A SABBATH-SCHOOL BEFORE THE TIME OF ROBERT RAIKES.
By G. W. Caviness
IT may not be known generally that one Ludwig Hoecker founded a Sabbath-school in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, in the year 1740, or thereabout, and that this Sabbath-school continued until near the time of the Revolutionary War. Also, that there was a company of Sabbath-keepers living at that place, among whom were men of ability and education, who established a printing-press and published some notable works. Of the truth of the above statements, I quote from an article published in the New England Magazine for the month of May, 1902: The outskirts of civilization in those days were the banks of the Susquehanna. Into these western wilds had come, in 1720, a strange sectary, one Conrad Beissel, loosely connected with the Dunkers, who had settled thereabouts. He had been at one time a sort of pastor to the little flock at Pequae, but his extreme views on celibacy and the observation of the seventh day as the Sabbath, had separated him from the other sectaries, who were plain, common-sense farmers, with no special peculiarities in their religious views save in regard to immersion. He was a young baker, who thought himself, to a certain extent, inspired, and "had queer theosophic fancies." These led him to a hermit's life in the woods, in which he was presently joined by others like-minded. After nearly twenty years of asceticism in the wilderness, Beissel began the buildings which grew into the future cloister of Ephrata, some of which still stand. And here for thirty years a monastic life grew and flourished in the Pennsylvania of Franklin and of the Stamp Act. Beissel, or "Father Peaceful" (Friedsam), as he was known in religion, was the head. His followers erected buildings; they farmed; the brethren, in their white Benedictine garb, pulling the plough themselves at first, in the place of the oxen they were too poor to possess; they had paper and flouring mills, and a press from which issued the great "Martyr Book" of the Dunkers, a splendid specimen of book-making, 1,500 folio pages, the largest book published during the eighteenth century in America. It was translated from the Dutch by Peter Miller, their learned and devout prior, and printed on paper manufactured by the brethren. Among other monastic arts, illumination flourished, and a peculiar and impressive sort of music, in which Beissel himself trained them. One of the brethren, Ludwig Hoecker (Brother Obed), independently anticipated Robert Raikes by many years, and founded a Sabbath-school, about 1740, which endured until near the time of the Revolutionary War. Many of those who first or last felt the mysterious influence of Beissel, were men of character and ability. By far the most learned was Peter Miller, afterward Beissel's successor as head of the community. A graduate of Heidelberg, the Presbyterian minister, Andrews, wrote of him: "He is an extraordinary person for sense and learning. We gave him a question to discuss about justification, and he answered it, in a whole sheet of paper, in a very notable manner. He speaks Latin as readily as we do our natural tongue." After his Presbyterian ordination, Miller was pastor at Tulpehocken for some years, where he fell under the influence of Beissel; he was baptized by him, and entered the community of Ephrata as Brother Jaebez. Acrelius testifies to his linguistic and theological learning; he was a member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. The legend which tells how, during the Revolution, he procured the pardon of a deserter, his personal enemy, by his intercession with Washington, may have but little foundation, yet it testifies to the opinion held of his meek and noble character. The article from which the above is taken is one of a series on the early history of the Pennsylvania Germans, and shows that the Sabbath was known and observed by some remarkable men among the early settlers of that commonwealth. Also that a Sabbath-school was founded in what is now the United States long before Robert Raikes founded a Sunday-school. If some one would investigate the early history of Ephrata, Pa., they might find interesting facts on the Sabbath question.