thirty years; and that Cain
was not the child of Adam, but of one of these devils.]
The same theory of the fall is stated in another hymn:
"We read, when God created man,
He made him able then to stand
United to his Lord's command
That he might be protected;
But when, through Eve, he was deceiv'd,
And to his wife in lust had cleav'd,
And of forbidden fruit receiv'd,
He found himself rejected.
"And thus, we see, death did begin,
When Adam first fell into sin,
And judgment on himself did bring,
Which he could not dissemble:
Old Adam then began to plead,
And tell the cause as you may read;
But from his sin he was not freed,
Then he did fear and tremble.
"Compell'd from Eden now to go,
Bound in his sins, with shame and woe,
And there to feed on things below--
His former situation:
For he was taken from the earth,
And blest with a superior birth,
But, dead in sin, he's driven forth
From his blest habitation.
"Now his lost state continues still,
In all who do their fleshly will,
And of their lust do take their fill,
And say they are commanded:
Thus they go forth and multiply,
And so they plead to justify
Their basest crimes, and so they try
To ruin souls more candid."
The "way of regeneration" is opened in another hymn in the same
collection:
"_Victory over the Man of Sin_.
"Souls that hunger for salvation,
And have put their sins away,
Now may find a just relation,
If they cheerfully obey;
They may find the new creation,
And may boldly enter in
By the door of free salvation,
And subdue the Man of Sin.
"Thus made free from that relation,
Which the serpent did begin,
Trav'ling in regeneration,
Having pow'r to cease from sin;
Dead unto a carnal nature,
From that tyrant ever free,
Singing praise to our Creator,
For this blessed jubilee.
"Sav'd from passions, too inferior
To command the human soul;
Led by motives most superior,
Faith assumes entire control:
Joined in the new creation,
Living souls in union run,
Till they find a just relation
To the First-born two in one.
"But this prize cannot be gained.
Neither is salvation found,
Till the Man of Sin is chained,
And the old deceiver bound.
All mankind he has deceived,
And still binds them one and all,
Save a few who have believed,
And obey'd the Gospel call.
"By a life of self-denial,
True obedience and the cross,
We may pass the fiery trial,
Which does separate the dross.
If we bear our crosses boldly,
Watch and ev'ry evil shun,
We shall find a body holy,
And the tempter overcome.
"By a pois'nous fleshly nature,
This dark world has long been led;
There can be no passion greater--
This must be the serpent's head:
On our coast he would be cruising,
If by truth he were not bound:
But his head has had a bruising,
And he's got a deadly wound.
"And his wounds cannot be healed,
Light and truth do now forbid,
Since the Gospel has revealed
Where his filthy head was hid:
With a fig-leaf it was cover'd,
Till we brought his deeds to light;
By his works he is discover'd,
And his head is plain in sight."
It should be said that Ann Lee had married previously to these
manifestations, her husband being Abraham Stanley, like her father, a
blacksmith. By him she had four children, all of whom died in infancy.
It is related that she showed from girlhood a decided repugnance to the
married state, and married only on the long-continued and urgent
persuasion of her friends; and after 1770 she seems to have returned to
her parents.
She and her followers were frequently abused and persecuted; and in 1773
"she was by a direct revelation instructed to repair to America;" and it
is quaintly added that "permission was given for all those of the
society who were able, and who felt any special impressions on their own
minds so to do, to accompany her." [Footnote: "Shakers' Compendium."]
She had announced, says the same authority, that "the second Christian
Church would be established in America; that the colonies would gain
their independence; and that liberty of conscience would be secured to
all people, whereby they would be able to worship God without hinderance
or molestation." Accordingly Ann Lee embarked at Liverpool in May, 1774,
eight persons accompanying her, six men and two women, among them her
husband and a brother and niece. They landed in New York in August; and,
after some difficulties and hardships on account of poverty, finally
settled in what appears to have been then a wilderness, "the woods of
Watervliet, near Niskeyuna, about seven miles northwest of Albany." In
the mean time Ann Lee had supported herself by washing and ironing in
New York, and her husband had misconducted himself so grossly toward her
that they finally separated, he going off with another woman.
At Niskeyuna, Ann Lee and her companions busied themselves in clearing
land and providing for their subsistence. They lived in the woods, and
Ann was their leader and preacher. She foretold to them that the time
was near when they should see a large accession to their numbers; but
they had so long to wait that their hearts sometimes failed them. They
settled at Watervliet in September, 1775, and it was not until 1780
that, by a curious chance, their doctrines were at last brought to the
knowledge of persons inclined to receive them.
