Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

'Paul writes to the Corinthians-" I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified,”— ' is a firmly established rule for us in preaching to the heathen." (Spangenberg's account of the manner in which the United Brethren carry on their missions among the Heathens. Section 44, 45, 46.)

Before we give any more extracts from Spangenberg, we cannot help remarking on the efficacy of the simple word upon minds totally unfurnished by any previous discipline whatever. This is something more than matter of faith; it is matter of experience it is the result of many an actual experiment upon human nature. And how comes it, therefore, that philosophers of the day are so often found to flinch from their favourite evidence on every question connected with the truth and the progress of Christianity? The efficacy of the Bible alone, upon simple and unfurnished minds, is a fact; and the finest examples of it are to be found in almost every page of the annals of Moravianism. The worthy men of this denomination have long laboured in the field of missionary exertion, and Greenland was one scene of their earliest enterprises. In their progress thither, they were furnished with a cloistered speculation on the likeliest method of obtaining access to the mind of a savage for the truths of Christianity. These men had gone out of Germany without any other instruments for their work than the Word of God in their hands, and a believing prayer in their hearts. But the author of this speculation had thought, and thought profoundly on the subject; and the humble brethren bowed for once to the wisdom of this world, when his synthetic process for the conversion of savages was put into their hands, and they took it along with them. Thus furnished, they entered upon the field of exertion; and never was human nature subjected to experiment under circumstances more favourable. Never did it come in a more simple and elementary state under the treatment of a foreign application. There was no disturbing cause to affect the result of this interesting trial; no bias of education to embarrass our conclusions; no mixture of any previous ingredient to warp and to darken the phenomena, or to throw a disguise over that clear and decisive principle which was on the eve of emerging from them. The rationalising process of the divine was first put into operation and it failed. Year after year did they take their departure from the simplicity of his first principles, and try to conduct the Greenlanders with them along the pathway which he had constructed for leading them to Christ. The Greenlanders refused to move a single step, and with as great obstinacy as the world of matter refuses to conform her processes to the fanciful theories of men. The brethren, disheartened at the result of an operation so fatiguing and so fruitless, resolved to vary the experi

[ocr errors]

ment, and throwing aside all their preparatory instructions, they brought the word of the testimony directly to bear upon them. The effect was instantaneous. God, who knoweth what is in man, knoweth also the kind of application that should be made to man. He glorified the word of his grace, and gave it efficacy. That word which he himself commanded to be preached to all nations, to the barbarians as well as the Greeks, is surely the mighty instrument for the pulling down of strong holds; and the Moravians have found it so. The Greenland experiment has furnished them with a principle which they carry along with them in all their enterprises. It has seldom failed them in any quarter of the globe; and they can now appeal to thousands and thousands of their converts, as so many distinct testimonies of the efficacy of the Bible.

We like to urge the case of the Moravians, for we think that much may be made of it in the way of reclaiming that unhallowed contempt which some of the ablest, and most accomplished men in this country have expressed for a righteous cause. The truth is, that these Moravians have of late become the objects of a sentimental admiration, and that too to men whom the power of Divine grace has not yet delivered from their natural enmity to the truth as it is in Jesus. Their numerous establishments, and the many interesting pictures of peace, and order, and industry, which they have reared among the wilds of Heathenism, have at length compelled the testimony of travellers. It is delightful to be told of the neat attire and cultivated gardens of savages; and we can easily conceive how a sprig of honeysuckle, at the cottage door of a Hottentot, may extort some admiring and poetical prettiness from a charmed spectator, who would shrink offended from the peculiarities of the Gospel. Now they are right as to the fact. It is all very true about the garden and the honeysuckle; but they are most egregiously wrong as to the principle; and when they talk of these Moravians as the most rational of missionaries, because they furnish their converts with the arts and the comforts of life, before they ever think of pressing upon them the mysteries of their faith, they make a most glaring departure from the truth, and that too in the face of information and testimony afforded by the very men whom they profess to admire. It is not true that Moravians are distinguished from other missionaries by training their disciples to justice and morality, and labour, in the first instance; and by refraining to exhort to faith and self-abasement. It is not true, nor does it consist with the practice of the Moravians, that in regard to savages, some advance towards civilization is necessary preparatory to any attempt to christianize them. This attempt is made at the very outset; and should they meet with a fellow creature in the lowest state of uncultivation, it is enough for them that he

[ocr errors]

is a man; do they wait the issue of any preparation whatever previously to laying before him the will of God for the salvation of mankind? The degree of cultivation, it should appear, is a thing merely accidental. It has too slender an influence upon the result to be admitted into their calculations; nor does it affect the operation of those great principles which are concerned in the transition of a human soul out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel. Why lavish all your admiration upon the sensible effect, while ye shrink in disgust from the explanation of the principle? Why, ye votaries of science, whose glory it is to connect phenomena with their causes, why do you act so superficially in this instance, and leave with the fanatics, whom you despise, all the credit of a manly and unshrinking philosophy? They can tell you all about it, for they were present at every step of the process; and the most striking development of the natural enmity ever witnessed, is to be seen in that mixture of contempt and incredulity, and wonder, with which you listen to them. One might be amused at observing so much of the pride of philosophy combined with so glaring a dereliction of all its principles; but a feeling more serious is awakened when we think of that which is spoken of in the prophecies of Habakkuk : "I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you."" Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish!"

