It was no easy task which he undertook, for the Moravians insisted on retaining their ancient discipline, and he must needs try to please them and at the same time preserve the bond of union with the State Church, --the Lutheran, -- of which, as his tenants, they were officially considered members.His tact and great personal magnetism at last healed the differences which had sprung up between the settlers, the opportune finding of Comenius' `Ratio Disciplinae' enabled them with certainty to formulate rules that agreed with those of the ancient Unitas Fratrum, and a marked outpouring of the Holy Spirit at a Communion, August 13th, 1727, sealed the renewal of the Church.
"They walked with God in peace and love, But failed with one another;While sternly for the faith they strove, Brother fell out with brother;But He in Whom they put their trust, Who knew their frames, that they were dust, Pitied and healed their weakness.
"He found them in His House of prayer, With one accord assembled, And so revealed His presence there, They wept for joy and trembled;One cup they drank, one bread they brake, One baptism shared, one language spake, Forgiving and forgiven.
"Then forth they went with tongues of flame In one blest theme delighting, The love of Jesus and His Name God's children all uniting!
That love our theme and watchword still;
That law of love may we fulfill, And love as we are loved."(Montgomery.)
At this time there was no thought of separating from the State Church and establishing a distinct denomination, and Zinzendorf believed that the Unitas Fratrum could exist as a `society' working in, and in harmony with, the State Church of whatever nation it might enter.
This idea, borrowed probably from Spener's "ecclesiolae in ecclesia", clung to him, even after circumstances had forced the Unity to declare its independence and the validity of the ordination of its ministry, and many otherwise inexplicable things in the later policy of the Church may be traced to its influence.
Halle Opposition.
In 1734 Zinzendorf took orders in the Lutheran Church, but this, and all that preceded it, seemed to augment rather than quiet the antagonism which the development of Herrnhut aroused in certain quarters.
This opposition was not universal.The Moravians had many warm friends and advocates at the Saxon Court, at the Universities of Jena and Tuebingen, and elsewhere, but they also had active enemies who drew their inspiration principally from the University of Halle.
The opposition of Halle seems to have been largely prompted by jealousy.
In 1666 a revolt against the prevailing cold formalism of the Lutheran Church was begun by Philip Jacob Spener, a minister of that Church, who strongly urged the need for real personal piety on the part of each individual.His ideas were warmly received by some, and disliked by others, who stigmatized Spener and his disciples as "Pietists", but the doctrine spread, and in the course of time the University of Halle became its centre.Among those who were greatly attracted by the movement were Count Zinzendorf's parents and grandparents, and when he was born, May 26th, 1700, Spener was selected as his sponsor.
Being of a warm-hearted, devout nature, young Zinzendorf yielded readily to the influence of his pious grandmother, to whose care he was left after his father's death and his mother's second marriage, and by her wish he entered the Paedagogium at Halle in 1710, remaining there six years.Then his uncle, fearing that he would become a religious enthusiast, sent him to the University of Wittenberg, with strict orders to apply himself to the study of law.Here he learned to recognize the good side of the Wittenberg divines, who were decried by Halle, and tried to bring the two Universities to a better understanding, but without result.
In 1719 he was sent on an extensive foreign tour, according to custom, and in the picture gallery of Duesseldorf saw an Ecce Homo with its inscription "This have I done for thee, what hast thou done for me?"which settled him forever in his determination to devote his whole life to the service of Christ.
Rather against his wishes, Count Zinzendorf then took office under the Saxon Government, but about the same time he bought from his grandmother the estate of Berthelsdorf, desiring to establish a centre of piety, resembling Halle.The coming of the Moravian and other refugees and their settlement at Herrnhut, near Berthelsdorf, was to him at first only an incident; but as their industry and the preaching of Pastor Rothe, whom he had put in charge of the Berthelsdorf Lutheran Church, began to attract attention, he went to Halle, expecting sympathy from his friends there.Instead he met with rebuke and disapproval, the leaders resenting the fact that he had not placed the work directly under their control, and apparently realizing, as he did not, that the movement would probably lead to the establishment of a separate church.
In spite of their disapprobation, the work at Herrnhut prospered, and the more it increased the fiercer their resentment grew.That they, who had gained their name from their advocacy of the need for personal piety, should have been foremost in opposing a man whose piety was his strongest characteristic, and a people who for three hundred years, in prosperity and adversity, in danger, torture and exile, had held "Christ and Him Crucified" as their Confession of Faith, and pure and simple living for His sake as their object in life, is one of the ironies of history.
Nor did the Halle party confine itself to criticism.Some years later Zinzendorf was for a time driven into exile, and narrowly escaped the confiscation of all his property, while its methods of obstructing the missionary and colonizing efforts of the Moravians will appear in the further history of the Georgia colony.
