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they should not be molested, and meantime would receive them at Bertholdsdorf. Accordingly ten persons from the village of Sehlen, in Moravia, set off for this asylum under Christian David's guidance. On their arrival it was thought better that they should settle in some spot by themselves than in the village, and the Count's major-domo, a man who took a religious interest in their behalf, led them to a place where it was intended they should build. It was a piece of ground near a hill called the Hutberg, or Watch-Hill, on the high road to Zittau: the scite had little to recommend it; it was overgrown with brakes and brambles; it was boggy, so that wagons frequently stuck fast there; and there was a want of water. Heitz, the major-domo, had gone there twice before sunrise, to observe the rising of the vapours, and infer from thence in what part a well might be dug with most likelihood of success; and on these occasions he had prayed fervently, that these measures for the benefit of these poor fugitives might be successful, and had resolved that he would build the first house in the name of the Lord. When they came to the ground, one of the women objected to it, and asked where they were to get water in that wilderness; they would rather have settled in the village Christian David, however, saw what conveniences there were for building on the spot, and striking his axe into one of the trees, exclaimed, "Here hath the sparrow found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts!" So they began their work without assistance, but cheerfully and full of hope.

The Count's grand-mother, Lady Gersdorf, who resided near at Hennersdorf, sent them a cow, that the children might not want milk. The first tree

was felled on the 17th of June 1722, and on the 7th of October they entered their first house. "May God bless the work," said the major-domo, in the report which he transmitted to his master,-" according to his loving kindness, and grant that Your Excellency may build a city on the Watch Hill, (Hut

berg,) which may not only stand under the Lord's guardianship, but where all the inhabitants may stand upon the watch of the Lord!" (Herrn Hut.) In allusion also to the name of the ground, he preached at the dedication of the house upon this text from Isaiah: "I will set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem! which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord keep not silence, and give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." From these circumstances the settlement which was thus formed obtained the well known ▾ name of Herrnhut, the watch of the Lord.

Zinzendorf meantime took little thought of these transactions, for he was engaged in wooing and wedding the Countess Erdmuth Dorothea Reuss. At the close of the year, as he was taking his lady to Hennersdorf, he saw from the road equally to his surprise and satisfaction a house in the wood, upon which he stopt, went in to bid the Moravians welcome, and fell on his knees with them and prayed. Shortly afterwards he took possession of the mansion which had been built for him at Bertholdsdorf. Here he collected round him a knot of religious friends, among others Baron Frederic de Watteville, his fellow-student under Professor Franke, and who like himself had imbibed the spirit of Pietism from their tutor. The lady Joanna de Zetzschwitz also came there, whom the Baron afterwards married:she brought some girls to be educated under her care, and thus laid the foundation of what was subsequently called the Economy of Girls at Herruhut. The kinsmen of the Moravian emigrants were questioned by their lords the Jesuits of Olmutz concerning the flight of their relations, and having undergone some imprisonment on that account, and being threatened with the inquisition because, after their release, they had requested leave to emigrate also, they thought it best to abandon their possessions, and fly to the same place of refuge. The settlers at Herrnhut found themselves so comfortably eşta

blished that some of them went back to bring away their friends and relations; this gave occasion to severities on the part of the government; and the Count at length thought it advisable to go into Moravia himself, and explain to the Cardinal Bishop of Olmutz that his intention had only been to grant an asylum on his estates to a few protestant families. He endeavoured to procure some indulgence for them in their own country: this he was told could not be done it was added that they should not be prevented from emigrating* quietly, but that such as returned to instigate others to remove must take the consequence. This was a wise and humane policy scarcely to have been expected from an Austrian government at that time.

