Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-04-01
SISTER TABEA.%
A story OF the OLD Days Of the Ephrata
seventh bay baptist Community.

part of the eighteenth century. one of these |
was called "Bethany," the other "Sharon."
A hundred and thirty or forty years ago
there we're other buildings with these, and
the softening hand of time had not yet
touched any of them. The doorways were
then, as now, on the gound level, the pas
sages were just rs narrow and dusky, the
cells had the same little square windows to
let in the day. but the stones in that day
had hue that reminded one OF the quarry, |
the mortar between them was fresh, the |
shingles in the roof had gathered no moss
and very little weather stain; the primevM |
forests were vet within the horizon, and
there was everywhere an air OF newness, OF |
advancement, and of prosperity about the |
Dunkard convent one sees now neither
monks or nuns in these narrow Railways;
monks and nuns are nowhere about Ephrata.
except in the graveyard where all the breth-
rem of Bethany, and all the sisters VINO once
peopled sharon, sleep together in the mold.
But in the middle of the eighteenth century
their bare feet shuilied upon the stairs as
clad in white hooded cloaks descending To
the very ground, they glided in and out of
the low doors, or assembled in the little
chapel called "Yion" to attend service under
the lead of their founder, Conrad Beissels.
In the convent, where he regned supreme,
Beissels was known as Brother Freidsam
later he was reverently called fathersam
Gottrecht, a name that, like all their convent
names had plenty OF mystical significance
attached TO il
But monks and nuns are men and women
and neither cloister life, nor capuchin hoods
and cloaks, nor bare feet, nor protracted mid
night services, can prevent heart-burnings
and rivalries nor can all of these together put
down---what is most to I've dreaded in a mou-
astery-the growth of affection between man
aud woman. What could be done to tame
human nature into submission, TO bring il TO
in, IA tati
contented round of self-denial and psalm
singing, Brother Friedsam had tired on his
followers with the unsparng hand of a re-
ligious enthusiast He had forbidden all
animal food. Not only was meat Of evil
tendency, but milk, he said, made the spirit
heavy and narrow butter and cheese pro-
duced similar disabilities; eggs excited the
passions; honey made the eyes bright and
the heart cheerful, but did not clear the voice
for music So he approved chiefly of those
plain things that sprang direct from the
earth, particularly of potatoes, turnips,
and other roots, with a little bread soup
| and such-lke ghostly diet For drink he
| would have nothing but what he called sin.
| nocent clear water" just as ii flowed from
| the spring.
| But even dish of potatoes and turnips
| and beets and carrots, eaten from wooden
trenchers, without milk or butter or meat,
| was not sufficient to make the affections and
| Jassions of men and women rs ethereal as
| Friedsam wished. He welded his people in
mystic marriage to "the Chaste Lamb" to
| borrow his frequent phrase. They sang
| ecstatically of a mystical city ofbrotherly and
| sisterly affection which they, in common
| with other dreamers of the time, called Phil
| delphis, and they reioiced in a divine
creature called in their mystical jargon
| Sophia, which l suppose meant wisdom,
| wisdom divorced from common sense. These
| anchorites did not esChew social enjoyment.
| but held little love-teasts 10 which the sisters
now invited the brethren, and next the
brethren entertained the sisters-with I'M
| buttered parsnips and draughts of innocent
| clear water, no doubt
| H.
| That which was most remarkable at
Ephrata, and that out of which grows my
l story, was the music. Brother Friedsam,
/ besides his cares of organization, finance. and
administration, and his mystical theological
specuations, was also a poet Most of the
songs sung in the little building called
"Xion were written by him-songs about
"the lonesome turtle-dove in the wilder.
ness" that is, the church songs in praise ol
the mystical marriage of virgins with the
| chaste Lamb songs about the Philadel phian
brotherhood of saints, about the divine
Sophia, and about many other things which
no man can understand, l am sure, until he
has first purified himself from the gross
| humors OF the flesh by q heavenly diet oi
turnips and spring water. To the brethren
and sisters who believed their little COM
| munity in the PENNSYLVANIA woods to be
the Woman in the Wilderness seen by
ST. John, these words represented the only
| substantial and valuable things in
the wide universe and they sang
| the songs of Conrad Beissels with
| as much fervor rs they could have
| sung the songs of heaven itself
Beissels-the Friedsam of the brotherhood
/ was not only the poet but the composer OF the
| choral songs and composer OF rare merit
| The music he wrote Is preserved as it was
| copied out with great painstaklng by the
brethren and sisters. In looking over the
| wonderful old manuscript note book the first
impression is one of delight with the quaint
| symbolic illuminations wrought by the nuns
| of Ephrata upon the margins. But those who
| know music declare that the melodies are
| lovely, and that the whole structure of the
| harmonies is masteriul, and worthy OF the
| fame they had in the days when monks and
| nuns performed them under the lead OF
| Brother friedsam himself. In the gallery
| OF Zion house, but concealed from the view
| OF the brethren, sat the sisterhood, like a
| company of saints in spotless robes. Below,
| the brethern, likewise in white answered To
| the choir above in antiphonal singing of the
| loveliest and most faultless sort. Strangers
i Journeyed from aiar over rough country
| roads TO hear this wonderful chorus, and
were moved In the depths of their souls with
| the indescribable sweetness and loftiness OF
| the music, and with the charm and express
siveness of its rendering by these pale-faced
| other-woridly singers.
Il
| tanned at a cost almost too great Brother
| Friedsam was fanatic, and he was also an
| artist He obliged the brethren and sisters
to submit TO the most rigorous training. In
this, as In religion, he subordinated them 10
his ideals. He would fain tune their very
| souls to his own key; and he eXacted a pre-
cision that was difficult of attainment by men
| and women of average fallibility and Careless
/ ness. The men singers were divided into
| five choruses of five persons each the sisters
| were classified, according to the pitch OF their
| voices, into three divisions, each of which
| sang or kept silent, according TO the duty
| assigned to it in the note book. At the love-
| feasts these choruses sat side by side at the
| table, so as to be ready to sing together with
| perfect precision whenever a song should be
| announced. At the singing school Brother
| Friedsam could not abide the least defect
| he rated roundly the brother or sister who
made any mistake he scourged their tagging
aspirations toward perfection. If il is ever
| necessary to account for bad temper In
musicians, one might suggest that the water
| cruel diet had impaired his temper and
| theirs; certain 1t is that out of the production
| OF so much heavenly harmony there sprang
| discord. The brethren and sisters grew daily v
| more and more indignant at the severity OF
| the director, whom they reverenced as a
religious guide, but against whom, as musi.
cal conductor, they rebelled in their hearts.
| Ill.
The sisters were the first to act at this cri-
sis. At their knitting and their sewing they
talked about 1t, in the kitchen they discussed
| It. until their hearts burned within them.
| Even IN illuminating the note book with
| pretty billing turtledoves, and emblamatic
| howers such as must have grown i'm paradise,