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  POWER FOM ON HIGH
  by John Greenfield
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Greenfield's account of spiritual revivals and the vital role of prayer,
chronicling key movements including the 1727 Moravian revival at Herrnhut under
Count Zinzendorf. He details how sustained, fervent prayer preceded the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the resulting worldwide missionary movement.

  Chapters: 7

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. 01 - A Modern Pentecost
    2. 02 - When the Spirit Came
    3. 03 - The Spirit's Witness
    4. 04 - Witnesses Unto Me
    5. 05 - A New Song
    6. 06 - Fruit that Abides
    7. 07 - Renew Our Days

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  CHAPTER 1: 01 - A MODERN PENTECOST
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CHAPTER 1 A Modern Pentecost Lord God, the Holy Ghost, In this accepted hour, As
on the day of Pentecost, Descend in all Thy power.

We meet with one accord In our appointed place, And wait the promise of our
Lord, The Spirit of all grace. The young, the old inspire With wisdom from
above; And give us hearts and tongues of fire, To pray, and praise, and love.

THUS sang the Scottish Moravian poet and hymn­-writer, James Montgomery, more
than a hundred years ago. His prayer for another Pentecost was undoubtedly
inspired by the experiences of his spiritual fathers on August 13, 1727 in
Herrnhut, Germany. We are now celebrating the Bi-Centennial of what our Moravian
Text Book calls the "Signal outpouring of the Holy Spirit experienced by the
congregation of Herrnhut." We do well to join in Montgomery’s earnest prayer for
another Pentecost in our own day. D. L. Moody in one of his last sermons in
Boston, his spiritual birthplace, spoke thus of the Holy Spirit:

"See how He came on the day of Pentecost! It is not carnal to pray that He may
come again and that the place may be shaken. I believe Pentecost was but a
specimen day. I think the Church has made this woeful mistake that Pentecost was
a miracle never to be repeated. I have thought too that Pentecost was a miracle
that is not to be repeated. I believe now if we looked on Pentecost as a
specimen day and began to pray, we should have the old Pentecostal fire here in
Boston." A Moravian historian writes in a similar vein as follows: "God says:
‘It shall come to pass-I will pour.’ This was His promise through the prophet
Joel. The first fulfillment of this promise was on the day of Pentecost. There
is nothing in the New Testament to indicate that this was to be the one and only
fulfilment of this promise. On the contrary, we read in the book of Acts of many
outpourings of the Holy Spirit, as in Samaria (Acts 8:14-17) as in Ephesus (Acts
19:1-7) and even in the case of the Gentiles (Acts 10:44-46). Church history
also abounds in records of special outpourings of the Holy Ghost, and verily the
thirteenth of August, 1727, was a day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We
saw the hand of God and His wonders, and we were all under the cloud of our
fathers baptized with their Spirit. The Holy Ghost came upon us and in those
days great signs and wonders took place in our midst. From that time scarcely a
day passed but what we beheld His almighty workings amongst us. A great hunger
after the Word of God took possession of us so that we had to have three
services every day, viz. 5.0 and 7.30 a.m. and 9.0 p.m. Every one desired above
everything else that the Holy Spirit night have full control. Self-love and
self-will, as well as all disobedience, disappeared and an overwhelming flood of
grace swept us all out into the great ocean of Divine Love."

Exactly what happened that Wednesday forenoon, August 13, 1727, in the specially
called Communion service at Berthelsdorf, none of the participants could fully
describe. They left the house of God that noon "hardly knowing whether they
belonged to earth or had already gone to Heaven." Count Zinzendorf gave the
following account of it a number of years afterwards to a British audience:

"We needed to come to the Communion with a sense of the loving nearness of the
Saviour. This was the great comfort which has made this day a generation ago to
be a festival, because on this day twenty-seven years ago the Congregation of
Herrnhut, assembled for com­munion (at the Berthelsdorf church) were all
dissatisfied with themselves. They had quit judging each other because they had
become convinced, each one, of his lack of worth in the sight of God and each
felt himself at this Communion to be in view of the noble countenance of the
Saviour.

O head so full of bruises, So full of pain and scorn.

"In this view of the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, their hearts told
them that He would be their patron and their priest who was at once changing
their tears into oil of gladness and their misery into happiness. This firm
confidence changed them in a single moment into a happy people which they are to
this day, and into their happiness they have since led many thousands of others
through the memory and the help which the heavenly grace once given to
themselves, so many thousand times confirmed to them since then." The following
summary is by our beloved Bishop Edward Rondthaler:

"Zinzendorf, who gives us the deepest and most vivid account of this wonderful
occurrence, says it was ’a sense of the nearness of Christ’ bestowed, in a
single moment, upon all the members that were present; and it was so unanimous
that two members at work twenty miles away, unaware that the meeting was being
held, became at the same time deeply conscious of the same blessing.

"These members were all laity, though at a later time, ministers and
missionaries, deacons, presbyters and bishops arose out of the wonderfully
blessed assemblage. They were all lay people, in the experience of Christ which
they made, and yet in another sense they were all ministers of Christ-‘A holy
priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ’
(1Pe 2:5).

"It was a young congregation which received the 13th of August blessing.
Zinzendorf, the human leader, was just twenty-seven years old, and if a census
had been taken, it would have been found that his own age was approximately the
average of the whole company. Throughout the story of the early labours of the
Renewed Church we are impressed with the comparative youth of the men and women
who made such wonderful ventures of faith for Jesus Christ."

Verily the history of the Moravian Church confirms the doctrine of the great
American evangelist as to the need and possibility of the baptism with the Holy
Ghost. The spiritual experiences of the Moravian Brethren two centuries ago bear
a striking resemblance to the Pentecostal power and results in the days of the
Apostles. The company of believers both at Jerusalem and Herrnhut numbered fewer
than three hundred souls. Both congregations were, humanly speaking, totally
devoid of worldly influence, wisdom, power and wealth. Their enemies called them
"unlearned and ignorant." Their best friend described them in the following
language: "Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called; but God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and the base things
of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in
His presence" (1Co 1:26-28). On both these small and weak congregations God
poured out His Holy Spirit and endued them with power from on high. At once
these believers, naturally timid and fearful, were transformed into flaming
evangelists. Supernatural knowledge and power seemed to possess them. "Mouth and
wisdom" were given them which "none of their adversaries were able to gainsay or
resist." Opposition and persecution scattered the Jerusalem con­gregation but
could not silence their testimony, for we are told: "Therefore, they that were
scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the Word" (Acts 8:4). Similar
experiences were the lot of the Moravian brethren. Sprung from the labours and
martyr-death of the great Bohemian Reformer, John Huss, "the Brethren" had
passed through centuries of persecution. Many had sealed their testimony with
their blood. Imprisonment, torture and banishment had caused them to forsake the
homes of their fathers and flee for refuge to Germany where a young Christian
nobleman, Count Zinzendorf, offered them an asylum on his estates in Saxony.
They named their new home Herrnhut, the Lord’s Watch, and from this place, after
their baptisms with the Holy Spirit, they became the world’s evangelists and
missionaries. Their new leader, Count Zinzendorf, could truly sing of them:

Everywhere with shoutings loud, Shouts that shake the gates of Hell, Thy
anointed witness-cloud Of Thy great Redemption tell. Of the Apostolic Church at
Jerusalem a certain writer has said: "Before thirty years had elapsed from the
death of Christ, His followers had spread from Palestine throughout Syria;
through almost all the numerous districts of Asia Minor; through Greece and the
islands of the Aegean Sea, the coast of Africa, and even into Italy and Rome."
And at the close of the first century Justin Martyr could truly testify: "There
is not a nation either Greek or Barbarian or of any other name, even those who
wander in tribes or live in tents, among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not
offered to the Father and Creator of the Universe in the name of the Crucified
Jesus."

Similar testimony may be borne to the labours of the Moravian brethren. During
the first three decades after their spiritual Pentecost they carried the Gospel
of salvation by the blood of the Lamb not only to nearly every country in Europe
but also to many pagan races in America, North and South, Asia and Africa. Their
first mission was to the negroes in the West Indies, five years after the
outpouring of the Spirit. The following year they sent out missionaries to
Greenland, which Cowper has immortalized in the well-known lines on Hope:

See Germany send forth Her sons to pour it on the farthest North; Fired with a
zeal peculiar they defy The rage and rigour of a Polar sky, And plant
successfully a sweet Sharon’s rose On icy and in eternal snows.

Fifty years before the beginning of modern Foreign Missions by William Carey,
the Moravian Church had led the way into pagan countries both by precept and
example. Their English missionary magazine, Periodical Accounts, inspired Dr.
Carey, and in a meeting of his Baptist brethren he threw a copy of the paper on
a table with these memorable and historic words:

"See what the Moravians have done! Cannot we follow their example and in
obedience to our Heavenly Master go out into the and preach the Gospel to the
heathen?" So generally has the leadership of the Moravian Church in Foreign
Missions been recognized that the well-known German historian of Protestant
Missions, Dr. Warneck, testifies:

"This small Church in twenty years called into being more missions than the
whole Evangelical Church has done in two centuries." A hundred years pass by
since that marvellous baptism with the Holy Spirit-years of almost continuous
revival and blessed missionary service. So numerous are their missionary
stations that it may truly be said the sun never sets on them. Dr. Thomas
Chalmers, Scotland’s greatest preacher and leader, bears this eloquent testimony
to Moravian missionaries:

"It is now a century since they have had intercourse with men in the infancy of
civilization. During that time they have been labouring in all the different
quarters of the world, and have succeeded in reclaiming many a wild region to
Christianity. One of their principles in carrying on the business of missions,
is not to interfere with other men’s labours; and thus it is that one so often
meets with them among the outskirts of the species, making glad some solitary
place, and raising a sweet vineyard in some remote and unfrequented wilderness.
Oh, when one looks at the number and greatness of their achievements, when he
thinks of the change they have made on materials so coarse and unpromising; when
he eyes the villages they have formed and he witnesses the love and listens to
the piety of reclaimed savages, who would not long to be in possession of the
charm by which they have wrought this wondrous transformation? Who would not
willingly exchange for it all the parade of human eloquence and all the
confidence of human argument?"