In the spring of that year there occurred at New Lebanon a religious
revival, chiefly among the Baptists, who had a church in that
neighborhood. Some of the subjects of this revival wandered off, seeking
light and comfort from strangers, and found the settlement of which Ann
Lee was the chief. Her doctrines, which inculcated rigid self-denial
and repression of the passions, were at once embraced by them; they
brought others to hear Ann Lee's statements, and thus a beginning was at
last made.
New Lebanon, where the new converts lived, lies upon the border of
Massachusetts and Connecticut; and into these states, particularly the
first, the new doctrine spread. Ann Lee, now called by her people Mother
Ann, or more often Mother, traveled from place to place, preaching and
advising; in Massachusetts she appears to have remained two years. It is
asserted, too, that she performed miracles at various places, healing
the sick by laying on of hands, and revealing to others their wickedness
and concealed sins. For instance:
"Mary Southwick, of Hancock [in Massachusetts, where there was a colony
of Ann Lee's followers], testifies: That about the beginning of August,
1783 (being then in the twenty-first year of her age), she was healed of
a cancer in her mouth, which had been growing two years, and which for
about three weeks had been eating, attended with great pain and a
continual running, and which occasioned great weakness and loss of
appetite.
"That she went one afternoon to see Calvin Harlowe, to get some
assistance; that Mother being at the house, Calvin asked her to look at
it. That she accordingly came to her, and put her finger into her mouth
upon the cancer; at which instant the pain left her, and she was
restored to health, and was never afflicted with it afterward.
"Taken from the mouth of the said Mary Southwick, the 23d day of April,
1808. In presence of Jennet Davis, Rebecca Clarke, Daniel Cogswell,
Daniel Goodrich, and Seth Y. Wells. (Signed) MARY SOUTHWICK."
The volume from which this formal statement is extracted contains a
number of similar affidavits, which show that miraculous powers of
healing diseases are claimed to have been exercised during Ann Lee's
life, not only by her, but by her chief followers, Elder William Lee her
brother, John Hocknell, Joseph Markham, and others. [Footnote:
"Testimony of Christ's Second Appearing," etc. Published by the United
Society of Shakers. Albany, 1856. [The first edition was printed in
1808.]]
It does not appear that Ann Lee made any attempts to settle her
followers in colonies or communities, or that she interrupted the family
life, except that she insisted on celibacy. But she seems to have
gathered her followers in congregations, because she from the first
required, as a sign of true repentance and a condition of admission,
that "oral confession of all the sins of the past life, to God, in the
presence of an elder brother," which is still one of the most rigorous
rules of the order.
She is reported to have said: "When I confessed my sins, I labored to
remember the time when and the place where I committed them. And when I
had confessed them [to Jane and James Wardley, in Manchester], I cried
to God to know if my confession was accepted; and by crying to God
continually I traveled out of my loss." [Footnote: "Shakers'
Compendium."]
Also she said: "The first step of obedience that any of you can take is
to confess your sins to God before his witnesses." "To those who came to
confess to her she said: 'If you confess your sins, you must confess
them to God; we are but his witnesses.' To such as asked her
forgiveness, she used to say: 'I can freely forgive you, and I pray God
to forgive you. It is God that forgives you; I am but your
fellow-servant.'" [Footnote: "Summary View," etc.]
Ann Lee died at Watervliet, N. Y., on the 8th of September, 1784, in the
forty-ninth year of her age.
In the "Summary View of the Millennial Church," as well as in some other
works published by the Shakers, there are recorded details of her life
and conversation, from which one gets the idea that she was a woman of
practical sense, sincerely pious, and humble-minded. She was "rather
below the common stature of woman, thickset but straight, and otherwise
well-proportioned and regular in form and feature. Her complexion was
light and fair, and her eyes were blue, but keen and penetrating; her
countenance mild and expressive, but grave and solemn. Her manners were
plain, simple, and easy. She possessed a certain dignity of appearance
that inspired confidence and commanded respect. By many of the world who
saw her without prejudice she was called beautiful; and to her faithful
children she appeared to possess a degree of dignified beauty and
heavenly love which they had never before discovered among mortals."
