USA > Pennsylvania > Lancaster County > Ephrata > Chronicon ephratense : a history of the community of Seventh Day Baptists at Ephrata, Lancaster County, Penn'a. > Part 2
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A HISTORY OF EPHRATA.
This congregation of Baptists at Schwarzenau increased very much. A branch of it settled in the Marienborn district, but was thrice persecuted there, and finally found a refuge in Creyfeld in the year 1715. Here a division took place. Some say it was with reference to the question whether one might marry out of the congregation. Others maintain that the occasion of it was the marriage, contrary to the teaching of Paul (I COR. 7:), of a single minister of theirs by the name of Hager. If this be so, there must still have been a considerable measure of awakening among them at that time, and their error consisted only in making a law out of the teaching of Paul, which it was not meant to be. In the year 1719 a party of them arrived in Pennsylvania with Peter Becker, who afterwards became their teacher.
After this necessary excursion, we shall now proceed with our subject itself. The Superintendent first saw the light of the world in the year 1690 at Eberbach, a village on the Neckar, belonging to a sub-bailiwick of the domain of Moss- · bach in the Palatinate, and bore the family name, John Conrad Beissel. His father carried on the trade of a baker, but was so given to drink that he sank all he owned down his throat, and then died, leaving behind a poor widow with a numerous family. This, his youngest son, was born two months after his deatlı, and was therefore a true opus post- humum; by which orphan-birth the Spirit indicated his future lone condition, and that, as one pre-ordained to be a priest after the order of Melchizedek, he should derive little comfort from his natural kindred. His mother was a godly person, and, with the help of his other brothers, raised him until his eighth year, when she also died. From that time on he led a sorry life, after the manner of the country, until he was old enough to learn a trade. With his growth in years he displayed extraordinary natural gifts. He showed a wonderful facility in learning many things without any instruction, merely by his own reflection ; so much so that his oldest brother often said to him : "Your studying will make a fool of you yet." By his orphanlike birth, more- · over, he was given so small a person that he often said, if his oldest brother were to have been as small as himself, he
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would have had to have been born again. At length he was apprenticed to a baker, and as the latter was also a musician, he learned from him to play the violin, and had the oppor- tunity to display his bright disposition at weddings, at which, when exhausted with fiddling, he would betake himself to dancing, and from this again return to the former ; so that the wonder was all the greater when afterwards it was said he had become a Pietist.
His conversion took place in the year 1715, therefore in the twenty-fifth year of his age ; but ere the spirit of peni- tence came upon him, his reason became so enlightened that he could easily solve the most intricately involved matters. He turned his attention to mercantile calculation, covering all the walls of his back room with his cipherings, and mas- tered it without any help. Soon after, however, the awak- ening-Spirit knocked so loudly at his conscience that his whole being was thrown into the utmost perplexity, and so the foundation was laid for his conversion, which followed after, wherein he attained to such superhuman faithfulness to God that he may well be regarded as a great imiracle of our times. The beginning of his conversion was directly from God, without any human instrumentality, and its faine. has spread everywhere. It was at this time, too, that George Stiefel, who afterwards shared a hermit's life with him in America for awhile, first became acquainted with him.
At that period, according to the custom of the country, he began his travels as a journeyman at his trade, though he got no further than Strasburg, for the Spirit hindered hill. It is a remarkable circuinstance that, though he intended, with four hundred other journeymen bakers, to go to Hun- gary, he was prevented from doing so by God's providence and to his own good fortune, as they were all killed by the Turks. He finally entered the service of a man in Manheim, Kantebecker by name, where he was temporarily brought low in the spirit ; for his master, who had marked in him a specially godly simplicity, loved him exceedingly, whereas his inistress was so displeased at this that she broke out into violence. For this he called her a Jezebel, and on that ac- count was obliged to leave the house. At the same time the
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drawings of the Virgin above were so strong within him, that it was deeply impressed upon his heart that a man who intends to devote himself to the service of God must, at the beginning of his conversion, renounce Adam's generative work, for which reason he bade good-night to earthly woman at the very commencement. On this account also the tribes of the earth expelled him from their fellowship.