We have entitled this chapter "A Modern Pentecost" and would close it with the
words of the sainted Moravian Evelyn Hasse:

"Just as the infant Church in Jerusalem in apostolic days had its Pentecost,
from which its members went forth to be Christ’s witnesses ’both in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth,’ so
had this Church also its own experiences of the quickening power of the Holy
Ghost, when in 1727 He came upon its members gathered at the table of Lord, and
baptized them all into one body, and filled them with a strong, unquenchable
passion to execute the Saviour’s commission, and to let all mankind know of His
Cross and of His salvation."

Urged by love, to every nation Of the fallen human race, We will publish
Christ’s salvation And declare Him, and portray Him, In His dying form and
beauty, Be our aim and joyful duty. ZINZENDORF.

Such then was the thirteenth of August seventeen hundred and twenty-seven. Count
Zinzendorf, the one outstanding human leader and spokesman, called it "the day
of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation"-its Pentecost."
Again he described it as follows: "The Saviour permitted to come upon us a
Spirit of whom we had hitherto not had any experience or knowledge." "Hitherto
we had been the leaders and helpers. Now the Holy Spirit Himself took full
control of everything and everybody."

Therefore also he prayed to Jesus: Lord, our High-Priest and Saviour, Pour fire
and Spirit’s fervour On all our priestly bands; When we are interceding And for
Thy people pleading, Give incense, and hold up our hands.

"As I went in and shut the door lifter me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus
Christ face to face. . . . He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as
to break me right down at His feet. I wept aloud like a child, and made such
confessions as I could with my choked utterance." . . . "As I turned and was
about to take a seat by the fire, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost
. . . . No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my
heart. I wept with joy and love"-(Autobiography of Charles G. Finney).

"Every step of progress in the Christian life is taken by a fresh and fuller
appropriation of Christ by faith, a fuller baptism of the Holy Spirit." . . . .
"As we are more and more emptied of all self-dependence, and as by faith we
secure deeper and deeper baptisms of the Holy Ghost, and put on the Lord Jesus
Christ more thoroughly, by just so much faster do we grow in the favour of God.
. . . . You must pray in faith for the Holy Spirit. At every forward step in
your progress you must have a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit through faith"-
(Lectures on Revivals, by Charles G. Finney).

"Dr. George W. Gale had failed to receive that divine anointing of the Holy
Ghost that would make him a power in the pulpit and in society for the
conversion of souls. He had fallen short of receiving the baptism of the Holy
Ghost, which is indispensable to ministerial success. When Christ commissioned
His Apostles to go and preach He told them to abide in Jerusalem till they were
endued with power from on high. This power was the baptism of the Holy Ghost
poured out upon them on the day of Pentecost . . . . This is an indispensable
qualification for success in the ministry and I have often been surprised and
pained that to this day so little stress is laid upon this qualification for
preaching Christ to a sinful world"-(Autobiography of Charles G. Finney).


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  CHAPTER 2: 02 - WHEN THE SPIRIT CAME
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CHAPTER II When the Spirit Came

PRAYER always precedes Pentecost. The Book of Acts describes many outpourings of
The Holy Spirit, but never apart from prayer. In our own day the great Welsh and
Korean revivals were preceded by months, if not years, of importunate and united
praying. Hence the supreme importance of the prayer meeting, for it is "the
power house of the Church." So our fathers found it two centuries ago. The first
part of the year 1727 did not seem very promising. Differences of opinion and
heated controversy on doctrinal questions threatened to disrupt the
congregation. The majority were members of the ancient Moravian Church of the
Brethren. But other believers had also been attracted to Herrnhut. Lutherans,
Reformed, Baptists, etc., had joined the community. Question of predestination,
holiness, the meaning and mode of baptism, etc., seemed likely to divide the
believers into a number of small and belligerent sects. Then the more earnest
and spiritual souls among them began to cry mightily unto the Lord for
deliverance. His first answer was a general outpouring upon them of "the spirit
of grace and supplications." (Zec 12:10) Matthew Henry’s comment on this passage
was fulfilled in their case:

"When God intends great mercy for His people, the first thing He does is to set
them a praying."

He also sent them a human leader and deliverer in the person of the young German
nobleman, Count Zinzendorf, who so kindly had offered this persecuted Church a
place of refuge on his own estates. This godly youth and pre-eminent genius had
been divinely prepared for his great work of spiritual leadership. Converted in
early childhood, he composed and signed at four years of age the following
covenant: "Dear Saviour, do Thou be mine, and I will be Thine." He had chosen as
his life-motto the now famous confession: "I have one passion: it is Jesus,
Jesus only." Of his days and years at school he bears the following testimony:
"I was not only preserved from committing gross sins, but in some instances
succeeded in inducing those very persons who had tried to mislead me to join me
in prayer; and thus I won some of them to Christ. This was not only the case at
school but also in the Universities which I attended, and on my travels ever
since. Whilst at the Universities I exercised myself in physical
accomplishments, because I deemed them useful; but I never indulged in dancing
in promiscuous assemblies of both sexes, because I consid­ered it wrong and
sinful. I was as fond of amusements as anyone; but as soon as an inordinate
affection for them arose in my soul, I felt condemned. My whole soul continually
tended to the Cross. I spoke with everyone I met on this subject."

Having finished the University courses his education was to be furthered by
travel and a visit to foreign countries. But everywhere his master passion of
love for and fellowship with the Crucified Redeemer controlled him. In the
Dusseldorf Gallery of paintings his attention was drawn with marked effect to a
wonderfully expressive Ecce Homo, over which were the words:

Hoc feci pro te;

Quid facis pro me? This have I done for thee;

What doest thou for Me? To a friend the young count wrote: If the object of me
being sent to France is to make me a man of the world, I declare that this is
money thrown away; for God will in His goodness preserve in me the desire to
live only for Jesus Christ." In Paris a Duchess asked him: "Good evening Count;
were you at the opera last night?" "No, Madame," he replied, "I have no time for
thi opera." "Oh, brilliant wretchedness!" he exclaimed on leaving the city. Such
was the young nobleman whom the Lord sent to be the spiritual and temporal
leader of several hundred earnest but quarelling Christian refugees. So
effective and fruitful was this leadership that nearly two centuries later
Professor Binnie of Scotland declared: "It would not be going too far to affirm
that Count Zinzendorf did more than any other man to redeem the eighteenth
century from the reproach of barrenness, in relation to evangelical teaching and
work."

If we inquire as to the secret of his success, two Scripture texts suggests
themselves, viz. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit saith the Lord of
hosts" (Zec 4:6). "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they
were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they
spake the word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31). Count Zinzendorf had early
learned the secret of prevailing prayer. So active had he been in establishing
circles for prayer, that on leaving the college at Halle, sixteen years of age,
he handed the famous Professor Francke a list of seven praying societies. Would
that he might have many followers among the student body of to-day! How quickly
this would solve all youthful as well as mature problems. It was a condition and
not a theory which confronted the young nobleman in 1727 at Herrnhut. How to
unite in faith and love and service the pious but disputatious Followers of
Huss, Luther, Calvin, Zwingle, Schwenkfeld, etc., etc., seemed indeed a hopeless
problem apart from Divine intervention. In answer to earnest and persevering
prayer, superhuman wisdom guided the young Count in the use of certain means
which proved of in­calculable value. Bishop J. T. Hamilton has called atten­tion
to this in a recent article in The Moravian. After describing the Brotherly
Covenant drawn up by Zinzen­dorf calling upon them "to seek out and emphasize
the points in which they agreed" rather than to stress their differences, and
the Count’s personal interview with every individual adult resident in Herrnhut,
Bishop Hamilton says:

"But far more important than this was their entering into solemn covenant with
Zinzendorf, that twelfth of May, actually to dedicate their lives, as he
dedicated his, to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, each one in his
particular calling and position. This covenant was in essentials what
constitutes our Brotherly Agreement of to-day, the link uniting our individual
members and our corporate congregations with each other.

"There followed the choice of the twelve eiders to complete the organization of
the spiritual life of Herrn­hut, and the appointment of persons to the various
offices foreseen in the statutes. So order, itself a product of greater mutual
confidence as well as of mutually recog­nized devotion, made possible as of
mutually recognized devotion, made possible provision for the Bible study and
the frequent gathering of bands for prayer, that next marked the ensuing summer
months and led the way to and prepared for the baptism of the Spirit that
culminated on that blessed thirteenth of August, an enduement with power, that
enabled those men and women of Herrnhut to serve their generation so effectively
in evangelizing throughout and in heathendom and in keeping faith aglow decades
of rather general indifference and rationalism, as well as in promoting an
education that sought to cultivate the heart as well as to inform the intellect
and to secure the purity of morals."

Truly the great Moravian revival of 1727, which reached its climax on August 13,
was preceded and followed by most extraordinary praying. The spirit of grace and
supplications manifested itself in the early part of the year. Count Zinzendorf
began to give spiritual instruc­tions to a class of nine girls between the ages
of ten and thirteen years. "The Count," so the historian of that period tells
us, "frequently complained to his consort that though the children behaved with
great outward propriety, he could not perceive any traces of spiritual life
among them; and however much might be said to them of the Lord Jesus Christ, yet
it did not seem to reach their hearts. In this distress of his mind he took his
refuge to the Lord in prayer, most fervently entreating Him to grant to these
children His grace and blessing."

