摩爾維亞教會的歷史

 

                        教會歷史系列輔讀文獻

1.      摩爾維亞教會概述

2.      摩爾維亞教會的復興

3.      摩爾維亞復興之禱告

4.      History of the Moravian Church

5.      摩爾維亞景點照片

 

摩爾維亞:  捷克包括歷史上的波希米亞、摩爾維亞和西里西亞地區。西元 895年，波希米亞各部落從摩爾維亞帝國分離出來，成立以波希米 亞為中心的捷克國家；10世紀時，發展成獨立的捷克公國，12世紀 改稱捷克王國。1620年，捷克在"三十年戰爭"中戰敗，淪為哈布斯 堡王朝的領地，1867年又被奧匈帝國統治。1918年10月，捷克與 斯洛伐克合併，組成捷克斯洛伐克共和國。1992年底，捷克和斯洛 伐克聯邦解體，捷克和斯洛伐克成為兩個主權國家。1993年1月1 日，捷克共和國獨立。捷克共和國沿用了原聯邦的藍、白、紅三色國 旗，旗面上，靠旗杆一邊為藍色三角形，旗地右上方為白色，右下方 為紅色。藍、白、紅三種顏色是泛斯拉夫色彩。古老的波希米亞王國 是捷克人的故鄉，捷克人承襲了象徵波希米亞的紅色和白色，藍色 則代表摩爾維亞。

 

摩爾維亞教會概述

 

摩爾維亞教會（The Moravian Church）的沿革

十五世紀初，波希米亞改教領袖約主護村斯遭天主教處決。一部份的跟隨者隨即在波希米亞與鄰邦摩爾維亞一帶爆發革命，而另一部份忠於福音與胡斯教訓的信徒，便在波希米亞的肯瓦（Kunwald）谷中群居。他們在那裡過了五十年的平安生活，被稱為「合一的弟兄們」（The united Brethren）。十七世紀時，他們大遭逼迫，輾轉逃往波蘭、德國等地避難。1722年，在大衛基利司新（Christian David）的引介下，這班摩爾維亞的弟兄們，來到了新生鐸夫的莊園避難。他們將這個新的避難所取名為「主護村」（Herrnhut），並在此安居生活。起初這裏多為摩爾維亞的弟兄們，但是漸漸地，路德派、敬虔派、加爾文派、甚至士文克斐爾等派受逼迫的信徒，都到這裡來尋覓居所。因著人數日益增多，許多關於主餐、浸禮、宗派等道理上的分歧也愈演愈烈。

 

1727年5月12日，新生鐸夫召聚了主護村的弟兄姊妹，依據聖經真理，與他們立定了兩個公約；一面帶領信徒回到基督的十字架，一面勸勉他們將自己奉獻給主。在新生鐸夫的信心與愛心下，眾人願意靈裏倒空，同心合意遵守協約。兩個月後，新生鐸夫意外的在西里西亞的圖書館中，發現了一分弟兄會的古老的拉丁文章程，內容竟與之前所締的協約相似。回到主護村後，新生鐸夫將其譯成德文傳閱，眾人都希奇聖靈的印證。

 

公約實行後，信徒們的禱告與交通增多。1727年8月13日，眾人在前往伯特鐸夫教堂聚會的路上，凡是有間隔的弟兄姊妹，都相互認罪。在那一天的聚會裏，聖靈大大的澆灌在會眾身上，將他們浸入一個靈裏。爾後，摩爾維亞的教會經歷空前的大復興；人人獻上自己，願意將福音傳揚到世界各地。

 

1731年，新生鐸夫應邀參加丹麥皇帝的加冠典禮。在那裡，他結識了一位來自西印度群島的黑奴安東尼（Anthony Ulrich），聽見那裡福音的呼聲。新生鐸夫邀請安東尼到主護村交通福音的負擔，立即有兩位弟兄答應呼召，前往聖多馬島。爾後，陸陸續續又有弟兄們前往格陵蘭、聖克盧斯等地。短短三十年內，他們福音的足跡遍及歐洲、美洲、亞洲、甚至非洲。新生鐸夫的海外傳教準則為：一，傳教士不是高高在上，乃是卑微的生活在他們中間；二，直接傳揚耶穌為罪人釘在十字架上，使信入他的人得著重生的福音；三，至終的目的，乃是要全民族、全國家得救。他們在廿年所差出的海外傳教士，甚至超過基督教兩百年所差出之傳教士的總和。英國的傳道人約翰衛斯理（John Wesley）曾在一次航行途中遇見大風浪，當全船都驚慌失措之時，卻見摩爾維亞海外傳教的弟兄及其家眷，安然的唱詩讚美，深受感動。另一位被稱為「近代宣教之父」的克里威廉，也是在摩爾維亞弟兄們刊物的激勵下，前往印度傳道。

摩爾維亞教會的特點

 

1727年，新生鐸夫與摩爾維亞的會眾們立定了一個協約，協約的三個重點為：著重主耶穌基督十字架的救贖大愛；著重聖靈充滿；並著重將自己奉獻給神，活在聖靈的引導之下。這成了後來摩爾維亞弟兄會復興的主要特點，他們尊重聖靈的主權，重視重生與悔改的主觀經歷，並為著福音火熱。他們十分注重禱告和唱詩。1727年，有48位弟兄姊妹奉獻自己，開始了晝夜不斷的守望禱告，為全世界的傳道工作守望，長達百年之久。除了禱告之外，他們也十分注重唱詩。新生鐸夫所寫的詩歌不下二千首，十分敬虔、屬靈。這些詩歌後來被查理衛斯理（Charles Wesley）大量翻譯運用，創作出許多不朽的佳作。召會現用「詩歌」中的第237首「神的基督是我的義」，即是新生鐸夫的作品。

 

此外，在宗派林立的十七世紀，摩爾維亞的弟兄們，願意放下宗派的成見，為基督作獨一的見證，實是一項大的恢復。他們的合一並不是在於外面的聯合，乃是聖靈的工作。他們的教會生活十分簡樸，彼此以弟兄姊妹相稱，無階級之分。他們棄絕一切的偶像，單純的仰望、禱告、獻身福音，並等候主來。他們十分重視兒童與青少年的工作，單身的青年弟兄姊妹分別住在弟兄之家和姊妹之家，接受成全。摩爾維亞教會對主的渴慕，以及聖徒間的彼此相愛，被認為是啟示錄中「非拉鐵非」召會的應驗，也是十八至十九世紀主行動水流的所在。《話語職事》摩爾維亞教會

 

摩爾維亞教會的復興

 

引言

一、她的起源

二、她的教訓

三、她的受苦

四、她的避難所

五、她的新領袖

六、她復興的開始

七．她復興的禱告

八、她復興的高潮

九、她復興后的情形

十、她的禱告守望台

十一、她的布道工作

十二、她的影響    

  

引言

 

　　「在本地和國外佈道有成就的，最顯著的例子，是摩爾維亞的（Moravian）信徒。按照比例說，他們比任何基督徒的團體都作得多。假如照他們的比例，在英國和美國改正教的信徒，為著佈道所有的奉獻，將要超過一千二百萬英磅，（等於他們實際奉獻的四倍），所差遣出去佈道的人，將要有四十萬之多。這數目超過了把福音傅遍全世界所需要的人數。」瑪特（Mott）「就是到今天（主後一九零零年以前）在摩爾維亞的教會中，每有五十八個有交通的人，就有一個國外佈道的人，在本地每有一個信徒，在國外就有兩個以上脫離異教而相信的人。這樣有果效的國外佈道工作，牠的動機是甚麼呢？當摩爾維亞的信徒認識這個大的使命的時候，以賽亞書五十三章一至十二節那感動人的話，就成為他們的動機，就是我們主的受苦，激勵他們去作工。從這豫言中，他們喊出這樣佈道的口號：「為著被殺的羔羊去救人，作祂勞苦的功效。」…假如我們能使人的心對於這位受死的救主充滿了愛情，如火焚燒似的受到激勵，基督教中漠不關心的情形就會消失，基督的國度也就要顯現了。」—薛凡尼（Schweinitz）假如教會要興起來跟隨摩爾維亞弟兄們的腳蹤，我們就必須找出甚麼是他們復興起來的原因，甚麼是使他們作這麼多有效工作的能力，尤其是，甚麼是神安排他們去作工的路。如果我們沒有同樣的原因，我們也不會有同樣的結果。當我們找出他們成功的條件的時候，今日教會失敗的原因，和恢復的道路也就會找到了。摩爾維亞教會的歷史，能從全部的參考書中，摘出簡略的記錄如下。

 

一、她的起源

　　摩爾維亞和波希米亞（Bohemia）乃是奧地利（Austrian）帝國西北的兩個省分，與德國的薩克森（Saxony）接界。在第七第八世紀的時候，那裏的人先後從希臘教會和羅馬教會得到福音。因為希臘教會允許他們用當地的語言講道，並且給他們用他們的文字所繙譯的聖經，他們中間就有好多派別興起來，互相不斷的爭論。漸漸的，羅馬教會佔了上風，到第十五世紀初葉，波希米亞改教領袖胡司約翰（John Huss）因講福音而被焚燒的時候（一四一五年），這裏就開始變成逼迫聖徒可怕的地方。在這個時候，那些仍然忠心於福音的人，—多是胡司約翰的工作和殉道所興起的—就聚集在波希米亞東北部，肯瓦（Kunwald）山谷中的一個村莊裏。在那裏他們有一段時期可以此較平安的生活。到一四五七年，他們被稱為「基督之律法的弟兄們。」當他們的教會組成之後，就被稱作「合一的弟兄們。」

 

二、她的教訓

　　弟兄們合一的教會中，最寶貴的一點，是她的教訓。這不是弟兄們的教義，乃是他們的生活，不是他們的理論，乃是他們的實際，就是這個，給他們這麼大的能力。後來，改正教的人認識他們的時候，卜西爾（Bucer）寫著說，「在全世界上，只有你們把有益的教訓與純潔的信心聯合在一起。當我們把我們的教會與你們比較一下的時候，我們只有羞愧。但願神保守祂所已經賜給你們的。」

　　喀爾文（Calvin）寫著說，「我祝賀你們的教會，因為主在純潔的道理之外，還賜給你們這麼多超特的恩賜，並且你們維持了這麼好的品行，秩序和教訓。我們好久就知道這種組織的價值，但是用任何方法都不能達到。」

　　路得（Luther）也說，「請告訴弟兄們，他們要持守神所已經賜給他們的，也不要廢棄他們的組織和教訓。」

　　甚麼是他們的教訓呢？「在他們生活的每一件事情上，—在買賣，娛樂，基督徒的事奉和作百姓的責任上，—他們都以主在山上的教訓作他們腳前的燈。」他們認為他們活著乃是為著事奉神，每一件事都是與此相輔的。他們的傳道人和長老，照管全體的弟兄姊妹，並且察看大家是否為著神的榮耀活著。全體都是弟兄相愛，彼此幫助，互相勸勉，過著安靜和敬虔的生活。

 

三、她的受苦

　　開始有五十年的時間，雖然到處一直有逼迫，但是他們卻過著比較平安的生活。但是到一五一五年，就是改正教在德國起頭的時候，教皇和皇帝聯合起來攻擊他們，差不多把他們全部消滅。後來間斷有容讓的時期，但是難處仍然繼續。到一五四八年，皇帝的勒令把數千人趕到波蘭，在那裏他們成立了一個大而興旺的教會。到一五五六年，新的皇帝接位之後，他們得到平安，於是弟兄們的教會就重新建立起來，並且分佈在波希米亞，摩爾維亞，和波蘭三省。到十六世紀的末葉，他們的教會已把一本全部的聖經給了所有的人民，也把教育培養到一個相當高的地步，以致波希米亞的學校聞名全歐，並且大家都承認波希米亞的人民是全世界受教育最好的。一六零九年，他們有了波希米亞憲章，是首先給人信仰完全自由的。一六一六年，他們出版「教訓的章則」，講到整個教會的組織。

　　到弗萊德列二世（Frederick II）即位之後，事情忽然都起改變。一六二零年，在百拉格（Prague）地方流血的那天，有二十七位作領袖的貴族被處死。以後繼續有六年之久波希米亞一直是流血的地方。有三萬六千個家庭離開了那裏，人口從三百萬減到一百萬。弟兄們的教會地分散了。整個十七世紀中，在那裏的人只能在暗中敬拜神，並且成立了所謂的「隱藏的種子。」一直過了一百年，到一七二二年，他們再重新起頭。在那一百年中，只有神知道誰在受苦，但就是在那時期中，希望仍沒有完全消滅。摩爾維亞的教會最後一位監督康門紐（Comebuis）在一六六零年寫著說，「經驗告訴我們，有的時候，神讓某些教會被毀壞，但是這卻使別的教會被建立起來代替他們，或者使他們在別的地方興起來。或者神看為值得使一個教會往她原來的地方復活過來，或讓她死去，或者神要叫她在別的地方復興起來，這個我們不知道。…照著神自己的應許，福音總是要被那些受過神正當管教的基督徒，傳給地上其他的人民；因此像以前一樣，我們的損失將要成為世人的豐富。」

　　在一七零七年耶斯克喬治（George Jaeschke）也說過相似的話。耶斯克是當時幾位真理的見證人之一。他的兒子是耶斯克米迦勒（Michael Jaescke），孫子是奧古斯丁和雅各倪西爾（Augustin and Jakob Neisser）。他們是頭一班帶著妻子兒女，離開本地去到主的守護所（Herrnhut）的。耶斯克喬治在他八十三歲臨終的時候說，「好像現在弟兄們的教會已經到了盡頭，但是，親愛的孩子們，你們將要看見一個大的拯救，是遺剩的人所要得到的。我不知道這個拯救是將要臨到摩爾維亞這裏，或是你們必須離開巴比倫；但是我深信這個拯救不久必會實現。我有點相信你們需要離開這裏，有一個避難的地方為你們豫備，在那裏你們能沒有懼怕的，照著主的聖言事奉祂。」

 

四、她的避難所

　　弟兄們經過了幾世紀的逼迫，許多人用他們的血印證了所作的見證。他們遭監禁，受苦待，被充軍，使他們拋棄本土本鄉，逃到德國去避雛。主為他們豫備了一個避難所，在那裏他們的教會又得以更新過來。

　　一七二二年大衛基利司新（Christian David）得到新生鐸夫伯爵（Count Zinzendorf）的許可，從摩爾維亞帶領避難的人，到他在薩克森的土地上來。大衛基利司新原來是羅馬教的人，但是他在羅馬教裏不能得到安息。後來他在薩克森當兵的時候，聽見一位敬虔的路得會的牧師講道，而遇見基督。他回到摩爾維亞去傳講他所遇見的救主。他講得很有能力，以致在那裏有了一個復興。立刻就有逼迫興起，所以他就出外為著受逼迫的人尋找避難的地方。等他得到新生鐸夫的許可，他就回去帶著第一批十個人出來，於一七二二年六月到達伯特鐸夫（Berthelsdrorf）。一次過一次，他回去傳揚福音，再帶領那些願意撇下一切的人出來。不久他們就有二百人左右聚集，其中有一部分是所謂的「隱藏的種子」裏面的人，就是以前那些弟兄們的後裔。新生鐸夫所分配給他們的地方，叫作守望堡（Hutberg）他們稱這新的住處為主的守護所（Herrnhut）。他們用這名稱，有雙重的意思，一個是主守護他們，另一個是他們守望禱告，等候主的帶領，作他們的保障。

 

五、她的新領袖

　　神為著在主的守護所，收集材料來建築祂的居所，就豫備了一個聰明的工頭監督工作。新生鐸夫生於一七零零年五月。父母都是敬虔的信徒。他的父親在臨終的床上，抱者年僅六週的孩子，把他奉獻給基督為著事奉祂。四歲的時候，新生鐸夫向主立下誓約，且簽名於其上說，「親愛的救主，願你屬於我，我要屬於你！」以後他自己寫著說，「在我幼年的時候，我就愛這位救主，並且與祂有親密的交通。當我四歲的時候，我很迫切的追求神，並決定作耶穌基督一個真實的奴僕。」十二歲時，他在哈勒（Halle）地方，法蘭克（Franke）教授的大學裏，常遇見傳道人，心中常被到外邦人中去為主作工的思想所感動。他在同學中，成立「芥菜種團」，以三事相約：一，和善待眾人；二，為眾人謀福利；三，領人歸向神和基督。他們有一個小的徽章，上面寫著「看哪，這人，」（這話是出於約翰福音十九章五節）和這句格言「祂的鞭傷是我們的醫治。」每一個人帶著一個戒指，上面刻著「沒有人為自己活。」離開哈勒之前，他與一位親密的朋友立約，去帶領外邦人—特別是別人所不願到的那些外邦人—悔改得救。他從哈勒到了威騰堡（Wittenberg）在那裏他帶領禱告聚會，為著其他的同學禱告，且常常整夜的禱告並讀經。

　　關於他在學校的生活，他自己見證說，「主不但保守我不犯大罪，反倒在一些情形之下，使我把那要引誘我往錯路上去的人勸過來，與我一同禱告。用這法子，我帶領了一些人歸向基督。不但在中小學的時候是如此，就是在我所到的各大學和旅行的時候也是如此。在大學裏…我永沒有嘗試跳舞，也沒有加入男女混亂的任何集會，因為我以為那是錯誤，那是罪惡。自然我和別人一樣喜好娛樂，可是當我發覺魂裏起了一種過度的狂情時，便覺得受責備。我整個的人繼續不斷的挨近並守牢十字架。我對所遇見的人，都講過這個題目。」

　　他從青年時，就注重禱告，也學習了得勝禱告的祕訣。他對於成立祈禱小組的事非常努力。離開哈勒大學時，他交給法蘭克教授一張單子，記著七個祈禱小組的名字。那時他才十六歲。

　　他讀完了大學，到各處旅行，去各國觀光，藉以增進學識與見聞。無論到何處，遇到敬愛救主的人，他總以熱情與他們交接。

大概就在這期間，他在丟塞鐸夫（Diisseldorf）參觀一次圖畫展覽會，看見斯頓堡（Sternberg）的「看哪，這人，」那幅畫，下面寫著，「我為你作了這一切，你為我作了甚麼？」他的心受了感動。他覺得他不能回答這個問題。他回去比從前更加定意用他的一生事奉主。他在那幅畫中所看見的主的面貌一直沒有離開他。基督受死的愛就成為激勵他為主而活的能力，支配他的一生服事他所愛的主。他說，「我只有一個心愛—就是祂，也只是祂。」

　　這青年伯爵寫信給一個朋友說，「如果打發我去法國的目的，是叫我變成一個屬世界的人，這是白費錢財，因為神要按祂的慈愛保守我只為基督而活的心願。」在巴黎的一位公爵夫人問他說，「伯爵，你昨晚到戲院去過麼？」他回答說，「沒有，我沒有工夫去看戲！」他離開巴黎的時候，嘆了一口氣說，「華麗而可憐，遭災受禍的地方！」將來給主用著建立祂心愛教會的，原是這樣的一個青年。難怪他年僅二十七歲（一七三七年）神就用他在祂的教會中帶進一個教會歷史中罕見的復興。

