The Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1740Fries, Adelaide L. (Adelaide Lisetta)
History
The Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1740
Fries, Adelaide L. (Adelaide Lisetta)
Moravians -- Georgia
But Reck had failed to realize the force of the Halle opposition to
Herrnhut, and soon weakened under the weight of persuasion and command
laid upon him by those whose opinion he felt obliged to respect. On the
4th of November he wrote from Windhausen to Graf Stolberg Wernigerode,
“I have hesitated and vexed myself in much uncertainty whether or not I
should go with the Herrnhuters to America. And now I know that God has
heard our prayer at Halle and Wernigerode, and your letters have decided
me to stay in Germany this winter, in the first place because my
going would be a grief to my dear Urlsperger, whom I love as a father,
secondly because the English will send over a third transport of
Salzburgers in the coming spring and wish me to take them, and thirdly
because I wish to obey worthy and chosen men of God.”
He wrote to the same effect to Zinzendorf, and the Count, though
doubtless annoyed, replied simply: “Your Highness’ resolution to
accommodate yourself to your superiors would be known by us all for
right. You will then not blame us if we go our way as it is pointed out
to us by the Lord.”
A few days later Reck received a sharp note from the Trustees of
Georgia, reproving him for his temerity in agreeing to take the
Moravians with him to Georgia without consulting them, and reiterating
the statement that the funds in their hands had been given for the use
of the Salzburgers, and could be used for them alone.
The young man must have winced not a little under all this censure,
but while he yielded his plan to the wishes of the Halle party, he
held firmly to the opinion he had formed of the Moravians. He wrote to
Urlsperger and others in their behalf, declaring that they were a godly
people, much misunderstood, that it was a shame to persecute them and
try to hinder their going to Georgia, and he felt sure that if their
opponents would once meet the Moravians and converse with them freely,
confidentially, and without prejudice, they would come to respect them
as he did. He also suggested that there were many protestants remaining
in Bohemia, who would gladly leave, and who might be secured for Georgia
on the terms offered to the Salzburgers. The next year in fact, an
effort was made to obtain permission from the Austrian Government for
the emigration of these people, and Reck was authorized by the Trustees
to take them to Georgia, but nothing came of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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