A Tale of the Kloster: A Romance of the German Mystics of the Cocalico

That a bundle of contradictions is poor human flesh! Here have I been all my life preaching the beauty and sanctity of single life, and am I not the same man who once at the com...

E'en if a vicious man were like a leaky vat, That wastes what it receives, pour in, for all that! If vat and man are not in too decrepit plight. Keep pouring in thy gifts. How s...

Brother Agonius, his real name being Michael Wohlforth, or Welfare, as he was known among the English settlers--what a shock, notwithstanding our boasted fortitude and resignati...

In the meantime the wants of the body are also to be restrained and attention given so that the voice become angelic, heavenly, pure, and clear, and not strong and harsh, by a c...

Oct. 10, 1744. I went to John Bolles to see 4 men Yt come from beyond Barnegat, with long beards 8 or 9 inches, and strangely clothed, no hats and all in white, but they were no...

Over a month had passed away since the death of our Brother Alburtus and his lonely burial far up in the mountain. My brethren, though at first of a mind to bring him to our lit...

Come, Corinna, let me kiss thee! Come, my dearest, to me here! I would know why joy should miss thee, I would have thine answer clear. Smiling sweetly said she, "No," Then demur...

My vanquished foe had hardly disappeared down the mountain when I recovered sufficiently from my dazed state to recall the witch, who I feared had escaped me while I was engaged...

This poor love for my Sister Bernice was not the only thing that troubled me about this time, which was in the same year that Brother Brämer passed away. It was during this very...

When I write here that I slept until after the seventh hour--which was midday with us--I fear it may be thought I missed not much our sister and my Sonnlein, but I like not to b...

It was not long after the Solitary had united themselves at Ephrata that the Eckerlings conceived various enterprises whereby our cells should be filled with what to so many wea...

Moreo'er, the shields so steady and the consecrated swords, O God, that I were worthy to join the victor lords. Then should I like the others achieve a prize untold, Not lands t...

Twilight was fast deepening into night when I returned to my _Kammer_ in the large Brother House, or Bethania, which we built a few years after the departure of the Eckerlings,...

Where I may sit and rightly spell Of every star that heaven doth shew, And every herb that sips the dew; Till old experience do attain To something like poetic strain. These ple...

In this wise Sonnlein and I came to Ephrata, the "fruitful," or like Bethlehem of Judea, the "House of Bread," and in this beautiful, peaceful camp, whose narrow domains embrace...

Night's curtains now are closing Round half a world reposing In calm and holy trust; All seems one vast, still chamber, Where weary hearts remember No more the sorrows of the dust.

At the time of which I write this, the fall of 1744, Prior Onesimus and his three brothers were in the ascendency, and for a time it seemed as though Brother Beissel would be co...

Thus we sat and talked until the morning light streaming through the partially opened entrance to the hut showed me more fully my boy, still sleeping soundly; and for this we we...

And when the sun begins to fling His flaring beams, me, Goddess, bring To archèd walks of twilight groves. And shadows brown, that Sylvan loves, Of pine, or monumental oak, Wher...

Thus our souls came closer and closer to each other, day after day, and grew into a love that bound us together as one for life. It seemed as though the father and mother love h...

The year 1738 is deeply graven on my memory, because it marked the first death among the Solitary, our Brother Martin Brämer. Secondly, because his death followed so swift upon...

The Lord his signs makes to appear, To call us to repentance: A monstrous comet standeth there That we our sins shall flee from, But we, alas! scarce give it a thought For each...

Well hath he of great afflictions said, "Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward." Thus I said unto myself the night following the fright of my Sister Bernice as I sou...

For a clearer understanding of what I have here written in the fond desire that there may be those who delight in a tale simply told, even though it be of my brothers and sister...

In brief, we traveled in this way until we reached the City of Lancaster, which to us seemed all bustle and confusion. The constable, as became his dignity, alighted from his li...

But when a lady chaste and fair, Noble, and clad in rich attire, Walks through the throng with gracious air, As sun that bids the stars retire-- Then where are all thy boastings...

The beautiful flowers that grew down in the meadow where we laid our Brother Agonius in his chamber of rest, like him were soon gathered up into the arms of the Master Reaper. T...