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
And thus at length this "Sifting-Time" came to a happy end. The whole
episode was like an attack of pneumonia. The attack was sudden; the
crisis dangerous; the recovery swift; and the lesson wholesome. For some
years after this the Brethren continued to show some signs of weakness;
and even in the next edition of their Hymn-book they still made use of
some rather crude expressions. But on the whole they had learned some
useful lessons. On this subject the historians have mostly been in the
wrong. Some have suppressed the facts. This is dishonest. Others have
exaggerated, and spoken as if the excesses lasted for two or three
generations. This is wicked.[106] The sober truth is exactly as described
in these pages. The best judgment was passed by the godly Bishop
Spangenherg. "At that time," he said, "the spirit of Christ did not rule
in our hearts; and that was the real cause of all our foolery." Full
well the Brethren realized their mistake, and honestly they took its
lessons to heart. They learned to place more trust in the Bible, and
less in their own unbridled feelings. They learned afresh the value of
discipline, and of an organised system of government. They became more
guarded in their language, more Scriptural in their doctrine, and more
practical in their preaching. Nor was this all. Meanwhile the same
battle had been fought and won in England and North America.
CHAPTER IX. -- MORAVIANS AND METHODISTS, 1735-1742.
For the origin of the Moravian Church in England we turn our eyes to
a bookseller's shop in London. It was known as "The Bible and Sun"; it
stood a few yards west of Temple Bar; and James Hutton, the man behind
the counter, became in time the first English member of the Brethren's
Church. But James Hutton was a man of high importance for the whole
course of English history. He was the connecting link between Moravians
and Methodists; and thus he played a vital part, entirely ignored by our
great historians, in the whole Evangelical Revival.
He was born on September 14th, 1715. He was the son of a High-Church
clergyman. His father was a non-juror. He had refused, that is, to take
the oath of loyalty to the Hanoverian succession, had been compelled
to resign his living, and now kept a boarding-house in College Street,
Westminster, for boys attending the famous Westminster School. At that
school little James himself was educated; and one of his teachers was
Samuel Wesley, the elder brother of John and Charles. He had no idea to
what this would lead. As the lad grew up in his father's home he had, of
course, not the least suspicion that such a body as the Moravian Church
existed. He had never heard of Zinzendorf or of Herrnhut. He was brought
up a son of the Church of England; he loved her services and doctrine;
and all that he desired to see was a revival within her borders of true
spiritual life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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