What a spectacle! A gifted, wealthy, young German nobleman on his knees,
agonizing in prayer for conversion of some little school girls! Later on we read
as follows:

"July 16. The Count poured forth his soul in a heart-­affecting prayer,
accompanied with a flood of tears; this prayer produced an extraordinary effect,
and was the beginning of the subsequent operation of the life-­giving and
energetic Spirit of God." Not only Count Zinsendorf, but many other brethren
also began to pray as never before. In the Memorial Days of the Renewed Moravian
Church, we read as follows:

"July 22.-A number of Brethren covenanted together of their own accord, engaging
to meet often on the Hutberg, to pour out their hearts in prayer and hymns.

"On the 5th of August the Warden, viz., the Count, spent the whole night in
watching , in company of about twelve or fourteen brethren. At midnight there
was held on the Hutberg a large meeting for the purpose of prayer, at which
great emotion prevailed.

"On Sunday, August 10, about noon, while Pastor Rothe was holding the meeting at
Herrnhut, he felt himself overwhelmed by a wonderful and irresistible power of
the Lord, and sank down into the dust before God, and with him sank down the
whole assembled congregation, in an ecstasy of feeling. In this frame of mind
they continued till midnight engaged in prayer and singing, weeping, and
supplication.

"After that distinguished day of blessing, the 13th of August, 1727, on which
the Spirit of grace and supplication had been poured out upon the congregation
at Herrnhut, the thought struck some brethren and sisters that it might be well
to set apart certain hours for the purpose of prayer, at which seasons all might
be reminded of its excellency, and be induced by the promise annexed to fervent
prayer to pour out their hearts before the Lord.

It was moreover considered as an important point that, as in the days of the Old
Covenant, the sacred fire was never permitted to go out on the altar (Lev
6:13-14), so in a congregation which is a temple of the living God, wherein He
has His altar and His fire, the intercession of His saints should incessantly
rise up unto His like Holy incense.

"On August 26, twenty-four brethren and the same number of sisters met, and
covenanted together to continue from one midnight to the next in prayer,
dividing for that purpose the twenty-four hours of night and day by lot among
themselves.

"August 27 this new regulation was put into practice. More were soon added to
this number of intercessors, which was thus increased to seventy-seven, and even
the awakened children began a plan similar to this among themselves. Everyone
carefully observed the hour which had been appointed for them. The intercessors
had a weekly meeting, at which notice was given to them of those things which
they were to consider special subjects for prayer and remembrance before the
Lord.

"The children of both sexes felt a most powerful impulse to prayer, and it was
impossible to listen to their infant supplications without being deeply moved
and affected. A blessed meeting of the children took place in the evening of the
26th of August, and on the 29th, from the hours of ten o’clock at night until
one the follow­ing morning a truly affecting scene was witnessed, for the girls
from Herrnhut and Berthelsdorf spent these hours in praying, singing and weeping
on the Hutberg. The boys were at the same time engaged in earnest prayer in
another place. The spirit of prayer and supplication at that time poured out
upon the children was so powerful and efficacious ­that it is impossible to give
an adequate description of it in words. These were truly days of Heavenly
enjoyment to the congregation at Herrnhut; all forgot themselves and things
terrestrial and transitory, and longed to be above with Christ their Saviour, in
bliss everlasting."

Another eye-witness says:

"I cannot ascribe the case of the great awakening of the children at Herrnhut to
anything but the wonderful outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the communicant
congregation assembled on that occasion. The breezes of the Spirit pervaded at
that time equally both young and oId." This then is the answer to the question
of our chapter­-"when the Spirit came." Again we quote from Bishop Evelyn Hasse:
"Was there ever in the whole of Church history such an astonishing
prayer-meeting as that which Beginning in 1727, went on one hundred years. It is
something absolutely unique. It was known as the "Hourly Intercession," and it
meant that by relays of brethren and sisters prayer without was made to God for
all the work and wants of His Church. Prayer of that kind always leads to
action. In this case it kindled a burning desire to make Christ’s salvation
known to the heathen. It led to the beginning of modern foreign missions. From
that one small village community more than one hundred missionaries went out in
twenty-five years. You will look in vain elsewhere anything to match it in
anything like the same extent." A summary of our chapter may be found in
Montgomery’s well-known lines:

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 with 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, The law of love may we fulfil, And love as we are loved.

"The baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite experience of which one may and
ought to know whether he has received it or not."

"A man may be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and still not be baptized with the
Holy Spirit."

"The baptism with the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit distinct
from and subsequent and additional to His regenerating work. In regeneration
there is an impartation of power and the one who receives it is fitted for
service."

"Baptized with the Holy Spirit," "Filled with the Holy Spirit," "The Holy Ghost
fell on them," "Receive the Holy Ghost," "The Holy Ghost came on them," "Gifts
of the Holy Ghost," "I send the promise of My Father upon you," "Endued with
power from on high," are used in the New Testament to describe one and the same
experience"-("What the Bible Teaches," by R. A. Torrey, D. D.).

"At three o’clock we gathered in front of Mr. Moody’s mother’s home; four
hundred and fifty-six of us in all, all men from the eastern colleges. We
commenced to climb the mountainside. After we had gone some distance Mr. Moody
said: ‘I do not think we need to go farther. Let us stop here. I can see no
reason why we should not kneel down here now and ask God that the Holy Spirit
may fall on us as definitely as He fell on the Apostles at Pentecost. Let us
pray.’ We knelt down on the ground; some of us lay on our faces on the
pine-needles. The Holy Ghost fell upon us. It was a wonderful hour. There are
many who will never forget it"-("The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit," by R.
A. Torrey, D. D.).


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  CHAPTER 3: 03 - THE SPIRIT'S WITNESS
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CHAPTER III The Spirit’s Witness

ONE of the first results of their baptism with the Holy Spirit was the joyful
assurance of their pardon and justification. They now experienced as they never
had before the force and fulness of the Scripture, "The Spirit Himself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God" (Romans viii. 16).

One instance of this deserves special mention, as setting forth both their own
experience as well as the substance of the message they proclaimed to others. A
little girl, Susanna Kuehnel, eleven years of age, became spiritually awakened.
Her dear mother’s happy death caused the child to long for a similar living
faith and assurance of salvation. She was taught and encouraged to seek the Lord
in prayer until the answer came. With strong and ever stronger desire she prayed
for the blessed assurance of pardon and peace. Others also united in prayer for
her and the historian tells us:

"At one o’clock one morning, while weeping and praying, she broke out into
indescribable joy, called to her father, who slept in the adjoining room, and
who had, unknown to her, heard all that passed, and cried out: ‘Now father, I am
become a child of God, and I know also how my mother felt.’ She, however, did
not only relate to her father what great mercy the Lord had shown her, but out
of the abundance of her heart her mouth spake to her companions of His
loving-kindness towards her, and this she did with such energy that they were
deeply affected thereby, and felt themselves powerfully drawn to Jesus." A
venerable Bishop of the Moravian Church tells us that "this little girl, after
having spent three days wrestling with God in prayer experienced on August 6
such a Divine feeling of the grace of our Saviour, and obtained so clear an
assurance of her salvation, that neglecting even the necessary bodily
refreshment, she spent the greatest part of that day in proclaiming the praises
of her Redeemer." Elsewhere the Bishop calls her, "This little preacher of
righteousness." This blessed truth of the Spirit’s witness is not such a strange
doctrine in our day as it was two centuries ago. Within our memory Mrs.
Catherine Booth, the mother of the Salvation Army, instructed her fellow-workers
as follows in the winning of souls:

"Do not tell anybody they are saved. I never do. I leave that for the Holy Ghost
to do. I tell them how to get saved. I try to help them to the way of faith. I
will bring them up as close as ever I can to the blessed broken body of their
Lord, and I will try to show them how willing He is to receive them; and I know
that when really they do receive Him, the Spirit of God will tell them quickly
enough that they are saved. He will not want any assistance about that. I have
proved it in hundreds of cases. Nobody knows the soul but God. Nobody can see
the secret windings of the depraved heart but God. Nobody can tell when a full
surrender is made but God. Nobody can tell when the right hand is cut off, or
the right eye plucked out, but God. Nobody can tell when a soul is whole-hearted
but God, and as soon as He sees it, He will tell that soul it is saved."

