gave his least utterance a singular power. The most blameless women hung entranced upon his lips, and treasured his words as full of blessing to their souls. Three of these ladies bound themselves together to discharge the duty of guarding their beloved spiritual lord, that no temptation or evil or trouble should cross his path. These were the Countess Ida; the Fräulein Von Derschau, whom old Schönherr had wanted to marry; and the Fräulein Von Schrötter. Besides these, there was an outer circle of high-born and beautiful women, who had the duty of supporting and comforting the handsome archdeacon. The three, however, whose names have been given, were Ebel's chief apostles. They controlled the destinies of his sect. They introduced into its circles a feminine spirit, and lady-like habits of life, for men as well as women. Social intercourse was conducted with sentiment and effusion of soul, in the fashion usually confined to young ladies. It was a female church, in which it was the function of woman to teach, to coax, and to scold, with sacerdotal authority. It was the accepted practice, that men were to come under bonds; and women, with their superior power of comprehending the heart, were to reign and rule, and give guidance, comfort, and instruction. The three female leaders Ebel purified and sanctified unto the Lord by a mystic rite, and conferred on them power, as was believed, to sanctify others. It was then understood that divine grace descended, first upon Ebel, next upon Ida, Von Derschau, and Von Schrötter, then upon other chief ones, and so out upon the whole circle. Among those who stood nearest the three ladies was one Kanitz, a man of very pure life. He was designated by Ebel as the First of the Two Witnesses, and was usually admitted to the meetings of the three ladies and their lord.

A feature of the Ebelian church was spiritual warmth of affection. "Kiss, and be friends," was the rule of life. They all composed a sacred family in the Lord, living in angelic purity and freedom. The privilege of tendering to each other a Seraphic Kiss was recognized, after the fashion of the old German Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit.

VOL. LXXXIV. -NEW SERIES, VOL. V. NO. III.

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These German mystics had held, that all who are born of God have no concern with sin. To them wedlock, was nothing, a thing of the flesh, a sign of the unregenerate heart. The seraphic kiss, chaste salute which any brother might give to any sister, conveyed no taint and brought no shame. There was no sting of human passions in their joy; they lived on earth as the angels of God in heaven,-in love and innocence all their days. The keenest inquisitors were compelled to admit, that perfect chastity was the rule, not less than perfect and seemingly shameless freedom, of these brethren and sisters of the free spirit. Archdeacon Ebel adopted the same rule of freedom in his church. Though Lutheran and orthodox professedly, he laid chief stress on the near coming of Christ to his saints, and the consequent dissolution of all earthly law and order. The male and female elements in nature suggested the law of the new life, love between brother and sister, a spiritual dalliance of which the seraphic kiss was the sign. Naturally enough, the students and men of science in Königsberg did not run after Ebel. There was one exception, however, and one which was the ruin finally of the Ebelian church. A Dr. Sachs, a quick-witted young Jew, who wanted from Ida's father, the High President, an appointment as professor of anatomy, did embrace Ebel's creed, and submit himself to the spiritual manipulation of one of the female apostles, who had a way of luring on and compelling to confession without much regard to mere fact. Sachs had a soft face, and Ebel fancied that he saw in him a female-male, a man who combined the dual principles of his creed. He found to his sorrow in time that he did this about as much as if he had been a female fiend.

It has been related already that Countess Ida held the first place next Ebel in the new church. No one has ever ventured to deny, that this lady possessed, in the highest degree, all the virtues of her sex. Even Sachs, when he devoted himself to the task of blackening Ebel and his church, dared not speak evil of Countess Ida. Her memory in Königsberg is universally revered to this day. Yet this lady was accounted

the spiritual wife of Ebel, the heavenly bride of the head of their church. They spent much of their time together, and mutually accepted their relation as a perfect union of souls. The Fräulein Minna Von Derschau, second of the sacred three, was feared by Ida as a rival. To dispose of her, Ebel was moved to reveal to Kanitz, his First Witness, that Minna was the Second Witness, and that they two must marry. Kanitz accepted the heavenly word, informed Minna of its purport, and the marriage took place. A very singular thing is, that Ida now actually wanted Ebel to have a wife after the flesh, other than herself; and found one for him, a young, pretty, docile, simple woman from the outer circle of disciples. Her the archdeacon wedded, and kept in the kitchen; while Countess Ida ruled in the church and the conference. With Ida was spiritually associated Fräulein Von Schrötter, whom Ebel regarded as his second spiritual wife. The marriage of Von Derschau to Kanitz seems to have deposed her from a like position. But, before that, this enamored disciple had led the way in recognizing Ebel as the Son of Man! It was to Ida that she disclosed her faith. Ebel seemed to her more than human, his face, his voice, his bearing, his gentleness, his sanctity, his knowledge At first she had thought him the Paraclete, and Schönherr but a pretender. This belief Ebel himself had rebuked: he would not hear his old master's own claim doubted. Then, if Ebel was not the Paraclete, what was he, what could he be, but the first-born Son? A flash of divine light revealed it. Ida accepted it; 'so did Kanitz; and the three agreed to keep it a secret. They did not even inform their lord of their faith. They spoke openly in rapt strain of Ebel's lofty faith, and divine sagacity, and perfect tenderness, of his typical perfect manhood; and only in secret with one another communed of his Godhead.