All emigrants, however, were not indiscriminately received: they were examined respecting the manner in which they had left their own country, and their answers were carefully minuted that legal evidence might be given if it were required concerning their reception; and if after awhile it appeared that any person had removed for any other than a religious motive, he was furnished with money for his journey, and sent back. The first discussions concerning discipline were occasioned by five young and ardent men, who fled from Moravia, before the connivance of the government was understood, and

* "Those," says Cranz, "who sought nothing but the salvation of their souls, and on that account forsook their possessions, parents or children, friends and relations, were favoured with such success, that they were often able to free themselves from their chains in a wonderful manner, to leap from an high prison without hurt, to pass through the guards undiscovered in the open day, or to run away and hide themselves from them. Were they stopped on the road, the upright representation of the true end of their emigrating, and the piteous cries of their children, had such an effect, that they were suffered to pass. But those who secretly disposed of their property, and took the money with them, or wanted to go off with loaded wagons, were frequently either betrayed, or when they had got half way on their journey, stopped, and brought back again, or plundered of their effects." P. 108. In a certain stage of enthusiasm, men are equally prone to expect miracles and to believe them.

set out singing the same hymn which their predecessors had sung when they abandoned their country in a like manner, and for a like cause, an hundred years before them. One of them was that David Nitschmann whom Wesley afterwards found at Savannah. These brethren insisted that the economy of their fathers should be restored, and when the Count and the ministers at Herrnhut did not at once accede to their proposal, they were about more than once to take up their staves and depart. Disputes concerning doctrine as well as discipline soon sprang up, and the evil passions by which dissention, schism, and the mutual hatred of religious factions are produced, seemed at one time likely to destroy the new settlement. Perhaps this is the only instance in ecclesiastical history wherein such disputes have been completely adjusted; and this must be ascribed to the influence which Count Zinzendorf possessed as the patron and protector of the emigrants, at least as much as to his great talents and undoubted piety. The day upon which they all agreed to a constitution, ecclesiastical and civil, he ever afterwards called the critical day, because it was then decided, "whether Hernnhut should prove a nest of sects, or a living congregation of Christ." It was, however, subsequently taken into consideration more than once, whether they should lay aside their peculiar discipline for the sake of avoiding evil reports; Count Zinzendorf himself inclined at one time to this concession, and thought it better that they should be entirely embodied in the Lutheran church, with which they professed a perfect conformity in doctrine: the brethren, who were then between 5 and 600 in number, regarded the discipline as the precious inheritance which had been left them by their fathers, but they consented to let the question be decided by lot, in full confidence that the decision would be directed by immediate Providence. Two verses therefore from St. Paul were written on separate papers. The first was in support of Count Zinzendorf's motion: "To them that are without law, be ye as without

law, (being not without law to God, but under the law in Christ,) that ye may gain them that are without law."* The text of the second lot was this, "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught." The trial was preceded by fervent prayer: a child of four years old drew the second lot; and they "entered from that day (in their own words) into a covenant with each other, to remain upon this footing, and in this constitution to carry on the work of the Lord, and to preach his gospel in all the world, and among all nations whithersoever he should be pleased to send and scatter them abroad."

By this time the establishment at Herrnhut had excited much curiosity in Germany. In one day above fifty letters were received soliciting information concerning it, and many visitors, among whom were persons of high rank, came to see things with their own eyes. The new community was attacked also from various quarters. A Jesuit began the war, and there were Lutheran divines who entered into it upon the same side. Count Zinzendorf was too wise to engage in controversy himself. "The world hates me," said he; that is but natural: some of my mother's children are angry with me; this is grievous. The former is not of sufficient importance to me that I should lose my time with it, and the others are too important to me, to put them to shame by an answer." But although his own, conduct was more uniformly discreet than that of any other founder of a Christian community, (it would be wronging the Moravian ⚫ brethren to designate them as a sect,) he was involved in difficulties by the indiscretion of others, and the jealousy of the government under which he lived. He was therefore ordered to sell his estates, and afterwards banished. Against the first of these mandates he had provided by conveying his estates to his wife; and though he was soon permitted to return to his own country, yet as the brethren were

* 1 Cor. ix. 21.

2 Thess. ii. 15.

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