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
We pass on to other scenes. We go to the Gold Coast in the Dutch Colony
of Guinea, where Huckoff, another German Moravian, and Protten, a
mulatto theological scholar, attempted to found a school for slaves
{1737.}, and where, again, the work was opposed by the Governor. We pass
to another Dutch Colony in Ceylon; and there find David Nitschmann III.
and Dr. Eller establishing a society in Colombo, and labouring further
inland for the conversion of the Cingalese; and again we find that the
Dutch clergy, inflamed by the "Pastoral Letter," were bitterly opposed
to the Brethren and compelled them to return to Herrnhut. We take our
journey to Constantinople, and find Arvid Gradin, the learned Swede,
engaged in an attempt to come to terms with the Greek Church {1740.},
and thus open the way for the Brethren's Gospel to Asia. We step north
to Wallachia, and find two Brethren consulting about a settlement there
with the Haspodar of Bucharest. We arrive at St. Petersburg, and find
three Brethren there before us, commissioned to preach the Gospel to the
heathen Calmucks. We pass on to Persia and find two doctors, Hocker and
Rüffer, stripped naked by robbers on the highway, and then starting a
practice at Ispahan (1747). We cross the sandy plains to the city of
Bagdad, and find two Brethren in its narrow streets; we find Hocker
expounding the Gospel to the Copts in Cairo!
And even this was not the end of the Brethren's missionary labours
{1738-42.}. For some years the Brethren conducted a mission to the Jews.
For Jews the Count had special sympathy. He had vowed in his youth to
do all he could for their conversion; he had met a good many Jews at
Herrnhut and at Frankfurt-on-the-Main; he made a practice of speaking
about them in public on the Great Day of Atonement; and in their Sunday
morning litany the Brethren uttered the prayer, "Deliver Thy people
Israel from their blindness; bring many of them to know Thee, till the
fulness of the Gentiles is come and all Israel is saved." The chief
seat of this work was Amsterdam, and the chief workers Leonard Dober and
Samuel Leiberkühn. The last man was a model missionary. He had studied
theology at Jena and Halle; he was a master of the Hebrew tongue; he
was expert in all customs of the Jews; he was offered a professorship
at Königsberg; and yet, instead of winning his laurels as an Oriental
scholar, he preferred to settle down in humble style in the Jewish
quarter of Amsterdam, and there talk to his friends the Jews about the
Christ he loved so deeply. His method of work was instructive. He never
dazed his Jewish friends with dogmatic theology. He never tried to prove
that Christ was the Messiah of the prophecies. He simply told them, in
a kindly way, how Jesus had risen from the dead, and how much this
risen Jesus had done in the world; he shared their hope of a national
gathering in Palestine; and, though he could never boast of making
converts, he was so beloved by his Jewish friends that they called him
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account