　　他的特點是柔細，好像小孩子，和他向著我們主耶穌的熱情之愛。他給主耶穌得著並佔有了。主受死的愛得著並充滿了他的心，那將主帶來為罪人受死的愛進入了他的生命。除了為罪人活著，—甚至為他們死，假如有需要的話，—他不能為著其他的事活著。當他負起摩爾維亞弟兄們的責任之後，他的教訓和他的詩歌證明給我們看見，這一個愛乃是他所要求的推動力，他所信靠的能力，和他所以要得著那些弟兄們的目的。無論是甚麼教訓，辯論和訓導，不管是如何需要和有功效，都不能作基督的愛所作的。這愛把所有的人都溶化成為一體。她使人甘願受改正並指導；她使人渴慕離棄一切罪惡的事；她感動人願意為主耶穌作見證；她使許多人準備犧牲一切，叫別人也知道這愛，並叫主耶穌的心喜樂。

　　「就是這個對基督的愛，更可說是這愛的結果，使新生鐸夫深深的感覺交通的需要和價值。他相信如果要享受這愛，並使她增長得剛強，且使她達到她的目的，她就需要有表現和交通。他相信，如果要在我們自己裏面，維持基督在我們裏面的愛，並抓住神在這愛裏的偉大目的，—就是安慰並剛強我們的弟兄們，—就需要我們彼此有交通。所以他就豫備好了，接待神所帶來給他的那些異鄉人，並且使自己完全為他們活著。他的報答是大的。他把他自己給了他們，就得著他們每一個人都和他自己一樣。他後來所說的，「除了交通之外，我就不知道真的基督教」這句話，是產生那個強烈合一的原因，那個合一把這位領袖和全體的力量分給了每一個肢體。」

 

六 、她復興的開始

　　當新生鐸夫在他的土地上住下後，他就獻上自己，要使他的佃戶得到屬靈的福氣。他和另外三位有同樣心願的朋友成立了「四弟兄聯盟。」他們的目的是要向全世界宣告：「救主是普世人所當敬奉的，祂的教會是祂門徒們的家，心靈的事奉乃是以救主為中心」。他與聚會中的傳道人，聯合負責講道，並帶領禱告和唱詩的聚會。他為著基督和祂受死所要拯救的人活著。

　　他將他的土地供給從摩爾維亞放逐出來的人作避難所，不過是要給他們一個居住的地方，使他們在那裏像他的佃戶一樣，可以維持生活，並自由的事奉神。當人們知道主的守護所是受逼迫之人的避難所的時候，各種為者信仰受逼迫的人都到那裏去尋覓居所。其中多半是摩爾維亞的弟兄們，也有路得會，浸信會，和其他會別的入。因著他們意見的不一致，和在道理上火熾一般的爭辯，—諸如豫定，聖潔，受洗，受浸，等等問題，—使不合一的靈很快的帶進來了，好像要使大家分成交戰的團體，這裏就有變成宗派和狂熱之地的危險。新生鐸夫覺得是他出來干預的時候了。他很信任從摩爾維亞來的人所有的正直和熱心，就與他們中間前面的人有很親密的來往。

　　那時許多屬靈的人都深深覺得宗派的罪惡和痛苦，所以他們祈求神，因著祂的恩典，在他們中間能夠恢復真正交通的靈。伯爵藉著流淚和禱告，靠著耶穌基督的愛心和忍耐，與那些走入迷途的人辯正。那裏三百多位摩爾維亞的第兄們中間人有二百位以上都是在一點上不能退讓的，就是他們不願意加入路得會（Lutheran Church），而堅持使以前摩爾維亞教會中的教訓得以維持。伯爵怕這樣會引起四圍教會的誤會和反感，但是他還覺得他們這個堅持是對的，所以他就決定冒任何的危險來服從他們。於是從前教會的原則和教訓，都得以恢復過來。新生鐸夫就起草公律，訓諭，和禁令。以後他們就遵照這些而生活。

　　關於新生鐸夫如何解決當日的爭辯和不同，有人這樣記載說，「用甚麼方法把這些敬虔而好辯的人們，在信心和愛心裏聯合起來呢？用甚麼方法服事這些胡司，路得，咯爾文，金文格（Zwingli），薛文非（Schwenckfeld）等人的門徒呢？除非神的調停以外，真是一件沒有希望的事。主答應了他誠懇堅忍的祈禱，用超人的智慧，引導這青年伯爵應用一種極有價值的力法解決了一切困難。」「他尋出他們同一之點而把它們加重，（不注重他們不同的地方。）他親自與住在主的守護所每一個人接觸。他們很嚴肅的與他立了約，要在五月十二日那天，各人都在自己所在的地位和選召上，確實的把自己獻上，作主耶穌基督的僕人，好像他一樣。」

　　（一七二七年五月十二日，剛好是他們頭一批人到這裏來四年後），是弟兄們的歷史中可記念的日子。在這一天，伯爵聚集他們在一起，把已經同意的公律讀給他們聽。從此他們再沒有不合一。弟兄相愛，和在基督裏合一的金鏈，把他們聯在一起。所有的人，都互相拉手，並保證遵守這公律。那一天是主的守護所新生命的開始。）

　　日記中記載說，「這一天，伯爵與主立了一個約。所有的弟兄們都一個一個的應許作救主真實的跟隨者。自己的意志，自愛，和不順服，他們都離棄了。他們願意能在靈裏貧窮；沒有一個人以自己的利益為前題；每一個人都將自己交與聖靈來教導。因著神恩典大能的工作，大家不但都被說服，並且都受帶領和管治。」

　　又有人記載說，「隨後就選立了十二個長老，藉以成全主的守護所會眾的屬靈生活，並分派人承接各種不同的職分，填滿預先所看到的應有制度。這種制度所產生的彼此信任，互相認識，就成功了彼此承認的供獻，完成了共同讀經的豫備，並成立了常常聚集的祈禱小組。以後經過夏天的豫備，和修直大道接受靈浸的工作，便得到了八月十三日那個大的祝福，使他們得了能力，能在他們那一世紀中，到基督教國家，和拜偶像的國家中，作出那樣有效力的佈道工作，並在那普遍漠不關心和惟理論盛行的幾十年中，保守著信心的烈焰。」

　　一七四八年五月十二日，伯爵寫著說，「廿一年前約今日，主的守護所的命運還是懸而不決，可能變成一個宗派，也可能取得我們救主教會的立場。經過三四小時的講話後，聖靈的能力使我們決定揀選第二種。基礎的原則於是就立定了，我們放棄了作更正教的思想，而注意我們自己。從那時以後，一直到冬天，救主所作者是無法述說的。整個的地方真是神確實與人同在的所在，到八月十三日就開始不斷的讚美。然後平靜下來而進入安息。」

 

七、她復興的禱告

　　五月十二日是稱為更新的教會的生日；八月十三日是她在聖靈裏受浸的日子。是她的復興達到最高點的時候。那是許多非常的禱告所產生的結果。那一年的前半年，是那施恩叫人懇求的靈作工的時期。那時新生鐸夫負責給九個十歲到十三歲的女孩子屬靈的指導。他常向他的夫人歎息說，小孩子們雖然在外表上看著很像那麼一回事，但看不出在她們中間有任何屬靈的跡象。不管你把主耶穌對她們說過多少次，總似乎到不了她們心上。他靈裏感到這個痛苦的時候，便藉著禱告向主傾吐，竭力熱切的求主把祂的恩惠和祝福，賜給這些小孩子。一個天才卓越而財產豐富的德國青年貴胃，竟為一些小女孩子得救的事，跪在主面前傷痛祈禱。七月十六日他從整個的魂裏傾吐出心裏哀痛的祈禱，眼淚一直如同奔濤一般傾瀉下來。這個祈禱產生了一個非常的能力，也是後來聖靈那賜人生命，如火一般有能力的工作的起首。不僅新生鐸夫是這樣，還有很多弟兄們，也都努力禱告，是前此未曾有的。七月二十二日在守望堡有一些弟兄們自己約會要常聚在一起，藉著祈禱唱詩，把他們的全心傾倒在主面前。

從公律實行，大家都聯繫於順服相愛的生命以後，交通和禱告的靈就大大的增加。大家都把誤會，成見，間隔，承認出來，而擺在一邊。禱告常常很有能力，以致使那些只在外表加入的人，都被定罪，他們或是改變，或是從心裏被迫離開。有一段時期，伯爵有事出外，等到他八月四日返回時，他帶來他所找到的一本摩爾維亞教會的歷史，書內有全部已往的教訓和規則。這使他們非常喜樂。他們把它當作他們列祖的神與他們同在的表記。第二天晚上，伯爵和十四個弟兄整夜禱告守望，半夜他們在守望堡一個大廳裏有一次大的聚集，專以祈禱為事。這個聚集得到了很多人的同情。以後幾天，他們在唱詩聚會中，都覺得有勢不可當的能力。十日主日，羅擇（Rothe）弟兄正在帶領午後在主的守護所的聚會，忽然覺得從主那裏來了一種令人不能拒絕的奇妙大能漫過了他，就仆倒在神面前面伏於地。全體會眾也都在神同在的喜樂感覺裏，俯伏下來。他們繼續禱告，唱詩，哭泣，懇求，直到半夜。他請聚集的人到禮拜三，就是十三日，參加主的晚餐。

　　因為這是他們有了新的交通以後，第一次的擘餅，他們決定必須嚴格舉行，並且藉此「帶領人更深的進到基督的死裏，就是他們藉著受浸所進入的。」作首領的人去探望每一個人，用大愛帶領他們實行內心省察。在禮拜二晚上豫備的聚會中，有些人「脫離死亡而進入生命」，全體會眾都深受感動。

 

八、她復興的高潮

　　「禮拜三早晨，大家都到伯特鐸夫。在去的路上，凡是覺得與別人有間隔的，都重新聯合起來。當唱第一首詩歌時，有一個邪惡的人被大能所感，知罪悔改。當介紹新有交通的人的時候，每一個人的心都受感動。等到唱詩的時候，人很難分辨是唱詩多，或是哀哭多。好幾位弟兄禱告，特別說到，他們是從被束縛之地放逐出來的，並不知道當怎樣行，渴望得蒙保守脫離分裂和宗派，而求主把祂教會真實的性質啟示給他們，好使他們無玷污的行在祂面前，不至單獨，反能結果。我們求主使我們不作一件事，違反我們與他所立的忠誠之約，不犯任何微小的罪，頂撞祂愛的律法。我們求主，用祂恩典拯救的大能保守我們，不讓我們一個人離開我們得救的根據，—寶血，和十字架，—而倚靠自己和自己的功德。在喫主的晚餐時，我們的心立刻俯伏，而後被舉起。等我們回家以後，每一個人都被帶領脫離自己，從那一天起，所有的日子，都活在極大的安靜和平安裏，並且學習相愛。」

　　在這次擘餅聚會中，弟兄們大大受到聖靈的澆灌。在他們中間一個歷史家記載說，「一七二七年月八月十三日，真是一個聖靈大澆灌的日子。我們看見了神的聖手，和祂的奇妙。聖靈降在我們身上，我們都在我們列祖受靈浸的雲下受了浸。有大神蹟奇事顯在我們中間。從那時起，差不多沒有一天在我們中間看不見神偉大的工作。眾人都如飢似渴羨慕主的道。甚至每天聚會三次，早晨五點一次，七點三十分一次，晚上九點又一次。個個人不羨慕別的，只要求聖靈能用全權管理他們。…恩惠如同人不能抗拒的洪流一般，把我們全捲入神愛的大海洋裏。」

　　新生鐸夫稱這一天為「聖靈澆灌在會眾身上的日子。」他說，「救主賜下一個靈來到我們中間，是我們從前所末曾經驗，也不知道的。」「「以前我們曾作人的領袖和幫助者，但現在聖靈自己完全得著了主權，管理每一件事，和每一個人。」

　　在這次參加擘餅的人中，有一些兒童。有一人寫著說，「我不能形容在主的守護所那些兒童被聖靈大大復興的情形，只能說神真是很奇妙的用祂的靈，正在全會眾聚集擘餅的時候澆灌了他們。聖靈如風一般充滿了他們，並無老幼之分。在每一個地方，—有時是晚上在田野裏，—會聽見人在祈求神赦免他們的罪，並得著他們。恩典的聖靈實在是澆灌下來了。」

　　在這一七二七年八月十三日一次擘餅聚會中，所經過的情形，的確是在場，的人都不會完全形容的。他們在那聚會的地方「簡直不曉得自己仍舊在地上，或者已經到天上去了。」新生鐸夫多年以後對英國的一些會眾作見證說，「我們需要一種愛主，親近主的心情來聚這擘餅聚會。記得幾十年前的一次擘餅，曾成了一個盛筵。這個記憶仍叫我們感到十分欣慰。二十七年前的今天，主的守護所的會眾聚集在伯特鐸夫聚會所擘餅的時候，個個都不滿意自己的情形，拋棄了彼此論斷的事，因為他們都受了責備，看見自己在神面前的虧欠。他們每一個人都覺得自己在這擘餅聚會中，是面對面的看見了救主尊貴的面容。他們都成了傷心的人，都在憂傷所包圍的情景中。但他們的裏面告訴他們主是他們的栽培者，是他們的祭司，祂要立刻使憂傷淚變為喜樂油，使痛悔變成歡欣。這個堅定的信心，一時之間使他們變成快樂的人，直到如今。並且從那時起，他們因那一次所得的屬天恩賜，曾帶領許多人，也分受了這種快樂。這種記憶，和他們所給人的這種幫助，曾千百次的更堅固了他們所得到的。」

　　有一個人說，「新生鐸夫把這奇妙的事，給我們很深刻，很活潑的描述出來了。是的，當時在場的各人忽然都被包圍在親近基督的心情裏。同時那個能力一直波動，甚至有兩個人在六十里以外作工，雖然一點不曉得有那樣的聚會，也在當時深深的感覺到同樣的祝福。」

 

九、她復興後的情形

　　參加那次聚會的，都是一些平常人，誰知日後從這得了奇妙祝福的會眾中間，興起了牧師和教師，去外國佈道的人，以及長老，執事。誠然他們以前在認識基督的經歷上都是平凡的，可是從他們以後的情形來說，他們都是基督重用的僕人。

　　此後弟兄們常常到附近的地方，去與其他的基督徒有交通，並帶領所有願意來的人認識基督。在這段時間裏，當他們中間有一個人因為作這種工作而被關到監獄中，他們就大大的喜樂，因配為祂的緣故受苦。

　　那時他們若聽說，在他們附近一個村子上的人願意到他們這裏來，在復興裏有分，他們就在愛和謙卑與，把他們的教訓告訴他們。

　　那些日子真是主的守護所會眾享受天上福氣的日子，大家都忘記了自己和屬世暫時的一切事情，都渴望與他們的救主同住天上，得享永福。

　　他們的日記給我們看見，此後有四年之久，他們常有深受聖靈感動的特別經歷。特別是他們聚集在主面前禱告的時候。

有一件事使他們的交通有奇妙的能力，就是他們強烈的聯合著，並個別的將自己獻給那用祂自己的血，把他們買回來的主耶穌，並為祂活者。他們彼此改正，大家願意承認並離棄罪惡的事，都是從他們對於活的基督的信心而來的。藉著基督，他們「在他們裏面得到神的平安和脫罪的能力。」這個信心使他們天天承認自己乃是一個可憐的罪人，蒙了祂恩典的拯救。這個信心藉著每天在道理，詩歌，和禱告上所有的交通，得蒙培植並加強，就成為他們生命的糧食。這個信心用喜樂充滿他們裏面，使他們的心在極大的困難中指示的事。

　　他們把事奉神看為最重要的事他們認為認識並遵行神的旨意，跟仍然快樂，確實相信那為他們受死的羔羊，現在仍然每時每刻愛護，拯救，並保守他們。祂能征服最剛硬的心，並願祝福最下流的罪人。從聖靈澆灌的那天起，一直到第一次打發人出去佈道的時候，將近五年的時間，他們就在這個靈裏聚集在一起，敬拜神的兒子，把自己奉獻給祂，並等候祂將祂所要求於祂教會的事，給他們知道。他們每一個人都有準備，好出去為他的主作工，或作他的主所隨耶穌基督的腳蹤而行，乃是首要的大事，其他的事都是次要的。為著這個緣故，他們都願意接受那些被安排來照管他們之人的照顧和改正。他們按字而相信「天天彼此相勸」的命令。當他們一犯罪，無論是有意的，或是無意的，他們就彼此幫助，互相倚賴，互相服從。他們的交通使他們剛強有力。最高的管理人，也請求他的弟兄們，把他們所看見的錯誤告訴他，並且願意承認最小的錯處。那彼此順服的靈，就是聖經中多次提到的，帶來了豐富的祝福，使他們整個的生命成為聖潔，並剛強有力。

　　在聖靈大能工作的時候，他們從祂學得三個大的原則：一，教會存留在地上只是為著擴展主的國度；二，每一個肢體必須受訓練在擴展主國度的事上有分；三，個人對基督之愛的經歷，是使人適合於這事的能力。對於這些原則，弟兄們一直是忠實的。

 

十、她的禱告守望臺

自從八月十三日，那個特別蒙福的時候，就是神把那施恩叫人懇求的靈，澆灌在主的守護所會眾身上以後，有些弟兄姊妹想，最好定規出一個時間專一禱告，藉此可以叫人記得，他怎樣許願，要熱切禱告，把全心獻給主的事，因而得到其中的好處。

　　他們又想到利未記六章十二至十三節說，舊約時代在祭壇上必有常常燒著的火，不可熄滅。那麼，無論在那裏有人聚集，他們這些會眾就是永生神的聖殿，那裏就有神的祭壇和聖火，聖徒的祈禱就應當不斷的在那裏升到神面前。

　　八月二十二日，日記中記載說，「今天我們想，我們的教會一面仍舊是那樣幼稚，一面又有撒但這個大的仇敵，所以非常需要保守她自己，而抵擋那晝夜不打盹的仇敵，並且需要有不斷的守望禱告，以抵擋他。所以我們決定燃起自願的祈求之祭，使她晝夜燒著。我們現在將這事交給神，仰望祂在弟兄們裏面作工。到二十六日，這個計劃就實行了，有二十四位弟兄，和二十四位姊妹，定規要輪流的在他們自己的房間裏，花一個鐘頭的時間，將圍繞在他們四圍的需要和事工，都帶到神面前。願意這樣禱告的人很快的加增到七十七位。但是在主的守護所，我們願意將每件事都交給神的恩典，使人自願，而不願意強迫人作任何事，所以我們定規假如有人因著靈裏貧窮，或是因著特別事故，禱告不能用盡一個鐘頭，也可以用屬靈的詩歌作代替，來讚美神，這樣就可以為著自己和一切的信徒，把讚美或禱告的祭獻給神。這些守望禱告的人，每週聚集一次，把遠近各地關於個人，聚會，或國家的消息，交通一下，使他們可以為著所得到的答應獻上讚美，或者使他們作更有心，並更切實的禱告。」