From Manheim he turned to Heidelberg and engaged him- self to work with a baker by the name of Prior. Here he found greater access in the Spirit ; for there was a great awakening going on, and there were many Pietists who were already beginning to be persecuted ; yet he was then still so unsophisticated and simple in his awakening, that he made ·use of the churches, and often said that he never heard the preaching of those two great men, Mieg and Kirchmayer, without being edified thereby ; it seems also that the Pietists at another time, afterwards, reported him for church-going. It is to be noticed here, that at this early period of his con- version a blessing descended upon him from God, which was shared by every house that received him, as his master Prior experienced (see the story of Obed-edom, II SAM. 6: 12 comp. GEN. 12 : 3). The daughter of the just-mentioned Prior afterwards wrote an edifying letter to him in Pennsyl- vania, in which she thanked him for the edification which he had wrought in her father's house ; from which one can see that his conversion did not run into any mere frivolous bab- ble or fruitless Babel-storming.
At Heidelberg he met a learned scholar named Haller, a strong suitor of the virgin Sophia, and also a correspondent of Gichtel, although at last he for all took to woman. This man made him acquainted with the Pietists in Heidelberg, who all maintained a hidden walk with God. Among them were especially known the wife of Professor Pastoir, a precious soul, who sent her remembrance to him at Ephrata, two brothers Diel, and others, whose names are recorded in the book of life. Haller first introduced him to their rieeting, which for fear of men they held in the forest, and he was as- tonished beyond measure when these dear people .he first time called him Brother. He often said that he had passed
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through three awakenings, in which he always had to deal with newly awakened ones, but he must confess that the greater part of his heart remained at the first awakening at Heidelberg. Therefore his references to these precious souls never passed off without tears, particularly as in after times so inuch bitterness and gall were served hiin by his followers.
CHAPTER II.
THE SUPERINTENDENT IS BANISHED FROM THE PALATINATE, AND COMES TO THE INSPIRATIONISTS.
Haller observed a large measure of the Spirit in this new Pietist, and foresaw that their awakening would not be of suf- ficient import to him. He therefore advised lıim to betake himself to the friends in Schwarzenau, which was at that time the Pella and rendezvous for all the pious. This advice was re-enforced by the persecution in Heidelberg, which shall now be described. At that time he still was staying with his master Prior, and as by his illumination there was also given him a strange insight into the secrets of nature, he in a short time became the inost celebrated baker in the city. His master, too, received a blessing from this ; for Christians and Jews ran after him, and the other bakers had little to do ; he even sent of his wares to Frankfurt. At this the other inaster-bakers felt outraged. To this was added yet the circumstance that the guild constituted hill Servitor of the Chest. But when at their guild banquets they carried on their usual idle practices, and le reproved them, the inasters declared that he ouglit not have spoken so. "And you," he answered, "ought not act so." In conse- quence of this the masters managed with the city council to have him put under arrest in the jail. This pained the Pietists very much, for they feared that he might betray them. Haller even wrote to him in jail that he was sur- prised, and wondered why he had refused to take part in such insignificant matters.
Meanwhile his trial took place, and there it appeared that the charge was not sufficient to have him kept under arrest. His accusers, however, knew how to help themselves, and declared that he was a Pietist. This brought the matter be- fore the ecclesiastical court. The clergy of the three domni- nant religions took him in charge, and their very first ques-
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tion was concerning his Brethren. But he answered wisely and prudently, that he had no doubt in such a large city there were many pious people. Then they took up the subject of religion, and gave him the choice, either to join one of the three dominant religions, or to leave the country. The above- inentioned Mieg made him the offer, that if he would only go through his church once a year, he would stand by him. But this was against his conscience. Consequently he re- ceived his consilium abeundi, and had to leave the country. His master Prior had offered the city council 100 Reichsthaler for his employe's freedom ; likewise also a Jewess interceded for him ; but all efforts were in vain. So, after bidding fare- well to his Brethren in Heidelberg, whom he never saw again as long as he lived, he departed from Heidelberg, and betook himself to Eberbach to say farewell to his relatives. Before this, while he had worked there, persecutions had already broken out against him, in which the bailiff had been in- duced to take part. His wife indeed had urged him to leave the innocent man in peace, to which he had replied that he would willingly do so, but that the preachers gave him no rest in the matter. Scarcely had the Superintendent arrived there now, ere his inner guide impelled him to hasten away again, which he obediently did. The very next day his brother came after him, and said that the soldiers had comne to seize him immediately after he had left.