Moravian experience two centuries ago proves the truth of Mrs. Booth’s
testimony. The Moravian Pentecost produced the same joyful and victorious
assurance of salvation as in apostolic times. They could testify with St. Paul:
"Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance" (1Th 1:5). No better illustration of this can be
found than in their life and testimony which led to the conversion of the two
famous brothers, John and Charles Wesley. This spiritual experience deserves to
rank in depth of knowledge and extent of influence with the historic conversions
of St. Paul, St. Augustine, Martin Luther and John Bunyan. It ought to be deeply
pondered by every Christian worker who would be a soul-winner. Its thoroughness,
regenerating and transforming power deserve our particular consideration. This
great story will be told chiefly in the very words of the famous authors and
actors themselves. In the fall of 1736 John and Charles Wesley are on their way
to America as Anglican missionaries. A company of Moravian immigrants are also
on the vessel. During a terrible storm the danger of shipwreck was imminent.
John Wesley made the following entry in his journal:

"At seven I went to the Germans. I had long before observed the great
seriousness of their behaviour. Of their humility they had given a continual
proof by performing those servile offices for the other passengers, which none
of the English would undertake; for which they desired and would receive no pay,
saying, ’It was good for their proud hearts,’ and ’their loving Saviour had done
more for them.’ And every day had given them occasion of showing a meekness,
which no injury could move. If they were pushed, struck or thrown down, they
rose again and went away; but no complaint was found in their mouth. Here was
now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the spirit of
fear, as well as from that of pride, anger, and revenge. In the midst of the
Psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main-sail in
pieces, covered the ship and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep
had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The
Germans calmly sung on. I asked one of them afterwards: ’ Were you not afraid?’
He answered, ’I thank God no.’ I asked: ‘But were not your women and children
afraid?’ He replied mildly: ‘No, our women and children are not afraid to die.’
"

After reaching Georgia, Wesley sought spiritual counsel of the Moravian bishop,
A. G. Spangenberg. He wrote in his diary, under the date of February 7, 1736:
"Mr. Oglethorpe returned from Savannah with Mr. Spangenberg, one of the pastors
of the Germans. I soon found what spirit he was of, and asked his advice with
regard to my own conduct. He said:

" ‘My brother, I must first ask you one or two questions. Have you the witness
within yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear witness with your spirit, that you
are a child of God?’ I was surprised, and knew not what to answer. He observed
it and asked: ‘Do you know Jesus Christ?’ I paused and said: ‘I know He is the
Saviour of the world.’ ‘True,’ replied he; ‘but do you know He has saved you?’ I
answered: ‘I hope He has died to save me.’ He only added: ’Do you know
yourself?’ I said: ’I do.’ But I fear they were vain words."

John Wesley’s experience with the Christ-like Moravians on board the ship as
well as the subsequent probing of his heart by Bishop Spangenberg with reference
to the new birth and the assurance of salvation made an abiding impression on
his whole life and permanently influenced not only his teaching, but also his
behaviour in times of trial and persecution. Returning to England two years
later, Wesley wrote in his journal:

"I went to America to convert the Indians; but oh! Who shall convert me? Who,
what is he that will deliver me from this evil heart of unbelief? I have a fair
summer-religion. I can talk well; nay, and believe myself, while no danger is
near; but let death look me in the face, and my spirit is troubled. Nor can I
say ‘To die is gain!’

I have a sin of fear, that when I’ve spun My last thread, I shall perish on the
shore. In Great Britain John and Charles Wesley became quite intimately
acquainted with the Moravian Brethren. Peter Boehler, later a leading bishop in
the Moravian Church, was particularly blessed in his efforts to lead John Wesley
into the full light of the Gospel. Under date of March 4, 1738, Wesley made the
following entry in his diary:

"I found my brother at Oxford recovering from his pleurisy; and with him Peter
Boehler: by whom (in the hand of the great God) I was, on Sunday, the 5th,
clearly convinced of unbelief; of the want of that faith whereby alone we are
saved. Immediately it struck into my mind, ‘Leave off preaching. How can you
preach to others who have not faith yourself?’ I asked Boehler whether he
thought I should leave it or not. He answered, ‘By no means.’ I asked: ’But what
can I preach?’ He said: ’Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you
have you will preach faith.’ Accordingly, Monday, 6, I began preaching this new
doctrine, though my soul started back from the work. The first person to whom I
offered salvation by faith alone, was a prisoner under sentence of death." At
length he himself was led into the full assurance of salvation. His own
testimony in this matter is conclusive. In his diary we read:

"Wednesday, May 3, 1738. My brother had a long and particular conversation with
Peter Boehler. And it now pleased God to open his eyes; so that he also saw
clearly, what was the nature of that one true living faith, whereby alone
’through grace we are saved.’

"Wednesday, May 24. In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in
Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the
Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which
God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely
warmed. 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.

"Friday, May 26. My soul continued in peace, but yet in heaviness, because of
manifold temptations. I asked Mr. Telchig, the Moravian, what to do. He said:
’You must not fight with them as you did before, but flee from them the moment
they appear, and take shelter in the wounds of Jesus.’ " The Methodists and
Moravians in those days often met together for Bible-study and prayer. The great
preacher George Whitefield refers to a Moravian love feast and prayer-meeting in
his journal. His biographer tells us:

"Whitefield began the New Year (1739) as gloriously as he ended that which had
just expired. He received Sacrament, preached twice, expounded twice, attended a
Moravian love feast in Fetter Lane, where he spent the whole night in prayer to
God, psalms and thanksgivings; and then pronounced ’this to be the happiest he
had ever seen.’

"This love feast at Fetter Lane was a memorable one. Besides about sixty
Moravians, there were present not fewer than seven of the Oxford Methodists,
namely, John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, Wesley Hall, Benjamin
Ingham, Charles Kinchin and Richards Hutchins, all of them ordained clergymen of
the Church of England. Wesley writes: ’About three in the morn­ing, as we were
continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch
that many cried for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we
were recovered a little from that awe and amaze­ment at the presence of His
Majesty, we broke out with one voice-’We praise Thee, 0 God; we acknowledge Thee
to be the Lord!’ "

One of Wesley’s first converts was his dear old mother, the "Godly Susanna,"
whom some one has called "the mother of Methodism and of nineteen children
besides." The following is from John Wesley’s journal:

"Monday, September 3. I talked largely with my mother, who told me that till a
short time since she had scarce heard such a thing mentioned as the having
for­giveness of sins now, or God’s Spirit bearing witness with our spirit; much
less did she imagine that this was the common privilege of all true believers.
‘Therefore,’ said she, ’I never durst ask it for myself. But two or three weeks
ago, while my son, Hall, was pronouncing those words, in delivering the cup to
me, "The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee," the words
struck through my heart, and I know God for Christ’s sake has forgiven me all my
sins.’ " The conversion of John and Charles Wesley marks an epoch in the history
of Protestantism. The question is often asked: "What was it that the Moravians
trans­mitted to John and Charles Wesley, and afterwards, quite apart from them,
to multitudes in all parts of the world? Dr. W. H. Fitchett, one of Wesley’s
recent and best biographers, summarises it thus: "In substance it was three
things which lie in the very alphabet of Christ­ianity, but which somehow the
teachings of a godly home, of a great University, and of an ancient Church, and
of famous books, had not taught Wesley. These are, that salvation is through
Christ’s Atonement alone, and not through our own works; that its sole condition
is faith; that it is attested to the spiritual consciousness by the Holy Spirit.
These truths to-day arc platitudes; to Wesley they were, at this stage of his
life, discoveries.

"On the Westward trip to Georgia he fell in with some Moravian brethren, who
revealed to Wesley his need of a personal and regenerating contact with Christ.
He never rested until he found that contact. It is not too much to say that what
happened in that little meeting-house in Aldersgate Street on May 24, 1738,
changed the political and religious destinies of English-speaking Protestantism.
By God’s help he relit the expiring fires of religion. It was his conversion
which crowned his preparation. Twice born, and both times most nobly born, he
cannot be under­stood apart from the training of Epworth Rectory and his
transformation in Aldersgate Street, London."

Wesley’s own estimate of the revival which resulted in his conversion was
remarkably prophetic. When his spiritual father, Peter Boehler, who was nine
years his junior, left England, after a stay of several months, Wesley recorded
in his journal:

"Peter Boehler left London to embark for Carolina. Oh what a work hath God begun
since his coming into England! Such an one as shall never come to an end, till
Heaven and earth pass away!" A few extracts from Peter Boehler’s letters to
Count Zinzendorf may well close this chapter on the witness of the Spirit: The
English people made a wonderful to do about me; and though I could not speak
much English they were always wanting me to tell them about our Saviour, His
blood and wounds, and the forgiveness of sins.

"On the 28th of I travelled with the brothers John and Charles Wesley from
London to Oxford. The older of the two, John, is an amiable man; he
acknow­ledges that he does not yet really know the Saviour, but is willing to be
instructed. He loves us sincerely. His brother, with whom you frequently
conversed last year when you were in London, is greatly troubled in mind, and
does not know how to begin to learn to know the Saviour.

"I heard John Wesley preach. I could understand all he said, but it was not what
I wished to hear. Hence I took four of my English brethren, among them Wolf, to
see him, that they might tell him their experience and show him that the Saviour
receives sinners quickly and willingly. One by one they began to unfold to
Wesley what they had experienced, Wolf, especially, a new convert, spoke most
feelingly and with great power of the grace which he had received. Wesley and
others who were with him listened in blank amazement. I then asked Wesley what
he thought of such experiences? He answered that four instances were not enough
and could not convince him. I replied that I could bring forward eight more
cases of the same kind in London. After a little while he rose and said: ’Let us
hymn 456, "My Soul Before Thee Prostrate Lies." During the singing he frequently
wiped his eyes, and immediately after called me into his bedroom and confessed
that he was now convinced of the truth of what I had told him about faith and
would no longer dispute it, but that he had not attained to this grace. How was
he to secure such faith? He had not sinned as grossly as others. I replied that
not to believe in the Saviour was sin enough, and exhorted him to seek Christ
until he had found Him as Saviour. I was strongly moved to pray with him and
called on the Redeemer to have mercy on this sinner. After the prayer Wesley
remarked that when the gift of saving faith would once be his, he would preach
upon no other subject.

