The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-07-03

to be continually prophesyng the speedy extinction
Of Shakers and Shakerism-" the wish being father
to the thought
The aggregate number Of Shakers has varied but
tride during the last fifteen years, the increase
having been about equal to the deaths and seces-
sions There are as your correspondent states about
five hundred in this Society, of which not more than
one-fourth, instead of onehalf, are minors Not only
are all at liberty to leave when their hearts become
turned to worldly things but in our forms Of inden
ture it is stipulated that if child or its guardian
become dissatisfied, the parent or former guardian
shall take it back. We wish for none in our ranks
whose hearts are not with us, and who are free vo
lunteers. But very few children have ever been
taken from county or poorhouses Our ant-marriage
principles appear to be the greatest stumbling
to the common mind and sense of our friends
without, who quite as sure they are right, and
that the Shakers are wrong in this respect, as for
ages and ages were the whole world, when they be-
leved that the earth upon which they lived was Hat
and that the heavenly bodies reyolved around 1t
every day; so that, when philosopher affirmed that
the earth was spherical, the then most orthodox
Christian church ''churched" him for heresy
But in this, as in many other notable disputes, 1t
turns out that both parties are right.
The shovel and tong to each other belongs,
The rabbits and hares " may still' 20 in pairs.
But we beg to be left out OF that category. And
when informed by fashionable Christians, who ap-
world, that provided "all lived as we do, the
world would run OUT we feel disposed in re-
turn to ask-What, according to their stand.
ard creeds, would have been the condition
OF the earth by this time, if man had not sinned?
They assert that sin the cause of physical death,
and that without it there would have been neither
war famine or pestilence to thin off the human race,
follows as matter of course. Now that the race of
man would have increased under such circumstances,
like rabbits in pairs" until there would have been
place upon the earth for man to stand beside his
fellow man, is simple mathematical problem, or
rather sum in simple arithmetic.
We would, therefore, gently and respectfully turn
the tables upon all those who say the Shakers be-
lieve as the Mormon Bible atirms, that man sin
generative Christians believe that man sinned that
man might have place to be-" For if, notwith-
standing the help OF "sn and DEATH" and their
faithful servants war famine and all the diseases OF
the Egyptians, there be, at this moment one thou
sand million human beings in existence on the earth,
how many thousand times that number would there
have been had not these causes and agencies (Which
have held in check the multiplying propensity Of
many been in existence?
Or what, if the strenuous efforts SO laudably put
forth to evangeze all nations, should prove success
full, and sin and death become thereby abolished,
would be our condition five hundred years hence if
all the people the Shakers ncluded) should live as
the children OF this world now do, marrying and
being given in marriage!" | confess can see no
other alternative but that either the earth must in
crease in its SIZE or at least portion Of the
must turn Shakers.
We believe man to be progressive being, orr
gnally destined, whether ne sinned or did not SIN,
to come into existence in rudimental, animal,
earthly sphere, through the process Of generation,
the same as all the animal creation, of which he is
component part, and also that he was des-
tined TO- ascend, by successive steps or stages
as we term it, resurrection state. We be-
leve that Jesus and his Apostles were the first
who entered into this state the male side of hui
mainly, and that she whom for her many virtues her
purity and piety we respectfully and affection
ately term mother was the first on the female
side who really into the spiritual or resur
rection state Thus was laid the foundation Of the
new creation in which there is neither rich nor
poor, bond or free male or females" but where all
one on earth in Christ Jesus just as other pro-
fessors expect to be one in the other world, they
forgetting the homely proverb that "a bird in the
this sterile field for the affections spoken of
by your correspondent, for the is not without
the woman in nature, SO neither ID the man with
out the woman. nor the woman without the
man in the spiritual or resurrection sphere.
But if, as your correspondent intimates, human
happiness can only be consummated in a corporal
union of the sexes, then woe betide him, and all
others Of our race during eternity Of existence in
another world, where the mortal body has no place,
But if the loves and affections, the joys and delights
he SO feelingly depicts, emitting, however, as he
does altogether the other side Of the picture, appro
but shadow type of that which results from the
union and relation of the in the Christ sphere,
into which the Shakers think they have risen,
rising: then is fulfilled their saying "Eye hath not
SEEN hath not heard hath entered into the
heart Of man, to conceive the things which God hath
prepared for them that truly love and serve him."
The outward, natural generative man cannot see,
hear or understand these things Of the Spirit, "for
they are foolishness unto him." and can only be
spiritually discerned; so that 'f gospel be hid,
it is hid from them whose eyes the God of this world
has blinded, who are acquainted with and can Judge
only one side, while most of us have proved all
things and compare and contrast the fruits of
the flesh with the fruits of the Spirit, and can
judge and have chosen accordingly.
1t is our desire that "every man be fully persuaded
in his own mind" believing that in religious mat
ters all ought to stand fall to their own invisible
master only
The human family in its onward and progressive
states and conditions of mind and character in man
and woman, is fifty represented by the beautiful
orange tree which bears, at one and the same time
buds leaves blossoms and rutin all stages from the
green and inedibe to the maturely ripened and lus
cious orange. r..