Such were the circumstances of his banishment from the country, wherein there is less to be surprised at than if he had been accorded liberty of conscience in the testimony lie bore to the destruction of the whole world. In his Discourses, page 326, he described all this under the figure of a restless child whose mother has put it down from her lap, and finally concludes in these words : "Now we see the orphan depart, banished by the mother from city and land." Nevertheless it is sad when a country outrages God's witnesses whoin it ought to protect ; for indeed, about the same time many per- sons were banished from the Palatinate for conscience sake, at Frensheim, Lambsheim, Mutterstadt, Frankenthal, Schiries- heim, etc., the most of whom ended their lives in Pennsyl- vania. It was this that moved the Superintendent thus pro-
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phetically to express himself in the 4th Theosophie Epistle, page 85 : "O Land, Land ! what will happen unto thee ? O Palatinate ! what hast thou resting upon thee ? How many seasons of gracious visitation from God hast thou allowed to pass over thee ? How many of God's witnesses to the truth hast thou consigned to pain and disgrace, and obliged in their misery to sigh and cry out against thee ?"
As to his state of mind, so far as one has been able to gather, it was as follows : He fell into excessive penitence- labors, alinost more than his human nature could endure, in which his lively disposition suffered such violence that he contracted consumption, to which was added that the spirit of this world sought to deprive him of every means of mak- ing a living, which so deeply affected him that he came near retracting. In this condition he at length came into the region where the Inspirationists lived. There he beheld a worse Babel among the pious who had come out from Babel than he had seen in Babel itself ; for while in the latter one religion strove against the other, here persons were opposed one to the other. Each one lived for himself, and regulated his conduct according to his own inclinations, which the Superintendent. did not deem possible for truly pious per- sons. For he has affirined concerning himself, that from the time of his first conversion he never did anything according to his own ideas, but wherever not under the leading of his inner guide, he subjected himself to the outer authorities. On this point he expressed himself thus in his Discourses : "One has indeed for a long time heard inany and various aların-cries about the fall of Babylon and the judgment of the world ; there has, however, nothing practical come of it, alas ! because the vessels and instruments used therefor were of the same material out of which the great Babel itself is built, since they did not attain to the body of Christ, nor were born of water and of the Spirit. Wherefore the work could be no different from what the workman was. And as the vessels were not separated from Adam's body, it was not possible that anything else could result than what had been before ; for ere one was aware of it there arose a worse con- fusion than in those places where they had spoken scorn- fully and predicted the fall of Babylon."
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CHRONICON EPHRATENSE.
There was at that time sojourning in that same region a baker by the name of Schatz, who with his wife feared God, and was a real Gaius, or host, to all the devout. Then they belonged to the Inspired, though they ended their days with the Moravian Brethren. These dear people received himn, and together they baked the bread for the devout in that neighborhood, who by their strict life had become spoiled to such a degree that it was a difficult matter to bake for them, so that the Superintendent could bring into play his experience in baking for the saints. He refused, however, to work for wages, as he felt it easier to give his services to any one freely. But Schatz would not agree to this, and said he had had such Brethren before, to whom he always at last had to pay full price for all. In this household he had good oppor- tunity to become acquainted with the Pietists, who found an asylum in this house. Meanwhile he had contracted con- sumption through his practice of a severe penance, and his strength began palpably to decline ; nor did he know at that time that no spiritual bloom is to be hoped for when once its habitation is destroyed. Everybody felt pity for this young warrior, as for one whose thread of life was about being sev- ered ere yet he had fairly commenced his day's work. But God so ordained it that the renowned Doctor Carl came there ; and then it happened, that while they unitedly en- gaged in prayer, his spiritual condition was inade known to the latter, who accordingly said : "My friend you meditate too much on the world's dark side ;" and after he had given him some instruction as to his condition, he prescribed the use of sheep's-ribs, by which means, through God's grace he became well again. Thereupon his natural liveliness was again awakened in him, and thus he remained until his end ; albeit one could always read in his countenance when he was undergoing sore temptations. At that time, too, he became conscious that for a while his walk in the Spirit had no con- tinuance. He therefore inquired thereof of the mouth of the Lord, when it was revealed to his spirit that he looked too impatiently upon the evil of others-a thing which now is very common among the devout, but not among saints.