"I had another affectionate conversation with John Wesley. He informed me of the
opposition he had met with on the part of some orthodox ministers to whom he had
made known his conviction that he did not as yet possess true, saving faith. He
asked me what he ought to do? Should he tell his state to the people to whom he
preached? I answered that I could give him no rule in this respect, that he must
follow the promptings of the Saviour; but I earnestly begged him not to look for
the Saviour’s grace as far off and in the future, but to believe that it was
present, nigh to him, that the heart of Jesus was open and His love to him very
great. He wept bitterly and asked me to pray with him. I can truly affirm that
he is a poor, heart-broken sinner, hungering after a better righteousness than
that which he has thus far had, even the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In the
evening he preached on 1Co 1:23-24, ’We Preach Christ Cruci­fied,’ etc. He had
more than four thousand hearers and spoke in such a way that all were amazed.
They had never before heard such doctrines from his lips. His first words were:
’I sincerely confess myself unworthy to preach to you of Crucified Jesus.’ All
poor sinners could appreciate this, all who felt their own misery. Many were
awakened by this sermon!"

Thus far Peter Boehler. We cannot but exclaim: What a truly noble soul John
Wesley was! No wonder he preached in demonstration of the Spirit and of power
and caused more than 130,000 persons to rally around him during his life-time.
Eighty years after Wesley’s death Methodism could boast of twelve million
adherents; to-day of nearly thirty millions. Dean Farrar has well said: "The
Evangelical movement, the Oxford movement, even the recent enthusiasm of the
Salvation

Army are traceable to Wesley’s example, and to the convictions which he
inspired." Bishop Lightfoot also testified that "The Salvationists, taught by
John Wesley, have learned and have taught the Church again, the lost secret of
the compulsion of human souls to the Saviour."

We stand in spirit around the death-bed of John Wesley. For nearly three score
years he has preached Christ and practiced holiness. He has traveled on his
ceaseless round of duty some 4,500 miles annually, and preached two or more
sermons every day, often to immense audiences. At the age of 86 he records an
address delivered to a congregations of 25,000. Now the old hero and valiant
soldier of the Cross is facing "the last enemy." We hear him whisper again and
again:

I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus dies for me.

We recognize this confession of faith, both in its substance and phraseology.
The songs and sermons of the Moravian Brethren have it as their constant theme.
Amongst them Wesley had learned and received this saving truth. His friend and
fellow-worker "the holy" John Fletcher, Methodism’s chief saint, had shortly
before departed this life with the dying testimony I nothing have, I nothing am,
My treasure’s in the bleeding Lamb, Both now and forevermore.

We may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, we may have the gift of
prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, we may have all faith,
so that we could remove mountains, we may bestow all our goods to feed the poor
and give our bodies to be burned,-in the hour of death and in the day of
judgment, nothing will avail unless we have learned in the school of the Holy
Ghost.

I the chief of sinners am, But Jesus died for me.

"The glorified Christ is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. When the Lord
Jesus Himself was baptized with the Spirit, it was because He had humbled
Himself and offered Himself to take part in John’s baptism of repentance-a
baptism for sinners-in Jordan. Even so, when He took upon Himself the work of
Redemption, He received the Holy Spirit to fit Him for His work from that hour
till on the Cross ‘He offered Himself without spot to God.’ Do you desire that
this glorified Christ should baptize you with the Holy Spirit? Offer yourself
then to Him for His service, to further His great work of making known to
sinners the love of the Father. God help us to understand what a great thing it
is to receive the Holy Spirit with power form the Glorified Jesus. Have you laid
hold of it? The abundant life is neither more nor less than the full life of
Christ as the Crucified, the Risen, the Glorified One, who baptizes with the
Holy Ghost, and reveals Himself in our hearts and lives, as Lord of all within
us"-(Andrew Murray in The Prayer Life).

"Before we go to our knees to receive the Baptism of Fire, let me beg of you to
see to it that your souls are in harmony with the will and purpose of the Holy
Spirit whom you seek. See to it that the channel of communication, by which the
baptism of the Holy Spirit must be received, be kept open. I heard of some
people the other day who could not get any water. They turned the tap
repeatedly, but no water came. They sent to the office of the company, who sent
a man to examine the connections and fittings, but all was right. Plenty of
water in the reservoir; pipes, taps and connections all right, but no water. At
last they pulled up the pipe and found a mouse in it. It is no use turning the
tap, praying, singing or even believing, if there is something you are holding
back or refusing to do-some idol, something about which you feel condemned, but
which you refuse to give up, something in the pipe. Perhaps some trumpery,
contemptible thing. Out with it; give it no rest; give it up. Destroy your idols
and hindrances and stoppages with an everlasting destruction. Let there be free
communication between you and God. Let all go, and you shall be flooded before
you rise from your knees; the world shall feel the power of it, and God shall
have all the glory"-(Salvation Soldiery, by William Booth).


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  CHAPTER 4: 04 - WITNESSES UNTO ME
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CHAPTER IV "Witnesses Unto Me"

"YE shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be
witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto
the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:8.

One mark of a genuine baptism with the Holy Ghost is the exaltation of Christ.
"He shall glorify Me," said Jesus with reference to the promised Paraclete (John
16:14). One result of Pentecost in apostolic days was the determination to know
nothing among men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified," (Acts 2:23; Acts 3:15;
Acts 4:10; 1Co 2:2; etc., etc.) This is exactly what happened two centuries ago
in Herrnhut. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and became witnesses of
Christ and Him crucified. Their theology became Christology. Their creed was in
one word "the Cross." One of their number, John Cennick, truly set forth this in
the stanza:

Christ is our Master Lord and God, The fullness of the Three in One; His life,
death, righteousness and blood, Our faith’s foundation are alone, His Godhead
and His Death shall be Our theme to all eternity. The baptism with the Holy
Spirit caused the Renewed Moravian Church to see no man save Jesus only. Their
spiritual vision became so keen that they could "see Him who is invisible" (Heb
11:27). The form in which He appeared to them most frequently was when He was
"led as a lamb to the slaughter, wounded for their trans­gressions and bruised
for their iniquities." In this Divine presence of their bleeding and dying Lord
they were overwhelmed with their own sinfulness and with His more abounding
grace. Hushed were their controversies and quarrels; crucified were their
passions and pride as they gazed upon the agonies of their "ex­piring God." With
the Apostle they learned to die daily unto the world, the flesh and the devil,
and to live for Him who died for them. Henceforth their one passion was to gaze
upon the King in His beauty and to proclaim the "slaughtered Lamb" as the "chief
among ten thousand and the one altogether lovely," They did exactly what they
sang:

Then will I tell to sinners ’round What a dear Saviour I have found;

I’ll point to the atoning blood And say "Behold the way to God." Their prayers,
their litanies, their hymns, their conver­sation and their sermons had one
theme, viz. the wounds, the blood and death of Jesus. Their great leader Count
Zinzendorf, set this forth most clearly in his famous hymn: The Saviour’s blood
and righteousness My beauty is, my glorious dress;

Thus well arrayed, I need not fear, When in His presence I appear. The holy,
spotless Lamb of God, Who freely gave His life and blood For all my numerous
sins to atone, I for my Lord and Saviour own. In Him I trust for evermore;

He hath expunged the dreadful score Of all my guilt; this done away I need not
fear the judgment-day.

Therefore my Saviour’s blood and death, Are here the substance of my faith; And
shall remain, when I’m called hence, My only hope and confidence.

How many thousands have been brought to Jesus by this hymn, eternity alone can
reveal.

Moravian sermons were just as full of Christ and His atonement as were Moravian
hymns. In one of Count Zinzendorf’’s letters we find the following declaration:

"Our method in proclaiming salvation is this: To point out to every heart the
Loving Lamb, who died for us and although He was the Son of God offered Himself
for our sins, as his God, his Mediator between God and man, his throne of grace,
his example, his brother, his preacher of the law, his comforter, his confessor,
his Saviour, in short, his all in all; by the preaching of His blood, and of His
love unto death even the death of the cross; never, either in the discourse or
in the argument, to disgress even for a quarter of an hour from the Loving Lamb;
to name no virtue except in Him, and from Him and on His account; to preach no
commandment except faith in Him; no other justification but that He atoned for
us; no other sanctification but the privilege to sin no more; no other happiness
but to be near Him, to think of Him and do His pleasure; no other self-denial
but to be deprived of Him and His blessings; no other calamity but to displease
Him; no other life but in Him."

It was of such Christo-Centric preaching that Prof. Binnie in a series of
lectures in St. George’s Free Church, Edinburgh, recently declared: "Count
Zinzendorf preached the Gospel himself with remarkable simplicity and power to
an age which greatly needed it-an age which needed to be called off from
unprofitable controversies that were wasting its vital energies, and to be
roused to open its heart to the message of reconciliation through Christ. This
evangelical message Zinzendorf not only preached in person to men of all ranks
in half the countries of Europe and amongst the colonists in America but he sent
it out to the heathen also for whom no man cared. He was a great evangelist and
missionary. Of Zinzendorf as a preacher we have the following pen picture by one
of his contemporaries, Count Schrauten­bach:

"He hardly ever read any books besides the Bible. He never wrote his sermons;
but their effect was very great. His discourses resembled soliloquies uttered in
the presence of an auditory. Never have sermons afforded a truer reflection of
the character, genius and innermost thoughts of the speaker. When we hear him,
we see his whole soul laid bare before us. His personal convictions could be
felt in all his words. His voice was robust, pleasant, sonorous and capable of
fine modulation and expression, both when he spoke and when he sang. Life, soul
and harmony pervaded all he said and did. His countenance was sublime and
capable of great expression. His forehead was broad and ample; his eyes dark
blue, full of fire and in constant motion; his lips were well formed and
calmly-dosed, and his glance was quick and penetrating. He was respectful
towards everyone with whom he had to do; although all felt and acknowledged his
superiority." As a soul-winner the Wachovia Moravian well says; "There never
lived a man since the days of Christ and the Apostles who had more gift in
dealing with souls than Count Zinzendorf. He was a great believer in sudden
grace. We’ve just come across a brief quotation of what he said upon this
subject. It runs thus:

"‘When the Spirit of God has at some time enlightened us with a sudden lightning
flash, we must afterward not extinguish the flame nor destroy it nor hide it.’ "
His own experiences and those of others bore out the truth of the saying. His
own purpose in life was fixed in a moment. In a picture gallery he was looking
at a Christ head with a crown of thorns and a bleeding face and underneath he
read the inscription, "This I have done for thee; what hast thou done for Me?"
and in an instant his mind was made up as to what he would do for a lifetime.
And a very fruitful life it was because by direct or indirect influence millions
of souls have been brought into the kingdom of God.

