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
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
Hutberg. 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. The God's Acre became the scene of an
impressive service {1733.}. 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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