Christian David, a Moravian carpenter, a descendant of an ancient and a persecuted race, and himself a man who went far and wide, preaching the gospel, came to the Count at Dresden, and informed him that, in Moravia, were descendants of the ancient Waldenses, who had fled from an exterminating persecution into Bohemia, who had there joined the followers of Huss, and formed the Taborite party. When the Jesuits and Ferdinand II. had begun their bloody extirpation of Protestantism in Bohemia, the remnant of this party had emigrated, when all hope of resistance was at an end; and, a hundred years after, they appeared again in Moravia. Here, they were, at this moment, the victims of continued persecution, and were casting about their eyes for a place of refuge and of The intelligence was, to the Count, like a message from heaven. To save the remnant of this ancient church; to give it a place of retreat and restoration; to make it an instrument in the promotion of a purer and more active faith, were objects so exactly after his heart and his unceasing desires, that he at once promised them a cordial welcome. rest. Christian David set off with the glad tidings, and soon after appeared at Hernhut, with a band of pilgrims, who had sacrificed all they possessed in Moravia, to seek a more auspicious home there. The Count was then on a journey; but Christian David planned, with the pilgrims, the place of their settlement. They pitched on a situation for their dwellings; and the spot where they cut down the first tree, is now marked with a monument, which stands near the highway, and is still in the wood. Temporary huts only were raised here: the site of the village, on the arrival of the Count, was fixed a little short of this spot. Here, at this moment, you are as much immured in the forest as the first settlers were; while the village itself is but a few hundred yards before you. Pleasant walks, in all directions, are, with the best taste, carried through these woods from Hernhut; so that visitors, or the inhabitants, can still please themselves with a very lively impression of the scene as it first appeared to the settlers; while a most charming rural solitude is preserved to the lovers of it in the place. 6 The monument is of granite, plain, and bearing this inscription: On the 17th of January, 1722, was, on this spot, for the building of Hernhut, the first tree felled.' The quotation from the Psalms is: 'Well for them who dwell in thy house; who praise thee for evermore.' The expression in the 10th verse of the Psalm, 'der Thür hüten in meines Gottes Hause,' (to watch, or keep the door, in the house of my God,) is closely connected with the choice of the name of their community, 'Hernhüter,' (the Lord's Watchers,) and 'Hernhut,' (the Lord's Watch.) An open space is left around this interesting monument; and the green foliage of the forest makes a living scene about this quiet and memorable spot. The Count, hastening to greet the arrival of these pilgrims, beheld, as he drove along the road towards Bertholdsdorf, a little on the right, a temporary dwelling erected on this spot, and alighting hastened into it, welcomed the simple people with most cordial greetings, embraced them, and, kneeling down with them on their new hearth, thanked God with them that they had at length found a spot of rest, and prayed for His blessing on their abode here. He quickly joined them in selecting the best location, and laying out the plan of their village. By the able and zealous aid of Christian David, these were soon settled, and huts raised for their present habitations, and the clearing of ground sufficient for their subsistence commenced. More emigrants arrived from time to time; the colony flourished rapidly. A zealous minister was provided for the neighbouring church of Bertholdsdorf, who for some time took also the pastoral charge of the new settlement. The more the Count saw of this simple and truly Christian people, the more he learned of their faith and history, the more his heart clung to them; and the more he became persuaded that Providence intended, through them, to effect some great work. He made over the whole of his purchase to the purposes of his new community. He hastened to retire from the (to him) uncongenial court. He came and settled himself down per manently here. He had married a lady, the Gräfin Reuss, the sister of one of his most dear old college friends, who, as the event proved, was, of all women, the very one most adapted to his sentiments, his views, and the work he had before him. Able, zealous, sincerely pious, a perfect lady in mind, manners, and rank: she went, step for step, in all his plans with him, and took off his hands all that host of domestic affairs, and the superintendence of the general female affairs of the community, which in time came to be so weighty and multifarious. The commencement of the Moravian missions, which have become so wonderfully extensive, was, apparently, the result of accident. As Count Zinzendorf was in Copenhagen in 1731, he met with a negro from St. Thomas' in the West Indies, who lamented that his sister there could not hear the gospel. Here also he heard of the labours and difficulties of Hans Egede in Greenland; and a new world was opened to him. Missions were sent to St. Thomas', to Greenland, to Labrador, to the Cape, to Egypt, to Turkey, to the East Indies; and out of these have grown the amazing fruits of the Hernhuters' great missionary zeal. No body of Christians, with the same means and the same numbers, have achieved such miracles; and no preachers amongst the heathen have conducted themselves with more faithfulness, indefatigable zeal, brotherly kindness, simple truth, and true and persevering sagacity. So early as 1823, they had sixteen settlements in Germany; three in Denmark; five in Sweden; one at Zeist in the Netherlands; seventeen in England; one in Scotland; four in Ireland; one in Russia; and upwards of twenty in North America. The inhabitants of these settlements then amounted to about 17,000; and yet had this little quiet body in their various missionary stations-in Greenland, Labrador, North America, amongst the Indians, in the West Indies, South America, South Africa, and amongst the Calmucks in the steppes of Asiatic Russia, no less a number of converts than 30,000. There is nothing more interesting than watching the pro gress of a body like this, after ages of persecution, till it reaches that point of time when, like a seed buried by the hand of Providence below the influence of sun and air, it is turned up, and shoots and spreads forth on all sides for the accomplishment of some great end,-to see these people, who were unconsciously prepared and brought together for the purpose, to watch them going hand in hand, working at the plan, which is to grow beyond their own warmest conceptions into amazing greatness. Thus it was with Count Zinzendorf, his faithful patriarch, Christian David, his Bohemian pilgrimns, his true friend, Baron Watteville, and his admirable wife. There are no circumstances under which we can suppose human happiness so perfect, as when congenial spirits create, as it were, a new world to themselves; feel themselves active agents in the hands of Providence for human good; and, with the firmest faith in the Divine Spirit, go on through the labours of earth, rejoicing, towards a certain heaven, with the blessings of thousands attending them, and the grateful honour of long ages following them. ON A SURVEY OF THE HEAVENS, BEFORE DAY-RREAK.-H. K. White. [An example of 'Expression' and ' Variation' in the successive forms of awe, adoration, reverence, self-humiliation, submission, and resignation.] Ye many twinkling stars who yet do hold Of night's dominion !-Planets, and central orbs And sagely comprehend,-thence higher soaring,- Of boundless space, above the rolling sphere The angelic hosts, in their inferior heaven, Catch the full note, and cry, The Lord is great!' From orb to orb, to the remotest verge Oh! 'tis this heavenly harmony which now And in thy boundless goodness wilt impart The pageant insects of a glittering hour. Oh! when reflecting on these truths sublime, The gauds and honours of the world appear! How vain ambition !-Why has my wakeful lamp |