THE BROTHERHOOD OF ZION
Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man
upright; but they have sought out many inventions.
--Bible.
This poor love for my Sister Bernice was not the only thing that
troubled me about this time, which was in the same year that Brother
Brämer passed away. It was during this very year of 1738 there occurred
one of the most important events in the history of our community, and
this was the formation of the Zionitic Brotherhood by the Eckerlings and
their deluded followers, and the erection of a large building for the
use of their mystical society. While Brother Beissel and Brother
Wohlforth and myself and our followers rejoiced to see that from all
parts of our province and the adjacent provinces men and women and their
children flocked to us and became part of our community--so that our
secular congregation was now the largest Sabbatarian settlement in the
colonies--yet our hearts were oft weighed down with apprehensions as to
the outcome of the doings of these Eckerlings, to whose foolish and
ambitious schemes there seemed no end.
These Eckerling brothers were the strangest mixture of worldly wisdom,
on the one hand, and the most perverse and ridiculous religious beliefs,
on the other, I verily believe, I have ever seen. While we taught and
enjoined the purity and simplicity of the mode of life of the early
Christians, the Eckerlings must continually be running after strange
gods, so that at this time and for many years thereafter we were in
great danger of total disruption; for experience clearly showeth the
Scriptures say truly, a house divided against itself must fall.
Thus by our increased membership and by the scheming of our Eckerlings
it came about that the Solitary Brethren clamored for a building similar
to the Sisters' house, Kedar, and while for a time the project was kept
in abeyance by lack of money, which commodity was never dangerously
plenty with us, yet finally, Brother Benedict (and I say this to his
praise), a young Swiss from Kilcheryturnen, a scion of a rich family of
Berne, who had joined our community, came forward with the necessary
funds. Whereupon it came to pass notwithstanding our opposition, so I
find it in our _Chronicon_, that, "Inflamed by the love of God, he
resolved to devote his fortune to the erection of a convent"; which was
accepted as coming by divine direction, and his proposition granted.
There was in the settlement a pleasant elevation from which one had a
beautiful view of the fertile valley and the mountains lying opposite.
Of this height the Brethren in the hill house at that time held
possession. When now it came to the selection of a site, the most held
that the valley along the Cocalico creek was the most desirable on
account of the water. The superintendent, however, went up the hill
until he came within the limits of the property of the hill house, and
there was the site chosen. By this the spirit of wonders indicated at
the very beginning that the Brotherhood would at first build its
structure on the heights of reason and thus soar aloft until at length
by a great storm they would be cast down into the valley; all of which
was afterwards fulfilled in the minutest detail.
The site for the new chapter-house having been settled, the eager
Eckerlings, like children hastening toward a new toy, could stand no
delay. The Brethren must be pressed into immediate service, and every
one joining in the work as though this heathenish temple were
unanimously desired, in a wonderfully short time we had cut and framed
the timbers, and a day was fixed in the month of May when the building
was to be raised with much ritual and ceremony.
In those days when home or barn or mill was to be built the "raising"
(by which we meant the putting into place the large, heavy timbers for
the framework) was made the occasion of a great gathering. From miles
around, the sturdy, broad-shouldered farmers and their deep-bosomed and
hardly less broad-shouldered wives, and even the children, would come
trooping along to take part in the raising, the men attending to the
heavier work of the building while the women folk took care of the more
delicate labor of the cooking, and when we had our raising there was
such a swarming from far and wide that the Sisterhood, aided by the
visiting wives and daughters, were driven to make such mighty
preparations for the hungry workmen we sometimes wondered where all the
food was to come from; but our kind helpers, knowing the rigorous state
of our larder and relishing not overmuch our thin and ghostly fare,
brought along such a rich store of meats and jellies and preserves as
threatened to ruin forever the stomachs of the Solitary. I grieve,
moreover, to say that on this occasion many a Brother--I among them--and
even Sister, did in the hilarity and good cheer vary so much from our
usual temperance as to suffer in body and mind for some days after our
well-meaning friends had left us.
Not the least of the joyousness of this raising was that in the evening
when we were gathered, tired and hungry as wolves, about the long,
wooden tables in Kedar, Sister Bernice and I in those few days saw more
of each other than in all the months since that blissful love feast. It
hath often puzzled me, even now I know not the explanation, that it
happened every meal-time Sister Bernice waited on me; for the Sisters
and the wives insisting the men must be fed first, knowing no doubt our
fretful natures when hungry, gave zest to the meals by adding their
womanly presence in the serving of the food. So, as I have said, it
chanced that Sister Bernice waited on me, and whether or not the others
observed the foolishness of our sweet love, I only know that when, most
unaccountably, in handing me the meats, and the bread and the like, her
hands would touch me, I came more than once so near grasping those
wonderful little, soft things in mine, that most of the meal-time I was
distressed lest I do some utterly foolish thing that would make my dear
sister and me the laughingstock of every one present, and this I
determined must not be, at least for her sake.
Once, though, when the Evil One prompted me no one was looking, and I
pinched gently the dear hand that for a moment rested lightly on the
table, just by my arm, whereat she smiled at me with such well-nigh
irresistible sweetness it seemed now I must simply take her in mine
arms and say to all, "This is my Sister Bernice; I am her Brother Jabez.
