Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-08-28
THE DUNKERs.
esnuise Love Feast.

Genuine Love Feast.
From the Philadelphia Telegraph =.
The bankers are very curious rehg.
ious sect, originating in the old world
and hourishing in various parts OF our
country. especially in Lancaster county,
Pennsylvania. They are well'to do
farmers, and, as friend remarked to me,
are likely 10 be found wherever there is
fertile limestone soil. Their ministers
are uneducAted and unpaid farmers
their religion is compound OF honesty,
hard work aud legal rites; their churches
are barns. and their chief meetings CON
eentrate themselves in half yearly SER
vices before and after harvest
Leaving Lite after tea, we were
quickly carried behind our landlord :
swift and powerful horses through real
garden land TO the place OF bunker
meeting-the large white barn OF TAR
mer of their persuasion. The lanes
Leading TO the barn we're filed with car
riages, and the grounds we're crowded
with spectators, who we're grouped I'M
der the apple trees or around the VIDE
omen doors Of the barn. The services
were well underway, and the interesting
ceremony Of feet washing over when we
arrived. With some difficulty we worked
our way over implements and hay-plles
into one corner OF the barn, from which
we could overlook the whole scene. Inc
building had been cleared for the breth-
rem and sisters, who sat along marrow
tables ranged across the body OF the
barn. A partition wall separated the
sexes, and over it we could see the Seri-
GUS faces of the sisters, With their white
caps and white capes, while row oil
sedate brethren sat so near us that we
eould have laid our hands on their
hair. religiously parted in the middle.
AS we came in they we're silently par
taking of their love feast. On the mar.
row tables stood tin bowls OF lambs
broth. with the boiled joint aside OF them,
bread and butter, and water served out
Of watering cans. About $50 were par
taking Of the meal by the light OF tallow
candles, and never word was spoken,
except in address, or hymn, or prayer.
After the love feast was over, speak
er significantly reminded us strangers
that as we did not keep the LORD feast
in this divinely appointed way we had
little 10 expect on the Day of Judgment.
Then came a prayer, the 18th chapter
of John, recounting our Lord cruclhx-
ion. and the address of an old white
bearded man, who, with rude but deep
pathos, told of Christs love in His
redeeming death. 4f.
The leader babe them greet each
other with "holy kiss ere they tasted
their Lords sacramental supper, and ST.
lently and slowly the salutation passed
down one side the long tables and up
the other. Then the elements were con-
secrated, and passed from hand to hand.
The scene was striking. The barn was
dimly lighted by the candles, the faces
of all were sober, and some we're thought
full. Many of the men were gray and
toll worn, and some OF the women, II
not beautiful, had sweet charm in their
faces. Sometimes a German or an
English hymn pealed upward among the
rafters of the barn, and then there was
deep silence again, broken only by
slight rusthngs in the hay and low
whispers among the strangers, watching
to see what new ceremony would next
be started from the cross table at which
the bunker preacher sat. Here was
strange mixture of the true and falsei
ritual rude and yet refined, and as close
Nv observed by these farmers as are the
forms of ST. Adams by its fashionable
devotees.