On March 12th, Toeltschig went aboard a ship, bound for Charlestown, sailing from Tybee two days later. On the 18th, he reached Charlestown, whence he sailed April 1st, bearing with him the record of their account with the Trustees, and commissioned to tell the authorities at Herrnhut all about the Georgia colony. On the 30th of May, the vessel touched at Cowes, where Toeltschig landed, making his way overland to London which he reached on the 2nd of June.
On the 11th of June, Toeltschig, accompanied by Richter, went to present the account to the Trustees. They asked him many questions concerning Georgia, all of which he answered frankly, receiving most courteous attention. Three days later a settlement was reached. The written accounts showed that the Moravians were short 3 Pounds 5 Shillings 5 Pence, which Toeltschig offered to pay in cash, but the Trustees said they realized that the supplies provided for in the second bond had been rated at a higher price in Georgia than in England, and they were content to consider the obligations as fully discharged, interest included. Toeltschig answered “I am VERY glad,” a short sentence which spoke volumes!
Wesley, Ingham and Toeltschig.
During the days which elapsed between his arrival in London and the meeting of the Trustees, Toeltschig had many interviews with those who had been “awakened” by the two companies of Moravian colonists, by Count Zinzendorf, and by Peter Boehler and George Schulius. The last two were even then at Portsmouth, on their way to America, and the interest caused by their visit was very manifest.
John and Charles Wesley had been particularly attracted to Boehler, the former especially finding great relief in laying his many spiritual perplexities before him. Wesley complained that when he conversed with Spangenberg in Georgia, and they could not agree on any point, Spangenberg would drop the subject and refuse to discuss it further, but in Boehler he found a clearness of argument, and power of persuasion which convinced without irritating him.
Having passed through many stages with the guidance, sympathy, and encouragement of Boehler, Wesley at last found the assurance of salvation he had sought for so many years, and three weeks after Boehler left London, he records that at a meeting of their society “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” A few days previously his brother Charles had made the same happy experience, and this gave to their religious life the warmth and fervor which, added to the zeal, industry and enthusiasm that had always characterized them, made their labors of so much value to England, and founded the denomination which has grown so rapidly in America, still bearing the name once given in derision to the little group of Oxford “Methodists”.
But Wesley’s mind was not one of those which can rest contentedly upon one vital truth, he must needs run the whole gamut of emotion, and resolve every point raised by himself or others into a definite negative or affirmative in his own life. Once settled in a position to his entire satisfaction, he was as immovable as a mountain, and this was at once the source of his power and his weakness, for thousands gladly followed the resolute man, and found their own salvation therein, while on the other hand the will which would never bend clashed hopelessly with those who wished sometimes to take their turn in leading. So he became an outcast from the Church of England, alienated from Ingham, Whitefield, and other friends of his youth, estranged from the Moravians, even while he was one of the greatest religious leaders England has ever produced.
At the time of Toeltschig’s sojourn in London, however, he was in the early, troubled stage of his experience, rejoicing in what he had attained through Boehler’s influence, but beset with doubts and fears. And so, as he records in his Journal, he determined “to retire for a short time into Germany, where he hoped the conversing with those holy men who were themselves living witnesses of the full power of faith, and yet able to bear with those that are weak, would be a means, under God, of so establishing his soul, that he might go on from faith to faith, and from strength to strength.”
Ingham, meanwhile, informed of Toeltschig’s arrival in London, had hastened “over one hundred and forty miles” to see his friend, a fact that seems to have touched Toeltschig deeply, and arranged to go with him to Herrnhut, as they had often planned while still in Georgia. John Wesley joined them, and the three young men sailed on June 24th, landing at Rotterdam two days later. Wesley’s Journal does not mention Toeltschig by name, but on leaving Rotterdam he says, “we were eight in all, five English and three Germans,” and there is no doubt that Toeltschig went with them to Marienborn to report to Count Zinzendorf, who was living there during his temporary exile from Herrnhut.
In Rotterdam, Dr. Koker showed the party much kindness, while at Baron von Watteville’s in Ysselstein, they were received “as at home”. At Amsterdam, they joined in the meeting of the “societies” established under Moravian influences, and from there proceeded to Cologne, and up the Rhine to Frankfort. Having neglected to supply themselves with passports, they experienced much difficulty whenever they reached a walled city, sometimes being refused admittance altogether, and at other times being allowed to enter only after much delay, which caused Wesley to “greatly wonder that common sense and common humanity do not put an end to this senseless, inhuman usage of strangers.” When any of their number had an acquaintance in the city to which they had come they sent in a note to him, and he would arrange for their entrance, and at Frankfort they applied to Peter Boehler’s father, who entertained them “in the most friendly manner.”