In Ebel's church much was made of the various degrees of spiritual knowledge. There was a very long list of orders, each of which had its secret. In the management of this, Ebel, with his female apostles, is said to have had consummate skill. Although each saint supposed he knew all, no

matter at what stage he stood, new steps of revelation were vouchsafed from time to time. Confession was especially used in Ebel's system. Nothing must be concealed from him, and his female apostles who heard confessions in his name. Sanctification, under Ebel's rule, had a meaning around which gathered the darkest shadows. It consisted in discipline of the flesh to come into the presence of temptation, yet without being tempted. How far this fanaticism was carried, we cannot know. Sachs told horrible stories when he began to play Judas; but it is not less than just to assume that he lied. The evident fact is, that certain spotless women, with certain men of pure mind, did think to attain a state of grace by mingling with freedom without unchaste passion. That such views could win acceptance among people of high intelligence and high character, shows the folly of pretending that religious beliefs can be authorized, or religious practices justified, by the good faith of disciples, however devout and

pure.

As we have already intimated, Ebel in time came to grief. Having ventured a prophecy that the advent of the Lord would take place at Easter, 1823, and the ladies of his train having caused a real marriage-feast to be prepared for the Lord, Ebel found himself the day after Easter a prophet in disgrace. It was easy to ascribe the Lord's refusal to appear to the unbelief of a portion of the saints, who doubted the prophecy from the beginning; but it was impossible to make good again the credit of the prophet. The next year the father of Ida died, and was succeeded in his high office by the husband of her eldest sister, a man who followed Kant, and put no faith in prophets. This was a fatal blow to the Ebelian church. Events soon led on to charges against Ebel, and an ecclesiastical trial; the end of which was his deposition, though acquitted of crime. Sachs was grand informer and high priest of calumny and scandal. It was a bitter end of high pretensions.

We do not follow out Mr. Dixon's sketches, because this which we have given is by far the most instructive instance. The student needs to read the whole, to see how far false

conceptions and unwarranted sentiments will carry the victims; but our purpose is served by the examination we have made of the story of Ebel and his female church. We may, however, in conclusion, call attention to the fact, that some at least of the leaders in all the movements of which Mr. Dixon's volumes give an account, were people of the sort from which revival pietists are made in times of religious excitement, every whit as pious and sincere, and not more hopelessly in bondage to unreasoning sentiment.

ART. III.

CHINESE PHILOSOPHERS AND MORALISTS.

The Works of Mencius. Vol. II. of the Chinese Classics. Translated by JAMES LEGGE, D.D. Hong-Kong and London: Trübner & Co., 1862.

Meng Tseu, vel Mencium inter Sinenses Philosophos, Ingenio, Doctrina, Nominisque Claritate, Confucio Proximum, edidit, Latina interpretatione ad interpretationem Tartaricum utramque recensita, instruxit, et perpetuo commentario, e Sinicis deprompto, illustravit STANISLAUS JULIEN. Paris: 1824-1829.

In the year of our Lord One, Lew Hin published complete catalogues of the "Works of the Scholars," up to his own time. In the first or orthodox division of the third list, we have the entry, "Works of Mencius, in eleven books:" so, when Jesus stood talking with the elders in the temple, the works of Mencius were a registered classic in that far-off land. A hundred years before this, Sze-ma Ts'een published his "Historical Records," and in its seventy-fourth Book wrote a memoir of Mencius. "That philosopher," he relates, "having withdrawn into private life with his disciples, wrote prefaces for the 'She' and 'Shoo,' unfolded the views of Confucius, and composed the Works of Mencius' in seven books."

Nearly a hundred years before this, we find long extracts from Mencius in the pages of the writers of the Han dynas