Moreover, this volume is not presented from the standpoint of the antiquarian or philologist. The Brothers and Sisters of Ephrata, though celibates, sworn to the love of the celestial Eve and the heavenly Bridegroom, were none the less flesh and flood, subject to the same passions and temptations as the men and women of the present day. They too had "eyes, hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions," and were "fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer." In a word, they were men and women of like passions with ourselves. It is of such men and women the author writes; men and women unused "to the courtliness of state, unskilled in the hollowness of vain compliment, untutored in the frippery and polish of artificial society, unacquainted with the insincerity and diplomacy of the wider world, removed from kith and kin and thrown upon their own resources among strangers and amid new surroundings."[4] [4] Grumbine. The author, that he may not be held to have drawn too deeply from his neighbor's well, fully acknowledges his great indebtedness to his friend, Mr. Sachse. Indeed, to do exact justice, it must be said that this volume contains nothing more than a romance wound about the facts, incidents, traditions, and descriptions, taken by the author from the "German Sectarians," with the kind permission of Mr. Sachse. Acknowledgment of indebtedness should also be made to Rev. J. Max Hark and Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker, Governor of Pennsylvania, for the use of translations, portions of which are prefixed to Chapters XV. and XIX. It should also be added that the initial letters used through the book, as well as the design on the cover, are made from reproductions of pen-work drawings executed by the Ephrata Sisterhood. THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 1 II. "PETER THE HERMIT" 10 III. SONNLEIN 21 IV. WE LEAVE THE HERMITAGE 30 V. EPHRATA 40 VI. CONCERNING TAXATION 51 VII. THE RIGHT PREVAILS 69 VIII. OUR FIRST LOSS 77 IX. A LOVE FEAST 86 X. THE BROTHERHOOD OF ZION 94 XI. BROTHER AGONIUS AND HIS PROPHECY 108 XII. SISTER BERNICE IS COMFORTED 127 XIII. THE COMET AND BROTHER ALBURTUS 135 XIV. OUR SISTER LEAVES US 146 XV. THE GREAT COMET 155 XVI. A FAR JOURNEY 165 XVII. IN A STRANGE LAND 176 XVIII. SONNLEIN COMETH TO MAN'S ESTATE 193 XIX. WHEN HEARTS ARE YOUNG 207 XX. SISTER GENOVEVA IS GONE 223