Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

voked Wesley, who had been accustomed to English liberty in his motions, and who was impatient of nothing so much as of loss of time. "I greatly wonder," said he, " that common sense and common humanity (for these, doubtless, subsist in Germany as well as England,) do not put an end to this senseless, inhuman usage of strangers, which we met with at almost every German city. I know nothing that can reasonably be said in its defence in a time of full peace, being a breach of all the common, even heathen laws of hospitality. If it be a custom, so much the worse, the more is the pity, and the more the shame." They were sometimes carried about from one magistrate to another for more than two hours, before they were suffered to go to their inn. After a journey of eleven days from Marienborn they reached Herrnhut.

This place, the first and still the chief settlement of the Moravian Brethren, consisted at that time of about an hundred houses, built upon the great road from Zittau to Lobau. The Brethren had chosen to build by the road-side, because they expected to find occasion for offering instruction to travellers as they might be passing by. The visitors were lodged in the house appointed for strangers. And here Wesley found one of his friends from Georgia, and had opportunities of observing and inquiring fully into the economy of this remarkable people, who without the restriction of a vow had submitted to a rule of life, as formal as that of a monastic order, and though in some respects less burthensome, in others not less fantastic. The sexes were divided each into five classes, the three first consisting of children according to their growth, the two others of the young, and, of the married. The single men, and single women and widows dwelt in separate houses, but each in community. Two women kept a nightly watch in the women's apartment, and two men in the street.They were expected to pray for those who slept, and to sing hymns which might excite feelings of devo

tion in those who were awake. There was an Eldest over each sex, and two inferior eldests, over the young men and the boys, and over the unmarried women and the girls. Besides this classification according to sex, age, and condition, each household was considered as a separate class, and had its helper or deacon, its censor, its monitor, its almoner, and its servant or helper of the lowest order; in the female classes these offices were filled by women. The deacon or helper was to instruct them in their private assemblies; to take care that outward things were done decently and in order, and to see that every member grew in grace, and walked suitably to his holy calling. The censors were to observe the smallest things and report them either to the helpers or monitors, and the monitors might freely admonish even the rulers of the Church. And as if this system of continual inspection were not sufficient, there were secret monitors, besides those who were known to hold that office, They were sub-divided into bands, the members of which met together twice or thrice a week to confess their faults one to another, and pray for one another. Every band had its leader chosen as being a person of the most experience, and all these leaders met the superior Eldest every week, for the purpose of "laying open to him and to the Lord whatsoever hindered or furthered the work of God in the souls committed to their charge.'

[ocr errors]

There were four pastors or teachers as they were called, at Herrnhut, and these persons were regularly ordained. They were overseers of the whole flock, and were the only men except the eldest, and one or two of the helpers, who were allowed to converse with the women. The elders, and teachers, and helpers, held one weekly conference concerning the state of the souls under their care, another concerning the youth, and a daily one relating to the outward affairs of the church. The censors, monitors, almoners, attendants on the sick, servants, schoolmasters, young men, and even the children, had also their weekly conferences relating to their

several offices and duties, and once a week there was a conference at which any person might be present, and propose any question or doubt. Public service was performed every morning and evening at eight o'clock: it consisted of singing, and expounding the Scriptures, with a short prayer, which in the evening was usually mental; and this latter service concluded with the kiss of peace. On Sunday, in addition to the daily service, and the regular church service at Bertholdsdorf, the superior eldest gave separate exhortations to all the members of the community, who were divided for that purpose into fourteen classes, spending about a quarter of an hour with each class. After the evening eight o'clock service, the young men went round the town singing hymns. On the first Saturday in the month the sacrament was administered, and they washed each other's feet, the men and women apart; the second was a solemn prayer day for the children; the third was set apart for a general intercession and thanksgiving; the fourth was the monthly conference of all the superiors of the church. And a round of perpetual prayer through every hour of the day and night was kept up by married men and women, maids, bachelors, boys and girls, twenty-four of each, who volunteered to relieve each other in this endless service.

