Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-12
A STRANGE SACRAMENT.
The Way Singular Community Cele
brates the Lords Supper.
Celibacy an;I Community OF Property the
Fundamental Principles of Strange
Religious sect-Their Origin.

ECONOMY, Pa, Oct. l0.-Of all tho
strange religious communities and sects
which at various times have existed IN
this country, none have been quainter'
more curious, or richer in romantic
mystic interest than that most sing ula'
body of German communists, pletlst-
mystics and celibates, the Economics OF
Harmoniats, who built, own ana excIus-
lively occupy this unique village OF
Econon :, and none have ever practioeu
any rites or ceremonies more strikingly
peculiar than those with which these
singular people annually observe, with
the beginning of October, the sacrament
Of the Lord s supper.
1t is more than eighty-five years since
The late George Rapp emlgrated from
Germany with some 600 disciples anu
founded this most singular community
calling 1t the Harmony society, the run
damertal principles of Rapp's creed
being ceiibacy and community OF goods.
Rapp's ideas and the pOetico- philosophl-
cal mysticism upon which be founded
them were largely derived from the
works of Jacob Boehm, or Boehmen,
who was largely responsible Tor many
forms of human folly that had masquer-
AIDED in the guise OF religion 10 UNDER
stand the economic celebration OF the
sncrament 1t ia necessary TO know some
thing of Boehmen.
This man Boehmen was born at Alt
seidenburg. in Upp-r Lusatia, In the
wear 1875. His parents were poor coun-
try people and Jacob was employed as a
cowherder. Even as n mere lad, while
watching the cattle in the fields, he
claimed that he saw strange Visions
sometimes in the night and sometimes in
the day-a claim TO which his adherents
afterward referred as evidence of his
divine call and Inspiration, but which his
enemies loudly declared was unquestlon-
able proof that he was an imposter.
one Of the most remarkable of these
visions he claimed to have seen in the
yeur 1000, when in his twenty-tifth year.
He says that while looking at bright
tin vessel, "a beautiful, iOy-inspiring
spectacle, - he was grasped "by ray
of the higher life and hurried away into
the center of mysterious nature. From
that time tin vessels played an important
part in his life, and he was accustomed
to gaze intentlY at one whenever he de-
sired TO experience
DEEP SPIRITUAL FEELING.
lntTe Cilu Dt uO hOuDb ludL hO lhuo
produced a species of that hypnotism OF
hich we now hear so much. The i'm
pr,sslon of these visions was Intensified
by intercourse with some physicians who
were devoted to the occult sciences, and
who by their erudite paracelsian Ian
guage exerted such influence upon his
style of expression. 1t must not be sup
posed, however, that BOehmen was sim
gular and alone in his reverentiaI regard
for tin vessels, the sight of which could
have no possible effect upon any sensible
man at the present day. 1t must be
borne in mind that the nature of metals
then exercised great influence in the sys-
:ems OF all mystics, ana that Boehmen
soon became an alchemst, constantly
experimenting to find the philosophers
stone, which, together with all the other
secrets of nature, he was confidently be-
lieved by his adherents to have discov-
cred.
In the year 1910 Boehmen, quite illit-
crate though he was, felt called upon to
appear as an author. His first work bore
the following pretentious title: "Morn-
ing Dawn in the East; that is the Root
or Mother of PHILOSOPHERS, Astrolcgia,
and TheOlOgla, etc. etc. ~ This work
was followed IN course of time by others,
known. His speculations were received
by many as gospel truth. His disciples
and admirers increased rapidly. He was
called by them 'Phiosophus Teutoui-
cus'--the German phllosopher-anda also
thu 'Inspired Shoemaker. The num-
Der of his opponents and prosecutors also
multiplied, and TO them he was known as
the "Knight of the Wax and the
"Crazy Cobbler of Gorlts. -
lis fame soon extended to foreign
lands. We are told by Sir David Brew
steT that ''Sir Isaac Newton was a dill
gent student of Jacob Boehmen's writ
ings. and that there were found among
his papers cOpious extracts from them in
his cwn handwriting. - The same wri-
ter also says that Charles | of England
was Il diligent reader and ardent admirer
OF Boenmen's works, and that he sent
well qualified person from England to
Gorlitz, in Upper Lusatia, to acquire the
German language, and to collect every
anecdote he could meet with there rela-
tive to this great alchemist.
The fame aud influence of Boehmen BY
no means passed away with the century in
which he lived. Among the religious
peasantry of his native land, in many au
humble farmhouse and secluded village,
his works-tamlly heirloom-have bsen
thumped and pondered over by successive
generations from their first publication
10 the present time. Nor have only the
obscure and ignorant acknowledged his
influence and genius. Schelling avowed
'affsctionate reverence for his labors, -
and he once declared, ex cathedra, that
from great Plato down TO Master
Hegel, no one had appeared worthy to
loose the shoe latcher OF the profound
shoemaker. - The great English philoso-
pher aud poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
says: "My obligations TO Boehmen
have been direct. owe him debt Of
gratitude.
These tattering estimates, however,
are rather exceptional than otherwise
among the judgments of the learned and
probably large majority of those who
attempt
TO STUDY BoEHMEN' WORKS
give a hearty assent to the opinion OF
Adelung, vino assigns him one OF the
first places in his History of Human
Folly This fact, however, Is not his
condemnation. gift audience, though
few, - was the desire of one of the
worlds greatest orators, and II cannot
be denied that the admirers and disciples
of Jacob Boehman and his school have,
us rule, been remarkable for deep
spiritual insight and irreproachable
purity of life.