in this hope we made our wish known to the congregation, who expressed their joy at the offer."

In their case, as in that of the former, nothing was done with precipitation. The difficulties they would have to encounter in so inhospitable a climate as Greenland, were plainly told them, and a whole year elapsed before they were dispatched. This at length took place in January 1733; those going to the Danish island of St. Thomas, in the West Indies, had left Herrnhut on the 21st of August in the preceding year. And before the termination of the period included in this chapter, preparation had been made for Missions in North and South America. It is foreign to the author's design in the present publication, to give any detailed account of the proceedings of the Missionaries in pagan countries; he may however, be allowed to close his relation of the beginning of this important undertaking, and which forms a very distinguished feature in the history of the renewed Church of the Brethren, by one or two general remarks.

The conversion of heathen to the faith of Christ, was a subject, which from various causes, and for a long period, had been almost entirely lost sight of by the Protestant Church. There existed indeed three or four Societies, who were incorporated for this very purpose; but their operations were little known in Germany. The endeavours of the Rev. Hans Egede to christianize the Greenlanders, notwithstanding his persevering zeal, had hitherto been attended with little success. This state of things threw very serious obstructions in the way of the Brethren in their first attempts to propagate the gospel in heathen countries. The scheme was in general treated

*For a detailed account of the Brethren's labours in heathen countries the reader is referred to Crantz' History of Greenland, Loskiel's History of the Missions among the North American Indians, and the author's Historical Sketches of the Missions of the U. B.

The three English Societies, For the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts; For promoting Christian knowledge; and For the conversion and religious Instruction of the Negroes in the British West India Islands and the Society in Scotland For Promoting Christian Knowledge.

with silent contempt or open ridicule; even persons, otherwise well disposed, raised serious objections against it. The first missionaries, therefore, met with little encouragement or assistance. This made Dober say, when on his way to St. Thomas: "I am astonished at myself, when I reflect on the object I have in view; yet I can do no other than simply follow my call, and thus obey what I believe to be the will of God." There were, however, honorable exceptions to this general indifference; and both the Missionaries going to the West Indies and those proceeding to Greenland, formed pleasing acquaintance on their road to Copenhagen, and still more during their stay in that city, with persons who cordially entered into their views, animated their faith and zeal when ready to droop, and assisted them with their prayers and charitable contributions.

While impediments from without had a natural tendency to damp the missionary spirit, just awakened in the Church of the Brethren; difficulties no less formidable, presented themselves within their own circle. The doubts, as to the propriety of the undertaking, had generally subsided at Herrnhut, and both young and old were desirous of preaching the gospel to the heathen; but its execution was not so easy. This required means with which they were but scantily supplied. The inhabitants amounted to about six hundred; but little wealth was found among them, for the greater part, though once possessed of considerable property, had forsaken all for the gospel's sake, and were earning their daily bread by the sweat of their brows. If there was no want of zealous and active men inured to hardships, willing to devote themselves to this service, they were deficient in that kind of learning, which the work they had undertaken seemed to require. And as it was an enterprise altogether untried, no one could give them much advice; wherefore they received no other direction from their Brethren, than to observe the leadings of Providence, to embrace every opportunity that offered, to gain access to the heathen, and to be satisfied if they could win but one soul for Christ.

It cannot be denied, that these difficulties impeded the early labours of the Missionaries, especially in some places. The

necessity, imposed on them, by the poverty of the Church, to support themselves by the labour of their hands, was attended not only with great personal inconvenience, but trenched upon the time and care, which ought to have been solely devoted to the duties of their proper calling. Their want of a liberal education rendered the acquisition of foreign and barbarous languages, like the Greenlandic, Arawka, and others very difficult, retarded the translation of the holy Scriptures into those languages, and thereby deprived them of the principal means of conversion. Lastly the novelty of the work, in which they had had no predecessors or at least none, by whose advice and example they could profit, rendered then liable to commit mistakes, both in the mode of preaching to the Heathen, and conducting of the missionary service in general.