The children were prepared by their education for a life of such continual pupillage. They rose between five and six, prayed awhile in private, and worked till seven; an hour's schooling followed, and then the hour of public service. From nine till eleven they were at school, they were then indulged with an hour's walk: at twelve they dined all together, and worked till one: from one till three writing or working were the order of the day, arithmetic at three, history at four: work again at five, supper at six, and more work till seven: a little prayer at seven, and a little walking till eight, when the younger children went to bed, and the larger to public service, and when this was done they were set again to work till bed-time, which was at ten. Latin, Greek.

Hebrew, French, and English, were taught. There were no holy-days or relaxation of any kind, except the little time allowed for walking.

It is somewhat remarkable, that Wesley should have said nothing of their customs respecting matrimony. He took the account which they presented to the Theological Faculty at Wittemberg, and appears not to have inquired further. In this the Moravians say, "We highly reverence marriage, as greatly conducive to the kingdom of Christ: but neither our young men nor women enter into it till they assuredly know they are married to Christ. When any know it is the will of God, that they should change their state, both the man and woman are placed for a time with some married persons, who instruct them how to behave, so that their married life may be pleasing to God. Then their design is laid before the whole church, and after about fourteen days, they are solemnly joined, though not otherwise habited than they are at other times. If they make any entertainment, they invite only a few intimate friends, by whose faithful admonitions they may be the better prepared to bear their cross, and fight the good fight of faith." This passage Wesley inserted in the second part of his journal, without any comment or further explanation. The presumptuousness of a community which could thus expect that its individual members would certainly be informed, whether it was the will of God that they should marry, or remain in singleness, and the fanatical spirit in which this wild opinion is expressed, were too congruous to his own state of mind at that time to excite in him either surprise or disapprobation. There were, however, other circumstances connected with the subject, which it may seem extraordinary that he should not have noticed. The very account which he published, imperfect as it is, exhibits in a manner sufficiently glaring one inconvenience arising from the unnatural separation* of different sexes, ages, and

*This is carried so far, that in their burial-places there are "distinct squares for married men and unmarried, for married 24

VOL. I.

conditions: men and women of marriageable years, were presumed to be so ignorant of the manners and duties of the married life, that they were "to be placed for a time with some married persons" for the purpose of instruction. This would be ludicrous if it were not pitiable. The system indeed of taking children from their parents, breaking up domestic society, and sorting human beings, like cabbage plants, according to their growth, is not more consonant to nature than the Egyptian method of hatching eggs in ovens: a great proportion of the chickens are said to be produced with some deformity, and hens thus hatched bear a less price than those which have been reared in the natural way, because it often happens that they will not sit upon their eggs,-the course of instinct having been disturbed.

and unmarried women, for male and female children, and for widows." (Wesley's second Journal.) The same separation was observed in the burial-grounds of the Guarani Missions, and there also, as with the Moravians, "the church-yard was what a Christian place of burial should be, a sacred garden of the dead." I transcribe from the Periodical Accounts of the Moravian Missions, (Vol. iii. p. 35.) the description of that at Bavians Kloof, in the Cape-Colony. "As our burying-ground was nothing but a wild and rough looking field, divided from our garden by a small path, brother Rose undertook to make it look more decent. Having measured a square of an hundred and eighty feet, he divided it into nine compartments, with paths between them. As we have no stones here fit for grave stones, each grave is marked with a short post, upon which a board is fixed, with a number painted upon it, referring to a ground-plan which exhibits a catalogue of the deceased. A broad path leads in a straight line through our garden, into and through the burying-ground,-this path is inclosed by rows of trees, and the burying-ground is surrounded with a hedge of roses. All our Hottentots assisted with great willingness in completing this work, and are highly pleased with the regular and decent appearance of their future resting-place."

It is from what he has seen among the Moravians, that Montgomery has imagined his beautiful burying-place of the Patriarchs.

A scene sequestered from the haunts of men,
The loveliest nook of all that lovely glen,
Where weary pilgrims found their last repose.
The little heaps were ranged in comely rows
With walks between, by friends and kindred trod,
Who dress'd with duteous hands each hallowed sod.

« AnteriorContinuar »