He can, however, only be regarded as one of the after-
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A HISTORY OF EPHRATA.
gleanings of that awakening, as there were already two con- gregations there before him, namely, the Baptists of Schwarz- enau, and the Inspirationists of Marienborn. The former seemed to him, as a strict separatist, entirely too sectarian. But among the latter he found entrance through his master, Schatz ; they were also nearer to him, wherefore he went with them for a time, although he never became a meinber of their organization. The head men of the Inspirationists remarked in him a deeply rooted and grounded spirit, which they would not be able to move with all their prophetic exer- cises ; for at his awakening there was entrusted to him a heavenly virginity, so that persons who had the capacity be- came pregnant thereof if they only came nigh to his person. It once happened that, while he was at one of their meetings, over which Demala, a schoolmaster who had been driven from Worms, had the oversight, beside whom he was kneel- ing in prayer, two young sisters who knelt opposite them, became violently affected.
Demala attributed it to the powers of temptation, and therefore said to him : " Brother Conrad, I advise you to go out." He accordingly did go out, and continued his devotions in another room. After tlie meeting was over, these sisters were questioned as to their being so strongly moved, when they confessed that they did not know what had caused it, but they did not feel safe them- selves. The Inspirationists' displeasure now broke out against him ; and it did so in an announcement in which it was said : "Down from thy spiritual high-place ; how gladly wouldest thou be called a Brother if," etc. As such announcements were wont to drive men into the fire, he was asked how it had affected him. To this he answered us that it had relieved him, because he had all the while felt a heavier judgment within himself than the one Rock had pronounced. When he noticed, however, that, in order to bring him the more into subjection, they intended to transfer him from the adults' to the children's meeting, he withdrew himself from them. He has, nevertheless, borne favorable testimony concerning the spirit of the Inspiration, namely, that it was a pure, clean, virgin spirit, so that when its instruments went to marrying, it had withdrawn itself again into its chamber ; moreover that it
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was very subtle and skillful to bring to light at the meetings that which was hidden, so that, however anyone behaved at them, none could escape its judgment. At last, however, human powers had mixed in with it, which had subjected everything to themselves ; wherefore, also, they permitted no stranger to attend their meetings oftener than three times.
About this same time he lived with Stiefel, his traveling- companion to America, making a iniserable living by spin- ning wool. For he was poor, and his share of the little which his father had left behind, he had divided among his blood relations. Among his friends was a godly nobleman by the name of Junkerroth, who believed in the transmigration of souls into other bodies, and for this reason never married, as he did not wish to bring up strange spirits. In order to get rid of his wealth he had this custom : when the pious asked him for aid, he gave them the key to his chests and let them take as much as they wished ; and if he heard that anyone had done good on God's account, he paid him therefor. He is known among the learned by his strange translation of the New Testament. Such, then, are the circumstances of the Superintendent's godly calling, wherein he walked for five years in Germany ; now we will examine more closely his divinely-led course in America.
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CHAPTER III.
THE SUPERINTENDENT TRAVELS IN PENNSYLVANIA, AND LIVES THERE IN SOLITUDE.
After this latest part of the inhabited earth had lain waste for over 5000 years, it was resolved at a council of the Watch- inen to impart unto it a fruitful evening rain, which fell upon Pennsylvania in particular, as shall now be demonstrated. The Superintendent speaks thus of it in his 5th Epistle : "Asia is fallen, and its lamp is gone out. For Europe the sun hath set at bright midday. America sees a lily blooming whose perfume will spread tinto tlie heathen. The evening and the morning will again make a day (GEN. I). The light of the evening shall send its brightness even unto the mnorn- ing ; and the last promised evening rain shall come to the help of the morning, and bring again the end unto its begin- ning, whereat Jacob shall be glad, and Israel rejoice." His purpose in this journey really was to spend his life in solitude with God. That in America he should again dive into the ocean of humanity was something of which at that time he probably did not even dream. On the contrary, he was in doubt whether his course was not undertaken in self-will, and therefore wrote to a friend in Manheim : "Know that, since I departed in my self-will from Germany, I have had to pass through inany great and bloody trials."