[Footnote: "Summary View."] She never learned to read or write. Aside
from her strictly religious teachings, she appears to have inculcated
upon her followers the practical virtues of honesty, industry,
frugality, charity, and temperance. "Put your hands to work and give
your hearts to God." "You ought never to speak to your children in a
passion; for if you do, you will put devils into them." "Do all your
work as though you had a thousand years to live; and as you would if you
knew you must die to-morrow." "You can never enter the kingdom of God
with hardness against any one, for God is love, and if you love God you
will love one another." "Be diligent with your hands, for godliness does
not lead to idleness." "You ought not to cross your children
unnecessarily, for it makes them ill-natured." To a woman: "You ought to
dress yourself in modest apparel, such as becomes the people of God, and
teach your family to do likewise. You ought to be industrious and
prudent, and not live a sumptuous and gluttonous life, but labor for a
meek and quiet spirit, and see that your family is kept decent and
regular in all their goings forth, that others may see your example of
faith and good works, and acknowledge the work of God in your family."
To some farmers who had gathered at Ashfield, in Massachusetts, in the
winter, to listen to her instructions: "It is now spring of the year,
and you have all had the privilege of being taught the way of God; and
now you may all go home and be faithful with your hands. Every faithful
man will go forth and put up his fences in season, and will plow his
ground in season, and put his crops into the ground in season; and such
a man may with confidence look for a blessing."
These are some of the sayings reported of her. They are not remarkable,
except as showing that with her religious enthusiasm she united
practical sense, which gave her doubtless a power over the people with
whom she came in contact, mostly plain farmers and laborers.
[Illustration: THE FIRST SHAKER CHURCH, AT MOUNT LEBANON, NOW A
SEED-HOUSE.]
Mother Ann was succeeded in her rule over the society, or "Church," as
they preferred to call it, by Elder James Whittaker, one of those who
had come over with her. He was called Father James; and under his
ministry was built, in 1785, "the first house for public worship ever
built by the society." He died at Enfield in July, 1787, less than three
years after Mother Ann; and was succeeded by Joseph Meacham, an
American, a native of Connecticut, in early life a Baptist preacher; and
with him was associated Lucy Wright, as "the first leading character in
the female line," as the "Summary" quaintly expresses it. She was a
native of Pittsfield, in Massachusetts. Joseph Meacham died in 1796, at
the age of fifty-four, and it seems that Lucy Wright then succeeded to
the entire administration and "lead of the society." She died in 1821,
at the age of sixty-one. "During her administration the several
societies in the states of Ohio and Kentucky were established, and large
accessions were made to the Eastern societies." [Footnote: "Shakers'
Compendium."] While Joseph Meacham was elder, and in the period between
1787 and 1792, eleven societies were formed, of which two were in New
York, four in Massachusetts, two in New Hampshire, two in Maine, and one
in Connecticut.
Meantime, in the first year of this century broke out in Kentucky a
remarkable religious excitement, lasting several years, and attended
with extraordinary and in some cases horrible physical demonstrations.
Camp-meetings were held in different counties, to which people flocked
by thousands; and here men and women, and even small children, fell down
in convulsions, foamed at the mouth and uttered loud cries. "At first
they were taken with an inward throbbing of the heart; then with weeping
and trembling; from that to crying out in apparent agony of soul;
falling down and swooning away, until every appearance of animal life
was suspended, and the person appeared to be in a trance." "They lie as
though they were dead for some time, without pulse or breath, some
longer, some shorter time. Some rise with joy and triumph, others crying
for mercy." "To these encampments the people flocked by hundreds and
thousands--on foot, on horseback, and in wagons and other carriages." At
Cabin Creek, in May, 1801, a "great number fell on the third night; and
to prevent their being trodden under foot by the multitude, they were
collected together and laid out in order in two squares of the
meetinghouse; which, like so many dead corpses, covered a considerable
part of the floor." At Concord, in Bourbon County, in June, 1801, "no
sex or color, class or description, were exempted from the pervading
influence of the Spirit; even from the age of eight months to sixty
years." In August, at Cane Ridge, in Bourbon County, "about twenty
thousand people" were gathered; and "about three thousand" suffered from
what was called "the falling exercise." These brief extracts are from
the account of an eye-witness, and one who believed these manifestations
to be of divine origin. The accuracy of McNemar's descriptions is beyond
question. His account is confirmed by other writers of the time.
