A History of the Moravian ChurchHutton, J. E. (Joseph Edmund)
Religion
A History of the Moravian Church
Hutton, J. E. (Joseph Edmund)
Moravian Church -- History
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 decent 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 at Lissa, in Poland {May 2nd, 1724.}; and the very next night
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 way. 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."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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