t and aid to
the Sisters, an intelligent comrade to the Brethren, and a sincere and
earnest student of the truth. May the Spirit draw her into the Virgin
Church of the New Creation!"

"Yee and amen!" exclaimed Eldress Abby, devoutly: "'For thus saith the
Lord of hosts: I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea,
and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all
nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the
Lord of hosts.'"

"O Virgin Church, how great the light,
What cloud can dim thy way?"

sang Martha from her place at the end of a bench; and all the voices
took up the hymn softly as the company sat with bowed heads.

Then Brother Issachar rose from his corner, saying: "Jesus called upon
his disciples to give up everything: houses, lands, relationships, and
even the selfishness of their own lives. They could not call their
lives their own. 'Lo! we have left all and followed thee,' said Peter;
'fathers, mothers, wives, children, houses, lands, and even our own
lives also.' It is a great price to pay, but we buy Heaven with it!"

"Yee, we do," said Brother Thomas Scattergood, devoutly. "To him that
overcometh shall the great prize be given."

"God help the weaker brethren!" murmured young Brother Nathan, in so
low a voice that few could hear him. Moved by the same impulse, Tabitha,
Abby, and Martha burst into one of the most triumphant of the Shaker
songs, one that was never sung save when the meeting was "full of the
Spirit":--

"I draw no blank nor miss the prize,
I see the work, the sacrifice,
And I'll be loyal, I'll be wise, A faithful overcomer!"

The company rose and began again to march in a circle around the center
of the room, the Brethren two abreast leading the column, the Sisters
following after. There was a waving movement of the hands by drawing
inward as if gathering in spiritual good and storing it up for future
need. In the marching and countermarching the worshipers frequently
changed their positions, ultimately forming into four circles,
symbolical of the four dispensations as expounded in Shakerism, the
first from Adam to Abraham; the second from Abraham to Jesus; the third
from Jesus to Mother Ann Lee; and the fourth the millennial era.

The marching grew livelier; the bodies of the singers swayed lightly
with emotion, the faces glowed with feeling.

Over and over the hymn was sung, gathering strength and fullness as
the