[Footnote: "The Kentucky Revival, or a Short History of the late
extraordinary Outpouring of the Spirit of God in the Western States of
America," etc. By Richard McNemar. Turtle Hill, Ohio, 1807.]
Hearing of these extraordinary events, the Shakers at New Lebanon sent
out three of their number--John Meacham, Benjamin S. Youngs, and
Issachar Bates--to "open the testimony of salvation to the people,
provided they were in a situation to receive it." They set out on
New-Year's day, 1805, and traveled on foot about a thousand miles,
through what was then a sparsely settled country, much of it a
wilderness. They made some converts in Ohio and Kentucky, and were,
fortunately for themselves, violently opposed and in some cases attacked
by bigoted or knavish persons; and with this impetus they were able to
found at first five societies, two in Ohio, two in Kentucky, and one in
Indiana. The Indiana society later removed to Ohio; and two more
societies were afterward formed in Ohio, and one more in New York.
All these societies were founded before the year 1830; and no new ones
have come into existence since then.
Following the doctrines put forth by Ann Lee, and elaborated by her
successors, they hold:
I. That God is a dual person, male and female; that Adam was a dual
person, being created in God's image; and that "the distinction of sex
is eternal, inheres in the soul itself; and that no angels or spirits
exist who are not male and female."
II. That Christ is a Spirit, and one of the highest, who appeared first
in the person of Jesus, representing the male, and later in the person
of Ann Lee, representing the female element in God.
III. That the religious history of mankind is divided into four cycles,
which are represented also in the spirit world, each having its
appropriate heaven and hell. The first cycle included the
antediluvians--Noah and the faithful going to the first heaven, and the
wicked of that age to the first hell. The second cycle included the Jews
up to the appearance of Jesus; and the second heaven is called Paradise.
The third cycle included all who lived until the appearance of Ann Lee;
Paul being "caught up into the third heaven." The heaven of the fourth
and last dispensation "is now in process of formation," and is to
supersede in time all previous heavens. Jesus, they say, after his
death, descended into the first hell to preach to the souls there
confined; and on his way passed through the second heaven, or Paradise,
where he met the thief crucified with him.
IV. They hold themselves to be the "Church of the Last Dispensation,"
the true Church of this age; and they believe that the day of
judgment, or "beginning of Christ's kingdom on earth," dates from the
establishment of their Church, and will be completed by its development.
V. They hold that the Pentecostal Church was established on right
principles; that the Christian churches rapidly and fatally fell away
from it; and that the Shakers have returned to this original and perfect
doctrine and practice. They say: "The five most prominent practical
principles of the Pentecost Church were, first, common property; second,
a life of celibacy; third, non-resistance; fourth, a separate and
distinct government; and, fifth, power over physical disease." To all
these but the last they have attained; and the last they confidently
look for, and even now urge that disease is an offense to God, and that
it is in the power of men to be healthful, if they will.
VI. They reject the doctrine of the Trinity, of the bodily resurrection,
and of an atonement for sins. They do not worship either Jesus or Ann Lee,
holding both to be simply elders in the Church, to be respected and loved.
VII. They are Spiritualists. "We are thoroughly convinced of spirit
communication and interpositions, spirit guidance and obsession. Our
spiritualism has permitted us to converse, face to face, with individuals
once mortals, some of whom we well knew, and with others born before the
flood." [Footnote: "Plain Talks upon Practical Religion; being Candid
Answers," etc. By Geo. Albert Lomas (Novitiate Elder at Watervliet).
1873.] They assert that the spirits at first labored among them; but
that in later times they have labored among the spirits; and that in
the lower heavens there have been formed numerous Shaker churches.
Moreover, "it should be distinctly understood that special inspired gifts
have not ceased, but still continue among this people." It follows from
what is stated above, that they believe in a "probationary state in the
world of spirits."
VIII. They hold that he only is a true servant of God who lives a
perfectly stainless and sinless life; and they add that to this perfection
of life all their members ought to attain.
IX. Finally, they hold that their Church, the Inner or Gospel Order, as
they call it, is supported by and has for its complement the world, or,
as they say, the Outer Order. They do not regard marriage and property as
crimes or disorders, but as the emblems of a lower order of society. And
they hold that the world in general, or the Outer Order, will have the
opportunity of purification in the next world as well as here.