　　不只大人這樣禱告，連那些得了復興的兒童，也為他們自己走了一個同樣的計劃。每一個人都小心翼翼的記著給他們指定的時間。八月二十六日晚上，舉行了一次兒童大蒙祝福的聚會。二十九日那一天，從晚上十點起，一直到早晨七點，真是感動人的一段時間。因為從主的守護所和伯特鐸夫來的女孩子們，用這九個鐘頭的工夫在守望堡禱告，唱詩，哭泣，敬拜神。同時男孩子們也在另一個地方切心禱告。在那時，祈禱和懇求的靈澆灌在這些孩子們身上，那種能力實非文字言語所能描寫得適當的。

他們的禱告是時常帶領人為主活動的。藉著他們的禱告，他們點燃了要把基督的救恩傳遍異教各國的烈火。

　　他們為要日夜不斷獻上祈求之祭，所舉行的守望禱告，證明他們如何懂得天上的第一個定律就是祝福和能力的多少是根據於禱告的多少。他們看見那在寶座上的羔羊，就極其歡喜，深信祂必要充滿他們所大大張開的口和心。

 

十一、她的佈道工作

　　在以後的幾個月中，有些弟兄們繼續不斷的出去到遠近地方，傳講基督的愛。他們的思想中充滿了神所祝福的事。伯爵與世界各地都有交通，有所聽聞，就轉告弟兄們。一七二八年二月十日，在聚會中，「他特別講到遠處的地方—土耳其，摩洛哥，和格陵蘭。對於格陵蘭，他說以人看，是不可能進入的，但是他相信，主會賜給我們弟兄們恩典和能力，使他們去到這些地方。在那天的聚會中，我們深受聖靈的感動。」

　　此後的四年，復興一直繼續。長老們的留心看守，照著個人的需要所有的忠心帶領，弟兄相愛之靈的絕對維持，不斷的守望禱告，以及弟兄帶著所聽見的消息出去到遠近各處，使弟兄們的聚會成為得大喜樂和蒙福的時候。這些都是即要開始的佈道工作的準備。

　　佈道工作是這樣有的：一七三一年，新生鐸夫伯爵到哥本哈根（Copenhagen）去參加丹麥王的加冕典禮。在那裏一位貴族有一個從西印度群島（WestIndies）來的奴隸，名叫安頓（Anton）。從他那裏，新生鐸夫得知西印度群島—特別是丹屬聖多馬（St.Thomas）島—上奴隸的情形。他又遇見兩位因丹麥人伊及德（Egde）佈道而悔改的格陵蘭人。等他回來後，他述說他如何遇見這些異邦人，就引起弟兄們的深切注意。有兩位弟兄心中大受感動。那天晚上，當唱詩班經過他的住處，伯爵告訴一位朋友說，他信去西印度群島和格陵蘭佈道的人，要從這些弟兄們中間找到的時候，他們就受到激勵，而獻上自己。當這事被人知道後，另外又有兩位前來，要到格陵蘭去。那奴隸安頓來訪問一次，使他們的印象更深。他述說那裏的奴隸所受的痛苦，也就是他們所將要受的，使他們更加火熱。假如他們無法進到殖民地裏，去教導那些奴隸，他們準備出賣自己作奴隸，好接近那些貧窮的外邦靈魂。

　　不到一年後，在一七三二年八月，頭兩位出外佈道的人就出發了。他們被差出作工所受的指導，都包括在這一句話裏：在凡事上尋求並受聖靈的引導。他們是步行著出去的，除了袋中幾元錢以外，甚麼都不帶，但是他們在對神和神看顧的信心上，卻是剛強的。次年有兩位出發到格陵蘭去。一七三四年又有十八位到聖克盧斯（Sant Cruz）。後一年，又有十二位以上，藉著移民或工業上的工作，去幫助黑人。雖然他們這種舉動，曾犧牲許多寶貴的生命，而未得成功，但是弟兄們並不因此氣餒，反而當有死亡的消息傳來的時候，他們總是唱那篇流淚撒種的詩篇。結果，他們從死的種子，收割豐富的禾稼。

在他們得到聖靈澆灌以後三十年內，他們把主的救恩，不但傳遍歐洲各國，也傳到美國南北，甚至傳到亞洲和非洲許多拜偶像的民族中。

　　有人見證說，「自從他們與文化幼稚的人接觸，到現在才過了一世紀。在這期間，他們曾往世界各國各地去作工，把基督的國度擴張到許多外邦野地，…使那些幽暗之地得著喜樂之光。他們在佈道人足跡罕到，遙遠的曠野裏，栽種了主香甜的葡萄園。哦！當我們看到他們所成就的如何偉大！如何廣多！…注意他們所表顯的愛心，聽見那些悔改野人的敬虔見證，我們誰不希望那使他們作出這樣奇妙工作的能力，也顯在我們身上？」

　　按照人數的比例說，摩爾維亞的教會所支持，所打發出去的人，和她所供給的財力以及她所拯救的人，都遠比任何教會為多。（確實數字，見前面引言。）為何這個小小—最小—的教會，會比那些此她更年長，更大的教會作得多呢？？這是因為在所有的教會中，只有她要實際的實行這個大的真埋，就是教會在地上存在的目的，乃是要把基督受死所要拯救的人帶來歸祂。只有她要教導並訓練她所有的人，都以此為他們對於這位愛他們之主的第一個義務，犧牲他們的性命，使人認識祂。

 

十二、她的影響

　　那一時代的一位大旅行家，做了這樣驚人的見證，說「在我一切旅行中，我只看見三件東西，是超乎我意料之外的，就是海洋，和新生鐸夫伯爵，並主的守護所的會眾。」一七二七年的大復興，不斷在能力和幅員上，繼續增長了一世紀多。主的守護所誠然作了建造在山上的一座屬靈的城，在眾人跟前顯露出來。從歐洲各地各方有人去到她那裡，有的要得救恩，有的要得聖靈的澆灌。從她那裡得幫助，而發生最大影響的，就是十八世紀的英國大佈道家，衛斯理約翰（John Wesley）。

　　一七三六年秋天，衛斯理約翰和他兄弟衛斯理查理（Charles Wesley），乘船去美國傳道。那時，他們是英國聖公會的教士。有些往美國去居住的摩爾維亞的弟兄們，和他們的眷屬，也在那個船上。衛斯理約翰看見他們行動上的莊重，看見他們殷勒，謙和，不斷的甘心為別的客人，作英國人不肖為的奴隸式的工作，而不要工價，就大受感動。船到中途，遇見狂風大浪，有破沉的危險。船上的乘客都驚懼呼喊。但衛斯理約翰看見那些從德國來的摩爾維亞的弟兄們，和他們的女人孩子，都在那裏安然唱詩，就更受感動。登陸以後，他就去找那些弟兄們中間的一位監督，司潘金伯（A.G.Spangenberg），請問屬靈的事。因此他就看見，他雖然到美國，是要使印第安人悔改得救，但他自己還沒有得救的經歷，和得救的憑據。以後他回到英國，遇見一位在英國傳道的摩爾維亞的弟兄，博勒彼得（Peter Boehler）。他和他兄弟查理就受到博勒彼得的帶領，而清楚因信得救的事，並得著得救的憑據。後來他也親自到德國主的守護所，去受屬靈的造就，從那裏得到更豐富的祝福。在他的日記裏記著說，「我本心喜歡在裏過這一生，可是我的主人召我到祂葡萄園的另一部分去作工。」因著他在那裏所得到的祝福，他回到英國就成為神的一個榮耀的器皿，滿有屬靈的能力，在十八世紀裏，使英國在主的福音上，得到了空前的復興，其影響所及，是今世的人所難以估計的。

　　不但衛斯理二弟兄從摩爾維亞的弟兄們得到屬靈的幫助，就是當日的大佈道家懷特腓喬治（George Whitefield），和牛津大學出身的一些為主用的人，也都從他們受到屬靈的帶領和影響。

　　那位到印度開荒佈道的開瑞威廉（William Carey）在去國外佈道的事上，也是受到摩爾維亞弟兄們的感動不少。他在一次聚會中，把幾本摩爾維亞的弟兄們所出的刊物放在檯子上，以他們的經歷勸勉他的弟兄們。他的同工華達威廉（William Ward）因著這幾本刊物，受了很深的感動，說，「多謝你們摩爾維亞的弟兄們！你們幫助了我。假如我作一個國外佈道人，會有一根稻草的價值，我也要在我們救主腳前，歸功於你們。」

　　基督的教會從摩爾維亞的弟兄所得到的幫助，和所受到的影響，是超過一般人所知道的，需要永世來向我們完全說出。

附錄

　　（一）摩爾維亞的第兄們得著復興，就寫出許多屬靈的詩歌，多是讚美基督，稱頌祂神性，宣揚祂的美德和工作，其中好些是以後教會所用的最優美的頌讚詩。那些詩歌，大部份是新生鐸夫受到靈感而寫的。他是那一時代最有名的聖詩家，被人稱作德國聖詩大王。

（二）新生鐸夫臨終的時候，誇勝的對他的人和朋友說，「我要到我的救主那裡去。我已經預備好了，現在沒有什麼阻擋我。我說不出我是多麼愛你們大家。誰知道基督那『使他們合而為一』的禱告，能這樣奇妙的應驗在我們中間呢？我只求主在異教人中給我初熟的果子。誰知主已經給了我幾千！我們不像已經在天上了麼？我們不是在一起生活，像天使一樣麼？主和祂的僕人都彼此了解，彼此明白。我豫備好了。」過了幾點鐘，當他的女婿宣讀舊約中的祝福說，『願主賜福給你，保護你；願主使祂的臉光照你，賜恩給你；願主向你仰臉，賜你平安』以後，這位神所親愛的人便離開身體，去到幔子那邊，與主同在了。有四千多人把他送到那些從荷蘭，英國，愛爾蘭，北美，格陵蘭，各處弟兄們中間來的傳道人，在守望堡的安歇地裏的安歇床上。在他的墓碑上寫著說『在這裏躺著的，是一個屬神不朽之人的殘餘。他名叫尼古拉利未，是新生鐸夫（地名）和帕丁鐸夫（地名）的伯爵和地主。他因著神的恩典，和自己不懈怠的事奉，使平凡的弟兄們在十八世紀變成一個新的教會。他於一七零零年五月二十六日，生在端斯登（Dresden），一七六零年五月九日，在主的守護所進入他救主的喜樂裏。他被主指定去結果子，並且使他的果子長存。』  編按：錄由基督人(Christian) 所著對摩爾維亞(Morayiails 另譯莫拉維亞)教會的描述。

 

摩爾維亞復興之禱告

 

如果我們探討辛生鐸夫成功的秘訣，從兩段經文可看出一些端倪，那就是：「不是倚靠勢力，不是倚靠才能，乃是倚靠我的靈，方能成事。」(亞四6)「禱告完了，聚會的地方震動；他們就都被聖靈充滿，放膽講論神的道。」(徒四31)辛生鐸夫伯爵早年就學得推行禱告此一秘訣，一向致力於建立禱告小組，十六歲那年，當他離開哈勒學院時，他遞給有名的夫蘭克教授一份列有七個禱告組織的名單。如果是在今日，他一定能在學生圈中引領許多人信主！禱告能夠多麼快的解決所有不分年輕人或成人的問題！1727年在翰胡地方，這位年輕貴族所面對的不是理論，而是一種實際的狀況；如何以信心、愛心去團結並服事這群敬虔但意見分歧，且原來各擁胡斯、路德、喀爾文、慈運理(Zwingle)、士文克斐特(Schwenkfeld)等人以自重的信徒？這看來的確是個除非神親自干預，否則毫無希望解決的問題。神回答了這位年輕伯爵熱情洋溢的不間斷禱告，超人的智慧指引他採用了一些效力宏大的方法。漢彌爾頓主教(Bishop J. T. Hamilton)在一本叫「摩爾維亞人」的刊物中曾撰文促請人注意這些方法。文中首先提到辛生鐸夫起草弟兄盟約，呼籲大家「尋求並且著重彼此意見相合之處」，不要強調彼此間的歧異，接著文中又述及伯爵親自與每一位居住在翰胡的成年信徒面談。漢彌爾頓主教說：

但是遠較這些更為重要的，是大家都在5月12日這天，和辛生鐸夫共同締結一項神聖的盟約，眾人決心像他一樣的真正獻上自己的生命，各人依其所蒙特殊的呼召，在自己的職份上事奉主耶穌基督。這項盟約其實就是今天的弟兄協定的藍本，也是個人之間與會眾之間合而為一的銜接鏈環。

「接下去的工作就是選舉十二位長老，使翰胡的靈性生活建立起完備的組織，並依照盟約規定，指派信徒分掌各種職務。這種秩序本身，就是進一步的彼此信任，以及對彼此的信仰熱誠認同所帶出來的成果。有了秩序為基礎，接著就能展開聖經研究和頻密的小組禱告聚會。這些不啻是領受聖經洗禮的開路前鋒，而靈浸是以蒙福的8月13日那天，會眾都領受了從天而來的能力達到高潮。這股能力推動翰胡的男女信徒極為有效的服事他們的世代，將福音廣傳至基督教國度和異教徒之地。同樣也是這股能力，保守他們在理性主義盛行、人際關係普遍疏離，教育界鼓吹教化人心、理性至上與道德淨化的年代中，仍能保持熱烈的信心。」

　　禱告時期

確實，以1727年的8月13日為高潮的摩爾維亞大復興，無論其先前或日後都接連著一段非同尋常的禱告時期。施恩叫人懇求的靈在該年年初即已顯現。辛生鐸夫伯爵最初給予一班共九名，年齡在十至十三歲的女孩子靈性方面的教導。當代史家告訴我們：「伯爵時常向他的夫人抱怨說，雖然這些女孩的外在表現極為優異，但是他找不出任何蛛絲馬跡足以證明她們有自己的靈修生活；並且無論向她們講論多少關於主耶穌基督的事，這些教導似乎都無法深入她們的內心。在這心灰意冷的時刻，他藉禱告藏身主懷，以火樣般至極的熱情乞求恩主將祂的恩典和祝福賞賜給這些孩童。」

這真是個奇觀！一個稟賦不凡而又富有的年輕德國貴族，居然為了區區幾個女學童的悔改而屈膝在主面前，心力交瘁的不停禱告！我們接著可以讀到以下的話：

「7月16日，伯爵以全心全意作披肝瀝膽的禱告，與之俱來的，是泉湧般的淚水；這次的禱告發揮了巨大的功效，也是日後賜生命與能力之聖靈動工的開始。」不僅只是辛生鐸夫伯爵，就是許多其他弟兄，也展開了前所未有的禱告行動。我們在「摩爾維亞教會復興的那些可資追念的日子」一文中，可以讀到以下的記載：

「7月22日--許多弟兄自動相約要時常在赫特堡(Hutberg )聚集，以同心祈禱並歌頌讚美神。」

　　「8月5日華登(Warden)，也就是伯爵本人守望通宵，和他在一起的，還有十二或十四位弟兄。子夜時分赫特堡舉行了一埸大規模的禱告會，全場與會者都大得感動。」

「8月10日是主日，約中午時分，若特(Rothe)牧師在翰胡主持聚會時，覺得自己被一股出於主的奇妙而無法抗拒的能力所淹沒，他整個人俯伏在神前，在場的全體會眾也渾然忘我的跟著他俯伏下來。他們就在這種心境下，祈禱唱詩，哭泣懇求。」

「在那著名的蒙福之日，即1727年8月13日，施恩懇求的靈澆灌在翰胡的會眾身上。那天過後，一個意念臨到某些弟兄姊妹心中，他們覺得撥出固定的一段時間來禱告是很好的。在這關鍵時刻，大家都對禱告的絕佳效果記憶猶新，並且受到恒切禱告必得到應許的感召，每個人都願意在主面前傾心吐意。」

　　「遠較一切更重要的是，舊約時代祭壇上的聖火是永遠不准熄滅的(利六13、14)。同樣的，一群會眾就等於是永生神的殿，其中有神的壇和祂的火，聖徒們的代求應該像聖香一般，一刻不停息地上達到祂面前。」

　　鐘點代禱制

「8月26日那天，二十四位弟兄和同樣數目的姊妹聚會，互相約定推行從午夜到午夜的二十四小時不間斷禱告，每天分成日夜二十四班，由大家抽籤決定班次。」

「8月27日這個新計劃開始付諸實行。很快的就有更多人加入陣容，代禱人數因此增加為七十七位，甚至有些靈性痛悔的孩童中，也自動展開類似的計劃。每個輪班禱告的人，在他們當值的一小時中，無不慎重其事的妥為運用。這些代禱者每週聚會一次，聽取一些特別需要在主前代求並記念的事項。」

「無分男童或女童都同樣感受到一股強烈禱告的衝動，聽著童稚們的禱詞而不深為動容者簡直是不可能的。8月26日晚間，孩童們有一次蒙福的聚會，而後在29日從夜間十時直到次日早晨，有人目擊了一幅感人萬分的景象，來自翰胡和伯帖勒多弗(Berthelsdorf )的女孩子們在這段時間中聚集在赫特堡祈禱、唱詩並哭泣。同一時間內，男孩子們則聚集在另一處懇切禱告。施恩叫人懇求的靈當時傾倒在這些孩子們身上，來勢強大並且滿有果效，簡直無法以適當言語來形容。這情景真的可以說是天上的喜樂臨到翰胡的會眾中間；大家都渾然忘我，拋開世上短暫的事物，一心只渴慕至天上與基督他們的救主同在，享受永遠的福分。」

　　另一位目擊者說： 「我無法將翰胡孩童們的大覺醒歸因於任何理由，我只能說是聖靈奇妙的澆灌在當時聚集同領聖餐的會眾身上。一時之間無分老幼都同樣的蒙受到靈風的吹拂。」

以上所述，就是本章章題--「聖靈何時來臨」的答案。我們再度引用哈斯主教的話：「從整部教會史中，還找得到其他像始於1727年，接著又延續一百年的這麼驚人的禱告會的例子嗎？這是獨一無二的。這種禱告會稱為『鐘點代禱制』，意即藉著弟兄姊妹的輪班，使為教會所有聖工及需要而發的祈禱能夠毫無間斷的上達於神。這種禱告到後來必然導出行動。如在翰胡的例子中，禱告點燃了一個火熱的期望，就是把基督的救恩傳揚給異教徒，它也促成現代海外宣道會的成立。一個小小的村落，在二十五年間就派出了百餘位宣教士，你如果想在其他地方找到任何就各方面都足堪比較的事例，最後必將徒勞無功。」

摘自：當聖靈降臨

 

History of the Moravian Church

by J. E. Hutton, M.A.

