Nicolaus Zinzendorf

“ This led to the establishment of a financial board among the Brethren, on a plan furnished by a lawyer, John Frederick Köber, which worked well. In 1752 Zinzendorf lost his only son, Christian Renatus, whom he had hoped to make his successor; and four years later he lost his wife Erdmute, who had been his counsellor and confidante in all his work. Zinzendorf remained a widower for one year, and then (June 1757) contracted a second marriage with Anna Nitschmann, on the ground that a man in his official position ought to be married. ”

“ Zinzendorf’s Plan and Work.―While Zinzendorf received his first impulse from pietism, he soon perceived its onesidedness and narrowness. He would have no conventicle, but one organized community; no ideal invisible, but a real visible church; no narrow methodism, but a rich, free administration of the Christian spirit. He did not, in the first instance, aim at the conversion of the world, nor even at the reformation of the church, but at gathering and preserving those belonging to the Saviour. ”

“ As with Zinzendorf and his united brethren, so with Wesley and his co-workers and disciples. Their aims were exalted, their labours noble, the results which they achieved were immense. But intermingled with it all there was so much weakness and credulity, so much weight given to the workings of a heated and over-wrought imagination, so many openings to a blind fanaticism, such morbid extravagances, so much from which sober reason and cultivated intellect shrank with instinctive repulsion, that even an exaggerated distrust of the good effected was natural and pardonable. ”

“ Zinzendorf had a naturally alert and active mind, and an enthusiastic temperament that made his life one of ceaseless planning and executing. Like Luther, he was often carried away by strong and vehement feelings, and he was easily upset both by sorrow and joy. He was an eager seeker after truth, and could not understand men who at all costs kept to the opinions they had once formed; yet he had an exceptional talent for talking on religious subjects even with those who differed from him. Few men have been more solicitous for the happiness and comfort of others, even in little things. ”

“ During the second half of this missionary period of his life he superintended as bishop the churches of Pennsylvania, defended the Moravian colonies against the Indians at the time of war between France and England, became the apologist of his body against the attacks of the Lutherans and the Pietists, and did much to moderate the mystical extravagances of Zinzendorf, with which his simple, practical and healthy nature was out of sympathy. ”

“ Thus the Brethren, attacked from so many sides, were bound to bestir themselves in self-defence. The burden of reply fell on Zinzendorf. His life and conversation were described as scandalous; his hymns were denounced as filthy abominations, and his discourses as pleas for immorality; and the Brethren for whose sake he had sacrificed his fortune were held up before the British public as political conspirators, atheists, robbers of the poor, kidnappers of children, ruiners of families, and lascivious lovers of pleasure. But the Count was a busy man. ”

“ If a missionary could only show the fathom he was sure of a kindly welcome. In his second journey Zinzendorf went to Shekomeko, organised the first Indian Mission Church, and baptized three converts as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In his third journey he visited the Wyoming Valley, and interviewed the chiefs of the Shawanese and Mohicans. He was here in deadly peril. As he sat one afternoon in his tent two hissing adders darted across his body; and a few days later some suspicious Indians plotted to take his life. But a government agent arrived on the scene, and Zinzendorf's scalp was saved. ”

“ That Zinzendorf’s “servants” should be free from military service was admitted by all, but Oglethorpe thought three men must be furnished to represent Zinzendorf, Spangenberg and Nitschmann (the Hausmeister) , the three free-holders, and suggested that Lieutenant Hermsdorf might take one place. Nitschmann said that would not do, that the Moravians “could not and would not fight,” and there the matter rested. Nitschmann wrote to Zinzendorf, begging him to come to London, and interview the Trustees, but advised that he wait for Oglethorpe’s return from Georgia some nine months later. ”

“ But the financial disease was too deep-seated to be so easily cured. The managers of the English Diaconies had been extremely foolish. They had invested £67,000 with one Gomez Serra, a Portuguese Jew. Gomez Serra suddenly stopped payment, the £67,000 was lost, and thus the Brethren's liabilities were now nearly £100,000 {1752.}. Again Zinzendorf, in generous fashion, came to the rescue of his Brethren. He acted in England exactly as he had acted at Herrnhaag. ”

“ The refugees who came to this asylum (between 1722 and 1732—the first detachment under Christian David) from various regions where persecution raged, belonged to more than one Protestant organization. Persecution had made them cling pertinaciously to small peculiarities of creed, organization and worship, and they could scarcely be persuaded to live in peace with each other. Zinzendorf devoted himself to them. He, with his wife and children, lived in Herrnhut and brought Rothe with him. ”

“ The great lack of harmony prevailing among the members makes my congregation seem like a kingdom not at one with itself, and therefore near its ruin." (335.) The unionism indulged in also accounts for the trouble which the Swedes experienced with the emissaries of Zinzendorf: L. T. Nyberg, Abr. Reinke, and P. D. Bryzelius (who severed his connection with the Moravians in 1760, became a member of the Pennsylvania Synod, and in 1767 was ordained by the Bishop of London) . ”

“ Toeltschig washed the feet of the Brethren; we remained together until very late, and were truly blessed.”
Aim and Attainment.
When the “first company” left Herrnhut for London and the New World, they took with them Count Zinzendorf’s formal “Instructions” for the conduct of their affairs:
“I shall not attempt to tell you what you are to do from day to day. I know that in many ways Love will lead you, prepare the way, and point out your path. I shall only bid you remember the principles and customs of our Congregation, in which, if you stand fast, you will do well. ”

“ He even made the lad appear a sneak. "My tutor," says Zinzendorf, "often persuaded me to write letters to my guardian complaining of my hard treatment, and then showed the letters to the inspector."
In vain little Lutz laid his case before his mother. Crisenius thrashed him to such good purpose that he never dared to complain again; and his mother still held that he needed drastic medicine. "I beseech you," she wrote to Franke, "be severe with the lad; if talking will not cure him of lying, then let him feel it." ”

