If he has debts, they must be paid;
if he has a wife, she must freely give her consent to the husband
leaving her; or if it is a woman, her husband must consent. If there are
children, they must be provided for, and placed so as not to suffer
neglect, either within the society, or with other and proper persons.
It is not necessary that applicants for admission shall possess
property. The only question the society asks and seeks to be satisfied
upon is, "Are you sick of sin, and do you want salvation from it?" A
candidate for admission is usually taken on trial for a year at least,
in order that the society may be satisfied of his fitness; of course he
may leave at any time.
The first and chief requirement, on admission, is that the neophyte
shall make a complete and open confession of the sins of his whole past
life to two elders of his or her own sex; and the completeness of this
confession is rigidly demanded. Mother Ann's practice on this point I
have quoted elsewhere. As this is one of the most prominent
peculiarities of the Shaker Society, it may be interesting to quote here
some passages from their books describing the detail on which they
insist. Elder George Albert Lomas writes:
"Any one seeking admission as a member is required, ere we can give any
encouragement at all, to settle all debts and contracts to the
satisfaction of creditors, and then our rule is If candid seekers after
salvation come to us, we neither accept nor reject them; we _admit_
them, leaving the Spirit of Goodness to decide as to their sincerity, to
bless their efforts, if such, or to make them very dissatisfied if
hypocritical.
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