 

1.        The Youth of Zinzendorf

2.        Christian David

3.        The Founding of Herrnhut

4.        Life at Herrnhut

5.        Edict of Banishment

 

The Youth of Count Zinzendorf, 1700-1722

 

IF the kindly reader will take the trouble to consult a map of Europe he will see that that part of the Kingdom of Saxony known as Upper Lusatia runs down to the Bohemian frontier. About ten miles from the frontier line there stand to-day the mouldering remains of the old castle of Gross-Hennersdorf. The grey old walls are streaked with slime. The wooden floors are rotten, shaky and unsafe. The rafters are worm-eaten. The windows are broken. The damp wall-papers are running to a sickly green. Of roof there is almost none. For the lover of beauty or the landscape painter these ruins have little charm. But to us these tottering walls are of matchless interest, for within these walls Count Zinzendorf, the Renewer of the Brethren's Church, spent the years of his childhood. 

 

He was born at six o'clock in the evening, 1700. Wednesday, May 26th, 1700, in the picturesque city of Dresden; the house is pointed out to the visitor; and " Zinzendorf Street " reminds us still of the noble family that has now died out. He was only six weeks old when his father burst a blood-vessel and died; he was only four years when his mother married again; and the young Count--Nicholas Lewis, Count of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf_was handed over to the tender care of his grandmother, Catherine von Gersdorf, who lived at Gross-Hennersdorf Castle. And now, even in childhood's days, little Lutz, as his grandmother loved to call him, began to show signs of his coming greatness. As his father lay on his dying bed, he had taken the child in his feeble arms, and consecrated him to the service of Christ; and now in his grandmother's noble home he sat at the feet of the learned, the pious, and the refined. Never was a child less petted and pampered; never was a child more strictly trained; never was a child made more familiar with the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. Dr. Spener, 1 the famous Pietist leader, watched his growth with fatherly interest. The old lady was a leader in Pietist circles, was a writer of beautiful religious poetry, and guarded him as the apple of her eye. He read the Bible every day. He doted on Luther's Catechism. He had the Gospel story at his finger-ends. His aunt Henrietta, who was rather an oddity, prayed with him morning and night. His tutor, Edeling, was an earnest young Pietist from Franke's school at Halle; and the story of Zinzendorf's early days reads like a medieval tale. " Already in my (1704) childhood," he says, " I loved the Saviour, and had abundant communion with Him. In my fourth year I began to seek God earnestly, and determined to become a true servant of Jesus Christ." At the age of six he regarded Christ as his Brother, would (1706) talk with Him for hours together as with a familiar friend and was often found rapt in thought, like Socrates in the market-place at Athens. As other children love and trust their parents, so this bright lad with the golden hair loved and trusted Christ. " A thousand times," he said, " I heard Him speak in my heart, and saw Him with the eye of faith." Already the keynote of his life was struck; already the fire of zeal burned in his bosom. " Of all the qualities of Christ," said He, " the greatest is His nobility; and of all the noble ideas in the world, the noblest is the idea that the Creator should die for His children. If the Lord were forsaken by all the world, I still would cling to Him and love Him. " He held prayer-meetings in his private room. He was sure that Christ Himself was present there. He preached sermons to companies of friends. If hearers failed, he arranged the chairs as an audience; and still is shown the little window from which he threw letters addressed to Christ, not doubting that Christ would receive them. As the child was engaged one day in prayer, the rude soldiers of Charles XII. burst into his room. Forthwith the lad began to speak of Christ; and away the soldiers fled in awe and terror. At the age of (1708) eight he lay awake at night tormented with atheistic doubts. But the doubts did not last long. However much he doubted with the head he never doubted with the heart; and the charm that drove the doubts away was the figure of the living Christ. 

 

And here we touch the springs of the boy's religion. It is easy to call all this a hot-house process; it is easy to dub the child a precocious prig. But at bottom his religion was healthy and sound. It was not morbid; it was joyful. It was not based on dreamy imagination; it was based on the historic person of Christ. It was not the result of mystic exaltation; it was the result of a study of the Gospels. It was not, above all, self-centred; it led him to seek for fellowship with others. As the boy devoured the Gospel story, he was impressed first by the drama of the Crucifixion; and often pondered on the words of Gerhardt's hymn:-- 

 

O Head so full of bruises, So full of pair' and scorn, 'Midst other sore abuses, Mocked with a crown of thorn. 

 

For this his tutor, Edeling, was partly responsible. "He spoke to me," says Zinzendorf," of Jesus and His wounds." 

 

But the boy did not linger in Holy Week for ever. He began by laying stress on the suffering Christ; he went on to lay stress on the whole life of Christ; and on that life, from the cradle to the grave, his own strong faith was based. " I was," he said, " as certain that the Son of God was my Lord as of the existence of my five fingers. " To him the existence of Jesus was a proof of the existence of God; and he felt all his limbs ablaze, to use his own expression, with the desire to preach the eternal Godhead of Christ. " If it were possible, " he said, " that there should be another God than Christ I would rather be damned with Christ than happy with another. I have," he exclaimed, "but one passion_'tis He only He." 

 

But the next stage in his journey was not 1710 so pleasing. At the age of ten he was taken by his mother to Professor Franke's school at Halle; and by mistake he overheard a conversation between her and the pious professor. She described him as a lad of parts, but full of pride, and in need of the curbing rein. He was soon to find how much these words implied. If a boy has been trained by gentle ladies he is hardly well equipped, as a rule, to stand the rough horseplay of a boarding-school; and if, in addition, he boasts blue blood, he is sure to come in for blows. And the Count was a delicate aristocrat, with weak legs and a cough. He was proud of his noble birth; he was rather officious in his manner; he had his meals at Franke's private table; he had private lodgings a few minutes' walk from the school; he had plenty of money in his purse; and, therefore, on the whole, he was as well detested as the son of a lord can be." With a few exceptions," he sadly says, " my school fellows hated me throughout. " 

 

But this was not the bitterest part of the pill. If there was any wholesome feeling missing in his heart hitherto, it was what theologians call the sense of sin. He had no sense of sin whatever, and no sense of any need of pardon. His masters soon proceeded to humble his pride. He was introduced as a smug little Pharisee, and they treated him as a viper. Of all systems of school discipline, the most revolting is the system of employing spies; and that was the system used by the staff at Halle. They placed the young Count under boyish police supervision, encouraged the lads to tell tales about him, rebuked him for his misconduct in the measles, lectured him before the whole school on his rank and disgusting offenses, and treated him as half a rogue and half an idiot. If he pleaded not guilty, they called him a liar, and gave him an extra thrashing. The thrashing was a public school entertainment, and was advertised on the school notice-board. ' Next week," ran the notice on one occasion, " the Count is to have the stick. " For two years he lived in a moral purgatory. The masters gave him the fire of their wrath, and the boys the cold shoulder of contempt. The masters called him a malicious rebel, and the boys called him a snob. As the little fellow set off for morning school, with his pile of books upon his arm, the others waylaid him, jostled him to and fro, knocked him into the gutter, scattered his books on the street, and then officiously reported him late for school. He was clever, and, therefore, the masters called him idle; and when he did not know his lesson they made him stand in the street, with a pair of ass's ears on his head, and a placard on his back proclaiming to the public that the culprit was a " lazy donkey. " 

 

His private tutor, Daniel Crisenius, was a bully, who had made his way into Franke's school by varnishing himself with a shiny coating of piety. If the Count's relations came to see him, Crisenius made him beg for money, and then took the money himself. If his grandmother sent him a ducat, Crisenius pocketed a florin. If he wrote a letter home, Crisenius read it. If he drank a cup of coffee, Crisenius would say, " You have me to thank for that, let me hear you sing a song of thanksgiving." If he tried to pour out his soul in prayer, Crisenius mocked him, interrupted him, and introduced disgusting topics of conversation. He even made the lad appear a sneak. " My tutor," says Zinzendorf, " often persuaded me to write letters to my guardian complaining of my hard treatment, and then showed the letters to the inspector." 

 

In vain little Lutz laid his case before his mother. Crisenius thrashed him to such good purpose that he never dared to complain again; and his mother still held that he needed drastic medicine. " I beseech you," she wrote to Franke, " be severe with the lad; if talking will not cure him of lying, then let him feel it." 

 

At last the muddy lane broadened into a highway. One day Crisenius pestered Franke with one of his whining complaints. The headmaster snapped him short.

 

"I am sick," he said, "of your growlings; you must manage the master yourself." 

 

As the months rolled on, the Count breathed purer air. He became more manly and bold. He astonished the masters by his progress. He was learning Greek, could speak in French and dash off letters in Latin. He was confirmed, attended the Communion, and wrote a beautiful hymn 2 recording his feelings; and already in his modest way he launched out on that ocean of evangelical toil on which he was to sail all the days of his life. 

 

As the child grew up in Hennersdorf Castle he saw and heard a good deal of those drawing-room meetings 3 which Philip Spener, the Pietist leader, had established in the houses of several noble Lutheran families, and which came in time to be known in Germany as " Churches within the Church." 4 He knew that Spener had been his father's friend. He had met the great leader at the Castle. He sympathised with the purpose of his meetings. He had often longed for fellowship himself, and had chatted freely on religious topics with his Aunt Henrietta. He had always maintained his private habit of personal communion with Christ; and now he wished to share his religion with others. The time was ripe. The moral state of Franke's school was low; the boys were given to vicious habits, and tried to corrupt his soul; and the Count, who was a healthy minded boy, and shrank with disgust from fleshly sins, retorted by forming a number of religious clubs for mutual encouragement and help. " I established little societies," he says, " in which we spoke of the grace of Christ, and encouraged each other in diligence and good works. " He became a healthy moral force in the school. He rescued his friend, Count Frederick de Watteville, from the hands of fifty seducers; he persuaded three others to join in the work of rescue; and the five lads established a club which became a " Church within the Church " for boys. They called themselves first "The Slaves of Virtue," next the "Confessors of Christ," and finally the "Honourable Order of the Mustard Seed "; and they took a pledge to be true to Christ, to be upright and moral, and to do good to their fellow-men. Of all the school clubs established by Zinzendorf this " Order of the Mustard Seed " was the most famous and the most enduring. As the boys grew up to man's estate they invited others to join their ranks; the doctrinal basis was broad; and among the members in later years were John Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, Cardinal Noailles, the broad-minded Catholic, and General Oglethorpe, Governor of Georgia. For an emblem they had a small shield, with an " Ecce Homo," and the motto, "His wounds our healing"; and each member of the Order wore a gold ring, inscribed with the words, "No man liveth unto himself." The Grand Master of the Order was Zinzendorf himself. He wore a golden cross, the cross had an oval green front; and on that front was painted a mustard tree, with the words beneath, "Quod fuit ante nihil," i.e., "What was formerly nothing." 5

 

But already the boy had wider conceptions 1715. still. As he sat at Franke's dinner table, he listened one day to the conversation of the Danish missionary, Ziegenbalg, who was now home on furlough, and he even saw some dusky converts whom the missionary had brought from Malabar. His missionary zeal was aroused. As his guardian had already settled that Zinzendorf should enter the service of the State, he had, of course, no idea of becoming a missionary himself ; 6 but, as that was out of the question, he formed a solemn league and covenant with his oung friend Watteville that when God would show them suitable men they would send them out to heathen tribes for whom no one else seemed to care. Nor was this mere playing at religion. As the Count looked back on his Halle days he saw in these early clubs and covenants the germs of his later work; and when he left for the University the delighted Professor Franke said, "This youth will some day become a great light in the world." 

 

As the Count, however, in his uncle's opinion April, was growing rather too Pietistic, he was now (1716) sent to the University at Wittenberg, to study the science of jurisprudence, and prepare for high service in the State. His father had been a Secretary of State, and the son was to follow in his footsteps. His uncle had a contempt for Pietist religion; and sent the lad to Wittenberg " to drive the nonsense out of him. " He had certainly chosen the right place. For two hundred years the great University had been regarded as the stronghold of the orthodox Lutheran faith; the bi-centenary Luther Jubilee was fast approaching; the theological professors were models of orthodox belief; and the Count was enjoined to be regular at church, and to listen with due attention and reverence to the sermons of those infallible divines. It was like sending a boy to Oxford to cure him of a taste for dissent. His tutor, Crisenius, went with him, to guard his morals, read his letters, and rob him of money at cards. He had also to master the useful arts of riding, fencing, and dancing. The cards gave him twinges of conscience. If he took a hand, he laid down the condition that any money he might win should be given to the poor. He prayed for skill in his dancing lessons, because he wanted to have more time for more serious studies. He was more devout in his daily life than ever, prayed to Christ with the foil in his hand, studied the Bible in Hebrew and Greek, spent whole nights in prayer, fasted the livelong day on Sundays, and was, in a word, so methodistic in his habits that he could truly describe himself as a "rigid Pietist. " He interfered in many a duel, and rebuked his fellow students for drinking hard; and for this he was not beloved. As he had come to Wittenberg to study law, he was not, of course, allowed to attend the regular theological lectures; but, all the same, he spent his leisure in studying the works of Luther and Spener, and cultivated the personal friendship of many of the theological professors. And here he made a most delightful discovery. As he came to know these professors better, he found that a man could be orthodox without being narrowminded; and they, for their part, also found that a man could be a rigid Pietist without being a sectarian prig. It was time, he thought, to put an end to the quarrel. He would make peace between Wittenberg and Halle. He would reconcile the Lutherans and Pietists. He consulted with leading professors on both sides; he convinced them of the need for peace; and the rival teachers actually agreed to accept this student of nineteen summers as the agent of the longed-for truce. But here Count Zinzendorf's mother intervened. "You must not meddle," she wrote, "in such weighty matters; they are above your understanding and your powers." And Zinzendorf, being a dutiful son, obeyed. "I think," he said, "a visit to Halle might have been of use, but, of course, I must obey the fourth commandment." 7

 

And now, as befitted a nobleman born, he 1719. was sent on the grand tour, to give the final polish to his education. He regarded-the prospect with horror. He had heard of more than one fine lord whose virtues had been polished away. For him the dazzling sights of Utrecht and Paris had no bewitching charm. He feared the glitter, the glamour, and the glare. The one passion, love to Christ, still ruled his heart. "Ah !" he wrote to a friend, " What a poor, miserable thing is the grandeur of the great ones of the earth ! What splendid misery ! " As John Milton, on his continental tour, had sought the company of musicians and men of letters, so this young budding Christian poet, with the figure of the Divine Redeemer ever present to his mind, sought out the company of men and women who, whatever their sect or creed, maintained communion with the living Son of God. He went first to Frankfurt-on-the-Main, where Spener had toiled so long, came down the Rhine to Dusseldorf, spent half a year at Utrecht, was introduced to William, Prince of Orange, paid flying calls at Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and ended the tour by a six months' stay amid the gaieties of Paris. At Dusseldorf a famous incident occurred. There, in the picture gallery, he saw and admired the beautiful Ecce Homo of Domenico Feti; there, beneath the picture he read the thrilling appeal: "All this I did for thee; what doest thou for Me?"; and there, in response to that appeal, he resolved anew to live for Him who had worn the cruel crown of thorns for all. 8

 

At Paris he attended the Court levee, and was presented to the Duke of Orleans, the Regent, and his mother, the Dowager Duchess. 

 

"Sir Count," said the Duchess, " have you been to the opera to-day?" 

 

"Your Highness," he replied, " I have no time for the opera." He would not spend a golden moment except for the golden crown.

 

"I hear," said the Duchess, "that you know the Bible by heart." 

 

"Ah," said he, "I only wish I did." 

 

At Paris, too, he made the acquaintance of the Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal Noailles. It is marvellous how broad in his views the young man was. As he discussed the nature of true religion with the Cardinal, who tried in vain to win him for the Church of Rome, he came to the conclusion that the true Church of Jesus Christ consisted of many sects and many forms of belief. He held that the Church was still an invisible body; he held that it transcended the bounds of all denominations; he had found good Christians among Protestants and Catholics alike; and he believed, with all his heart and soul, that God had called him to the holy task of enlisting the faithful in all the sects in one grand Christian army, and thus realizing, in visible form, the promise of Christ that all His disciples should be one. He was no bigoted Lutheran. For him the cloak of creed or sect was only of minor moment. He desired to break down all sectarian barriers. He desired to draw men from all the churches into one grand fellowship with Christ. He saw, and lamented, the bigotry of all the sects. 

 

"We Protestants," he said, "are very fond of the word liberty; but in practice we often try to throttle the conscience." He was asked if he thought a Catholic could be saved. "Yes," he replied," and the man who doubts that, cannot have looked far beyond his own small cottage." 

 

"What, then, " asked the Duchess of Luynes, " is the real difference between a Lutheran and a Catholic? " 

 

"It is," he replied, " the false idea that the Bible is so hard to understand that only the Church can explain it." He had, in a word, discovered his vocation. 

 

His religion purified his love. As he made (1720) his way home, at the close of the tour, he called to see his aunt, the Countess of Castell, and her daughter Theodora; and during his stay he fell ill of a fever, and so remained much longer than he had at first intended. He helped the Countess to put in order the affairs of her estate, took a leading part in the religious services of the castle, and was soon regarded as almost one of the family. At first, according to his usual custom, he would talk about nothing but religion. But gradually his manner changed. He opened out, grew less reserved, and would gossip and chat like a woman. He asked himself the reason of this alteration. He discovered it. He was in love with his young cousin, Theodora. For a while the gentle stream of love ran smooth. His mother and the Countess Castell smiled approval; Theodora, though rather icy in manner, presented him with her portrait; and the Count, who accepted the dainty gift as a pledge of blossoming love, was rejoicing at finding so sweet a wife and so charming a helper in his work, when an unforeseen event turned the current of the stream. Being belated one evening on a journey, he paid a visit to his friend Count Reuss, and during conversation made the disquieting discovery that his friend wished to marry Theodora. A beautiful contest followed. Each of the claimants to the hand of Theodora expressed his desire to retire in favour of the other; and, not being able to settle the dispute, the two young men set out for Castell to see what Theodora herself would say. Young Zinzendorf's mode of reasoning was certainly original. If his own love for Theodora was pure--i.e., if it was a pure desire to do her good, and not a vulgar sensual passion like that with which many love-sick swains were afflicted--he could, he said, fulfil his purpose just as well by, handing her over to the care of his Christian friend. " Even if it cost me my life to surrender her," he said, " if it is more acceptable to my Saviour, I ought to sacrifice the dearest object in the world." The two friends arrived at Castell and soon saw which way the wind was blowing; and Zinzendorf found, to his great relief, that what had been a pain- ful struggle to him was as easy as changing a dress to Theodora. The young lady gave Count Reuss her heart and hand. The rejected suitor bore the blow like a stoic. 

