Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-20

own factories and from faX grown upon
their own land and spun by their own looms.
All their boots, shoes and harness are made
by their own shoemakers and saddlers from
the hides OF their own cattle, tanned in
their own tanneries. And so with every
thing, even the tools with which they labor
and the machinery in their great mills and
factories.
The most peculiar and distinctive feature
of the religion of the ZoariteS is their firm
belief that Adam, the first father of US all,
was woman, or, rather, that he was a
dual being, combining in his single lndi-
viduality both the male and female ele-
ments OF generation, or, as they delght to
put 1t, adam was masculine maiden"
They claim that this mystical idea that
Adam was dual being possessing both the
sexual clements, is proved by the fact that
the book of Genesis constantly speaks OF
him, before the creation of Eve, in the plu-
raj number. Thus in Genesis, first chapter,
twenty-siXth and tweuty-seveuth verses,
we find these words: And God said. let
us make man in our image. after our like
ness, and let them have dominion" etc.
And again: $50 God created man in his
own image, in the image of God created he
him, male and female created he them
The Zoarites understand the word ''theln"
III both OF these verSes-occurring In the
text long before the account of
the creation of Eye-as apply
ing TO the double nature, both male and
female, combined in Adam. They believe
Adam to have been created in the exact
image of God, and in higher and more
mystical sense than is commonly attached
TO those words. Instead of combining Adams
resem blance to God to mere moral likeness
il knowledge, Righteousness and holi-
ness" they include in it also resemblance
in form to the person of the Goldman, or
God-manifest, whose ''voice was heard
walking in the garden" and whose visible
appearances are often referred to in the
Old Testament.
They believe that the separation of
Adams feminine nature from his masculine
one by the creation of Eve was due to sin
full desire for such separation on Adams
part. They think that at the time when
God caused all the various ANIMALS to pass
before Adam in pairs, our first parent con-
ceived desire for similar separation and
companionship in his own case, thus DeconI-
ing diScontented with the cond ton in which
GOO had placed him, and abusing his free
dom Of will by yielding to his lower animal
nature. They think that Adams feelings
on this occasion are well expressed by the
old song:
The fox and the hare, the badger and the bear,
And the birds in the greenwood tree;
And the pretty little rabbits, SO engaging in
their habits,
And they've all got a mate but me"
The irregular and sinful longing for the
separation Of his feminine nature from him
self which Adam then experienced induced
restlessness and worry of mind which
We're the cause of the deep sleep that fell
upon him, during which God separated the
male and the female elements of his being,
and embodied the latter in the person of
Eve. The subsequent partaking together
by the man and woman of the forbidden
fruit was but the consummation and natural
consequence of the earlier incipient apes
tasy. This view they believe to be cor
roborated by the statement in Genesis IL,
is, THE Lord God said, it is not good that
man should be alone" Now at the close of
the six days work, as recorded in Genesis
l., 81. all things We're pronounced very
good" but now there is something that s'is
not good" How could mans loneliness,
they ask, become an evil, while before IL
was very good" had he not already
brought himself into state of restlessness
and dissatisfaction. which made it mot
good" that he should be alone? God, there
fore, allowed Adams fall to be complete by
giving HIM "help-meet for him. in his
present deteriorated condition, Just as he
afterwards gave the Jews a king when
they demanded one. Adam had conceived
element of his nature while it was yet a
part of himself, and now that the woman
had become separate being, she readily
completed the temptation by presenting to
him the forbidden fruit.
This fruit the Zoarites regard as an OBJ
jective reality, and as possessing some sort
of poisonous quality which introduced the
seeds OF disease and death into the human
frame and induced the sexual feeling.
When any one quotes against their former
practice of celibacy, the first commandment,
BE fruitful and multiply" ETC., Genesis,
i, 2St, they call attention to the fact that
this command was given before Adams
male and female natures had ever been
separated, and they claim that if that sep
aration had never taken place the increase
of the race would have been brought about
in accordance with God original intention.
Just how this increase could have been
brought about they do not pretend to eX-
plain, but they believe that it would have
taken place in manner incomprehensible
to US. by a certain holy commingllng of the
male and female elements of mans being
at particular tunes and with Gods imme-
diate appreciation, SO that new creature
would be in some way developed from |
mans person without physical pain. AS |
Bimeler. the founder of the Zoarites, has
expressed it in his writings, God having |
given to Adam both faculties OF propagation, |
and having thus created him real mas
culine maiden, intended that he !
should reproduce his kind in magical |
way-that is, through the imaginative |
powers of attraction and chaste enkindliug |
in the spirit of the word which he bore |
within him. God intended that the union |
of the fire-tincture and the lsht-tincture |
should take place in Adam for the genera |
ton of his race, and the new being produced |
by this heavenly union would have come to
light Immediately and in its entire perfec- |
ton, without having passed through the |
many stages Of development necessary to |
the completion of every animal offspring. |
Thus, in brief, not from blood or from the |
will of the flesh, but in, through, and from |
God, Adam-the woman, man or man. |
woman-would have begotten an innumera- |
BILE posterity.
The Zoarites believe the person of Jesus
to have been physically the same as that of |
Adam prior to his fall that is, dual-a man |
and woman combined in a single Individual |
ity. 1t was because they believed that |
Adam sinned in repining because he was |
alone and in esiring companion, and be- |
cause God departed from his original inte1- |
ton in separating the feminine part Il |
Adams nature and creating Eve, that til
Zoarites originally opposed marriage ami
exacted the rigid practice of celibacy as q |
sine qua non Of membership in their soci- |
ETY.. 1t was only after long fasting and |
prayer and the receipt Of special revela- |
ton from God that Rimeler abandoned