A History of the Moravian Church

s we enter on the closing stages of our journey, the character of the land-scape changes; and, leaving behind the wild land of romance and ad-venture, we come out on the broad, high road of slow but steady progress.The death of Zinzendorf was no crushing blow. At first some enemies ofthe Brethren rejoiced, and one prophet triumphantly remarked: "We shallnow see an end of these Moravians." But thatout his mantle. Already the Brethren were sufficiently strong to realize theircalling in the world. In Saxony they had established powerful congregationsat Herrnhut and Kleinwelke; in Silesia, at Niesky, Gnadenberg, Gnadenfreiand Neusalz; in Central Germany, at Ebersdorf, Neudietendorf and Barby;in North Germany, at Rixdorf and Berlin; in West Germany, at Neuwied-on-the-Rhine; in Holland, at Zeist, near Utrecht. At first sight this list doesnot look very impressive; but we must, of course, bear in mind that mostof these congregations were powerful settlements, that each settlement wasengaged in Diaspora work, and that the branches of that work had extendedto Denmark, Switzerland and Norway. In Great Britain a similar principleheld good. In England the Brethren had flourishing causes at Fulneck, Gom-ersal, Mirfield, Wyke, Ockbrook, Bedford, Fetter Lane, Tytherton, Dukin-field, Leominster; in Ireland, at Dublin, Gracehill, Gracefield, Ballinderryand Kilwarlin; and around each of these congregations were numerous so-cieties and preaching places. In North America they had congregations atBethlehem, Emmaus, Graceham, Lancaster, Lititz, Nazareth, New Dorp,New York, Philadelphia, Schoeneck and York (York Co.); and in addition,a number of preaching places. In Greenland they had built the settlementsof New Herrnhut and Lichtenau. In the West Indies they had establishedcongregations in St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Jan, Jamaica and Antigua. InBerbice and Surinam they had three main centres of work. Among the RedIndians Zeisberger was busily engaged. As accurate statistics are not avail-able, I am not able to state exactly how many Moravians there were then inthe world; but we know that in the mission-field alone they had over a thou-sand communicant members and seven thousand adherents under their spe-cial care.As soon, then, as the leading Brethren in Herrnhut-such as John de Wat-teville, Leonard Dober, David Nitschmann, the Syndic, Frederick Köber,and others-had recovered from the shock occasioned by Zinzendorf's death,they set about the difficult task of organizing the work of the whole Mora-vian Church. First, they formed a provisional Board of Directors, known time the prophet spoke with-