BOOK FOUR.
The Modern Moravians.
BOOK FOUR.
THE MODERN MORAVIANS, 1857–1907.
WHEN the Brethren made their maiden speech in the Valley of Kunwald four hundred and
fifty years ago, they little thought that they were founding a Church that would
spread into every quarter of the civilized globe. If this narrative, however,
has been written to any purpose, it has surely taught a lesson of great moral
value; and that lesson is that the smallest bodies sometimes accomplish the
greatest results. At no period have the Brethren been very strong in numbers;
and yet, at every stage of their story, we find them in the forefront of the
battle. Of all the Protestant Churches in England, the Moravian Church is the
oldest; and wherever the Brethren have raised their standard, they have acted as
pioneers. They were Reformers sixty years before Martin Luther. They were the
first to adopt the principle that the Bible is the only standard of faith and
practice. They were among the first to issue a translation of the Bible from the
original Hebrew and Greek into the language of the people. They led the way, in
the Protestant movement, in the catechetical instruction of children. They
published the first Hymn Book known to history. They produced in Comenius the
great pioneer of modern education. They saved the Pietist movement in Germany
from an early grave; they prepared the way for the English Evangelical Revival;
and, above all, by example rather than by precept, they aroused in the
Protestant Churches of Christendom that zeal for the cause of foreign missions
which some writers have described as the crowning glory of the nineteenth
century. And now we have only one further land to explore. As the Moravians are
still among the least of the tribes of Israel, it is natural to ask why, despite
their smallness, they maintain their separate existence, what part they are
playing in the world, what share they are taking in the fight against the
Canaanite, for what principles they stand, what methods they employ, what
attitude they adopt towards other Churches, and what solution they offer of the
social and religious problems that confront us at the opening of the twentieth
century.
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