We love each other better than life"; but some remnant of common sense
and my ever-present cowardice in all matters pertaining to love saved us
both from any noticeable outbreak of our sweet delirium. Ah, me! Ah, me!
But if there was great hilarity and good cheer after the labor of the
day when the appetites of all did full justice to the food that came out
of the Sisters' kitchen, even this was nothing compared with the bustle
and noise and hurrying to and fro that attended the raising of the
timbers into their place; for even the heaviest pieces had to be placed
by sheer physical strength, the broad-shouldered, iron-muscled giants
puffing and straining at their tasks; it seemed to me as though Hercules
and Atlas had come to earth again, in the forms of these powerful
farmers and woodsmen. As was to be expected, great rivalry, though in
the best of humor, existed between these giants as to which could put up
the heaviest timbers and the most speedily, and sometimes, though more
in fun than for the value of the thing, wagers were laid as to who
should prove the stronger. Where there is such a spirit work goes on
rapidly, and in a very few days the large posts and the beams and joists
were all up and our kind helpers ready to leave us to complete the
lighter but more tedious portion of the task. Fortunately we had among
us Brethren who were skilled carpenters, so that by fall the building
was ready for actual occupation, though it was not finished until five
years later.
This building was erected on a hill, called by the Brethren Mount Sinai,
within the bounds of the _Lager_, while the structure itself was called
Zion. It was three stories in height. The lower floor consisted of one
large room, known as the refectory, connected with which were three
small chambers, _Kabinettchen_. Of these, two served as pantries for
storing the provisions and necessaries for the forty days' seclusion
which, according to the beliefs of our Eckerlings, were necessary in
connection with certain rites to attain perfection. The remaining
chamber consisted of receptacles for the paraphernalia used by the
Eckerlings in their ceremonies. The second floor of Zion was a circular
chamber without any window or means of admitting light from the outside.
In the center on a pedestal was placed a lamp which was kept burning
continually during the forty days' rite.
Thirteen cots or pallets radiated from the pedestal like the spokes of a
wheel. This chamber was known as "Ararat," meaning thereby the heavenly
rest the Almighty had vouchsafed exclusively to his chosen people, just
as the ark of Noah had settled down on the mount of that name, there to
rest forever.
The third or upper story of Zion was the mystical chamber, where the
arcana of the rite were unfolded to the Secluded. This room was entirely
plain and measured exactly eighteen feet square, having a small oval
window in each side, opening to the four cardinal points of the compass.
The only access to this chamber was through a trapdoor in the floor, and
it was in this chamber that the ceremonies and rites were performed by
the thirteen Brethren who were striving for their moral and physical
regeneration and seeking communication with the spirit world.
Zion was no sooner advanced sufficiently for occupation than the
necessary provisions and paraphernalia were obtained and preparations
were made by thirteen of our Brethren to undergo the ordeal, which, like
the other rites and ceremonies taught by the Eckerlings, were nothing
more than what was known as the "strict observance," or the Egyptian
cult of mystic Freemasonry.
At the conclusion of certain religious services, among which was the
repeating in concert of the fortieth Psalm, a procession was formed and
thirteen elect of the Brethren were escorted up the hill to the doors of
the building, which, as soon as the adepts had entered, were securely
locked to prevent any intrusion or interruption during the forty days'
retirement from the outside world.
I had been greatly surprised to see that of the thirteen selected for
the ordeal, Gabriel Eckerling, or Brother Jotham, had been chosen prior
instead of the eldest of the Eckerling brothers, Israel, or Brother
Onesimus.
As the doors closed upon the last of the misguided thirteen, I turned to
Brother Beissel and said, "Why hath not Brother Onesimus been chosen
prior?" for it was well known to all of us that the eldest of the
Eckerlings was the real leader in all these schemes.
Brother Beissel looked at me quietly for a moment and then said so low
only I and Brother Wohlforth, who was standing near, could hear: "It
meaneth naught other than that Beelzebub hath some deep plan laid for
our undoing. What sayest thou, Brother Wohlforth?"
"I know not what it meaneth, but I feel sure it portendeth some evil,
for our Brother Onesimus would not relinquish the honor of being prior
if it were not that he hath somewhat else to attend to to complete his
plans while our thirteen idolaters are practising their abominations."
"Perchance," I suggested, "our Brother Onesimus thinketh it necessary to
keep watch over us while the others are shut up in Zion for their forty
days' regeneration."
"I doubt not thou art right," said our leader, and Brother Wohlforth
also seemed to think that Brother Onesimus did not deem it wise to
incarcerate himself for forty days and leave us unwatched by him for
that time; but his own slyness in time proved his overthrow.
I have not space here to set forth in detail all the practices of our
thirteen neophytes, which at this time were known only to the Eckerlings
and their followers, being, as I said, a sort of Freemasonry, but in
later years I learned from Sonnlein a great deal concerning this ordeal
and it may be that, later, I shall have somewhat to say of it.
