and spirits, which are his." Thus acting and everywhere confessing Christ before men, at Dresden, in the midst of fashionable company, not less than among the Christian Herrnhutters, he exposed himself both to persecution and ridicule; but this he sustained "for the Lord's sake," knowing that if he would reign with Christ, he must first suffer with him, that he must bear the cross, if he would wear the crown. He had most comfort on his Lusatian estate, where the number of emigrants gradually increased, and where his utmost diligence was employed for the establishment of a Christian family and church. The great distinction between them and any other church that had been then formed was, perhaps, this. While careful on all points of doctrine, as believing in the vast importance of truth, as the grand instrument of the Spirit in the salvation of men, the Count and these Moravians directed their especial attention to the personal experience of the blessings to which the truth referred. They not only believed in the doctrines of justification by faith, and regeneration by the Spirit, but insisted on the necessity of being actually justified, actually regenerated. And thus was revived, and prominently put forth, both as taught in Scripture, and enjoyed in the heart, the great truth, that the Holy Spirit directly testifies to the soul forgiveness of sins, and adoption into the divine family. Among the members of this "Brethren's union," unitas fratrum, meetings were held in which personal religion was encouraged and stimulated by the mutual recital of religious experience. The old scriptural practice, as indicated by the words of the Psalmist, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul," was thus revived, and made a regular branch of church order.

For several years, the Count continued to be a Government Councillor, and had to reside much in Dresden. At length, that he might be wholly occupied in more spiritual duties, he obtained permission to resign his office; and in March, 1732, he attended the council for the last time, addressing a speech to them in which he stated his motives for retirement.

He now entered upon a new period of his life. To the work in which he had been engaged for several years, he

fully devoted himself, attending both to the outward regulations of the church, and to the preservation and increase of that inward piety which is as the soul to the body, and without which the body is dead. To the education of children careful attention was paid; and from the beginning, desire for the salvation of others was devoutly cherished. At first, their comparative weakness, as well as the absence of openings for more extensive labours, confined them to "home Missions; but on a visit which the Count made to Copenhagen in 1731, the state of the Danish Missions to Greenland, and the labours of Egede there, brought more fully to him the state of the Heathen, and proved the germ of the Moravian Missionary establishments in various parts of the world. He also became acquainted there with a converted Negro, from the island of St. Thomas, (a Danish establishment in the West Indies,) who had a sister in the island, whose conversion he earnestly desired, and spoke to the Count on the subject of a Mission to the Negro slaves in the West Indies. It deserves notice, that the revival of Missionary zeal, the glorious effects of which it is our privilege now to witness, was connected in Germany, as afterwards in England, with the revival of evangelical truth, in its connexion with the spiritual experience of evangelical blessings. In July, 1732, the above-mentioned Negro visited Herrnhut, and described the miserable condition of the slaves; adding, that he feared that nothing could be effected unless they who went became slaves themselves, seeking to promote their conversion chiefly by mixing and conversing with them. Two of the Brethren, Leonard Dober and Tobias Leupold, actually offered themselves for the work, even though this were to be their condition. Two others, also, expressed their readiness to go to Greenland, whenever their way should be opened there. From these small beginnings proceeded their valuable Missions to the "regions of eternal ice,” to the burning regions of the torrid zone, and ultimately to Africa itself.

Among the emigrants who had settled on the Count's estates were some Protestants from Silesia, descendants of persons who had renounced the errors of Popery in the time of Luther, through the instrumentality of a gentleman named

Caspar Schwenkfeld. They had been treated with such severity, that they were glad, though forsaking their worldly all, to seek a refuge among the Herrnhutters, where they might worship God according to what they believed to be the truth of the Gospel. The Count had interceded for them with the Emperor, Charles VI., but could obtain no liberty for them. They had therefore been received by him, as the Moravian emigrants had been. But in 1734, while the Saxon Government allowed the residence of the latter in Lusatia, the followers of Schwenkfeld were ordered to quit the country. Obliged to submit, they requested his aid in finding another place of refuge. He endeavoured to send them to Georgia, and wrote to the Trustees of that colony in London. They afterwards found an opportunity of proceeding to Pennsylvania, where, in comfortable circumstances, their families still dwell. Where Rome has power, to allow liberty of conscience is considered as a sin. Her unchangable rule is, "We are right, and therefore Protestant Governments ought to tolerate us: we are right, and therefore, where we bear sway, it is wrong for us to tolerate others." While Rome chooses to be thus belligerent, the liberty she allows to others should be the measure of that which is accorded to her.