 

He would conquer, he said, such disturbing earthly emotions; why should they be a thicket in the way of his work for Christ? The betrothal was sealed in a religious ceremony. Young Zinzendorf composed a March 9th, cantata for the occasion; the cantata was sung, (1721) with orchestral accompaniment, in the presence of the whole house of Castell; and at the conclusion of the festive scene the young composer offered up on behalf of the happy couple a prayer so tender that all were moved to tears. His self-denial was well rewarded. If the Count had married Theodora, he would only have had a graceful drawing-room queen. About eighteen months later he married Count Reuss's sister, Erdmuth Dorothea; and in her he found a Sept. 7th, friend so true that the good folk at Herrnhut 1722. called her a princess of God, and the "foster mother of the Brethren's Church in the eighteenth century." 9

 

If the Count could now have had his way he would have entered the service of the State Church; but in those days the clerical calling was considered to be beneath the dignity of a noble, and his grandmother, pious though she was, insisted that he should stick to jurisprudence. He yielded, and took a post as King's Councillor at Dresden, at the Court of Augustus the Strong, King of Saxony. But no man can fly from his shadow, and Zinzendorf could not fly from his hopes of becoming a preacher of the Gospel. If he could not preach in the orthodox pulpit, he would teach in some other way; and, therefore, he invited the public to a weekly meeting in his own rooms on Sunday afternoons from three to seven. He had no desire to found a sect, and no desire to interfere with the regular work of the Church. 

 

He was acting, he said, in strict accordance with ecclesiastical law; and he justified his bold conduct by appealing to a clause in Luther's Smallkald Articles. 10 He contended that there provision was made for the kind of meeting that he was conducting; and, therefore, he invited men of all classes to meet him on Sunday afternoons, read a passage of Scripture together, and talk in a free-and-easy fashion on spiritual topics. He became known as rather a curiosity; and Valentine Loscher, the popular Lutheran preacher, mentioned him by name in his sermons, and held him up before the people as an example they would all do well to follow.

 

But Zinzendorf had not yet reached his goal. He was not content with the work accomplished by Spener, Franke, and other leading Pietists. He was not content with drawing-room meetings for people of rank and money. If fellowship, said he, was good for lords, it must also be good for peasants. He wished to apply the ideas of Spener to folk in humbler life. For this purpose he now bought from his grandmother the little 

 

April, estate of Berthelsdorf, which lay about (1722) three miles from Hennersdorf; installed his friend, John Andrew Rothe, as pastor of the village church; and resolved that he and the pastor together would endeavour to convert the village into a pleasant garden of God. " I bought this estate," he said, " because I wanted to spend my life among peasants, and win their souls for Christ." 

 

"Go, Rothe," he said, " to the vineyard of the Lord. You will find in me a brother and helper rather than a patron." 

 

And here let us note precisely the aim this pious Count had in view. He was a loyal and devoted member of the national Lutheran Church; he was well versed in Luther's theology and in Luther's practical schemes; and now at preaching of the Word, second, through Baptism, third, through the Holy Communion, fourth through the power of the keys, and, lastly, through brotherly discussion and mutual encouragement, according to Matthew xviii., 'Where two or three are gathered together.'" The Count, of course, appealed to the last of these methods. For some reason, however, unknown to me, this particular clause in the Articles was always printed in Latin, and was, therefore, unknown to the general public. 

 

Berthelsdorf he was making an effort to carry into practical effect the fondest dreams of Luther himself. For this, the fellowship of true believers, the great Reformer had sighed in vain ; 11 and to this great purpose the Count would now devote his money and his life. 

 

He introduced the new pastor to the people; the induction sermon was preached by Schafer, the Pietist pastor at Gorlitz; and the preacher used the prophetic words, "God will light a candle on these hills which will illuminate the whole land." 

 

We have now to see how far these words came true. We have now to see how the Lutheran Count applied his ideas to the needs of exiles from a foreign land, and learned to take a vital interest in a Church of which as yet he had never heard. 

 

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FOOTNOTES

 

1. It is stated in most biographies of Zinzendorf that Spener stood sponsor at his baptism; but Gerhard Wauer, in his recent work, Beginnings of the Moravian Church in England, says that Spener's name is not to be found in the baptismal register. 

 

2. Hymn No. 851 in the present German Hymn Book 

 

3. Collegia pietatis. 

 

4. Ecclesiolae in ecclesia. 

 

5. Ante is to be construed as an adverb. 

 

6. In his classic Geschichte des Pietismus (Vol. III. p. 203) Albrecht Ritschl says that Zinzendorf's unwillingness to be a missionary was due to his pride of rank. The statement has not a shadow of foundation. In fact, it is contradicted by Zinzendorf himself who says: " ihre Idee war eirentlich nicht, dieses und dergleichen selbst zu bewerkstelligen, clean sie waren beide von den Ihrigen in die grosse Welt destiniert und wussten von nichts als gehorsam sein." I should like here to warn the student against paying much attention to what Ritschl says about Zinzendorf's theology and ecclesiastical policy. His statements are based on ignorance and theological prejudice; and his blunders have been amply corrected, first by Bernhard Becker in his Zinendorf und sein Christentum im Verhaltnis zum kirchlichen und religiosen Leben seiner Zeit, and secondly by Joseph Muller in his Zinzendorf als Erneuerer der alten Bruderkirche (1900). 

 

7. For further details of Zinzendorf's stay at Wittenberg I must refer to his interesting Diary, which is now in course of publication in the Zeitschrif t f ur Brud ergesehichte. It is written in an alarming mixture of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, and French but the editors have kindly added full explanatory notes, and all the student requires to understand it is a working knowledge of German.

 

8. This picture is now in the Pinakothek at Munich. It is wonderful how this well known incident has been misrepresented and misapplied. It is constantly referred to now in tracts, sermons, and popular religious magazines as if it was the means of Zinzendorf's " conversion "; and even a scholar like the late Canon Liddon tells us how this German nobleman was now " converted from a life of careless indifference." (Vice Passiontide Sermons, No. VII., pp. 117 118.) But all that the picture really accomplished was to strengthen convictions already held and plans already formed. It is absurd to talk about the "conversion " of a youth who had loved and followed Christ for years. 

 

9.The phrase inscribed upon her tombstone at Herrnhut.

 

10. The Smalkald Articles were drawn up in 1537; and the clause to which Zinzendorf appealed runs as follows: " In many ways the Gospel offers counsel and help to the sinner; first through the

 

11. In his treatise, "The German Mass," published in 1526 (see Kostlin's "Life of Luther," p. 295; Longmans' Silver Library).

 

 

 

Christian David, 1690-1722

 

It is recorded in John Wesley's " Journal,"1 that when he paid his memorable visit to Herrnhut he was much impressed by the powerful sermons of a certain godly carpenter, who had preached in his day to the Eskimos in Greenland, and who showed a remarkable knowledge of divinity. It was Christian David, known to his friends as the "Servant of the Lord." 

 

He was born on December 31st, 1690, at Senftleben, in Moravia; he was brought up in that old home of the Brethren; and yet, as far as records tell, he never heard in his youthful days of the Brethren who still held the fort in the old home of their fathers. He came of a Roman Catholic family, and was brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. He sat at the feet of the parish priest, was devout at Mass, invoked his patron saint, St. Anthony, knelt down in awe before every image and picture of the Virgin, regarded Protestants as children of the devil, and grew up to man's estate burning with Romish zeal, as he says, " like a baking oven." He began life as a shepherd; and his religion was tender and deep. As he tended his sheep in the lonesome fields, and rescued one from the jaws of a wolf, he thought how Christ, the Good Shepherd, had given His life for men; and as he sought his wandering sheep in the woods by night he thought how Christ sought sinners till he found them. And yet somehow he was not quite easy in his mind. For all his zeal and all his piety he was not sure that he himself had escaped the snare of the fowler. He turned first for guidance to some quiet Protestants was told by them, to his horror, that the Pope was Antichrist, that the worship of saints was a delusion, and that only through faith in Christ could his sins be forgiven. He was puzzled. As these Protestants were ready to suffer for their faith, he felt they must be sincere; and when some of them were cast into prison, he crept to the window of their cell and heard them sing in the gloaming. He read Lutheran books against the Papists, and Papist books against the Lutherans. He was now dissatisfied with both. He could see, he said, that the Papists were wrong, but that did not prove that the Lutherans were right; he could not understand what the Lutherans meant when they said that a man was justified by faith alone; and at last he lost his way so far in this famous theological fog that he hated and loathed the very name of Christ. He turned next for instruction to some Jews; and the Jews, of course, confirmed his doubts, threw scorn upon the whole New Testament, and endeavoured to convince him that they alone were the true Israel of God. 

 

He turned next to the Bible, and the fog 1710. lifted a little. He read the Old Testament carefully through, to see if the prophecies there had been fulfilled; and, thereby, he arrived at the firm belief that Jesus was the promised Messiah. He then mastered the New Testament, and came to the equally firm conclusion that the Bible was the Word of God. 

 

And even yet he was not content. As long as he stayed in Catholic Moravia he would have to keep his new convictions a secret; and, longing to renounce the Church of Rome in public, he left Moravia, passed through Hungary and Silesia, and finally became a member of a Lutheran congregation at Berlin.

 

But the Lutherans seemed to him very stiff and cold. He was seeking for a pearl of great price, and so far he had failed to find it. He had failed to find it in the Church of Rome, failed to find it in the Scriptures, and failed to find it in the orthodox Protestants of Berlin. He had hoped to find himself in a goodly land, where men were godly and true; and he found that even the orthodox Protestants made mock of his pious endeavours. He left Berlin in disgust, and enlisted in the Prussian Army. He did not find much piety there. He served in the war 1715 against of Sweden, was present at the siege of Stralsund, thought soldiers no better than civilians, accepted his discharge with joy, and wandered around from town to town, like the old philosopher seeking an honest man. At last, however, he made his way to the town of Gorlitz, in Si1717. Iesia; and there he came into personal contact with two Pietist clergymen, Schafer and Schwedler. For the first time in his weary pilgrimage he met a pastor who was also a man. He fell ill of a dangerous disease; he could not stir hand or foot for twenty weeks; he was visited by Schwedler every day, and thus, through the gateway of human sympathy, he entered the kingdom of peace, and felt assured that all his sins were forgiven. He married a member of Schwedler's Church, was admitted to the Church himself, and thus found, in Pietist circles, that very spirit of fellowship and help which Zinzendorf himself regarded as the greatest need of the Church. 

 

But now Christian David must show to others the treasure he had found for himself. For the next five years he made his home at Gorlitz; but, every now and then, at the risk of his life, he would take a trip to Moravia, and there tell his old Protestant friends the story of his newfound joy. He preached in a homely style; he had a great command of Scriptural language; he was addressing men who for many years had conned their Bibles in secret; and thus his preaching was like unto oil on smouldering fire, and stirred to vigorous life once more what had slumbered for a hundred years since the fatal Day of Blood. He tramped the valleys of Moravia; he was known as the Bush Preacher, and was talked of in every market-place; the shepherds sang old Brethren's hymns on the mountains; a new spirit breathed upon the old dead bones; and thus, through the message of this simple man, there began in Moravia a hot revival of Protestant zeal and hope. It was soon to lead to marvellous results. 

 

For the last three hundred and forty years there had been established in the neighbourhood of Fulneck, in Moravia, a colony of Germans.2 They still spoke the German language; they lived in places bearing German names and bore German names themselves; they had used a German version of the Bible and a German edition of the Brethren's Hymns; and thus, when David's trumpet sounded, they were able to quit their long-loved homes and settle down in comfort on German soil. At Kunewalde3 dwelt the Schneiders and Nitschmanns; at Zauchtenthal the Stachs and Zeisbergers; at Sehlen the Jaeschkes and Neissers; and at Senftleben, David's old home, the Grassmanns. For such men there was now no peace in their ancient home. Some were imprisoned; some were loaded with chains; some were yoked to the plough and made to work like horses; and some had to stand in wells of water until nearly frozen to death. And yet the star of hope still shone upon them. As the grand old patriarch, George Jaeschke, saw the angel of death draw near, he gathered his son and grandsons round his bed, and spoke in thrilling, prophetic words of the remnant that should yet be saved.

 

"It is true," said he, " that our liberties are gone, and that our descendants are giving way to a worldly spirit, so that the Papacy is devouring them. It may seem as though the final end of the Brethren's Church had come. But, my beloved children, you will see a great deliverance. The remnant will be saved. How, I cannot say; but something tells me that an exodus will take place; and that a refuge will be offered in a country and on a spot where you will be able, without fear, to serve the Lord according to His holy Word." 

 

The time of deliverance had come. As Christian David heard of the sufferings which these men had now to endure, his blood boiled with anger. He resolved to go to their rescue. The path lay open. He had made many friends in Saxony. His friend Schafer introduced him to Rothe; Rothe introduced him to Zinzendorf; and Christian David asked the Count for permission to bring some persecuted Protestants from Moravia to find a refuge in Berthelsdorf. The conversation was momentous. The heart of the Count was touched. If these men, said he, were genuine martyrs, he would do his best to help them; and he promised David that if they came he would find them a place of abode. The joyful carpenter returned to Moravia, and told the news to the Neisser family at Sehlen. " This," said they, " is God's doing; this is a call from the Lord." 

 

And so, at ten o'clock one night, there met May 27th at the house of Jacob Neisser, in Sehlen, a 1722 small band of emigrants. At the head of the band was Christian David; and the rest of the little group consisted of Augustin and Jacob Neisser, their wives and children, Martha Neisser, and Michael Jaeschke, a cousin of the family.4 We know but little about these humble folk; and we cannot be sure that they were all descendants of the old Church of the Brethren. Across the mountains they came, by winding and unknown paths. For the sake of their faith they left their goods and chattels behind; long and weary was the march; and at length, worn out and footsore, they arrived, with Christian David at their head, at Zinzendorf's estate at Berthelsdorf. (June 8th)(1722)

 

The streams had met the new river was formed; and thus the course of Renewed Brethren's History had begun. 

FOOTNOTES  

 

1. August, 1738. 

 

2. See page 58. 

 

3. Not to be confounded with Kunwald in Bohemia. 

 

4. It is probable that the Neissers were descendants of the Brethren's Church, but we cannot be quite certain about it. About the third band, that arrived in 1724, there is no doubt whatever. (See the next chapter, p. 200.)

 

 

 

The Founding of Herrnhut, 1722-1727

 

As these wanderers from a foreign land had not been able to bring in their pockets certificates of orthodoxy, and might, after all, be dangerous heretics, it occurred to Zinzendorf's canny steward, Heitz, that on the whole it would be more fitting if they settled, not in the village itself, but at a safe and convenient distance. The Countwas away; the steward was in charge; and the orthodox parish must not be exposed to infection. As the Neissers, further, were cutlers by trade, there was no need for them in the quiet village. If they wished to earn an honest living they could do it better upon the broad high road. For these reasons, therefore, he led the June 8th. exiles to a dismal, swampy stretch of ground 1722. about a mile from the village; and told them for the present to rest their bones in an old unfinished farmhouse. The spot itself was dreary and bleak, but the neighbouring woods of pines and beeches relieved the bareness of the scene. It was part of Zinzendorf's estate, and lay at the top of a gentle slope, up which a long avenue now leads. It was a piece of common pasture ground, and was therefore known as the Hutberg,1 or Watch-Hill.town which may not only itself abide under the Lord's Watch (Herrnhut), but all the inhabitants of which may also continue on the Lord's Watch, so that no silence may be there by day or night." It was thus that Herrnhut received the name which was soon to be famous in the land; and thus that the exiles, cheered anew, resolved to build a glorious City of God. 

 

It was on the high road from Lobau to Zittau; it was often used as a camping ground by gypsies and other pedlars; and the road was in such a disgusting state that wagons sometimes sank axle deep in the mud. For the moment the refugees were sick at heart. 

 

"Where," said Mrs. Augustin Neisser, " shall we find bread in this wilderness?" 

 

"If you believe," said Godfrey Marche, tutor to Lady Gersdorf's grant/daughters, " you shall see the glory of God." 

 

The steward was quite concerned for the refugees. As he strolled around inspecting the land he noticed one particular spot where a thick mist was rising; and concluding that there a spring was sure to be found, he offered a prayer on their behalf, and registered the solemn vow, " Upon this spot, in Thy name, I will build for them the first house." He laid their needs before Lady Gersdorf, and the good old poetess kindly sent them a cow; he inspected the site with Christian David, and marked the trees he might fell; and thus encouraged, June 17th, Christian David seized his axe, struck it into a (1722) tree, and, as he did so, exclaimed, " Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself."( Ps. Ixxxiv. 3) 

 

The first step in the building of Herrnhut had been taken. For some weeks the settlers had still to eat the bread of bitterness and scorn. It was long before they could find a spring of water. The food was poor; the children fell ill; the folk in the neighbourhood laughed; and even when the first house was built they remarked that it would not be standing long. 

 

But already Christian David had wider plans. Already in vivid imagination he saw a goodly city rise, mapped out the courts and streets in his mind, and explained his g lowing schemes to the friendly Heitz. The steward himself was carried away with zeal. The very name of the hill was hailed as a promising omen. "May God grant," wrote Heitz to the Count, "that your excellency may be able to build on the hill called the Hutberg a The spot where David felled the first tree is now marked by a monument inscribed with the date and the text and the date itself is one of the Brethren's so-called "Memorial Days." 

 

" We fear," they wrote to the Count himself, " that our settling here may be a burden to you; and therefore we most humbly entreat you to grant us your protection, to continue to help us further still, and to show kindness and love to us poor distressed and simple-minded petitioners."

 

As the building of the first house proceeded the pious Heitz grew more and more excited. He drove in the first nail; he helped to fix the first pillar; and, finally, when the house was ready, he opened it in solemn religious style, and preached a sort of prophetic sermon about the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. The Count himself soon blessed the undertaking. 

 

As he drove along, one winter night, on the Dee. 2nd. road from Strahwalde to Hennersdorf, he saw a strange light shining through the trees. He asked what the light could mean. There, he was told, the Moravian refugees had built the first house on his estate. He stopped the carriage, entered the house, assured the inmates of his hearty goodwill, fell down on his knees, and commended the enterprise to the care of God. 

 

Again the restless David was on the move. 1723. As he knelt one day to fix a plank in the new manor-house which Zinzendorf was building in the village, it suddenly flashed on his busy brain that he ought to do something out of the common to show his gratitude to God. His wife had just passed through a dangerous illness; he had vowed to God that if she recovered he would go to Moravia again; and, throwing down his tools on the spot, he darted off in his working clothes, and without a hat on his head. and made his way once more to Sehlen, the old home of the Neissers. He brought a letter from the Neissers his pocket; he urged the rest of the family to cross the border; and the result was that before many days were gone a band of eighteen more emigrants were on their way to Herrnhut.

