On the way home from Missouri, Kathy and I spent the night at Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. Pleasant Hill is a half hour south of Lexington, and the village consists of thirty-three buildings that are operated as a living museum in the daytime and as hotels at night. The surroundings were charming, peaceful and inspiring, and the meal we ate there was tremendous. (To spend the night there only costs ten dollars more than the Holiday Inn Express where we stayed on the way out there.)
The Shakers were a Christian sect known for their commitment to living the way Christ did. They were celibate and pacifists. They were known for their great hospitality, their simplicity, and their hard work.
In the realm of music, they composed thousands of hymns. As far as I can tell, very few of these works were adopted by other Protestant groups. Some of their hymns were written as though they were dictated by spirits or angels who speak in unfamiliar languages.
There is a great CD of Shaker Music available on the Erato label. It is entitled "Simple Gifts" and features The Boston Camerata with the Shakers of Sabbathday Lake, Maine. Sabbathday Lake is the one remaining group of Shakers, or at least they were according to the CD liner notes in 1995.
Below I am going to quote the text from a Shaker spiritual written by Sister Polly M. Rupe at Pleasant Hill back in the 1860's.
What the dew is to the flower,
Gentle words are to the soul.
And a blessing to the giver,
And so dear to the reciever,
We should never withhold.
Gentle words,
kindly spoken,
often soothe the troubled mind,
While links of love are broken
by words that are unkind.
Then O, thou gentle spirit,
my constant guardian be,
"Do to others," be my motto,
"as I'd have them do to me."
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