Count Zinzendorf knew very well that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus
must suffer opposition and persecution. No one experienced this in modern times
more than he. As one of the chief disturbers of the devil’s kingdom he was
singled out as a shining target by the enemy of souls. But none of these lies,
slanders, trials and tribulations moved him in the slightest. On the contrary,
he encouraged and exhorted his brethren in the ministry and fellow-workers to be
awakening preachers at all costs of personal popularity. In one of his addresses
he told them:

"Let every minister rest assured that if he desires to enjoy ease, and have
things go on smoothly in his congre­gation, revivals and conversions dare not
take place. For as soon as these occur, the devil is loose, no matter how
decently and in order everything may be conducted.

"In an Apostolic church a gentle mode of teaching is appropriate. But if, in a
mixed congregation, there are no sons of thunder, no Elijahs, the people go to
sleep.

"The style of preaching to which many congregations are forced to listen is
entirely too philosophical, cold, logical, abstruse, cautious and reserved. A
preacher, in order to be truly successful, must be bold, mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and to the bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. He must bear down all
opposition, tear down the fair but false fabrics of formalism and
self-righteousness; overturn, burn, and destroy every wrong foundation,
to­gether with its superstructure, ere it is possible to build up a spiritual
house unto the Lord." The sum and substance of the Gospel which these
Spirit-filled Moravians preached in all parts of the earth may be learned from
the following sentences taken almost at random from Zinzendorf’s sermons:

"Christians are God’s people, begotten by His Spirit, obedient to Him, enkindled
by His fire; His blood is their glory.

"In order to preach aright, take three looks before every sermon; one at thine
own sinfulness; another at the depth of human wretchedness all around thee; and
a third at the love of God in Christ Jesus; so that empty of self, and full of
compassion towards thy fellowmen, thou mayest be enabled to administer God’s
comfort to souls.

"I am, as ever, a poor sinner, a captive of eternal love, running by the side of
His triumphal chariot, and I have no desire to be anything else as long as I
live." The whole earth is the Lords; men’s souls are His; I am debtor to all.

"It is not enough to rely upon God’s grace in general ; we must build upon the
grace of God in the blood of Jesus.

"In every degree and phase of our spiritual life and growth and service the
blood of Jesus is indispensable.

"The blood of Christ is not only the sovereign remedy for sin; it is also the
chief nourishment of the Christian life.

"The Spirit comes to us by the way of the blood for full salvation.

’Our preaching of the wounds and blood of Jesus may not produce many sudden
conversions, but they will be thorough and lasting." This was also the Gospel
which the young graduate of Jena University, Peter Boehler, preached in England
which resulted in the conversion of many Oxford students and professors as well
as ordained clergymen of the Churches of England and Scotland. Nearly one
century later that prince of Scottish preachers, Dr. Thomas Chalmers, wrote a
long article in the Eclectic Review on "The Moravians," in which he put the
stamp of his approval on their theology and Gospel in the following striking
sentences:

"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. When the Apostle Paul went about among Greeks and Barbarians,
charged with the message of salvation to all who would listen and believe, he
preached nothing but Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Neither do the Moravians;
and the faith which attends the word of their testimony, how foolish and
fanatical soever it may appear in the eyes of worldly men, proves it to be the
power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation. It is another evidence of the
foolishness of God being wiser than men, and the weakness of God being stronger
than men. However wonderful it may be, yet such is the fact, that a savage, when
spoken to on the subject of his soul, of sin and of the Saviour has his
attention more easily compelled, and his resistance more effectually subdued
than when he is addressed upon any other subject of moral or economical
instruc­tion. And this is precisely the way in which Moravians have gone to
work. They preached the peculiar tenets of the New Testament at the very outset.
They gained converts through that faith which comes by hearing. It is well that
the Moravians have risen into popular admiration. This will surely give weight
to their own testimony about their own matters. One of their members, Bishop
Spangenberg has published an account of the manner in which the United Brethren
preach the Gospel."

We shall subjoin a few extracts:

[Here follow many pages of quotations from Bishop Spangenberg’s book, one of
which is the following:]

"About thirty years ago, when I lived in North America, I sometimes got the
brethren together that were in the service, in order that I might converse with
them about their labours. Johannes, an Indian chief, who had formerly been a
very wicked man, but was now thoroughly converted and was our fellow labourer in
the congregations gathered from among the heathen, happened to be just then on a
visit with us, and also came to our Conference. He was a man that had excellent
gifts and was a bold confessor of what he knew to be true. As we were speaking
with one another about the heathen he said, among other things:

"’Brethren, I have been a heathen and am grown old among them. I know,
therefore, very well how it is with the heathen. A preacher came once to us,
desiring to instruct us, and began by proving to us that there was a God. On
which we said to him: "Well, and dost thou think we are ignorant of that? Now,
go again whence thou earnest." Another preacher came another time, and would
instruct us, saying, "You must not steal, nor drink too much, nor lie," etc. We
answered him; "Fool, that thou art; Dost thou think we do not know that? Go and
learn it first thyself and teach the people thou belongest to not to do these
things. For who are greater drunkards or thieves or liars, than thine own
people?" Thus we sent him away also. Some time after this, Christian Henry
Rauch, one of the Moravian Brethren came to me into my hut and sat down by me.
The contents of his dis­course to me were nearly these; "I come to thee in the
Name of the Lord of Heaven and Earth. He acquaints thee that He would gladly
save thee, and rescue thee from the miserable state in which thou liest. To this
end He became a man, hath given His life for mankind and shed His blood for
them," etc. Upon this he lay down upon a board in my hut and fell asleep, being
fatigued with his journey. I thought within myself: What manner of man is this?
There he lies and sleeps so sweetly. I might kill him and throw him out into the
forest. Who would care? But he is unconcerned. However, I could not get rid of
his words. They con­tinually recurred to me; and though I went to sleep yet I
dreamed of the blood which Christ had shed for me. I thought this is strange,
and went to interpret to the other Indians words of Christian Henry. Thus,
through the grace of God, the awakening among us took place. I tell you
therefore, brethren, preach to the heathen Christ and His blood and death, if
you would wish to produce a blessing among them.’ "

Shortly after publishing this famous article on "The Moravians," in the Eclectic
Review, Dr. Chalmers wrote to a dear personal friend; "I beg you to dwell much
and affectionately on the great peculiarities of the Gospel-Christ our
propitiation, Christ our sanctifi­cation and Christ in us the hope of glory."

Count Zinzendorf put the same exhortation into poetry and sang: A messenger of
peace No higher pleasure knows Than to direct the human race To Jesus’ Cross;

He points to Jesus’ wounds And precious cleansing blood; The source whence life
to us redounds, The fount of good.

Witnesses for Jesus and of Jesus was what every Moravian was in those great
revival decades. The secret of Methodist success as given by John Wesley applies
equally to the Moravians, viz. "We are all at it, and at it always." The
following editorial in the Wachovia Moravian shows us a typical Moravian of that
Pentecostal age:

"There was a Countess several generations ago who had led what the world calls a
very merry life. She was highly situated in society, connected in close
friendship with king and emporers and princes. She was a welcome centre on
brilliant occasions of dance and festivity in view of her brilliant gifts and
witty conversation, and yet she became afflicted with an incurable melancholy.
None of her amusements and recreations satisfied her any longer and before her
and everything before her and around her seemed dark indeed.

"Under the old custom of measuring shoes for the feet of their wearers, an
humble Moravian shoemaker was one day invited into her presence. As he opened
the door, she was struck by the remarkable cheerfulness which shone forth from
his face. She watched him closely while he knelt at his humble task of measuring
for the shoes and was deeply impressed by the unaffected happiness written upon
his very looks. She was led to say to him, ’You seem to be a very happy man.’
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I am very happy all the time.’ ’You are very different from
me,’ the high-born lady said. ’I am just as miserable as anybody could be. Would
you mind telling me what makes you so happy.’ ’No,’ the Moravian shoemaker said,
‘I’ll be glad to tell you. Jesus has forgiven my sins. He forgives me every day
and He loves me and that makes me happy through all the hours.’

"The job was finished and the man went away. But the Countess thought over what
he said. Thought led to prayer and prayer to conviction and conviction swiftly
introduced her into a joyful faith in the shoe­maker’s Saviour. She became a
great witness for Christ among titled people and especially at the court of the
Emperor of Russia, Alexander I, her intimate friend.

"It was this joy of their faith suddenly born in their souls by the gift of
God’s Spirit in the communion hour, Wednesday, August 13, 1727, that made the
Moravian brothers and sisters glad to come to this country and many others,
facing all the hardships and difficulties of a new, strange land. It was this
joy that led them willingly into the deep forests of Indian abode and made them
so successful as missionaries among the very wildest savages.