“ At this time there was no thought of separating from the State Church and establishing a distinct denomination, and Zinzendorf believed that the Unitas Fratrum could exist as a ‘society’ working in, and in harmony with, the State Church of whatever nation it might enter. This idea, borrowed probably from Spener’s “ecclesiolae in ecclesia”, clung to him, even after circumstances had forced the Unity to declare its independence and the validity of the ordination of its ministry, and many otherwise inexplicable things in the later policy of the Church may be traced to its influence. ”

“ Mack, and his wife, who accompanied him, he pitched his tent upon the western bank of the Susquehanna, a little below the present village of Kingston, at the foot of a high hill, and near a place in the river known as Toby's Eddy. A tribe of the Shawnees had a village upon the site of Kingston. They held a council to listen to the communications of the missionaries, but, suspicious of all white men, they could not believe that Zinzendorf and his companions had crossed the Atlantic for the sole purpose of promoting the spiritual welfare of the Indians. ”

“ As the boys grew up to man's estate they invited others to join their ranks; the doctrinal basis was broad; and among the members in later years were John Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, Cardinal Noailles, the broad-minded Catholic, and General Oglethorpe, Governor of Georgia. For an emblem they had a small shield, with an "Ecce Homo," and the motto, "His wounds our healing"; and each member of the Order wore a gold ring, inscribed with the words, "No man liveth unto himself." The Grand Master of the Order was Zinzendorf himself. ”

“ Chief among these teachers was the brave, steadfast, and pious David Zeisberger, a learned and diligent man, and an apostle of zeal and love not less than Eliot's. He was born in Moravia, but his early life was passed at Herrnhut, whither his parents repaired at Zinzendorf's invitation; and he was eighty-seven years old when he died, in 1808. Of these years he had spent sixty-two in unceasing labors among the Indians, without reward save such as came to him through the sense of good work well done; for he always refused to “become a hireling,” and never took pay for his missionary services. ”

“ A curious letter, dated December, 1739, is published in Doddridge’s Diary and Correspondence, vol. iii., p. 265, in which Zinzendorf addresses Doddridge as “the very reverend man, much beloved in the bowels of the blessed Redeemer, pastor of Northampton, and vigilant theologian.” Recounting the triumphs of the gospel, he tells the Northampton pastor that Switzerland has heard the truth; Greenland resounds with the gospel; thirty Caffrarians had been baptized; and a thousand negroes in the West Indies. Savannah, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, Berbice, and Surinam were expecting fruit ”

“ At the Synod of Marienborn, in A.D. 1764, the constitution was revised and perfected. Zinzendorf’s monarchical prerogative was surrendered to the eldership, and Spangenberg prudently secured the withdrawal of all excrescences and extravagances. But the central idea of a special covenant was not touched, and Sept. 16th is still held as a grand pentecost festival. In the fifth section of the statutes of the United Brethren at Gnaden, 1819, it distinguishes itself from all the churches as a “society of true children of God; as a family of God, with Jesus as its head.” ”

“ Everything or nothing. No modifications.” This was German rodomontade; for, rather than lose his Bill, he relinquished his claim to be empowered to coerce the bishops and clergy of the English Church to grant the certificates. The Act of Parliament was passed on the 12th of May, 1749. A few months afterwards, Zinzendorf published a folio volume, entitled “Acta Fratrum in Angliâ,” and containing, besides the Moravian public negotiations in England, an exposition of the Moravian doctrine, liturgy, etc. ”

“ In 1722 two Moravian families, led by Christian David, settled at Herrnhut, near Dresden, on lands set apart by Count Zinzendorf. From that spot as a centre this humble body of sincere Christians has illuminated the world by its missionary devotion, carrying the spirit and the teachings of Huss to regions of whose existence that good man never dreamed, even to the remotest ends of the earth and the most destitute populations—the islands of the West Indies, the Mosquito Coast, Greenland and Labrador, the natives of Australia, the lepers of Jerusalem, the table-land of Thibet. ”

“ A number of Salzburgers who were to go to Georgia with General Oglethorpe, though not on the same ship, were under the leadership of the young Baron von Reck with whom Zinzendorf had corresponded during the early stages of the Moravian negotiations, and the Baron called on the second company several times, offered to assist them in any way in his power, and expressed the wish that the Moravians and Salzburgers could live together in Georgia. Nitschmann doubted the wisdom of the plan, but courteously agreed to refer it to Zinzendorf, who, however, refused his sanction. ”

“ Still the Moravians stood firm in their position, indeed they could do nothing else without stultifying themselves. The instructions from Zinzendorf and the leaders of the Church at Herrnhut, with the approval of the lot, were definite,—they should take no part in military affairs, but might pay any fines incurred by refusal. To Oglethorpe and to the Trustees they had explained their scruples, making freedom of conscience an essential consideration of their settling in Georgia, and from them they had received assurances that only freeholders were liable to military duty. ”

“ From this document it appears that even at this early stage of the negotiations Zinzendorf’s plans for the settlement in Georgia were well matured. A town was to be built by his colonists, where they should have all privileges for the free exercise of their religion; they, as thrifty citizens, were to assist in the upbuilding of Georgia; they were to preach the gospel to the heathen; they were NOT to bear arms, but in case of war to pay a double tax. ”

“ Regarding the Moravian request for permission to leave, the Trustees declined to give instructions until after an exchange of letters with Zinzendorf; but in a second letter to his Congregation, the Count wrote, “If some do not wish to remain, let them go,” and “if the authorities will not do what you demand it is certain that you must break up and go further; but whether to Pennsylvania, or New York or Carolina, the Lord will show you.” ”