TUNKERS, a religious sect, occupying settlements in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, etc., and thus pretty widely scattered throughout the northern and middle parts of the United States. They are nowhere numerous, and are chiefly occupied in the cultivation of the soil. The name which they take for them selves Is simply that of brethren, and they profess that their association is founded on the principle of brotherly love. The name Tunkers is of German origin, signifying Dippers, and is due to their dipping in baptism. It is very commonly, by corruption, pronounced and written Bunkers. In the vicinity of their settlements they are gener ally known as the Harmless people. They derive their origin from a small village on the Eder in Germany, but have been an exclusively American sect since the beginning of last century,when they all emigrated to America. They were recently estimated to have over 500 churches, and some 50,000 members. They reject infant baptism, and have no ministers specially devoted to the ministry as a profession. Every brother is allowed to stand up in the congregation and exhort; and when one is found particularly apt to teach, he is ordained by laying on of hands with fasting and prayer, and is expected to devote himself in some measure to the ministry, although without any stipend or pecuniary reward, even if his own crops should suffer by his neglect of them. There
are deaconesses as well as deacons among the Tunkers. Like the Quakers, they use great plainness of dress and language; they refuse to take oaths or to fight; and they will not go to law. They celebrate the Lord's-supper, and accompany it with love-feasts, wash ing of feet, the giving of the right hand of fellowship, and the kiss of charity. They anoint the sick with oil in order to their recovery, depending upon this unction and prayer, and rejecting the use of medicine. They generally believe in the doctrine of universal salvation; but it is not a tenet of the sect. They do not insist upon celibacy as an absolute rule; but they commend it as a virtue, and discourage marriage. They are industrious and honest, and universally held in good repute among their neighbors.
Sole dependence upon prayer for the cure of the sick is the characteristic also of a small religious sect, of which a few members are to be found in England, calling them selves the Peculiar people. In Switzerland the name of Dorothea Trudel (d. 1862) was long famous for the cure of ailments by prayer. She did not, however, in all cases, refuse to call in medical advice. In Germany a Protestant pastor, Blumhardt, pursues a similar system on a large scale, and it is said with great success. See BAPTISTS, GER MAN.