"It is this Christian joy to which even some preachers have not yet attained and
many members have not yet reached, upon which the Moravian Church must depend
for its future influence everywhere and thus the Word of God be fulfilled in a
new country, as it was two centuries ago. ’The joy of the Lord is your
strength.’

"It was the sight of this joy which the Moravians had in the midst of the
hurricane when the vessel was on the point of sinking into the wild sea that so
impressed the Brethren John and Charles Wesley as to lead to that deep personal
experience of grace upon which the Methodist Church was founded: and the
impression that this Christian joy has made upon them it has made even upon
countless savages in darkened heathen lands and is the ultimate reason why the
Moravian Church among the many larger denominations still continues to exist."

"I have written and preached much on the Holy Spirit, for the knowledge of Him
has been the most viral fact of my experience. I owe everything to the gift of
Pentecost. . . . I came across a prophet, heard a testimony, and set out to seek
I knew not what. I knew that it was a bigger thing and a deeper need than I had
ever known. It came along the line of duty, and I entered in through a crisis of
obedience. When it came I could not explain what had happened, but I was aware
of things un­speakable and full of glory. Some results were im­mediate. There
came into my soul a deep peace, a thrilling joy, and a new sense of power. My
mind was quickened. I felt that I had received a new faculty of understanding.
Every power was alert. Either illumination took the place of logic, or reason
became intuitive. My bodily powers also were quickened. There was a new sense of
spring and vitality, a new power of endurance, and a strong man’s exhilaration
in big things. Things began to happen. What we had failed to do by strenuous
en­deavour came to pass without labour. It was as when the Lord Jesus stepped
into the boat that with all their rowing had made no progress, immediately the
ship was at the land whither they went. It was gloriously wonderful"-(Dr. Samuel
Chadwick, of Cliff College, England).

"Never shall I forget the gain to conscious faith and peace which came to my
soul, not long after a first decisive and appropriating view of the Cruci­fied
Lord as the sinner’s sacrifice of peace, from a more intelligent and conscious
hold upon the living and most gracious personality of the Holy Spirit through
whose mercy the soul had got that blessed view. It was a new development of
insight into the love of God. It was a new contact as it were with the inner and
eternal movements of redeeming good­ness, a new discovery in divine
resources"-(Handley C. G. Moule, Bishop of Durham.)

"Often have I said to myself, as I have read Moravian history, and felt the
sweet strength of the Moravian literature of devotion and praise: Si non essem
Anglicanus utinem fierem Moravus; ‘If I were not of the English Church I would
fain be of the Moravian’ "-(Bishop Moule, of Durham).


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  CHAPTER 5: 05 - A NEW SONG
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CHAPTER V A New Song "-HE hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our
God" (Psa 40:3).

"Be filled with the Spirit: speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Eph
5:18-19). The baptism with the Holy Spirit upon our fathers two centuries ago
produced such a spiritual floodtide of sacred song as had not been experienced
in the Christian Church before or since. The majority of our best church hymns
may be traced to this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Praise to Christ, adoration
of Him as God, proclamation of His virtues and work are their constant theme.

These were true hymns. They are generally prayers to Christ. This may almost be
considered a Moravian peculiarity: their prayers are generally addressed to
their Saviour. Seldom do we find a Moravian hymn or prayer in those days
directed to the Father. Thus honouring the Son they honoured the Father who had
sent Him as well as the Holy Spirit whose chief mission it was to glorify Him.
Indeed, nearly all of our great hymns are prayers addressed to Jesus. A truly
converted Catholic or Protes­tant, Calvanist or Lutheran, Moravian or Arminian,
Baptist or Quaker, when he is baptised with the Holy Ghost and with fire often
breaks out into sacred song and it is generally prayer or praise addressed to
Jesus. This was pre-eminently the case in Herrnhut two cen­turies ago. The chief
singer of the period was the godly young nobleman Count Zinzendorf. He became
the prince of German hymn-writers. We have already referred to his great song
which John Wesley translated:

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, My beauty are my glorious dress;

Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed With joy I can lift up my head.

Justification by faith and the new birth are to be found at the cross of Jesus.
Here also does the believer grow in true holiness and obtains the baptism of the
Holy Spirit. This is set forth in another of Zinzendorf’s great hymns, also
translated by John Wesley:

I thirst, Thou wounded Lamb of God, To wash me in Thy cleansing blood; To dwell
within Thy wounds; then pain Is sweet; and life or death is gain.

What are our works but sin and death, Till Thou Thy quickening Spirit breathe!

Thou bidst each good within us move, O wondrous grace! 0 boundless love!

How blest are they who still abide Close sheltered in Thy bleeding side! Who
life and strength from thence derive, And by Thee move, and in Thee live!

Take my poor heart and let it be Forever closed to all but Thee!

Seal Thou my breast and let me bear That pledge of love forever there.

Having received such abundant spiritual baptism it is not to be wondered at that
many of their hymns were also addressed to or occupied with the Holy Spirit.
Again we quote several stanzas from Count Zinzendorf on this subject: To Thee,
God Holy Ghost, we pray, Who lead’st us in the Gospel way, Those precious gifts
on us bestow, Which from our Saviour’s merits flow.

Thou Heavenly Teacher, Thee we praise, For Thy instruction, power and grace, To
love the Father who doth own Us as His children in the Son.

Most gracious Comforter we pray, O lead us further every day:

Thy unction to us all impart, Preserve and sanctify each heart!

Till we in heaven shall take our seat, Instruct us often to repeat "Abba, our
Father"; and to be With Christ in union constantly.

Next in ability, influence, piety and spiritual power to Count Zinzendorf was
Bishop Spangenberg, Wesley’s first Moravian teacher. He also wrote a number of
hymns, in one of which he prays to the Holy Ghost at follows: The Church of
Christ, that He hath hallowed here To be His house, is scattered far and near,
In North, and South, and East and West abroad; And yet in earth and heaven,
through Christ, her Lord, The Church is one.

One member knoweth not another here, And yet their fellowship is true and near;

One is their Saviour, and their Father one;

One Spirit rules them, and among them none Lives to himself.

They live to Him Who bought them with His blood, Baptised them with His Spirit,
pure and good; And in true faith and ever-burning love, Their hearts and hopes
ascend, to seek above The eternal good.

O Spirit of the Lord, all life is Thine;

Now fill Thy Church with life and power Divine, That many children may be born
to Thee, And spread Thy knowledge like the boundless sea, To Christ’s great
praise.

Christian women and young people also were filled with the Spirit and
prophesied. Their prayers and praises often found expression in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs. Countess Zinzendorf composed the beautiful hymn beginning:

Reach out Thy scepter, King of Love Let us Thy royal favour prove! The second
stanza is a particular prayer for holiness and power from on high O ground us
deeper still in Thee, And let us Thy true followers be; And when of Thee we
testify, Fill ’Thou our hearts with heavenly joy; May blest Spirit all our souls
inspire, And set each cold and lifeless heart on fire.

One of the many who experienced the new birth and the assurance of salvation
through Zinzendorf’’s preaching was Louise Von Hayn. She also wrote a number of
hymns, one of which is a favourite in the American Moravian Church:

Jesus makes my heart rejoice, I’m His sheep and know His voice.

Amongst the youth who composed songs of praise and adoration may be mentioned
Count Zinzendorf’s son, Christian Renatus. Perhaps his best lines are the
follow­ing:

Lamb of God, Thou shalt remain forever Of our songs the only theme; For Thy
boundless love, Thy grace and favour, We will praise Thy saving Name; That for
our transgressions Thou wast wounded, Shall by us in nobler strains be sounded,
When we, perfected in love, Once shall join the Church above.

Another young man whose heart was set on fire with the love of Jesus was John de
Watteville, Zinzendorf’s son-in-law. His best known hymn is the one beginning:

Jesus, Thyself to us reveal, Grant that we may not only feel Some drawings of
Thy grace, But in communion with Thee live, And daily from Thy death derive The
needful strength to run our race.

One of the most remarkable and gifted youths of this great revival period was
Christian Frederick Gregor. The brief biographical note in our Moravian Hymn
Book indicates his versatile genius as follows:

"Financial agent of Zinzendorf, organist at Herrnhut, member of Unity’s Elders
Conference and Bishop." His hymns are all deeply spiritual. Perhaps his famous
passion hymn is a favourite in all Moravian congregations. The two best known
stanzas are the following: In this sepulchral Eden The tree of life I’ve found;

Here is my treasure hidden, I tread on holy ground;

Ye sick, ye faint, and weary, Howe’er your ailments vary, Come hither, and make
sure Of a most perfect cure.

Here lies in death’s embraces My Bridegroom, Lord and God! With awe my soul
retraces The dark and dolorous road That leads to this last station Here in
sweet meditation I’ll dwell by day and night, Till faith is changed to sight.
This great musician, financier and bishop was also the author of that most
popular Palm Sunday chant, "Blessed is He that Comes," or "Hosanna in the
Highest," and of the following doxologies:

0, form us an while we remain On earth, unto Thy praise! The Lord bless and keep
thee in His favour As His chosen property. With Thy presence, Lord, our Head and
Saviour, Bless us all we humbly pray! The great revival which began in 1727
continued for many years in ever increasing force and constantly widening
influence. Eleven years later, under the leader­ship of Peter Boehler, the great
revival began in England. Among Boehler’s many spiritual children was a young
clergyman of the Church of England by name of John Gambold, an Oxford graduate
and a particular friend of the Wesleys. He joined the Moravian Church and became
its first English Bishop. Some of his hymns and sacred songs have become well
known. One of his best is the Passion hymn greatly beloved in the Church of his
choice:

Go forth in spirit, go To Calvary’s Holy Mount;

See there thy Friend between two thieves, Suffering on thy account.

