As the sun went down I strolled once more to the Gottesacker and dreamt away a twilight hour on the gallery of the pavilion. As the golden radiance vanished from off the face of the landscape, and the stillness became yet more profound, I thought that many a heart weary of battling with the world might find in the Work and Worship of Herrnhut a relief from despair, and a new ground for hopefulness.
When I went back to the inn I found half a dozen grave-looking Brethren smoking a quiet pipe over a tankard of beer. We had some genial talk together while I ate my supper; but as ten o'clock approached they all withdrew. The doors were then fastened; and not a sound disturbed the stillness of the night. The watchers began their nightly duty; but they utter no cry as they go their rounds, leading a fierce dog by a thong, while three or four other dogs run at liberty. Should their aid be required in any house from sickness or other causes, a signal is given by candles placed in the window.
CHAPTER XXIX.
About Herrnhut—Persecutions in Moravia—A Wandering Carpenter—Good Tidings—Fugitives—Squatters on the Hutberg—Count Zinzendorf's Steward—The First Tree—The First House—Scoffers—Origin of the Name—More Fugitives—Foundation of the Union—Struggles and Encouragements—Buildings—Social Regulations—Growth of Trade—War and Visitors—Dürninger's Enterprise—Population—Schools—Settlements—Missions—Life at Herrnhut—Recreations—Festivals—Incidents of War—March of Troops—Praise and Thank-Feasts.
While I sat by the monument of the first tree, and lingered in the glow of sunset at the pavilion, a desire came upon me to know something more of the history of Herrnhut. I partly gratify it in the present chapter.
When the sanguinary Hussite wars ended in the triumph of the Jesuits, there remained in Bohemia and Moravia numbers of godly-minded Protestants, who, as the oppressor grew in strength, were forbidden the free exercise of their religion. They worshipped by stealth, hiding in caves and thickets, and suffered frightful persecution; but remained steadfast, and formed a union among themselves for mutual succour, and became the United Brethren. Their chief settlements were at Fulnek, in Moravia, and Lititz, in Bohemia. Though professing the principles of the earliest Christian church, many of them embraced the doctrines of Luther and Calvin, whereby they subjected themselves to aggravated persecutions; and cruelly were they smitten by the calamities of the Thirty Years' War.
About 1710 a Roman Catholic carpenter set out from the little Moravian village, Senftleben, to fulfil his three "wander-years," and gain experience in his trade. While working at Berlin, he frequented the Evangelical Lutheran church; and afterwards at Görlitz the impression made on his mind by a Lutheran preacher was such that he went back to his home a Protestant. He was a bringer of good tidings to some of his relatives who were among the persecuted. He could tell them of a kingdom beyond the frontier where they might worship unmolested; of a youthful Count Zinzendorf, who had large estates in the hill-country of Saxony, and was already known as a benefactor to such as suffered for conscience' sake.
It was on Whit-Monday, 1722, that Christian David—so the carpenter was named—brought the news. Three days later, two families, numbering ten persons, abandoned their homes, and under David's guidance came safely to Görlitz, after a nine days' journey. On the 8th of June the four men travelled to Hennersdorf, the residence of Zinzendorf's grandmother, who placed them under charge of the land-steward, with instructions that houses should be built for them. But as the steward wrote to his master, "the good people seek for the present a place only under which they may creep with wife and children, until houses be set up." After much consideration, it was resolved to build on the Hutberg, a hill traversed by the road from Loebau to Zittau—then a miserable track, in which vehicles sank to their axles. "God will help," replied the steward to one of his friends, who doubted the finding of water on the spot; and on the two following mornings he rose before the sun and went upon the hill to observe the mists. What he saw led him to believe in the existence of a spring; whereupon he took courage, and, as he tells the Count, "I laid the miseries and desires of these people before the Lord with hot tears, and besought Him that His hand might be with me, and prevent wherein my intentions were unpleasing to Him. Further I said, On this place will I build the first house for them in thy name."
A temporary residence was found for the fugitives; the benevolent grandmother gave a cow that the children might have milk; and on June 17th, as already mentioned, the first tree was felled by Christian David. On the 11th of August the house was erected; the preacher at Berthelsdorf took occasion to refer to it as "a light set on the hill to enlighten the whole land;" and in October it was taken possession of with prayer and thanksgiving, the exiles singing from their hearts—
"Jerusalem! God's city thou."