He was, however, induced to undertake this journey by his two intimate friends, Stiefel and Stuntz, who like him were still single and free. Stuntz even offered to pay his way for him. As soon as it became known, the Pietists did their best to dissuade him. Dr. Carl especially advanced the plea of his natural relations, who had become converted through him, and of whom he must render an account if he left thein. But a hidden destiny hardened him against all such repre- sentations, so that in the year 1720 he entered upon his jour- ney to America. His traveling companions were the afore-
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mentioned Stiefel and Stuntz, Simon Kænig, Henry von Bebern, etc. They arrived at Boston that same autumn1.
At that time Pennsylvania had a bad name among the neighboring States, and was only known as Quakerland. Its first inhabitants fled for conscience sake into this country, in which they established a peaceful form of government. But after them came differently disposed inhabitants, who took part in the government, though quite opposed to the former. From this there came into being two different kinds of people, who for many years strove for the upper hand, under the names of the Old and the New Assembly, until at last the one party had to yield to the other. Among the then inhabitants is reckoned also a certain religious association, who, under their leader, Jolin Kelpius, 1 settled near Ger- mantown, and for a time were a pecular light among men because of their holy living ; but after their leader died the tempter found occasion to scatter thein, as those who had been inost zealous against marrying now betook themselves
1This Kelpius was from Siebenbuergen, of a family of rank ; had stud- ied in Helmstadt under Dr. Fabricius ; was well versed in the three prin- cipal languages, as is to be seen from his letters which still exist among his friends. In London he became acquainted with Pordage, Leade, Deich- mann, and Mack, the chaplain of Prince George, and kept up a correspond- ence with them. In 1694 he arrived in Philadelphia ; his traveling compan - ions were Bernhard Kuster, Daniel Falckner, Daniel Lutkins, John Seelig, Lewis Aderman and several others, most of whom were learned men. They were all single, and settled on the Ridge, which then was still a wilderness, on which account they called themselves The Woman in the Wilderness. At that time they numbered about 40 persons, but afterwards increased, for in 1704 Conrad Matthew, a Swiss of rank, joined them, and afterwards Christopher Witt, a celebrated physician and magus, Daniel Geissler and some others.
Kelpius died in the midst of his years, after which their institution went to nothing, although the good name and influence of it have survived even unto the present day. Some betook themselves to women; others had themselves received into the church again ; Seelig and Matthews stood fast. The former, in order to escape the society of men, dressed in a coarse habit ; the latter, after he had fulfilled righteousness among men by works of love, came to live a life of faith, whereupon God awakened for him a rich merchant, by the name of John Wuester, who served him with his pos- sessions, and also helped to bury him by the side of Kelpius, although he in his humility had not desired to lie beside him, but only at his feet. May God grant him a blessed resurrection !
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to women again, which brought such shame on the solitary state that the few who still held to it dared not open their mouths for shame.
In such times the Superintendent arrived at Germantown ; but kept very quiet as to his projects for a solitary life, for many, who had maintained a very proper walk in Germany, had here hung up their holy calling on a nail, and, what was worst, would give no one credit for zeal or diligence. Among these were several who in the Palatinate had let themselves be driven from house and home, but here left great wealtlı behind them after their death. All this caused him much concern ; for he everywhere saw the pious sitting at the helin and exercising magisterial offices. As he saw clearly that his trade would not be of much use to him in this country, he determined to learn the weaver's trade, and so put himself under the instruction, for a year, of P. B., 2 a member of the Baptists. These good people showed him much love, and confessed all their condition to him, namely, how upon the ocean they had lost their love for one another, and now had even become scattered over the country. That the great freedom of this land was one canse of their being thus sold under the spirit of this world, through which all Godly influences had been lost, and each one depended upon himself. "See, dear friend," they further said, "thus it has happened to us ; we have become strangers one to the other, and nearly all love and faith- fulness have been lost among us." In reply to this he impressively exhorted them not to tarry any longer in so dangerous, loveless, and unregenerate a condition, but to re- unite themselves in love to one another, and to drop all con- trariness. And then they should make the attempt and see whether they could not call together a meeting ; if any good is effected, something will be gained ; if not, wait a while longer. . This advice was not wholly spoken to the wind, for it is clear from it that he had a hand in the awakening which soon after followed in and about Germantown ; for it was through these edifying speeches that these good people were
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