Although it is at the hazard of extending this article to a disproportionate length, yet we feel strongly tempted to present another extract from Spangenberg. It tends to prove that the work of civilization is altogether subsequent to the work of conversion; and that the attempts of the United Brethren in this way, are among men whom they had previously reclaimed from Heathenism, by that peculiar method of evangelizing which has been already insisted on. We shall make no other change in the extract than to throw into Italics those parts of it which bear most decisively upon the argument in question.

'It is likewise a concern of the brethren, that have the care of 'the heathen, to bring those that are converted to our Saviour into good order outwardly. We have found in most places 'where brethren dwell among the Heathen, that the latter go on ' without much care or thinking. Were they with suitable con'sideration to regulate their matters duly, to take care and manage what Providence gives to them, they would not so ' often be driven to the utmost distress. But instead of that, 'they are idle when they should labour, and when they have any thing to eat, they will squander it in an extravagant manner; and afterward they are miserably distressed for want of food, ' and tormented by the cares of this life.

[ocr errors]

'But when they are baptised, the brethren advise them to a

'regular labour, e. g. to plant in due season, to hunt, to fish, and do every thing needful: they also learn of the brethren how to keep and preserve what they may get for the winter. And being incapable of making a proper calculation, (for they 'have no almanacks,) and to regulate themselves according to 'the seasons, the brethren also assist them in this respect. I "will illustrate this by an instance or two. Dried herrings are of great use to the Greenlanders in winter for their subsistence; but when they grow wet they are spoiled. To obviate this the 'brethren not only encourage the Greenlanders to be diligent in catching herrings at the proper season, but also to dry them well, and assist them in preserving them dry. If the brethren are among the Indians, they endeavour to get them to clear 'their fields at the right time, to surround them with hedges, 'plant them with Indian wheat, and to cut it down in a proper manner; thus a difference is very perceptible between their people and other Indians, for if those Indians who have 'lected planting suffer hunger, the others have always so much as to be able to spare a part of it to them.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

6

neg

Various things occasionally occur which must be brought 'into order among the heathen that are converted to Christ. If (e. g.) a provider dies in Greenland, (thus they call the head "of the family,) the widow and her orphans are worse off than 'one can imagine. Or if a husband loses his wife, and she ' has left a small child that still wants the mother's breast, he is as badly off, for it is very difficult to get a Greenland woman to suckle any child but her own. Hence it is that those "Greenlanders that are yet heathen, and live among heathen, find themselves obliged at times to bury such a motherless 'infant alive. Now if the case occurs that the wife of an ❝ husband dies, leaving a sucking child behind, the brethren do ' not rest till they find a person that will take care of the little orphan, and give it suck with her own child. If the husband 'dies, they divide the orphans, and take care to have them properly educated, and likewise that the widow may be supplied with the necessaries of life. In sicknesses, likewise, which 'happen among the heathen, the brethren are obliged frequently to take care of their people.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

There are indeed some people among the heathen, that know ' good remedies for various disorders, and for this reason they are made use of by others. Among the Indians in North 'America, there are (e. g.) people who successfully cure the bite of serpents, and to whom the neighbouring Europeans have 6 recourse in such cases. Also among the negroes in the West Indies are skilful and experienced persons, to whom others - apply in their diseases. But these heathenish doctors are 'jugglers, and generally affect to shew they cure the sick by

'magic. Therefore believers from among the heathen when 'sick, consult their teachers, and often apply with success such ' remedies as they have for their own use.

Moreover, divers misfortunes that occur in the congregations among the heathen, reduce the brethren to the necessity of 'taking care of them, also, in respect to their outward concerns. There was (e. g.) a congregation of Indians at Chekameka in the district of New York, which had formerly, in a fit of 'intoxication, and while they were still heathen, sold the right to their land for a trifle, and when, afterward, they became 'converted, occasion was taken from this to drive them out of 'their country. Most of these people took refuge with the 'brethren at Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, and were with the 'consent of the governor of Pennsylvania, received and treated in a brotherly and hospitable manner. A piece of land was 'purchased for them on the Mahoni, which answered the purpose of hunting as well as for the cultivation of their corn, and they were assisted by the brethren in building, and in the management of their outward matters.

[ocr errors]

The same thing happened with other Indians, who were 'obliged to quit the land they had sold at Wechquatnach.

"The Indian congregation at Meniolagomekah experienced < the same fate, and the brethren could not forbear lending them 'a helping hand in such circumstances, and caring for their 'support.

<

In the year 1755, the brethren who lived with the Indian congregation at the Mahoni, were surprised at the beginning ' of the night, by those Indians who had taken up the hatchet against the English, (that is according to their language had 'begun the war.) They killed eleven of the brethren, dispersed the whole congregation, and laid the whole place in ashes. 'But the brethren sought again for the scattered sheep, took 'them to Bethlehem where they provided for them, and took 'the same care of their souls as they had done before.' (Spangenberg, § 69, 70, 71.)

We have one remark more to offer on this part of the subject. Had the missionary system of the United Brethren attracted, 50 years ago, the attention of the same men of general literature, who are now so eloquent in its praises, it is evident that it could not have achieved their homage, nor excited their sympathy. At that early period of their labours, they had not the same commanding spectacle to offer as the result of their missionary labours. Sufficient time had, not elapsed for the full effect and development of their principles; but they were busy at work with the principles themselves. They were preaching, and praying, and putting into action, the weapons of their spiritual

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »