Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1889 — THE ILLINOIS CHRIST. [ARTICLE]

THE ILLINOIS CHRIST.

He Lives in a Beautifully-Furnished House, and Possesses a Handsome Bank Account. Rockford, 111., Letter in New York Herald. /< : The home of Christ is a large mansion standing in a spacious inclosure amid a large number of forest.trees, some distance back from the main road, about five miles south of this city. It has spacious barns; carriage buildings, sheds and otner appurtenances of a prosperous country mansion. The members of the community make the breeding of blooded horaea a speclalty. Sehweffifurth has three imported stallions and a large number of brood maree. He also has about eighty head of fine cattle. The house is very roomy, and with its wings easily accommodates a hundred persons. There are usually about fifty females there and a dozen or fifteem men. The male disciples do the heavy work and are drudges. They live on the plainest food and sleep in the attic. -Most of them, having become infatuated with the new religion, count themselves happy to sufier and labor for the cause, and have given up all their earthly possessions to the Christ. Schweinfurth possesses in his own name property which has been given him outright to the amount of $500,000 at the lot Vest calculation. Whenever a member of the “Church Triumphant” is found they set aside a tenth of their earnings as tithes for the Lord, and the Lord deposits it in different banks in his own name. A young male servant ushers callers into the front parlor. Tnis room is commodious and elegantly furnished. The feet sank into a velvet carpet, leopard and wolf skins were spread about, and added to the richness and beauty of the surroundings. The house is furnished in antique oak, and light comes through large plate glass windows surrounded by many hued glass. From the snowy ceiling hang large and glittering chandeliers. The reporter was introduced to richly dressed and quite pretty young ladies, who gave every evidence of refinement and culture. They answered a few immaterial questions politely, but appeared to be reserved, and were evidently relieved when an inner door opened and the “Savior” Schweinfurth appeared. A very bright eye and bright red English-cut whiskers were the first things one noticed and mentally commented on. His natty feet were encased in patent-leather shoe?; a heavy gold fob chain hung from a watch pocket; a very high clerical collar and a brilliant blue and gold tie surrounded his neck. He was dressed in good taste, and there was an air of gentleman ly ease and elagance from the crown of his head to his shiny footgear. When informed that the visitor was in search of information as a representative of the New York Herald, it seemed as if a slight shade passed over his countenance and there was a momentary hesitation before his reply. But it was only transitory, and in a moment he said: “Will you kindly follow me to my study? I have; no objection to answer any reasonable questions you may propound, if of proper character.” He led the way into the hall and thence to the two-story wing and upstairs into a room which bore the appearance of a literary man’s comfortable retreat. It was lined with books in solid walnut cases, tastefully veneered with French varnish and elaborately the visitor to a Sleepy Hollow chair, he followed suit and awaited the interrogatories. The first question would startle an ordinary man, but it did not surprise Rev. Schweinfurth: “Are you Christ?” “I am,” was the reply.* “I am more than Christ. lam the perfect man and also God. I possess the attributes of Jesus the Sinles’, and have His spirit; and, more than that, I am the Almighty Himself.” The appended questions and answers followed: “This, then, is your second advent upon earth?” ./ . '"‘7/--“It is, and I am accomplishing untold good. The time is not far off when I shall make such manifestations of my divinity and power as will startle the world and bring believers to me by thousands and tens of thousands.” “When did you discover first your divine attributes, and that you were the great head of the church?” “In 1883, at the decease of Mrs. Beekman. Three days before her death she had a light from heaven, and transferred her spiritual holiness to me. Before her death outsiders erroneously called her ‘the woman Christ.’ That was not true. She was the spiritual bride of Christ, and her people Were called Beekmanites. After her death, at first I was only sensible that I possessed the attributes of Christ, and had in my own person His spirit coming a second time on earth. The people who believe in this great truth were ‘The Church Triumphant.’ Within the past year there has been still greater knowledge, and I can now declare that I am ood Almighty.My name is ‘I am that .I am.’ ” The quiet and impressive manner which accompanied these words led the reporter to scrutinize the speaker cloeely to detect symptoms of insanity. But there was no wildness in his eyes, no nervousness in his manner. He sat