Considering these and many other disadvantages, with which the early Missionaries of the Brethren's Church had to contend, the pious observer of their proceedings will be excited to devout acknowledgments for the grace of God, which attended their labours. He will glorify God for their disinterested zeal, their patient self-denial, their unremitting exertions, and their persevering constancy, which, being induced and influenced by the love of Christ, no adverse circumstances could extinguish. And now, when the character and work of a Missionary are honoured, when his temporal comforts are liberally supplied, and when in the Brethren's Church as well as in other Christian communities, provision is made for his acquiring a competent knowledge of human learning; may the spirit, that animated the fathers of the Brethren's Church, descend to their latest posterity; may they deem it an honor to bring the freewill offering of their gold and silver, and esteem it an exalted privilege, to behold their sons and daughters, imbued with the true spirit of the gospel, consecrate themselves to this service. Thus will the Brethren's Church continue to take its full share in this blessed work.

SECTION VII.

The Brethren renew the ecclesiastical Constitution of their AncestorsObtain episcopal Ordination—and adopt the Augustan Confession of Faith.

THE agreement of the inhabitants of Herrnhut to the Statutes of the congregation, the regulations introduced into the settlement, and the remarkably blessed celebration of the Lord's Supper on the 13th of August, 1727, had powerfully tended to allay dissensions: yet something was still required to give stability to the union.

This was an ecclesiastical Constitution, which might serve to put a stop to disputes about church government and discipline. On these subjects the inhabitants were divided in their opinions. Some were for a complete and unreserved union with the Lutheran Church, others pleaded for retaining the peculiar regulations already made at Herrnhut, together with the use of the public ministry and the sacrament in the parish church.

But neither of these proposals satisfied the Moravian emigrants, who continually insisted on restoring the ecclesiastical government and discipline of their ancestors. They did not object to the doctrine taught in the Lutheran Church; for in every essential article of faith, they cordially agreed to it: but they censured its laxity in discipline, and the consequent dissolute lives of many of its members, both among the clergy and laity. "Of what use is it," said they, "that we have left house and home for the sake of religion?

What benefit

do we derive from our constitution, which is older than any other Protestant form of religion, which Luther himself so highly commended, for the preservation of which our forefathers risked their lives, and which they bequeathed to us as a sacred deposit ?" They roundly declared, that, if it was deemed impolitic or dangerous, to grant them that liberty at Herrnhut, they would go and seek it elsewhere.

Count Zinzendorf, who, both from education and principle,

* See p. 201.

was firmly attached to the Lutheran Church, long opposed the wish of the Moravians; but as they urged it again and again with so much earnestness and cogency of argument, he resolved to bring the matter to a final issue. For this purpose he submitted the following proposition to the Elders of the congregation: "Whether it would not be best, out of love to others, and in order to avoid giving needless offence to pious people in other denominations, and in the hope of conciliating all parties, to relinquish their peculiar regulations, and unite with the Lutheran Church without reserve?" This proposition was warmly opposed; they, however, consented to lay it before the Congregation Council, convened for that purpose, on June 7th, 1781. This meeting expressed its disapprobation of the proposed measure in still stronger terms; and not only the Moravian emigrants, but nearly all the other members of the congregation, were decidedly against it. They asserted, that the constitution of the ancient Brethren's Church contained nothing that was repugnant to reason or the fitness of things, that it was consistent with apostolic practice, and the usage of the primitive Church, and that its utility was confirmed by the experience of nearly three centuries.

Count Zinzendorf still argued on the other side of the question, but, finding that he failed in carrying conviction to their minds, he suggested that the question should be submitted to a decision by lot. The whole assembly consented the more readily to this, because it accorded with the practice of the ancient Brethren. Agreeably to their custom two texts were selected and written on slips of paper. The one text was: "To them that are without law (become) as without law; (being not without law unto God, but under the law to Christ,) that you may gain them that are without law." (1 Corinth. ix. 21.) And the other: "Therefore, Brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have been taught." (2 Thess. ii. 15.) They had previously come to a mutual understanding, that if the latter of these texts were drawn, they were then to adopt the constitution of the ancient Brethren's Church; but if the former, they were to unite themselves with the Lutherans. Preliminaries being thus agreed upon, the assembly joined in