360 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



to renounce matrimony on entering the Convent, and but four or live of the whole 

 number that have been in the cloister, in the period of one hundred and three years, 

 left and were married. One of these married a gentleman in the city of Philadelphia, 

 and afterwards much regretted her change, as did all others who left the "stille einsam- 

 keit.'" The rest continued steadfast in their state of single blessedness, and now, save 

 those remaining in the Convent, lie beside each other in the beautiful cemetery in the 

 fore ground of the village. 



Though they considered contention with arms and at law unchristian and unbe- 

 coming professions, yet they were decided wrings in the Revolution, and have, unfortu- 

 nately, had to defend themselves too fre<iuently in courts of justice. To set an example 

 of forbearance and Christian meekness they suffered for a long time to be wronged and 

 plundered until forbearance was no longer a virtue. In the French war (the war of 

 1756) the doors of the Cloister, including the chapels, meeting room, and every other 

 building, were opened as a refuge for tlie inhabitants of Tulpehocken and Paxton set- 

 tlements, then the frontiers, from the incursions of the hostile Indians, all of whom 

 were received and kept liy the Society during the period of alarm and danger — upon 

 hearing of which a company of infantry was dispatched by the Royal government from 

 Philadelphia to protect Ephrata; and on representation of the character of the Society, 

 by the Commissioners who were sent to visit the place, the Government made them a 

 present of a pair of very large glass communion goblets, which was the only recompense 

 they would receive. At an earlier period they attracted the attention of the Penn 

 family, and one of the young ladies, in England, commenced a correspondence with the 

 Society. Governor Penn visited them frequently, and desirous of giving them a - solid 

 evidence of his regard, had a tract of five thousand acres of land surrounding Ephrata 

 surveyed and conveyed to them, as the Seventh Day Baptist Manor; but they refused 

 to accept it — believing that large possessions were calculated to engender strife, and it 

 is more becoming to Christian pilgi'ims and sojourners not to be absorbed in the gains of 

 this world and the accumulation of property. After the battle of Brandyw'ine the 

 whole establislmient was opened to receive the wounded Americans, great numbers of 

 whom were brought here in wagons, a distance of more than forty miles; and one hun- 

 dred and fifty of whom died, and are buried on Mount Zion. Their doors were ever 

 open to the W'eary traveller, and all visitors were cordially received and entertained, 

 while they tarried, as is done in the Hospices of Europe. All supplies were given to 

 the needy, even their own beds, and to stripping their own backs to afford some shelter 

 from the "peltings of the pitiless storm," to those who were exposed to the weather in 

 inclement seasons. 



Many of the brethren being men of education, they established, at a very early period, 

 a school, which soon gained for itself an honorable reputation, many young men from 

 Philadelphia and Baltimore being sent here to be educated. A Sabbath School was 

 also instituted for religious instruction, which flourished many years, and was attended 

 with some remarkable consequences. It produced an anxious inquiry among the juven- 

 ile population, who attended the school, which increased and grew into what is now 

 termed a revival of religion. The scholars of the Sabbath School met together every 

 day before and after common school hours, to pray and exhort one another, under the 

 superintendence of one of the brethren. The excitement ran into excess, and betrayed 

 a zeal not according to knowledge; which induced Friedsam to discourage an enterprise, 

 which had been commenced, and was partly under way, namely, to erect a house for 

 their especial use, to be called SuccotJi. Ludwig Hacker, or Brother Obed, as he was 

 designated, who was the teacher of the common school, projected the plan of holding 

 a school in the afternoons of the Sabbath, and who in connection with some of the 

 other brethren commenced it, to give instruction to the indigent children who were kept 

 from regular school by employments which their necessities obliged them to be engaged 

 at during the week, as well as to give religious instruction to those of better circum- 



