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In fact, to destroy terrestrial idols of every kind, to dispel the clouds of inordinate affection and concentrative love, which fascinatingly float around the mind and screen from its view the radiant brightness of heaven and heavenly things, is the great object of Shakerism.
The Eldress smiled doubtfully, but Athalia, with a rapturous upward look, said, "May the Lord guide him!" then added, practically, "It won't amount to anything. He thinks Shakerism isn't human." "That's not against it, that's not against it!" Nathan declared, smiling; "I've told him so a dozen times!"
Poor, vague Brother William, who saw visions and dreamed dreams, was, in this community, the torch that held a smouldering spark of the divine fire, and when, in a cataleptic state, his faint intelligence fluttered back into some dim depths of personality, and he moaned and muttered, using awful names with babbling freedom, Brother Nathan and the rest listened with pathetic eagerness for a "thus saith the Lord," which should enflame the gray embers of Shakerism and give light to the whole world!
He had been interested in Brother Nathan's explanation of Hosea's forecasting of Shakerism, and he had admitted to himself that, if Nathan was correct, there would be something to be said for Shakerism. The idea made him vaguely uneasy, because, that "something" might be so conclusive, that But he could not face such a possibility.
The fortnight of Athalia's absence wore greatly upon her husband. Apprehension lurked in the back of his mind. In the mill, or out on the farm, or when he sat down among his shabby, old, calf-skin books, he was assailed by the memory of all her various fancies during their married life. Some of them were no more remarkable or unexpected than this interest in Shakerism.
He was afraid it would hurt her, some day, when she realized it; well, when she came to herself, when she got through her playing at Shakerism, he must not let her know how great the pain had been; she would suffer too much if she should understand his misery: and Athalia didn't bear suffering well.... But how long she had been getting over Shakerism!
At intervals they send out one or two brethren to preach to the outer world upon Shakerism. There are four Shaker societies in Ohio: Union Village, near Lebanon; North Union, near Cleveland; Watervliet, near Dayton; and Whitewater, near Harrison. Union Village. The society at Union Village lies four miles from Lebanon, in Warren County, Ohio.
If any chance to fall asleep while thus mentally employed, they may rise and bow four times, or gently shake, and then resume their seats. "The man who is now the archbishop of Shakerism was, when a youth, very apt to fall into a drowsy state in retiring time; but he broke up that habit by standing erect the half-hour before every meeting for six months.
He knew that was nonsense; in the first place, his conception of the relation of husband and wife did not include that kind of thing; but more than that, opposition would, he said to himself, "push her in." Not into Shakerism; "'Thalia couldn't be a Shaker to save her life," he thought, with an involuntary smile; but into an excited discontent with her comfortable, prosaic life.
Elder Frederick himself, as he remarks, "was converted to Shakerism in 1830 by spiritual manifestations," having "visions" for three weeks, which converted him, as he relates, from materialism.
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