In 1747, Gambold, accompanied by Ingham, Okeley, Hutton, and Cennick, paid a visit to Hernhaag, where he continued for several months, and gained the respect and love of all who knew him. His visit was at an important crisis in the Brethren’s history; and, probably, was occasioned by the disastrous fanaticism which had broken out in that important settlement. In 1738, a building was begun at Hernhaag, designed to serve as an asylum for persons educated in the German Calvinistic Church, and persecuted on account of their connection with the Brethren. In 1740, a congregation was regularly organized; and, in a few years, Hernhaag contained a greater number of inhabitants than Herrnhut. Here boarding-schools were established for the education of the children of the Moravian ministers, whether employed in the service of the church at home or in foreign lands; and the place altogether was one of great importance. In 1746, however, there was the utmost danger of this Christian settlement being ruined. Here began an evil, which soon became widespread, and which required vigorous and long-continued efforts to annihilate. The following is extracted from Holmes’ “History of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren” (Vol. i., p. 399). “In their zeal to root out self-righteousness, the Brethren were not sufficiently on their guard against levity of expression. The delight they took in speaking of the sufferings of Christ, which arose from the penetrating sense they had of their infinite value, by degrees degenerated into fanciful representations of the various scenes of His passion. Their style, in speaking and writing, lost its former plainness and simplicity, and became turgid, puerile, and fanatical, abounding in playful allusions to Christ as the Lamb, the Bridegroom, etc., by which He is described in holy writ, and in fanciful representations of the wound in His side. In describing the spiritual relation between Christ and His Church, the highly figurative language of the Canticles was substituted in the place of the dignified simplicity, used by our Saviour and His apostles, when speaking on this subject. Some less-experienced preachers even seemed to vie with each other in introducing, into their discourses, the most extravagant, and often wholly unintelligible, expressions. This kept the hearers in a state of constant excitement, but was not calculated to subject every thought of the heart to the obedience of Christ. Religion, instead of enlightening the understanding, governing the affections, and regulating the general conduct, became a play of the imagination.