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
Already, before the war broke out, this brutal process had commenced;
and altogether it continued for twenty years. In 1769 he had to abandon
Goschgoschünk; in 1770, Lavunakhannek; in 1772, Friedenshütten; in
1773, Friedenstadt; in 1780, Lichtenau; in 1781, Gnadenhütten, Salem
and Schönbrunn; in 1782, Sandusky; in 1786, New Gnadenhütten; in 1787,
Pilgerruh; in 1791, New Salem. As the old man drew near his end, he
endeavoured to stem the torrent of destruction by founding two new
settlements--Fairfield, in Canada, and Goshen, on the Tuscawaras; but
even these had to be abandoned a few years after his death. Amid
the Indians he had lived; amid the Indians, at Goshen, he lay on his
death-bed {1808.}. As the news of his approaching dissolution spread,
the chapel bell was tolled: his converts, knowing the signal, entered
the room; and then, uniting their voices in song, they sang him home in
triumphant hymns which he himself had translated from the hymns of the
Ancient Brethren's Church.
CHAPTER XV. -- THE LAST DAYS OF ZINZENDORF, 1755-1760.
As Zinzendorf drew near to his end, he saw that his efforts in the cause
of Christ had not ended as he had hoped. His design was the union of
Christendom, his achievement the revival of the Church of the Brethren.
He had given the "Hidden Seed" a home at Herrnhut. He had discovered the
ancient laws of the Bohemian Brethren. He had maintained, first, for the
sake of the Missions, and, secondly, for the sake of his Brethren, the
Brethren's Episcopal Succession. He had founded the Pilgrim Band at
Marienborn, had begun the Diaspora work in the Baltic Provinces, had
gained for the Brethren legal recognition in Germany, England and North
America, and had given the stimulus to the work of foreign missions. At
the same time, he had continually impressed his own religious ideas upon
his followers; and thus the Renewed Church of the Brethren was a Church
of a twofold nature. The past and the present were dove-tailed. From
the Bohemian Brethren came the strict discipline, the ministerial
succession, and the martyr-spirit; from Zinzendorf the idea of
"Church within the Church," the stress laid on the great doctrine of
reconciliation through the blood of Christ, and the fiery missionary
enthusiasm. Without Zinzendorf the Bohemian Brethren would probably have
never returned to life; and without the fibre of the Bohemian Brethren,
German Pietism would have died a natural death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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