 

His next step had still more momentous results. As he made his way from town to town, and urged his friends to come to " David's City," he had no further aim than to find a home where Protestants could live in peace and comfort. He knew but little, if anything at all, of the old Church of the Brethren; he had never been a member of that Church himself; he had no special interest in her welfare; and the emigrants whom he had brought to Herrnhut were mostly evangelical folk who had been awakened by the preaching of the Pietist pastor, Steinmetz, of Teschen. But now, in the village of Zauchtenthal, he found a band of five young men whose bosoms glowed with zeal for the ancient Church. They were David Nitschmann I., the Martyr; David Nitschmann II., the first Bishop of the Renewed Church; David Nitschmann III., the Syndic; Melchior Zeisberger, the father of the apostle to the Indians; and John Toeltschig, one of the first Moravian preachers in Yorkshire. They were genuine sons of the Brethren; they used the Catechism of Comenius; they sang the Brethren's hymns in their homes; and now they were looking wistfully forward to the time when the Church would renew her strength like the eagle's. For some months they had made their native village the centre of an evangelical revival. At last events in the village came to a crisis; the young men were summoned before the village judge; and the judge, no other than Toeltschig's father, commanded them to close their meetings, and to take their share, like decen fellows, in the drunken jollifications at the public-house. For the brave " Five Churchmen " there was now no way but one. Forthwith they resolved to quit Moravia, and seek for other Brethren (May 2nd) at Lissa, in Poland; and the very next night 1724. they set out on their journey, singing the Moravian Emigrants' song: 

 

Blessed be the day when I must roam, 

Far from my country, friends and home,

An exile poor and mean; 

My father's God will be my guide,

Will angel guards for me provide,

My soul in dangers screen.

Himself will lead me to a spot Where,

all my cares and griefs forgot, 

I shall enjoy sweet rest. 

As pants for cooling streams the hart,

I languish for my heavenly part, 

For God, my refuge blest.

 

For them the chosen haven of rest was Lissa. There the great Comenius had taught; and there, they imagined, Brethren lingered still. As they had, however, heard a good deal from David of the " town " being built at Herrnhut, they resolved to pay a passing call on their nay. At Lower Wiese they called on Pastor Schwedler. He renewed their zeal for the Church in glowing terms. 

 

"My children," he said, "do you know whose descendants you are? It is a hundred years since the persecutions began against your fathers. You are now to enjoy among us that liberty of conscience for the sake of which they shed their blood. We shall see you blossom and flourish in our midst." 

 

It was a memorable day when they (May 12th) arrived at Herrnhut. The first sight of the (1724) holy city did not impress them. The excited David had painted a rosy picture. They expected to find a flourishing town, and all they saw was three small houses, of which only one was finished.

 

"If three houses make a city," said David Nitschmann, " there are worse places than Herrnhut." 

 

And yet there was something to look at after all. At a little distance from the three small houses, sat Friedrich de Watteville on a log of wood; Christian David was working away at another building; in the afternoon the Count and Countess appeared; and the Count then laid the foundation stone of a college for noblemen's sons. They stayed to see the ceremony. They heard the Count deliver an impressive speech. They heard de Watteville offer a touching prayer. They saw him place his jewels under the stone. They were touched; they stayed; and became the firmest pillars of the rising temple. 

 

And now the stream from Moravia increased in force and volume. Again and again, ten times in all, did the roving David journey to the Moravian dales; and again and again did the loud blast of the trombones in the square announce that yet another band of refugees had arrived. Full many a stirring and thrilling tale had the refugees to tell; how another David Nitschmann, imprisoned in a castle, found a rope at his window and escaped; how David Schneider and another David Nitschmann found their prison doors open; how David Hickel, who had been nearly starved in a dungeon, walked out between his guards in broad daylight, when their backs were turned; how Andrew Beier and David Fritsch had stumbled against their prison door and found that the bolt was loose; how Hans Nitschmann, concealed in a ditch, heard his pursuers, a foot off, say, " This is the place, here he must be," and yet was not discovered after all. No wonder these wanderers felt that angels had screened them on their way. For the sake of their faith they had been imprisoned, beaten, thrust into filthy dungeons. For the sake of their faith they had left behind their goods, their friends, their worldly prospects, had tramped the unknown mountain paths, had slept under hedges, had been attacked by robbers. And now, for the sake of this same faith, these men, though sons of well-to-do people, settled down to lives of manual toil in Herrnhut. And the numbers swelled; the houses rose; and Herrnhut assumed the shape of a hollow square. 

 

At this point, however, a difficulty arose. As the rumour spread in the surrounding country that the Count had offered his estate as an asylum for persecuted Protestants all sorts of religious malcontents came to make Herrnhut their home. Some had a touch of Calvinism, and were fond of discussing free will and predestination; some were disciples of the sixteenth century Anabaptist mystic, Caspar Schwenkteld; some were vague evangelicals from Swabia; some were Lutheran Pietists from near at hand; and some, such as the " Five Churchmen," were descendants of the Brethren's Church, and wished to see her revived on German soil. The result was dissension in the camp. As the settlers learned to know each other better they learned to love each other less. As poverty crept in at the door love flew out of the window. Instead of trying to help each other, men actually tried to cut each other out in business, just like the rest of the world. As the first flush of joy died away, men pointed out each other's motes, and sarcasm pushed charity from her throne; and, worse than all, there now appeared that demon of discord, theological dispute. The chief leader was a religious crank, named Kruger. He was, of course, no descendant of the Brethren's Church. He had quarrelled with a Lutheran minister at Ebersdorf, had been promptly excluded from the Holy Communion, and now came whimpering to Herrnhut, and lifted up his voice against the Lutheran Church. As he did not possess the garment of righteousness, he decked himself out with sham excitement and rhetoric; and, as these are cheap ribbons and make a fine show, he soon gained a reputation as a saint. He announced that he had been commissioned by God with the special task of reforming Count Zinzendorf; described Rothe as the "False Prophet" and Zinzendorf as "The Beast"; denounced the whole Lutheran Church as a Babylon, and summoned all in Herrnhut to leave it; and altogether made such a show of piety and holy devotion to God that his freaks and crotchets and fancies and vagaries were welcomed by the best of men, and poisoned the purest blood. His success was marvellous. As the simple settlers listened to his rapt orations they became convinced that the Lutheran Church was -no better than a den of thieves; and the greater number now refused to attend the Parish Church, and prepared to form a new sect. Christian David himself was led away. He walked about like a shadow; he was sure that Kruger had a special Divine revelation; he dug a private well for himself, and built himself a new house a few yards from the settlement, so that he might not be smirched by the pitch of Lutheran Christianity. Worse and ever worse waxed the confusion. More "horrible"2 became the new notions. The eloquent Kruger went out of his mind; and was removed to the lunatic asylum at Berlin. But the evil that he had done lived after him. The whole city on the hill was now a nest of fanatics. It was time for the Count himself to interfere. 

 

For the last five years, while Herrnhut was growing, the Count had almost ignored the refugees; and had quietly devoted his leisure time to his darling scheme of establishing a village "Church within the Church" at Berthelsdorf. He had still his official State duties to perform. He was still a King's Councillor at Dresden. He spent the winter months in the city and the summer at his country-seat; and as long as the settlers behaved themselves as loyal sons of the Lutheran Church he saw no reason to meddle in their affairs. He had, moreover, taken two wise precautions. He had first issued a public notice that no refugee should settle at Herrnhut unless compelled by persecution; and secondly, he had called a meeting of the refugees themselves, and persuaded them to promise that in all their gatherings they would remain loyal to the Augsburg Confession. 

 

Meanwhile, in the village itself, he had pushed his scheme with vigour. He named his house Bethel; his estate was his parish; and his tenants were his congregation. He had never forgotten his boyish vow to do all in his power to extend the Kingdom of Christ and now he formed another society like the old Order of the Mustard Seed. It was called the " League of the Four Brethren ": it consisted of Zinzendorf, Friedrich de Watteville, and Pastors Rothe and Schafer; and its object was to proclaim to the world, by means of a league of men devoted to Christ, "that mystery and charm of the Incarnation which was not yet sufficiently recognized in the Church." He had several methods of work. As he wished to reach the young folk of noble rank, he had a school for noblemen's sons built on the Hutberg, and a school for noblemen's daughters down in the village; and the members of the League all signed an agreement to subscribe the needful funds for the undertaking. As he wished, further, to appeal to men in various parts of the country, he established a printing-office at Ebersdorf, and from that office sent books, pamphlets, letters, and cheap editions of the Bible in all directions. As he longed, thirdly, for personal contact with leading men in the Church, he instituted a system of journeys to Halle and other centres of learning and piety. But his best work was done in Berthelsdorf. His steward, Heitz, gave the rustics Bible lessons; Pastor Rothe preached awakening sermons in the parish church, and his preaching was, as the Count declared, " as though it rained flames from heaven "; and he himself, in the summer season, held daily singing meetings and prayer meetings in his own house. Hand in hand did he and Rothe work hard for the flock at Berthelsdorf. On a Sunday morning 'the pastor would preach a telling sermon in a crowded church; in the afternoon the squire would gather his tenants in his house and expound to them the morning's discourse. The whole village was stirred; the Church was enlarged; and the Count himself was so in earnest that if the slightest hitch occurred in a service he would burst into tears. While things in Herrnhut were growing worse things in Berthelsdorf were growing better; while stormy winds blew on the hill there was peace and fellowship down in the valley. How closely the Count and the pastor were linked may be seen from the following fact. The Count's family pew in the Church was a small gallery or raised box over the vestry; the box had a trap-door in the floor; the pastor, according to Lutheran custom, retired to the vestry at certain points in the service; and the Count, by opening the aforesaid door, could communicate his wishes to the pastor. 

 

He had now to apply his principles to Herrnhut. As long as the settlers had behaved themselves well, and kept their promise to be loyal to the National Church, he had left them alone to follow their own devices; and even if they sang old Brethren's hymns at their meetings, he had no insuperable objection. But now the time had come to take stern measures. He had taken them in out of charity; he had invited them to the meetings in his house; and now they had turned the place into a nest of scheming dissenters. There was war in the camp. On the one hand, Christian David called Rothe a narrow-minded churchman. On the other hand, Rothe thundered from his pulpit against the " mad fanatics " on the hill. As Jew and Samaritan in days of old, so now were Berthelsdorf and Herrnhut. 

 

At this critical point the Count intervened, (1727) and changed the duel into a duet. He would have no makers of sects on his estate. With all their faults, he believed that the settlers were at bottom broad-minded people. Only clear away the rubbish and the gold would be found underneath.

 

"Although our dear Christian David," he said, "was calling me the Beast and Mr. Rothe the False Prophet, we could see his honest heart nevertheless and knew we could lead him right. It is not a bad maxim," he added, "when honest men are going wrong to put them into office, and they will learn from experience what they will never learn from speculation."

 

He acted on that maxim now. He would teach the exiles to obey the law of the land, to bow to his autho rity as lord of the manor, and to live in Christian fellow 

 

ship with each other. Fcr this purpose, he (May 12th) summoned them all to a mass meeting in the Great House on the Hutberg, lectured them for over three hours on the sin of schism, read out the " Manorial Injunctions and Prohibitions,"3 which all inhabitants of Herrnhut must promise to obey, and then submitted a number of " Statutes " as the basis of a voluntary religious society. The effect was sudden and swift. At one bound the settlers changed from a group of quarrelling schismatics to an organized body of orderly Christian tenants; and forthwith the assembled settlers shook hands, and promised to obey the Injunctions and Prohibitions. 

 

As soon as the Count had secured good law and order he obtained leave of absence from Dresden, took up his residence at Herrnhut, and proceeded to organize all who wished into a systematic Church within the Church. For this purpose he prepared another agreement, (July 4th) entitled the " Brotherly Union and Compact," signed the agreement first himself, persuaded Christian David, Pastor Schafer and another neighbouring clergyman to do the same, and then invited all the rest to follow suit. Again, the goodwill was practically universal. As the settlers had promised on May 12th to obey the Manorial Injunctions and Prohibitions, so now, of their own free will, they signed a promise to end their sectarian quarrels, to obey the " Statutes," and to live in fellowship with Christians of all beliefs and denominations. Thus had the Count accomplished a double purpose. As lord of the manor he had crushed the design to form a separate sect; and as Spener's disciple he had persuaded the descendants of the Bohemian Brethren to form another "Church within the Church."

 

Nor was this all. As the Brethren looked back in later years to those memorable days in Herrnhut, they came to regard the summer months of 1727 as a holy, calm, sabbatic season, when one and all were quickened and stirred by the power of the Spirit Divine. " The whole place," said Zinzendorf himself, " represented a visible tabernacle of God among men. " For the next four months the city on the hill was the home of ineffable joy; and the very men who had lately quarrelled with each other now formed little groups for prayer and praise. As the evening shadows lengthened across the square the whole settlement met to pray and praise, and talk with each other, like brothers and sisters of one home. The fancies and vagaries fled. The Count held meetings every day. The Church at Berthelsdorf was crowded out. The good David, now appointed Chief Elder, persuaded all to study the art of love Divine by going through the 1st Epistle of St. John. The very children were stirred and awakened. The whole movement was calm, strong, deep and abiding. Of vulgar excitement there was none; no noisy meetings, no extravagant babble, no religious tricks to work on the emotions. For mawkish, sentimental religion the Count had an honest contempt. "It is," he said, "as easy to create religious excitement as it is to stir up the sensual passions; and the former often leads to the latter." As the Brethren met in each other's homes, or on the Hutberg when the stars were shining, they listened, with reverence and holy awe, to the still voice of that Good Shepherd who was leading them gently, step by step, to the green pastures of peace. 

 

Amid the fervour the Count made an announcement which caused every cheek to flush with new delight. He had made a strange discovery. At Zittau, not far away, was a reference library; and there, one day, he found a copy of Comenius's Latin version of the old (July) Brethren's " Account of Discipline." His eyes were opened at last. For the first time in his busy life he read authentic information about the old Church of the Brethren; and discovered, to his amazement and joy, that so far from being disturbers of the peace, with a Unitarian taint in their blood, they were pure upholders of the very faith so dear to his own heart. 

 

His soul was stirred to its depths. "I could not," he said, " read the lamentations of old Comenius, addressed to the Church of England, lamentations called. forth by the idea that the Church of the Brethren had come to an end, and that he was locking its door--I could not read his mournful prayer, 'Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old,' without resolving there and then: I, as far as I can, will help to bring about this renewal. And though I have to sacrifice my earthly possessions, my honours and my life, as long as I live I will do my utmost to see to it that this little flock of the Lord shall be preserved for Him until He come." 

 

And even this was not the strangest part of the story. As the Count devoured the ancient treatise, he noticed that the rules laid down therein were almost the same as the rules which he had just drawn up for the refugeesat Herrnhut. He returned to Herrnhut, reAug. 4th. ported his find, and read the good people extracts from the book. The sensation was profound. If this was like new milk to the Count it was like old wine to the Brethren; and again the fire of their fathers burned in their veins. 

 

And now the coping stone was set on the (Aug. 13th) temple. As the Brethren were learning, step by step, to love each other in true sincerity, Pastor Rothe now invited them all to set the seal to the work by coming in a body to Berthelsdorf Church, and there joining, with one accord, in the celebration of the Holy Communion. The Brethren accepted the invitation with joy. The date fixed was Monday, August 13th. The sense of awe was overpowering. As the Brethren walked down the slope to the church all felt that the supreme occasion had arrived; and all who had quarrelled in the days gone by made a covenant of loyalty and love. At the door of the church the strange sense of awe was thrilling. They entered the building; the service began; the " Confession " was offered by the Count; and then, at one and the same moment, all present, rapt in deep devotion, were stirred by the mystic wondrous touch of a power which none could define or understand. There, in Berthelsdorf Parish Church, they attained at last the firm conviction that they were one in Christ; and there, above all, they believed and felt that on them, as on the twelve disciples on the Day of Pentecost, had rested the purifying fire of the Holy Ghost. 

 

"We learned," said the Brethren, "to love." 

 

"From that time onward," said David Nitschmann," Herrnhut was a living Church of Jesus Christ. We thank the Lord that we ever came to Herrnhut, instead of pressing on, as ve intended, to Poland." 

 

And there the humble Brother spoke the truth. As the Brethren returned that evening to Herrnhut, they felt within them a strength and joy they had never known before. They had realised their calling in Christ. They had won the Divine gift of Christian union. They had won that spirit of brotherly love which only the great Good Spirit could give They had won that sense of fellowship with Christ, and fellowship with one another, which had been the costliest gem in the days of their fathers; and therefore, in future, they honoured the day as the true spiritual birthday of the Renewed Church of the Brethren. It is useless trying to express their feelings in prose. Let us listen to the moving words of the Moravian poet, James Montgomery: 

They walked with God in peace and love, 

But failed with one another; 

While sternly for the faith they strove, 

Brother fell out with brother; 

But He in Whom they put their trust, 

Who knew their frames, that they were dust, 

Pitied and healed their weakness. 

He found them in His house of prayer, 

With one accord assembled, 

And so revealed His presence there, 

They wept for joy and trembled; 

One cup they drank, one bread they brake, 

One baptism shared, one language spake, 

Forgiving and forgiven. 

 

Then forth they went, with tongues of flame, 

In one blest theme delighting, 

The love of Jesus and His Name, 

God's children all uniting. 

That love, our theme and watchword still; 

That law of love may we fulfil, 

And love as we are loved. 

 

The next step was to see that the blessing Aug. 27th. was not lost. For this purpose the Brethren, a few days later, arranged a system of Hourly Intercession. 

 

As the fire on the altar in the Jewish Temple was never allowed to go out, so the Brethren resolved that in this new temple of the Lord the incense of intercessory prayer should rise continually day and night. Henceforth, Herrnhut in very truth should be the " Watch of the Lord." The whole day was carefully mapped out, and each Brother or Sister took his or her turn. Of all the prayer unions ever organized surely this was one of the most remarkable. It is said to have lasted without interruption for over a hundred years.

 

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FOOTNOTES

 

1 "Hutherg" ; i.e., the hill where cattle and sheep were kept secure. The name "Hutberg" was common in Germany, and was applied, of course, to many other hills. For the payment of a small rent the landlords often let out "Hutbergs" to the villagers on their estates. 

 

2. Zinzendorf's expression. 

 

3. These " Injunctions and Prohibitions " are now printed for the first time by J. Muller, in his Zinzendorf als Erneuerer der alten Bruder-Kirche (1900) They must not be confounded with the " Statutes ' printed in the Mem orial Days of the Brethren's 

 

Life at Herrnhut

 

As we study the social and religious system which now developed at Herrnhut, it is well to bear in mind the fact that when the Count, as lord of the nianor, first issued his - Injunctions and Prohibitions," he was not aware that, in so doing, lie was calling back to life once more the discipline of the old Bohemian Brethren. He had not yet read the history of the Brethren, and he had not yet studied Comenius's "Account of Discipline." He knew but little of the Brethren's past, and the little that be knew was wrong ; and, having no other plan to guide him, he took as his model the constitution lying ready to hand in the average German village of the day, and adapted that simple constitution to the special needs of the exiles.*( Here again Ritschl is wrong. He assumes (Geschichte des Pietismus Ill. 243) that when Zinzendorf drew up his " Injunctions and Prohibitions " and " Statutes " he was already acquainted with the Ralio Disciplinae. But the " Injunctions " and " Statutes " were read out on May 12th, and the "Ratio" was not discovered till July.) He had no desire to make Herrnhut independent. It was still to be a part of his estate, and conform to the laws of the land; and still to be the home of a " Church within the Church," as planned by Luther long ago in his famous German Mass. 