In 1734, the Count, who had hitherto acted chiefly as an assistant to the regular Pastors of the church, went to Stralsund; and, after a regular examination by the Lutheran Consistory there, was regularly ordained to the work of the ministry. His labours, however, were little more than they had been; for this had been almost uninterruptedly his work. Missions to the Heathen still occupied the zealous attention of the church at Herrnhut; and Bishop Spangenberg, in his "Life of the Count, gives in few words a fact, the consequences of which were far more important than any one could then have anticipated. On the 17th of September, 1735, the Missionary question was once more publicly considered, and several persons were despatched for Lapland and Greenland. "A colony of the Brethren set out also for Georgia, with the intention of introducing the Gospel amongst the Indians, and I" (Spangenberg) "accompanied them thither." A month afterwards, this colony" (Sept. 21st) "sailed from Gravesend." So we learn

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from the "Journal" of JOHN WESLEY. That this was the band of "Germans" with whom he sailed, and whose intercourse with him led, eventually, to such important results, is established by the same Journal. "Feb. 7th, 1736. Mr. Spangenberg, one of the Pastors of the Germans. I asked him with regard to my own conduct. He said, 'My brother, I must first ask you one or two questions. Have you the witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God?' I was surprised, and knew not what to answer." This is the first reference in Mr. Wesley's writings to the "witness of the Spirit." The occurrence of the name of "Spangenberg" sufficiently identifies the "Germans" who were on board the vessel in which Mr. Wesley sailed to Georgia, with the "colony of the Brethren" who set out for the same place, about the time that some Missionaries were despatched to Greenland and Lapland," from the Moravian settlement at Herrnhut. And they went to Georgia for the same reason which influenced him,-" With the intention of introducing the Gospel among the Indians,”—when he left Georgia: "The reason for which I left England had now no force, there being no possibility, as yet, of instructing the Indians." But while the earth remaineth, the effects of his intercourse with the little colony, thus sent forth from Herrnhut, shall not pass away from the militant church. It is instructive, as well as delightful, thus to be able to trace the connexion of seemingly isolated facts, and to see them marking the same channel in which flow the living waters.

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In 1735, David Nitschman, one of the Pastors of the church at Herrnhut, was ordained, by Jablonsky, CourtChaplain to the King of Prussia, and oldest Bishop of the Moravian Church, to be Bishop of the foreign churches of the Brethren. The Count was led to the adoption of this measure from his knowledge of the stress laid on episcopacy by the English Church, and his wish that the Missionaries sent from Herrnhut might meet with no obstruction from this quarter. In May, 1737, the Count himself was, in the same manner, ordained Bishop by Jablonsky.

It was in this year that he visited England, and that those conversations took place which Mr. Wesley has recorded in

his "Journals." There is no doubt but that many of the objectional phrases used by some of the early English Moravians, arose from the misunderstanding, on the part of the English converts, of doctrines with which, of course, the continental Lutherans would be familiar, and which they would hold in connexion with the other portions of their theological system. New doctrines, thus insulated, and as it were unchecked, may easily produce an extravagance of language that does not belong to the entire scheme, and which will disappear in proportion as the entire scheme becomes understood. No member of the English Moravian Church would, at the present day, employ such language respecting the use of the means of grace, for instance, as are found in the reports of some of their earlier proceedings by Mr. Wesley.

The Count still found that they who will live godly in Christ Jesus, must expect to suffer persecution. Scandalous reports were circulated against him in his own country; and, in consequence, in 1736, a sentence of banishment from Saxony was pronounced against him. During the years of his exile he travelled extensively. From London, he sailed to the West Indies. Returning to Germany, he travelled through Switzerland; and early in 1742 went to America, various parts of which he visited, as in Europe and the West Indies, preaching wherever he had an opportunity; which indeed, seldom was wanting. In 1743 he returned to Europe, and found that the Moravians had visited some of the southern Russian provinces, on the shores of the Baltic, and appeared likely to meet with success. The Count proceeded thither himself; but the Russian Government would allow of not the slightest intercourse with the inhabitants, and ordered him at once to leave the country. It was not till 1747 that the Saxon Government, at length convinced of the falsehood of the charges on which it had proceeded, allowed him to return to his own country.

For the greater part of the remaining years of his life, he was an extensive and laborious traveller, the concerns of his church always occupying his care. In 1749, he again visited England, and proceeded from thence to America, where he