as calmly and expressed himself as deliberately M any one could utter tU most unquestionable truism. “Can you, then, perform miracles? Can yon vanish from the flesh and be invisible, and pass from one place tb another as a spirit?” “Yes, I have unlimited power. I can come into a room with closed doors and disappear. I can raise the dead, cure disease and do all the miraculous things which I accomplished when I wstson earth before. Ido not practice them often for I wish to convert the world to the truth without depending on supernatural powers, but by the truth itself. One of the ladies you was down stairs was in the last stage of bronchial consumption; physicians had no hope for her. I brought her back from the face of death with my divine power, and without approaching her. Did you ever see a more healthy mortal? physical infirmities are cured by me simply by faith, and I can cure them without even their exercise of faith if I would.” “Do you expect to live on eartn forever?” ‘ I shall be here many years in the present body, and the world will see wonderful sights before I cast off this body. But lam incarnate, and when this goes into the corruption of death my spirit will efiter another body and still live on earth. How or when the present body will die has not yet been revealed of the Father. But in form and substance the identical body I now possess was the one that was crucified on Calvary. Tnere are many things in the gospels that are inaccurate about my crucifixion and my life on earth, and lam now occupied in writing a new and true version of the New Testament that can be accepted as the perfect and inspired word. This in itself, when given to the world, will create a revolution among those who now consider themselves orthodox believers.” “Will you tell me something of your domestic life here?” “ Well, Sir, you can say that we live as a large family. There are several married couples here, but most are unmarried. The evil charge that wepraotice free love shows how little the world knows of the purity and sinlescness of our lives. lam the type of the sinless one, and those who live with me and believe become pure even as I am jnire, and in th»m there can be no guile. * Our marriage ceremony is binding, and there can be no oivorce. As for myself, I never experienced the passions of man, for lam God. I know that I shall be reviled and persecuted, and men will say all manner of evil things against me, but I am holv, and the world will yet know it. The whole world is impanneled as a jury to try us, but those who now persecute us will be utterly destroyed. You and all others will have to come to believe in me before you can be saved.. I might add that our ‘Church of the Redeemer’ will supplant all others on the earth. The so called orthodox churches are the beasts of Daniel, and must be destroyed.” “If you have the same body that was crucified, where are the marks of the nails in your hands?” asked the skeptical scribe. “I d® not claim that the material physique has not changed and put on new flesh, but my features are not changed, and though new material substance has covered the point of the torturing instruments, in a general sense the same body is now before you as arose from the tomb at my resurrection.” “Wjll..yau,.givanxe.a. little biography of your earlier life before you became divine?” “I was born in Marion, 0., in 18? 3, of German parentage. Before I reached the age of twelve my mother used to say that an aged minister told her, ‘Your son is destined to be a Levite. Verily, God has chosen him.’ In earlier days, though thrown in au unwholesome moral atmosphere, by a wonderful working of an internal God-given power of selection I was kept from all those secret vices which infest all grades of society, my idality was strong and I applied this faculty to the betterment Tit overt conduct and private virtues, the elevation of life and being. The ideal person was to me the Son of God and the son of man. I thought constantly, I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy spirit. I always communed with Heaven. I studied for and entered the Methodist ministry. But I was not satisfied. My ministerial associates seemed so secular, so uncelestial, so un-Christ-like that I could not feel of them though among them. I saw through one of the back windows of Methodism a sight of social and religious conditions which compelled me to trace with the slow and steady finger of ckndor across my Methodist hopes the word ‘disappointment.’ I was finally sent to Alpena, Mich. When I entered upon that charge I was in the spirit of becoming more rapidily a citizen of heaven and leas a denizen of earth. t Under the electric light of inspiration I found that the Methodist Church was filled with spiritual wickedness in high places. The abomination that maketh desolate waa found to be standing where it ought not in the church, in all churches. “In December, 1877, I met Dorinda Helen Fletcher Beekman, the bride of Christ. She was my spiritual Mary. She gave to the world its Jesus and its Lord. Of my history Since that time you have been already made acquainted. And now I will have to

be excused, aa I have pressing duties.' I will escort yon through the house before yon go, that yon may see our home. Everything is open, and there U nothing that we fear to cast the sunlight upon.” The Lord then led the visitor hurriedly through the house from cellar to garret. The foriner was well stocked with provender. Hundreds of glass jars of fruit Weie ranged on the shelves, andtnb alter tub of fragrant butter sat in the corners of the spacious underground room. On the first floor were the sleeping partments of the ladies, eiegantly fitted Jtioudwre. Tha second jrtory-of the wing is devoted to Schweinfurth’s suite. They eclipsed the ladies’ rooms in elegant furnishings. There was also a school room on the second floor of the main building, where some thirty pupils are daily taught. The garret, which is commodious and clean, but very plainly furnished, contains a dozen beds.. Here sleep the men whose hard work and substance have gone toward equipping the rest of the house in such princely fashion. Within the last year or two $20,000 has been spent in remodeling and refurnishing the house. Mr. Schweinfurth has complete charge of all the finances, and uses the means at his pleasure, never accounting for anything.’ The growth in membership of tbis remarkable sect has been astonishingly rapid within the last few years. They now have churches at/ Chicago, St. Charles. Minn.; Minneapolis, Paw Paw, Ill.; Louisville, Ky.; Leavenworth and Kansas City. But the central community is this one here. New converts must come here and learn their duties and obligations, and those who are willing to work are assigned fields of labor.