I do know this, however, that at the end of the forty days the thirteen
emerged, claiming they had successfully completed the ordeal, with
physical bodies as clean and pure as though new-born, their spirits
filled with divine light, visions without limit, mental power
sunbounded, and no other ambition than to enjoy a state of complete rest
and peace while waiting for immortality, so that each could say at the
end, "I am that I am." So far as I could see, and I say this not in
levity or prejudice but as being absolutely true, all the change I could
see beyond their looking even thinner and paler than before, each of the
regenerated could say more truly instead of, "I am that I am," "I am
what I was before I entered." I could not see in all my later life that
physically or mentally or religiously these adepts were any different or
better than the rest of us, but seemed subject to the same weakness and
infirmities as the unregenerated, only that the silly thirteen did ever
after by their aversion for labor show they really believed they had
attained a state of complete rest.
All of which goes to show that in every community error is bound to come
and that there are ever those who, not content with serving God in the
simple manner he hath set forth in the Scriptures, must devise all sorts
of foolish and even difficult modes of living the Almighty doth not ask
for and which, I doubt, not do not please him.
However, while our _Vorsteher_, or superintendent, and Brother Wohlforth
and myself were not in accord with the Eckerlings and their followers in
establishing the Zionitic Brotherhood, who were ever looked upon with
awe and veneration by the secular members, we did all in our power to
live peaceably with them, Brother Beissel even bringing out a hymn book,
known as the "_Weyrauch's Hügel_" (Incense Hill), for the use of the
Brotherhood as well as for general circulation among the Germans in the
province.
According to the ritual of the Eckerlings, _Weyrauch_ meant nothing more
than _Gebet_, or prayer. It was taught that the gum, made after a
mystical formula and kept exclusively for religious uses, when ignited
during supplication or prayer became corporeal and was wafted in
fragrant clouds to heaven. _Hügel_, or hillock, also denotes an object
held in special veneration, as the rising sun first gilds the hilltops
in the east, and it is well known that from time immemorial hills have
always been designated as holy ground and were the chosen places for
offering sacrifices, so that the title of the hymn book meant to the
adepts more than a mere hill of incense. It typified the book as a
volume of prayer which, if properly used would, like the visible flames
of the burning incense, go direct to the throne of grace.
But this peace offering, besides containing a few old, popular German
hymns, being chiefly made up of hymns composed by Brother Beissel and
the rest of the Solitary, like so many other peace offerings failed to
effect its purpose. Not only did the Eckerlings grow more and more
swollen in their power and arrogance, but the printing of the book
itself was greatly delayed; and as our good Christopher Sauer, the
printer, of Germantown, to whom it was intrusted for publication, saw
fit to make himself a censor of the hymns, it so occurred that when the
four hundredth hymn was set up, a personal controversy, exceedingly
bitter, arose and ended in an estrangement lasting fully ten years,
during which our leader and our printer hurled at each other most
violent accusations, the printer evidently being firm in his mind that
our leader regarded himself as somewhat of a pope or a Christ, before
whom all others must bow.
Indeed, there were during Brother Beissel's leadership many false
stories current about him, rising through superstition or enmity, the
coarser part of the people regarding him as a great wizard, fully
believing that the spirit whom he served had at times made our brother
invisible; wherefore it is related that a justice of the peace sent a
constable after our leader with a warrant, taking care to send an
assistant. As the constable and his assistant came toward the cabin down
in the meadow where our leader lived, they saw him go into his cabin
with a pitcher of water; they followed him, and while one stationed
himself at the door, the other searched the house from top to bottom,
but no superintendent was to be found. Greatly bewildered and even
alarmed at such witchcraft they departed, and after they were some
distance from the house, on looking back they saw our leader come out as
though naught had happened.
It is also true, and I regret to say it, that many of our Brothers, and
even the Sisters, who seem ever given to idolizing, fell to the other
extreme and, as in the case of John the Baptist, wondered whether our
leader might not be Christ. Even Brother Onesimus once tried to poison
my mind against our superintendent by remarking that even he thought
that, perhaps, our leader might be Christ, whereupon I rebuked our
Brother Onesimus so soundly for his folly, I never again heard him
repeat such nonsense.
Thus it went back and forth so that it seemed the conflict between our
leader and the printer were never to cease, the printer publishing it
far and wide that our superintendent was born under a strange
conjunction of the stars and that a number of planets manifested in him
their characteristics: from Mars, our superintendent had his great
severity; from Jupiter, his friendliness; from Venus, that the female
sex ran after him; while Mercury had given him the arts of the comedian;
and not content with this, our printer must even go so far as to say of
our superintendent: "In many points he is very close to Gichtel and
still closer to the little beast described in Revelation 13:11, which
represents his peculiarity in spiritual things. His figure is such that
if one beseeches him he has the horns of a lamb, but if one touches his
temper a little he speaks like a dragon, and is, indeed, not to be
regarded as the first great beast, whose number is 66. He is not so
beast-like, but is also not clean Godly, but is humanly peculiar and no
other than CVnraDVs BeIseLVs DcLVVVI--666."
All of which goeth to show that when one man hateth another beyond all
reason, the hater maketh a greater fool of himself than of him who is
derided.