724 



UNITED BRETHREN. 



gulatlons. According to these, all kinds of amuse- 

 inents considered dangerous to strict morality are 

 forbidden, as balls, dancing, plays, gambling of any 

 kind, and all promiscuous assemblies of the youth 

 of both sexes. These, however, are not debarred 

 from forming, under proper advice and parental 

 superintendence, that acquaintance which their 

 future matrimonial connexions may require. In 

 the communities on the European continent, 

 whither, to this day, numbers of young persons oi 

 both sexes resort in order to become members of the 

 society from motives of piety and a desire to pre- 

 pare themselves to become missionaries among the 

 heathen, and where, moreover, the difficulties of 

 supporting a family greatly limit the number of mar- 

 riages, a stricter attention to this point becomes 

 necessary. On this account, the unmarried men 

 and boys, not belonging to the families of the 

 community, reside together, under the care of an 

 elder of their own class, in a building called the 

 tingle brethren's house, where usually divers trades 

 and manufactures are carried on, for the benefit of 

 the house or of the community, and which, at the 

 same time, furnishes a cheap and convenient place 

 for the board and lodging of those who are em- 

 ployed as journeymen, apprentices, or otherwise, in 

 the families constituting the community. Particu- 

 lar daily opportunities of edification are there af- 

 forded them ; and such a house isthe place of resort 

 where the young men and boys of the families spend 

 their leisure time, it being a general rule, that every 

 member of the society shall devote himself to some 

 useful occupation. A similar house under the guid- 

 ance of a female superintendent, and under similar 

 regulations, is called the single sisters' house, and is 

 the common dwelling place of all unmarried females, 

 not members of any family, or not employed as ser- 

 vants in the families of the community. Even 

 these regard the sisters' house as their principal 

 place of association at leisure hours. Industrious 

 habits are here inculcated in the same way. In the 

 communities of the United Brethren in America, 

 the facilities of supporting families, and the conse- 

 quent early marriages, have superseded the necessity 

 of single brethren's houses ; but they all have sis- 

 ters' houses of the above description, which afford 

 a comfortable asylum to aged unmarried females, 

 while they furnish an opportunity of attending to 

 the further education and improvement of the fe- 

 male youth after they have left school. In the 

 larger communities, similar bouses afford the same 

 advantages to such widows as desire to live retired, 

 and are called widows' houses. The individuals re- 

 siding in these establishments pay a small rent, by 

 which, and by the sums paid for their board, the 

 expenses of these houses are defrayed, assisted oc- 

 casionally by the profits on the sale of ornamental 

 needlework, &c., on which some of the inmates 

 subsist. The aged and needy are supported by the 

 same means. Each division of sex and station just al- 

 luded to viz. widows, single men and youths, single 

 women and girls past the age of childhood is 

 placed under the special guidance of elders of their 

 own description, whose province it is to assist them 

 with good advice and admonition, and to attend, as 

 much as may be, to the spiritual and temporal wel- 

 fare of each individual. The children of each sex 

 are under the immediate care of the superintendent 

 of the single choirs, as these divisions are termed. 

 Their instruction in religion, and in all the necessary 

 branches of human knowledge, in good schools, car- 

 ried on separately for each sex, is under the special 



superintendence of the stated minister of each com- 

 munity, and of the board of elders. Similar special 

 elders are charged to attend to the spiritual \\flfaie 

 of the married people. All these elders of both 

 sexes, together with the stated minister, to wlmm 

 the preaching of the gospel is chiefly committed 

 (although all other elders who may be qualified 

 participate therein), and with the persons to whom 

 the economical concerns of the community are en- 

 trusted, form together the board of elders, in which 

 rests the government of the community, with the 

 concurrence of the committee elected by the inha- 

 bitants for all temporal concerns. This committee 

 superintends the observance of all regulations, ha? 

 charge of the police, and decides differences between 

 individuals. Matters of a general nature are sub- 

 mitted to a meeting of the whole community, con- 

 sisting either of all male members of age, or of 

 an intermediate body elected by them. Public 

 meetings are held every evening in the week. Some 

 of these are devoted to the reading of portions of 

 Scripture, others to the communication of accounts 

 from the missionary stations, and others to the 

 singing of hymns or selected verses. On Sunday 

 mornings, the church litany is publicly read, and 

 sermons are delivered to the congregation, which, 

 in many places, is the case likewise in the after, 

 noon. In the evening, discourses are delivered, in 

 which the texts of that day are explained and brought 

 home to the particular circumstances of the com- 

 munity. Besides these regular means of edification, 

 the festival days of the Christian church, such as 

 Easter, Pentecost, Christmas, &c., are commemo- 

 rated in a special manner, as well as some days of 

 peculiar interest in the history of the society. A 

 solemn church music constitutes a prominent fea. 

 ture in their means of edification, music in general 

 being a favourite employment of the leisure of many. 

 On particular occasions, and before the congrega- 

 tion meets to partake of the Lord's supper, they 

 assemble expressly to listen to instrumental vocal 

 music interspersed with hymns, in which the whole 

 congregation joins, while they partake together of 

 a cup of coffee, tea, or chocolate, and light cakes, 

 in token of fellowship and brotherly union. This 

 solemnity is called a love-feast, and is in imitation 

 of the custom of the agapae in the primitive Chris- 

 tian churches. The Lord's supper is celebrated at 

 stated intervals, generally by all communicant mem- 

 bers together, under very solemn but simple rites. 

 Easter morning is devoted to a solemnity of a pecu- 

 liar kind. At sunrise, the congregation assembles 

 in the grave-yard ; a service, accompanied by music 

 is celebrated, expressive of the hopeful joys of im- 

 mortality and resurrection, and a solemn comme- 

 moration is made of all who have, in the course of 

 the last year departed this life from among them, 

 and " gone home to the Lord" an expression they 

 often use to designate death. Considering the ter- 

 mination of the present life no evil, but the entrance 

 upon an eternal state of bliss to the sincere disci- 

 ples of Christ, they desire to divest this event of all 

 its terrors. The decease of every individual is an- 

 nounced to the community by solemn music from a 

 band of instruments. Outward appearances of 

 mourning are discountenanced., The whole con- 

 gregation follows the bier to the grave-yard (which 

 is commonly laid out as a garden), accompanied by 

 a band, playing the tunes of well known verses, 

 which express the hopes of eternal life and resur- 

 rection ; and the corpse is deposited in the simple 

 jrave during the funeral service. The preservation 



