Even before Kedar was wholly finished, _Nachtmetten_, or night meetings, were instituted by the Solitary. These were religious meetings held every midnight; for it was at that hour the great Judge was expected to come. At first they lasted four hours from midnight, but as this allowed so little time for necessary rest, two hours were held sufficient. It was arranged that the Brethren should hold their devotions first at these night meetings and after they had filed out of the _Saal_ the Sisters would enter for their hour of prayer; but this was soon changed so that the midnight prayers were held jointly. This arrangement soon gave rise to such gossip and scandal among the enemies of our community that Brother Beissel exhorted the Brothers and Sisters to pray earnestly that these evil-minded ones might still their tongues; but though we prayed earnestly and in all faith these gossiping tongues were something even prayer and faith could not stop and so after these joint meetings had continued a few months our good Brother Sigmund Landert proposed to Brother Beissel that Kedar should be kept exclusively as a Sister House, in which event Brother Landert promised he would out of the wealth God had vouchsafed him, build a house adjoining Kedar, the new structure to be used exclusively for assembly purposes, provided, however, that he and his two daughters be received into the settlement. Though Brother Beissel objected at first, matters so arranged themselves finally that through the generosity and devotion of Brother Landert and another Brother, Hermann Zinn, a large edifice was constructed on the hillside, the _Bethaus_, House of Prayer. Besides the large _Saal_ for joint meetings and public worship there were ample room for the love feasts, and at the time of the completion of the _Bethaus_ the _Saal_ was the largest and most imposing room for public worship in the province. At one end, toward the east of the _Saal_, was a raised platform for the gray-bearded fathers, while on either side of the length of the _Saal_ ran the _Por-kirchen_, or galleries for the Solitary, the Brothers sitting on one side and the Sisters on the other. The body, or main floor of the _Saal_, was for the secular members, or householders, as we called them; for be it known our community was not composed entirely of Brothers and Sisters pledged to lives of celibacy, but in addition to these we had a large number of members from the country round about us, husbands and wives and their children, who believed as we did, that the Seventh Day was the true Lord's Day, and who differed from us in belief in this only that they practised not celibacy.