"No sin can ever enter here—
Nor sinners rear a steeple;
'Tis kept by God's peculiar care,
For his peculiar people.
One faith, one union, and one Lord,
One int'rest all combining,
Believers all, with one accord,
In heav'nly concert joining.
"Far as the gospel spirit reigns,
Our souls are in communion;
From Alfred to South Union's plains,
We feel our love and union.
Here we may walk in peace and love,
With God and saints uniting;
While angels, smiling from above,
To glory are inviting."
Occasionally the book from which I am quoting gives one of those lively brief verses to which the Shaker congregation marches, with clapping hands and skipping feet; as these, for instance:
"I mean to be obedient,
And cross my ugly nature,
And share the blessings that are sent
To ev'ry honest creature;
With ev'ry gift I will unite,
And join in sweet devotion—
To worship God is my delight,
With hands and feet in motion."
"Come, let us all be marching on,
Into the New Jerusalem;
The call is now to ev'ry one
To be alive and moving.
This precious call we will obey—
We love to march the heav'nly way,
And in it we can dance and play,
And feel our spirits living."
In the newer collection, entitled "Millennial Hymns, adapted to the present Order of the Church," and printed at Canterbury, New Hampshire, in 1847, a change is noticeable. The hymns are more devotional and less energetic. There are many praises of Mother Ann—such lines as these:
"O Mother, blest Mother! to thee I will bow;
Thou art a kind Mother, thou dost teach us how
Salvation is gained, and how to increase
In purity, union, in order and peace.
"I love thee, O Mother; thy praise I will sound—
I'll bless thee forever for what I have found,
I'll praise and adore thee, to thee bow and bend,
For Mother, dear Mother, thou art my known friend."
Or these:
"I will walk in true obedience, I will be a child of love;
And in low humiliation I will praise my God above.
I will love my blessed Mother, and obey her holy word,
In submission to my elders, this will join me to the Lord.