"Virtually for this purpose, but ostensibly for some other, have I known
many promising young people moved to a back order, or lower grade of
fellowship. By such trials the leaders think to try their souls in the
furnace of affliction, withdraw them from earthly attachments, and imbue
them with reliance upon God. In fact, to destroy terrestrial idols of
every kind, to dispel the clouds of inordinate affection and
concentrative love, which fascinatingly float around the mind and screen
from its view the radiant brightness of heaven and heavenly things, is
the great object of Shakerism.
"Whoever yields enough to the evil tempter to gratify in the least the
sensual passions--either in deed, word, or thought--shall confess
honestly the same to his elders ere the sun of another day shall set to
announce a day of condemnation and wrath against the guilty soul. These
vile passions are--fleshly lusts in every form, idolatry, selfishness,
envy, wrath, malice, evil-speaking, and their kindred evils.
"The Sabbath shall be kept pure and holy to that degree that no books
shall be read on that day which originated among the world's people,
save those scientific books which treat of propriety of diction. No idle
or vain stories shall be rehearsed, no unnecessary labor shall be
performed--not even the cooking of food, the ablution of the body, the
cutting of the hair, beard, or nails, the blacking and polishing of
shoes or boots.
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