 

First, then the Count laid down the rule that all male adults in Herrnhut, no matter to what sect they might belong, should have a voice in the election of twelve Elders ; and henceforward these twelve Elders, like those in the neighbouring estates of Silesia, had control over every department of life, and enforced the Injunctions and Prohibitions with an iron hand. They levied the usual rates and taxes to keep the streets and wells in order. They undertook the care of widows and orphans. They watched the relations of single young men and women. They kept a sharp eye on the doings at the inn. They called to order the tellers of evil tales ; and they banished from Herrnhut all who disobeyed the laws, or conducted themselves in an unbecoming, frivolous or offensive manner. 

 

The power of the Elders was enormous. If a new refugee desired to settle in Herrnhut, he must first obtain permission from the Elders. If a settler desired to go on a journey, he must first obtain permission from the Elders. If a man desired to build a house ; if a trader desired to change his calling ; if an apprentice desired to leave his master ; if a visitor desired to stay the night, he must first obtain permission from the Elders. If a man fell in love and desired to marry, he must first obtain the approval of the Elders ; and until that approval had been obtained, he was not allowed to propose to the choice of his heart. Let us see the reason for this remarkable strictness. 

 

As the Brethren settled down in Herrnhut, they endeavoured, under the Count's direction, to realize the dignity of labour For rich and poor, for Catholic and Protestant, for all able-bodied men and women, the same stern rule, held good. If a man desired to settle at Herrnhut, the one supreme condition was that he earned his bread by honest toil, and lived a godly righteous and sober life. For industrious Catholics there was a hearty welcome ; for vagabonds, tramps and whining beggars there was not a bed to spare. If a man would work he might stay, and worship God according to his conscience ; but if he was lazy, he was ordered off the premises. As the Brethren met on Sunday morning for early worship in the Public hall, they joined with one accord in the prayer, Bless the sweat of the brow and faithfulness in business ; and the only business they allowed was business which they could ask the Lord to bless. To them work was a sacred duty, a delight and a means for the common good. If a man is blessed who has found his work, then blessed were the folk at Herrnhut. "We do not work to live," said the Count ; "we live to work." The whole aim was the good of each and the good of all. As the grocer stood behind his counter, or the weaver plied his flying shuttle, he was toiling, not for himself alone, but for all his Brethren and Sisters. If a man desired to set up in business, he had first to obtain the permission of the Elders ; and the Elders refused to grant the permission unless they thought that the business in question was needed by the rest of the people. "No brother," ran the law at Herrnhut, "shall compete with his brother in trade." No man was allowed to lend money on interest without the consent of the Elders. If two men had any dispute in business, they must come to terms within a week ; and if they did not, or went to law, they were expelled. If a man could buy an article in Herrnhut, he was not allowed to buy it anywhere else. 

 

It is easy to see the purpose of these regulations. They were an attempt to solve the social problem, to banish competition, and to put co-operation in its place. For some years the scheme was crowned with glorious success. The settlement grew ; the trade flourished the great firm of Durninger obtained a world-wide reputation ; the women were skilled in weaving and spinning ; and the whole system worked so well that in 1747 the Saxon Government besought the Count to establish a similar settlement at Barby. At Herrnhut, in a word, if nowhere else, the social problem was solved. There, at least, the aged and ill could live in peace and comfort ; there grim poverty was unknown ; there the widow and orphan were free from carking care; and there men and women of humble rank bad learned the truth that when men toil for the common good there is a perennial nobleness in work.*(There was , however, no community of goods.) For pleasure the Brethren had neither time nor taste. They worked, on the average, sixteen hours a day, allowed only five hours for sleep, and spent the remaining three at meals and meetings. The Count was as Puritanic as Oliver Cromwell himself. For some reason he had come to the conclusion that the less the settlers knew of pleasure the better, and therefore he laid down the law that 0 strolling popular entertainers should be forbidden to enter the holy city. No public buffoon ever cracked his jokes at Herrnhut. No tight-rope dancer poised on giddy height. No barrel-dancer rolled his empty barrel. No tout for lotteries swindled the simple. No juggler mystified the children. No cheap-jack cheated the innocent maidens. No quack-doctor sold his nasty pills. No melancholy bear made his feeble attempt to dance. For the social joys of private life the laws were stricter still. At Herrnhut, ran one comprehensive clause, there were to be no dances whatever, no wedding breakfasts, no christening bumpers, no drinking parties, no funeral feasts, and no games like those played in the surrounding villages. No bride at Herrnhut ever carried a bouquet. No sponsor ever gave the new arrival a mug or a silver spoon. 

 

For sins of the coarse and vulgar kind there was no mercy. If a man got drunk, or cursed, or stole, or used his fists, or committed adultery or fornication, -he was expelled, and not permitted to return till he had given infallible proofs of true repentance. No guilty couple were allowed to "cheat the parson." No man was allowed to strike his wife, and no wife was allowed to henpeck her husband; and any woman found guilty of the latter crime was summoned before the board of Elders and reprimanded in public. 

 

Again, the Count insisted on civil order. He appointed a number of other officials. Some, called servants, had to clean the wells, to sweep the streets, to repair the houses, and to trim the gardens. For the sick there was a board of sick waiters ; for the poor a board of almoners ; for the wicked a board of monitors ; for the ignorant a board of schoolmasters ; and each board held a conference every week. Once a week, on Saturday nights, the Elders met in Council ; once a week, on Monday mornings, they announced any new decrees; and all inhabitants vowed obedience to them as Elders, to the Count as Warden, and finally to the law of the land. Thus had the Count, as lord of the manor, drawn up a code of civil laws to be binding on all. We have finished the Manorial Injunctions and Prohibitions. We come to the free religious life of the community. 

 

Let us first clear a difficulty out of the way. As the Count was a loyal son of the Lutheran Church, and regarded the Augsburg Confession as inspired,*( I am not exaggerating. In one of his discourses he says I regard the Augsburg Confession as inspired, and assert that it will be the creed of the Philadelphian Church till Christ comes again." See Muller Zinzendorf als Erneuerer, p. go, and Becker, P. 335.) it seems, at first sight, a marvellous fact that here at Herrnhut he allowed the Brethren to take steps which led ere long to the renewal of their Church. He allowed them to sing Brethren's Hymns ; he allowed them to revive old Brethren's customs; he allowed them to hold independent meetings ; and he even resolved to do his best to revive the old Church himself. His conduct certainly looked very inconsistent. If a man in England were to call himself a loyal member of the Anglican Church, and yet at the same time do his very best to found an independent denomination, be would soon be denounced as a traitor to the Church and a breeder of schism and dissent, But the Count's conduct can be easily explained. It was all due to his ignorance of history. He had no idea that the Bohemian Brethren had ever been an independent Church. He regarded them as a branch of the Reformed persuasion. He regarded them as a " Church within the Church," of the kind for which Luther had longed, and which Spener had already established. He held his delusion down to the end of his days ; and, therefore, as Lutheran and Pietist alike, he felt at liberty to help the Brethren in all their religious endeavours. 

 

For this purpose, therefore, be asked the settlers at Herrnhut to sign their names to a voluntary Brotherly Union " ; and the chief condition of the " Union was that all the members agreed to live in friendship with Christians 

 

of other' denominations, and also to regard themselves as members of the Lutheran Church. They attended the regular service at the Parish Church. There they took the Holy Communion ; there they had their children baptized ; and there the young people were confirmed.' 

 

Meanwhile the movement at Herrnhut was growing fast. The great point was to guard against religious poison. As the Count had a healthy horror of works of darkness, he insisted that no meetings should be held without a light ; and the Brethren set their faces against superstition. They forbade ghost-stories ; they condemned the popular old-wives' tales about tokens, omens and death-birds ; they insisted that, in case of illness, no meddling busybody should interfere with the doctor ; and thus, as homely, practical folk, they aimed at health of body and of mind. 

 

But the chief object of their ambition was health of soul. As the revival deepened, the number of meetings increased. Not a day passed without three meetings for the whole congregation. At five in the morning they met in the hall, and joined in a chorus of praise. At the dinner hour they met again, and then, about nine o'clock, after supper, they sang themselves to rest. At an early period the whole congregation was divided into ninety unions for prayer, and each band met two or three times a week. The night was as sacred as the day. As the night-watchman went his rounds, he sang a verse at the hour, as follows: 

 

The clock is eight! to Herrnhut all is told, 

How Noah and his seven were saved of old,

Hear, Brethren, hear! the hour of nine is come! 

Keep pure each heart, and chasten every home

Hear, Brethren, hear! now ten the hour-hand shows 

They only rest who long for night's repose. 

The clock's eleven, and ye have heard it all, 

How in that hour the mighty God did call. 

It's midnight now, and at that hour you know,

With lamp to meet the bridegroom we must go. 

The hour is one; through darkness steals the day; 

Shines in your hearts the morning star's first ray? 

The clock is two ! who comes to meet the day,

And to the Lord of days his homage pay? 

The clock is three! the Three in One above 

Let body, soul and spirit truly love. 

The clock is four! where'er on earth are three, 

The Lord has promised He the fourth will be. 

The clock is five! while five away were sent, 

Five other virgins to the marriage went! 

The clock is six, and from the watch I'm free,

And every one may his own watchman be!

At this task all male inhabitants, over sixteen and under sixty, took their turn. The watchman, in the intervals between the hours, sang other snatches of sacred song ; and thus anyone who happened to be lying awake was continually reminded of the presence of God. 

On Sunday nearly every hour of the day was occupied by set-vices. At five there was a short meeting, known as the "morning blessing." From six to nine there were meetings for the several "choirs." At ten there was a special service for children. At eleven there was morning worship in the Parish Church. At one the Chief Elder gave a general exhortation. At three, or thereabouts, there was a meeting, called the "strangers' service," for those who had not been able to go to Church ; and then the Count or some other layman repeated the morning sermon. At four there was another service at Berthelsdorf ; at eight another service at Herrnhut ; at nine the young men marched round the settlement singing hymns ; and on Monday morning these wonderful folk returned to their labour like giants refreshed with new wine. Their powers of endurance were miraculous. The more meetings they had the more they seemed able to stand. Sometimes the good Pastor Schwedler, of Gorlitz would give them a sermon three hours long ; and sometimes, commencing at six in the morning, he held his congregation enthralled till three in the afternoon. 

 

Again, the Brethren listened day by day to a special message from God. We come now to the origin of the Moravian Text-book. As the Count was a great believer in variety, he very soon started the practice, at the regular evening singing meeting, of giving the people a short address on some Scriptural text or some verse from a hymn. As soon as the singing meeting was over he read out to the company the chosen passage, recommended it as a suitable subject for meditation the following day, and next morning had the text passed round by the Elders to every house in Herrnhut. Next year (1728) the practice was better organized. Instead of waiting for the Count to choose, the Elders selected in advance a number of texts and verses, and put them all together into a box ; and then, each evening, one of the Elders put his hand into the box and drew the text for the following day. The idea was that of a special Providence. If Christ, said the Count, took a special interest in every one of His children, He would also take the same kindly interest in every company of believers ; and, therefore, He might be safely trusted to guide the hand of the Elder aright and provide the "watchword" needed for the day. Again and again he exhorted the Brethren to regard the text for the day as God's special message to them ; and finally, in 1731, he had the texts for the whole year printed, and thus began that Brethren's Textbook which now appears regularly every year, is issued in several tongues, and circulates, in every quarter of the globe, among Christians of all denominations.* ( As I write these words a copy of the first TextBook lies before. It has only one text for each day, and all the texts are taken from the New Testament.) 

 

Feb. 10th 1728.

 

In order, next, to keep in touch with their fellow-Christians the Brethren instituted a monthly Saturday meeting, and that Saturday came to be known as "Congregation Day." At this meeting the Brethren listened to reports of evangelical work in other districts. Sometimes there would be a letter from a travelling Brother; sometimes a visitor from some far-distant strand. The meeting was a genuine sign of moral health. It fostered broadness off mind, and put an end to spiritual pride. Instead of regarding themselves as Pietists, superior to the average professing Christians, the Brethren now rejoiced to hear of the good done by others. They prayed not for their own narrow circle alone, but for all rulers, all churches, and all people that on earth do dwell ; and delighted to sing old Brethren's hymns, treating of the Church Universal, such -is John Augusta's " Praise God for ever " and " How amiable Thy tabernacles are." At this monthly meeting the Count was in his element. He would keep his audience enthralled for hours together. He would read them first a piece of news in vivid, dramatic style ; then he would suddenly strike up a missionary hvmn ; then he would give them a little more information and thus he taught them to take an interest in lands beyond the sea. 

 

Another sign of moral health was the " Love-feast. " As the Brethren met in each other's houses, they attempted, in quite an unofficial way, to revive the Agape of Apostolic times ; and to this end they provided a simple meal of rye-bread and water, wished each other the wish, " Long live the Lord Jesus in our hearts," and talked in a freeand-easv fashion about the Kingdom of God. And here the Brethren were on their guard. In the days of the Apostles there had been scandals. The rich had brought their costly food, and the poor had been left to pine. At Herrnhut this scandal was avoided. For rich and poor the diet was the same, and came from a common fund; in later years it was white bread and tea ; and in due time the Love-feast took the form of a meeting for the whole congregation. 

 

Again, the Brethren were wonderfully simple-minded. As we read about their various meetings, it is clear that in their childlike way they were trying to revive the institutions of Apostolic times. For this purpose they even practised the ceremony of foot-washing as described in the Gospel of St. John. To the Count the clear command of Christ was decisive. "If I then, your Lord and Master," said Jesus, "have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet." What words said the 

 

Count, could be more binding than these? "No man," he declared, " can read John xiii. without being convinced that this should be done." He revived the custom, and made it both popular and useful. The ceremony was generally performed by the young, before some special festival. It spread in time to England and Ireland, and was not abandoned till the early years of the nineteenth century*( It is often referred to in the English Congregation Diaries. It was abandoned simply because it was no longer valued; and no one was willing to take part. 1818). 

 

We come now to the origin of the " choirs." As Zinzen dorf studied the Gospel story, he came to the conclusion that in the life of Jesus Christ there was something specially suitable to each estate in life. For the married people there was Christ, the Bridegroom of His Bride, the Church ; for the single Brethren, the "man about thirty years of age for the single Sisters, the Virgin Mary ; for the children, the boy in the temple asking questions.The idea took root. The more rapidly the settlement grew, the more need there was for division and organization.

 

Aug. 29th, 1728.

 

For each class the Master had a special message, and, therefore, each class must have its special meetings and study its special duties. For this purpose a band of single men-led by the ascetic Martin Linner, who slept on bare boards-agreed to live in one house, spent the evenings in united study, and thus laid the basis of the Single Brethren's Choir. 

 

May 4th, 1730.

 

For the same purpose the single young women, led by Anna Nitschmann, agreed to live in a "Single Sisters House," and made a covenant with one another that henceforward they would not make matrimony the highest aim in life, but would rather, like Mary of Bethany, sit at the feet of Christand learn of Him. 

 

Sept. 7th, 1733.

 

For the same purpose the married people met at a love-feast, formed the "married choir," and 'promised to lead a pure and holy life, "so that their children might be plants of righteousness." For the same purpose the children, in due time, were formed into a "children's choir." The whole aim was efficiency and order. At first the unions were voluntary ; in time they became official. As the years rolled on the whole congregation was systematically divided into ten "choirs," as follows: The married choir, the widowers, the widows, the Single Brethren, the Single Sisters, the youths, the great girls, the little boys, the little girls, the infants in arms. Each choir had its own president, its own special services, its own festival day, its own love-feasts. Of these choirs the most important were those of the Single Brethren and Single Sisters. As the Brethren at Herrnhut were soon to be busy in evangelistic labours, they found it convenient to have in their ranks a number of men and women who were not bound down by family ties; and though the young people took no celibate vows, they often kept single through life for the sake of the growing cause. 

 

The system invaded the sanctity of family life. As the Count was a family man himself, he very properly took the deepest interest in the training of little children ; and, in season and out of season, he insisted that the children of Christian parents should be screened from the seductions of the world, the flesh and the devil. "It is nothing less than a scandal," he said, "that people think so little of the fact that their children are dedicated to the Lord. Children are little kings ; their baptism is their anointing ; and as kings they ought to be treated from the first." For this purpose he laid down the rule that all infants should be baptized in the hall, in the presence of the whole congregation ; and as soon as the children were old enough to learn, he had them taken from their homes, and put the little boys in one school and the little girls in another. And thus the burden of their education fell not on the parents, but on the congregation. 

 

Again, the Count carried out his ideas in the " vasty halls of death." Of all the sacred spots in Herrnhut there were none more sacred and more awe-inspiring than the "God's Acre" which the Brethren laid out on the Hutbert. There, in the bosom of Mother Earth, the same division into choirs was preserved. To the Count the tomb was a holy place. If a visitor ever came to Herrnhut he was sure to take him to the God's Acre, and tell him the story of those whose bones awaited the resurrection of the just. 

 

1733 

 

The God's Acre became the scene of an impressive service. At an early hour on Easter Sunday the Brethren assembled in the sacred presence of the dead, and waited for the sun to rise. As the golden rim appeared on the horizon, the minister spoke the first words of the service.,. " The Lord is risen," said the minister. " He is risen indeed!" responded the waiting throng. And then, in the beautiful language of Scripture, the Brethren joined in a solemn confession of faith. The trombones that woke the morning echoes led the anthem of praise, and one and all, in simple faith, looked onward to the glorious time when those who lay in the silent tomb should hear the voice of the Son of God, and be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. To the Brethren the tomb was no abode of dread. In a tomb the Lord Himself had lain ; in a tomb His humble disciples lay "asleep " ; and therefore, when a brother departed this life, the mourners never spoke of him as dead. "He is gone home," they said and so death lost his sting. 

 

Again, the Brethren had a strong belief in direct answers to prayer. It was this that led them to make such use of the " Lot. " As soon as the first twelve Elders were elected, the Brethren chose from among the twelve a committee of four by Lot; and in course of time the Lot was used for a great variety of purposes. By the Lot, as we shall see later on, the most serious ecclesiastical problems were settled. By, the Lot a sister determined her answer to an offer of marriage. By the Lot a call toservice was given, and by the Lot it was accepted or rejected. If once the Lot had been consulted, the decision was absoluteand binding. The prayer had been answered, the Lord had spoken, and the servant must now obey.

 

1729

 

We have now to mention but one more custom, dating from those great days. It is one peculiar to the Brethren's Church, and is known as the " Cup of Covenant." It was established by the Single Brethren, and was based on the act of Christ Himself, as recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke. As the Master sat with His twelve disciples in the Upper Room at Jerusalem, we are told that just before the institution of the Lord's Supper, " He took the Cup and gave thanks, and said, ' Take this and divide it among yourselves'" *( Luke xii.17) ; and now, in obedience to this command, this ardent band of young disciples made a covenant to be true to Christ, and passed the Cup from hand to hand. Whenever a young brother was called out to the mission field, the whole choir would meet and entrust him to Christ in this simple and scriptural way. It was the pledge at once of united service and united trust. It spread, in course of time, to the other choirs ; it is practised still at the annual choir festivals ; and its meaning is best expressed in the words of the Brethren's Covenant Hymn: 

 

Assembling here, a humble band, 

Our covenantal pledge to take, 

We pass the cup from hand to hand, 

From heart to heart, for His dear sake.

It remains to answer two important questions. . As we study the life of the Herrnhut Brethren, we cannot possibly fail to notice how closely their institutions resembled the old institutions of the Bohemian Brethren. We have the same care for the poor, the same ascetic ideal of life, the same adherence to the word of Scripture, the same endeavour to revive Apostolic practice, the same semisocialistic tendency, the same aspiration after brotherly unity, the same title, "Elder," for the leading officials, and the same, or almost the same, method of electing come of these officials by Lot. And, therefore, we naturally ask the question, how far were these Brethren guided by the example of their fathers? The reply is, not at all. At this early stage in their history the Moravian refugees at Herrnhut knew absolutely nothing of the institutions of the Bohemian Brethren.* They had no historical records in their possession ; they had not preserved any copies of the ancient laws; they brought no books but hymn-books across the border; and they framed their rules and organized their society before they had even heard of the existence of Comenius's "Account of Discipline." The whole movement at Herrnhut was free, spontaneous, original. It was not an imitation of the past. It was not an attempt to revive the Church of the Brethren. It was simply the result of Zinzendorf's attempt to apply the ideals of the Pietist Spener to the needs of the settlers on his estate. 

The second question is, what was the ecclesiastical standing of the Brethren at this time ? They were not a new church or sect. They had no separate ministry of their own. They were members of the Lutheran Church, regarded Rothe still as their Pastor, attended the Parish Church on Sundays, and took the Communion there once a month ; and what distinguished them from the average orthodox Lutheran of the day was, not any peculiarity of doctrine, but rather their vivid perception of a doctrine common to all the Churches. As the Methodists in England a few years later exalted the O.cctrine of "conversion," so these Brethren at Herrnhut exalted the doctrine of the spiritual presence of Christ. To them the ascended Christ was all in all. He had preserved the "Hidden Seed." He had led them out from Moravia. He had brought them to a watch-tower He had delivered them from the secret foe. He. had banished the devouring demon of discord, had poured out His Holy Spirit upon them at their memorable service in the Parish Church, and had taught them to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. He was the " Bridegroom of the Soul," the " Blood Relation of His People," the "King's Son seeking for His Bride, the whole question is throughly discussed by J. Muller in his Zinzendorf als Erneuerer der alten BruderKirche."

 

Church," the "Chief Elder pleading for the Church before God." And this thought of the living and reigning Christ was, therefore, the ruling thought among the Brethren. He had done three marvellous things for the sons of men. He had given His life as a "ransom" for sin, and had thereby reconciled them to God ; He had set the perfect example for them to follow He was present with them now as Head of the Church and thus, when the Brethren went out to preach, they made His Sacrificial Death, His Holy Life, and His abiding presence the main substance of their Gospel message. 

 

The Edict of Banishment, 1729-1736

 

But Zinzendorf was not long allowed to tread the primrose path of peace. As the news of his proceedings spread in Germany, many orthodox Lutherans began to regard him as a nuisance, a heretic, and disturber of the peace; and one critic made the elegant remark "When Count Zinzendorf flies up into the air, anyone who pulls him down by the legs will do him a great service." He was accused of many crimes, and had many charges to answer. He was accused of founding a new sect, a society for laziness; he was accused of holding strange opinions, opposed to the teaching of the Lutheran Church; he was accused of being a sham Christian, a sort of religious freak; and now he undertook the task of proving these accusations were false, and of showing all fair-minded men in Germany that the Brethren at Herrnhut were as orthodox as Luther, as respected as the King, and as pious as good old Dr. Spener himself. His methods were bold and straight forward.

 

Aug 12, 1729

 

He began by issuing a manifesto, entitled the "Notariats-Instrument". As the document was signed by all the Herrnhut Brethren, they must have agreed to its statements; but, on the other hand, it is fairly certain that it was drawn-up by Zinzendorf himself. It throws a flood of light on his state of mind. He had begun to think more highly of the Moravian Church. He regarded the Moravians as the kernel of the Herrnhut colony, and now he deliberately informed the public that, so far from being a new sect, these Moravians were descendants of an ancient Church. They were, he declared, true heirs of the Church of the Brethren; and that Church, in days gone by, had been recognized by Luther,Calvin and others as a true Church of Christ. In doctrine that Church was as orthodox as the Lutheran; in discipline it was far superior. As long, therefore, as the Brethren were allowed to do so, they would maintain their old constitution and discipline; and yet, on the other hand, they would not be Dissenters. They were not Hussites; they honoured the Augsburg Confession; They would still attend the Berthelsdorf Parish Church; and, desirous of cultivating fellowship with all true Christians, they announced their broad position in the sentence: "We acknowledge no public Church of God except where the pure Word of God is preached, and where the members live as holy children of God." Thus Zinzendorf made his policy fairly clear. He wanted to preserve the Moravian Church inside the Lutheran Church! (1)

 

His next move was more daring. He was a man of fine missionary zeal. As the woman who found the lost piece of silver invited her friends and neighbors to share in her joy, so Zinzendorf wished all Christians to share in the treasure which he had discovered at Herrnhut. He believed that the Brethren there were called to a worldwide mission. He wanted Herrnhut to be a city set on a hill. "I have no sympathy," he said, "with those comfortable people who sit warming themselves before the fire of the future life." He did not sit long before the fire himself. He visited the University of Jena, founded a society among the students, and so impressed the learned Spangenberg that that great theological scholar soon became a Brother at Herrnhut himself. He visited the University of Halle, and founded another society students there. He visited Elmsdorf in Vogtland, and founded a society consisting of members of the family of Count Reuss. He visited Berleburg in Westphalia, made the acquaintance of John Conrad Dippel, and tried to lead that straying sheep back to the Lutheranfold. He visited Bdington in Hesse, discoursed on Christian fellowship to the "French Prophets", or "Inspired Ones", and tried to teach their hysterical leader Rock, a little wisdom, sobriety and charity. He attended the coronation of Christian VI, King of Denmark, at Copenhagen, was warmly welcomed by His Majesty, received the Order of the Danebrog, saw Eskimos from Greenland and a negro from St. Thomas, and thus opened the door, as we shall see later on, for the great work of foreign missions. Meanwhile, he was sending messengers in all directions. He sent two Brethren to Copenhagen, with a short historical account of Herrnhut. He sent two others to London to see the Queen, and to open upnegotiations with the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. He sent another to Sweden; others to Hungary and Austria; others to Switzerland; others to Moravia; others to the Baltic Provinces, Livonia and Esthonia. And everywhere his object was the same - the formation of societies for Christian fellowship within the National Church.

 

At this point, however, he acted like a fanatic, and manifested the first symptoms of that weak trait in his character which nearly wrecked his career. As he pondered one day on the state of affairs at Herrnhut, it suddenly flashed upon his mind that the Brethren would do far better without their ancient constitution.

 

Jan 7th 1731

 

He first consulted the Elders and Helpers; he then summoned the whole congregation; and there and then he deliberately proposed that the Brethren should abolish their regulations, abandon their constitution, cease to be Moravians and become pure Lutherans. At that moment Zinzendorf was calmly attempting to destroy the Moravian Church. He did not want to see that Church revive. For some reason of his own, which he never explained in print, he had come to the conclusion that the Brethren would serve Christ far better without any special regulations of their own. But the Brethren were not disposed to meek surrender. The question was keenly debated. At length, however, both side agreed to appeal to a strange tribunal. For the first time in the history of Herrnhut a critical question of Church policy was submitted to the Lot. (2) The Brethren took two slips of paper and put them into a box. On the first were the words "To them that are without law, as without law, that I might gain them that are without law," I Cor. ix, 21; on the second the words, "Therefore,Brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught," 2Thess. ii, 15. At that moment the fate of the Church hung in the balance; the question at issue was one of life and death; and the Brethren spent a long time in anxious prayer. If the first slip of paper was drawn, the Church would cease to exist; if the second, she might still live by the blessing of God. Young Christel, Zinzendorf's son, now entered the room. He drew the second slip of paper, and the Moravian Church was saved. To Zinzendorf this was an event of momentous importance. As soon as that second slip of paper was drawn, he felt convinced that God had sanctioned the renewal of the Moravian Church.

 

Jan 19-22, 1732

 

Next year an event occurred to strengthen his convictions. A body of commissioners from Dresden apeared at Herrnhut. They attended all the Sunday services, had private interviews with the Brethren, and sent in their report to the Saxon Government. The Count's conduct had excited public alarm. He had welcomed not only Moravians at Herrnhut, but Schwenkfelders at Bertheldorf; and, therefore, he was now suspected of harbouring dangerous fanatics. For a long time the issue hung doubtful; but finally the Government issued a decree that while the Schwenkfelders must quit the land, the Moravians should be allowed to stay aslong as they behaved themselves quietly.

 

April 4th, 1733

 

But Zinzendorf was not yet satisfied. He regarded the edict as an insult.he words about "behaving quietly" looked like a threat. As long as the Brethren were merely "tolerated", their peace was in constant danger; and a King who had driven out the Schwenkfelders might soon drive out the Herrnhuters. He was disgusted. At the time when the edict was issued, he himself was returning from avisit to Tbingen. He had laid the whole case of the Brethren before the Tbingen Theological Faculty. He asked these theological experts to say whether the Brethren could keep their discipline and yet be considered good Lutherans; andthe experts, in reply, had declared their opinion that the Herrnhut Brethren were as loyal Lutherans as any in the land. Thus the Brethren were standing now on a shaky floor. According to the Tbingen Theological Faculty they were god members of the National Church; according to the Government they were a "sect" to be tolerated!

 

1734

 

Next year he adopted three defensive measures. First, he divided the congregation at Herrnhut into two parts, the Moravian and the purely Lutheran; next, he had himself ordained as a Lutheran clergyman; and third, he dispatched a few Moravians to found a colony in Georgia. He was now, he imagined, prepared for the worst. If the King commanded the Moravians to go, the Count had his answer ready. As he himself was a Lutheran clergyman, he would stay at Herrnhut and minister to the Herrnhut Lutherans; and the Moravians could sail away to Georgia, and live inperfect peace in the land of the free.

 

1735

 

Next year he made his position stronger still. As the Moravians in Georgia would require their own ministers, he now had David Nitschmann consecrated a Bishop by Daniel Ernest Jablonsky (March 13th). The new Bishop was not to exercise his function in Germany. He was a Bishop for the foreign field only; he sailed with the second batch of colonists for Georgia; and thus Zinzendorf maintained the Moravian Episcopal Succession, not from any sectarian motives, but because he wished to help the Brethren when the storm burst over their heads.

 

1736

 

For what really happened, however, Zinzendorf was unprepared. As he made these various arrangements for the Brethren, he entirely overlooked the fact that he himself was in greater danger than they. He was far more widely hated than he imagined. He was condemned by the Pietists because he had never experienced theirsudden and spasmodic method of conversion. He offended his own relatives when he became a clergyman; he was accused of having disgraced his rank as Count; he disgusted a number of other noblemen at Dresden; and the result of this strong feeling was that Agustus III, King of Saxony, issued an edict banishing Zinzendorffrom his kingdom. He was accused in this Royal edict of three great crimes. Hehad introduced religious novelties; he had founded conventicles; and he had taught false doctrine. Thus Zinzendorf was banished from Saxony as a heretic. Assoon, however, as the Government had dealt with Zinzendorf, they sent a commissionto Herrnhut; and the second commission came to the conclusion that the Brethrenwere most desirable Lutherans, and might be allowed to stay. Dr. L”scher, one ofthe commissioners burst into tears. "Your doctrine", he said, "is as pure as ours, but we do not possess your discipline." At first sight this certainly looks like a contradiction, but the explanation is not far to seek. We find it in the report issued by the Commission. It was a shameless confession of mercenary motives. In that report the commissioners deliberately stated that if good workmen like the Brethren were banished from Herrnhut the Government would lose so much in taxes; and, therefore, the Brethren were allowed to stay because they brought grist to the mill. At the same time, they were forbidden to make any proselytes; and thus it was hoped that the Herrnhut heresy would die a natural death.

 

When Zinzendorf heard of his banishment, he was not amazed. "What matter!" he said. "Even had I been allowed by law, I could not have remained in Herrnhut at all during the next ten years." He had plans further afield. "We must now," he added, "gather together the Pilgrim Congregation and proclaim the Savior to the World."

 

1737-1738

 

It is true that the edict of banishment was repealed; it is true that he was allowed to return to Herrnhut; but a year later a new edict was issued, and the Count was sternly expelled from his native land.

 

 

Notes:

 

(1) Was this true to Luther or was it not? According to Ritschl it was not(Geschichte des Peitismus, III. 248); according to J. T. Muller, it was(Zinzendorf als Erneuer, p. 40) I agree with the latter writer.

 

(2) It is not clear from the evidence who suggested the use of the Lot. According to Zinzendorf's diary it was the Brethren; but I suspect that hehimself was the first to suggest it. There is no proof that the Brethren were already fond of the Lot; but there is plenty of proof that the Pietists were,and Zinzendorf had probably learned it from them. (see Ritschl II., 434, etc.)
 

格羅斯翰納鐸夫（Grosshennersdorf）

 

格羅斯翰納鐸夫位於薩克斯（Saxony），與主護村相距不遠。此處為格斯杜夫男爵夫人的城堡所在地，也是新生鐸夫幼年成長的地方。城堡現在已成廢墟，但仍可見其遺址。

Not far from Herrnhut, also in the Oberlausitz region of Saxony, lie the ruins of the water castle once owned by Zinzendorf's maternal grandmother, Henriette Katharina von Gersdorf. Here, "young Lutz," as he was called by his family, grew up and was early exposed to Pietist influences. His grandmother, a remarkable woman who corresponded with Leibniz and read the Bible in the original languages, had as visitors to her castle the two main figures of German Pietism: Spener and Franke. Here young Zinzendorf also became familiar with the work of the Pietist missionary Ziegenbalg in India, the first organized Protestant missionary effort. Later he would write: "I know the day and the hour and the place at Hennersdorf, in the large chamber, anno 1708 or 9, when I heard people read from the newspaper about East India [=India] for the first time, even before there were any reports. There arose also within me a first desire [for missionary work]. (Erich Beyreuther, Der junge Zinzendorf [1988], 61-2).

According to local information, the castle was still liveable after World War II but quickly deteriorated without proper maintenance during the period of Communist rule. When I visited the castle in 1994, it was fenced off because of the danger of collapse. --Hans Rollmann

 

 

 

 

伯特鐸夫（Berthelsdorf）

 

1722年，新生鐸夫向外祖母買下了魯沙地亞高地的伯特鐸夫莊園，莊園內有新生鐸夫的城堡，以及一座四百年歷史的路德會教堂。此處曾是摩爾維亞教會屬靈的中心，1727年，會眾在此經歷了聖靈的澆灌；他們的奉獻，也奠下了日後全球福音事工的基石。

 

At the foot of the field that extends from the Moravian graveyard in Herrnhut lies the small village of Berthelsdorf with the castle of Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. Shortly after coming of age, he bought an estate from his grandmother that comprised both Berthelsdorf and the future Herrnhut and had a stately building erected on it in 1721. The castle and the near-by church became the spiritual center of the Moravian and Pietist refugees. And it was also in Berthelsdorf that many instructions were issued to missionaries world-wide from members of the Moravian mission board. Today, Zinzendorf's castle languishes in a sad state of dilapidation and will soon be beyond repair. Moravians no longer own these buildings, and it is the rather confusing ownership question that seems to have so far prevented the castle's restoration.

 

The pictures were taken in May of 1997 during a research trip to Herrnhut, made possible through a grant of the J. R. Smallwood Centre for Newfoundland Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland. A follow-up visit in 2000 saw the castle in an even worse state. -- Hans Rollmann

主護村（Herrnhut）

 

主護村位於哈堡（Hutberg）山腳下，距伯特鐸夫約一英里遠。1722年，新生鐸夫將此地開放給受逼迫的摩爾維亞信徒，作為避難之所。大衛基利司新（Christian David）在附近小山上砍下了第一棵樹，建立了主護村。此後這裡不僅是各宗派基督徒的避難所，更是摩爾維亞弟兄會向全球擴展的基地。村內有一座樸素的弟兄會禮拜堂，外面院子裏有新生鐸夫的塑像。新生鐸夫所規劃的弟兄、姊妹和寡婦之家，也在這裡。博物館中保存了摩爾維亞教會文獻、史料、以及海外佈道的起源與發展。附近有一座名為「神的園地」的教會墓園，新生鐸夫和許多摩爾維亞弟兄均葬於此。墓園中的小山上，有一座可以遠眺德國、波蘭、捷克三國的小塔，是摩爾維亞弟兄們為全世界福音守望的禱告塔。

 

Herrnhaag near Frankfurt on the Main river became a second refuge for Moravians from 1738 to 1750. Here, Johann Christian Erhardt, a mariner from the Baltic port of Wismar, who had been converted on St. Eustatius in the West Indies, lived in the company of "unmarried brothers" from 1742 on. From here he left repeatedly to undertake journeys with the Moravian mission ship Irene to America and Greenland. From Herrnhaag he also wrote on 20 May 1750 a letter to Johann von Watteville, the Moravian chancellor, in which he suggested missions among the Inuit of Labrador. This plan came to fruition in the summer of 1752, albeit at the expense of Erhardt's own life as well as that of six of the ship's crew near today's Makkovik. The 1752 trip remained, however, in the memory of Moravians and eventually resulted in the permanent settlement of Nain in 1771.

The pictures were taken in May of 1997 and show some of the restored buildings, including the one in which Johann Christian Erhardt lived. I'm grateful to Pastor Christoph Waas, Herrnhut, who encouraged me to visit Herrnhaag; Cand. theol., Mr. Gill, who exhibited the hospitality and spirit of Herrnhaag and graciously showed me the grounds; finally, the J. R. Smallwood Centre for Newfoundland Studies, which through a grant made my research trip to Herrnhut and Herrnhaag possible. -- Hans Rollmann