Fall at His Cross’s foot, And say: "My God and Lord, Here let me dwell and view
those wounds Which life for me procured." His blood thy cause will plead, Thy
plaintive cry He’Il hear, Look with an eye of pity down, And grant Thee all thy
prayer. When the great English preacher, Rowland Hill, the friend and successor
of Whitefield, had finished in his old age the last service of an arduous
Sabbath day, he was observed walking up and down the church floor alone,
repeating some verses. The aged preacher was quoting Bishop Gambold’s hymn
ending with the last two stanzas: And when I’m to die, Receive me, I’ll cry, For
Jesus hath loved me, I cannot tell why. But this I do find, We two are so
joined, He’ll not live in glory, And leave me behind.

Bishop Gambold’s poem on the martyrdom of Ignatius, the friend of Polycarp, has
become famous. Dr. Hanna, son-in-law and biographer of Dr. Thomas Chalmers,
records that "no passage of English poetry was so frequently quoted by Dr.
Chalmers in his latest years as the speech of Polycarp in this poem." The Rev.
Thomas Grinfield refers to this in his tribute to Bishop Gambold:

Illustrious Chalmers, in his ample mind, The memory of Moravian Gambold shrined,
Charmed with the deep tones of his tragic harp, And oft rehearsed those words of
Polycarp.

Another of Peter Boehler’s English converts was James Hutton, the famous
book-seller. He, too, has given us some precious hymns such as the following;

Teach me yet more of Thy blest ways, Thou slaughtered Lamb of God; And fix and
root me in the grace So dearly bought with blood.

O tell me often of each wound, Of every grief and pain: And let my heart with
joy confess From hence comes all my gain. The best-known English Moravian
hymn-writer during the Great Revival is undoubtedly John Cennick, to whom
reference was made in a previous chapter. His Bohemian ancestors, members of the
ancient Moravian Church, had found a refuge in England from cruel papal
persecution. As soon as young Cennick heard of the renewal of the Church of his
fathers, and became acquainted with its leaders, men like Zinzendorf,
Spangenberg, Boehler and especially Gambold and Hutton, he at once felt himself
at home and became the greatest preacher and evangelist the Church has ever had.
Count Zinzendorf called him "Paul Revived," and George Whitefield, his personal
friend and fellow-­worker, said of him:

"He was truly a great soul, one of those ‘weak things,’ which God hath chosen to
confound the strong. Such a hardy worker with his hands and such a hearty
preacher at the same time, I have scarce known. All call him a second Bunyan."

John Cennick has given us the story of his conversion in the well-known hymn:
Jesus, My All in Heaven is gone. In the last two stanzas we find the sum and
substance of his experience of salvation and joyful service:

Lo, glad I come, and Thou, blest Lamb, Shalt take me to Thee as I am; My sinful
self to Thee I give;

Nothing but love shall I receive.

Then will I tell to sinners round What a dear Saviour I have found;

I’Il point to Thy redeeming blood And say, "Behold the way to God!" His
best-known hymn, which is to be found in every church hymnal of English
Protestantism is the one in which he sets forth his own poetic inspiration and
purpose:

Children of the Heavenly King, As ye journey sweetly sing;

Sing your Saviour’s worthy praise, Glorious in His works and ways.

We are home to God In the way the fathers trod;

They are happy now, and we Soon their happiness shall see.

Lift your eyes, ye sons of light, Zion’s city is in sight;

There our endless home shall be, There our Lord we soon shall see.

"I believe there is one thing for which God is very angry with our land, and for
which His Holy Spirit is so little among us, viz. the neglect of united prayer,
the appointed means of bringing down the Holy Spirit. I say it, because I
believe it, that the Scots with all their morality so-called, and their outward
decency, respectability, and love of preach­ing, are not a praying people. Sirs,
is not this the truth? The neglect of prayer proves to my mind that there is a
large amount of practical infidelity. If people believed that there wall a real,
existing, personal God, they would ask Him for what they wanted, and they would
get what they asked. But they do not ask, because they do not believe or expect
to receive. Why do I say this? Because I want to get Christians to remember that
though preaching is one of the great means appointed by God for the conversion
of sinners, yet, unless God give the increase, Paul may plant and Apollos may
water in vain; and God says He will be inquired of. O ministers, excuse me-you
gave me this chance of speaking-urge upon your people to come to the
prayer-meeting. 0 Christians, go more to the prayer meetings than you do. And
when you go to the prayer-meeting, try and realize more that there is use in
prayer "-(Evangelist Brownlow North to the Presbyterian General Assembly of
Scotland).

"From the day of Pentecost, there has been not one great spiritual awakening in
any land which has not begun in a union of prayer, though only among two or
three; no such outward, upward movement has continued after such prayer meetings
have de­clined; and it is in exact proportion to the maintenance of such joint
and believing supplication and inter­cession that the Word of the Lord in any
land or locality has had free course and been glorified "­(The late Arthur T.
Pierson, D.O., Editor of The Missionary Review).


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  CHAPTER 6: 06 - FRUIT THAT ABIDES
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CHAPTER VI Fruit That Abides A GREAT traveller of that period bore the
follow­ing striking testimony: "In all my journeys I have found only three
objects that exceeded my expectations, viz.: the ocean, Count Zinzendorf and the
Herrnhut congregation." However extravagant this praise may appear, there was
certainly some reason for such enthusiastic eulogy. The great revival which
began in 1727 had continued for more than a generation, constantly growing in
extent and power. Herrnhut had become a spiritual city set on a hill that could
not be hid. From all parts of Europe people had come thither either to be saved
or to be baptised with the Holy Ghost and with fire. John Wesley’s visit to
Herrnhut may truly be called typical of thousands of others.

"God has given me at length," he wrote to his brother Samuel, "the desire of my
heart. I am with a Church whose conversation is in Heaven; in whom is the mind
that was in Christ, and who so walk as He walked." In his journal he wrote: "I
would gladly have spent my life here; but my Master called me to labour in
another part of His vineyard. 0 when shall this Christianity cover the earth, as
the waters cover the sea? Four times I enjoyed the blessing of hearing Christian
David (a carpenter) preach. Thrice he described the state of those who are weak
in faith; who are justified, but have not yet a new, clean heart; who have
received forgiveness through the blood of Christ, but have not received the
constant Indwelling of the Holy Ghost. This he yet again explained from the
Scriptures which describe the state the Apostles were in from our Lord’s death
(and indeed for some time before) till the descent of the Holy Ghost on the day
of Pentecost. They then had faith, otherwise He could not have prayed for them
that ’their faith might not fail.’ Yet they had not in the full sense ’new
hearts’; neither had they received the gift of the Holy Ghost." Who can fail to
find in these lines of John Wesley the seed truths, if not the sum and
substance, of those doctrines and experiences which became the mighty slogans of
Methodism? Thus great revival waves continued to go out from Herrnhut, reaching
ultimately to the uttermost parts of the earth. And now its great human leader,
Count Zinzendorf, is about to be called home. To his family and friends the
dying saint triumphantly said: "I am going to my Saviour. I am ready. There is
nothing to hinder me now. I cannot say how much I love you all. Who would have
believed that the prayer of Christ, ’that they all may be one,’ could have been
so strikingly fulfilled among us! I only asked for first-fruits among the
heathen, and thousands have been given me. Are we not as in Heaven! Do we not
live together like the angels! The Lord and His servants understand each other.
I am ready." A few hours later, as his son-in-law pronounced the Old Testament
benediction, " The Lord bless thee and keep thee, the Lord make His face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee, the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee
and give thee peace," this dear man of God fell asleep in Jesus and was absent
from the body and at home with his Lord.

More than four thousand followed him to his resting place on the Hutberg, among
them Moravian ministers from Holland, England, Ireland, North America and
Greenland. On his tombstone the following inscription was placed:

"Here lie the remains of that immortal man of God, Nicholas Lewis, Count and
Lord of Zinzendorf and Pattendorf; who through the grace of God and his own
unwearied service, became the ordinary of the Brethren’s Church, renewed in this
eighteenth century. He was born in Dresden on May 26, 1700, and entered into the
joy of His Lord at Herrnhut on May 9, 1760. He was appointed to bring forth
fruit, and that his fruit should abide."

Bishop Evelyn Hasse has called attention to the following fruit to be found on
the Moravian tree in the garden of the Lord:

"It was the Herald Church of the greatest European Revival ever known, having
been a Reformed Church sixty years before the Reformation.

"It was one of the sources of the Evangelical Revival here in England, and no
small factor in its spread.

"It led the way in the Missionary Revival, having as a Church been engaged in
evangelizing the heathen more than half a century before the rest of
Protestantism. " In the Educational Movement it did pioneer work, both from the
religious side and also as a part of the Revival of learning.

"It published the first Protestant Hymn Book in Europe, both in Bohemian and
German; it issued here in England in 1754 what Dr. Gregory in his Hymn Book of
the Modern Church has described as the earliest great Catholic collection with
which I am acquainted, which deserves a place beside Palgrave’s Treasury of
Sacred Songs."

Particular attention is called to the abiding and abound­ing nature of two kinds
of fruit above enumerated, viz., foreign missions and sacred songs. Through its
foreign missions the Moravian Church is best known and most beloved.
Testimonials abound not only from the great Protestant Churches and missionary
societies, but also from modern explorers and travellers such as Sven Hedin, the
Roosevelts and Leut. MacMillan. Theodore Parker once said that if the foreign
missionary movement had done nothing more than to produce such a character as
Adoniram Judson, it were well worth all its cost. The same may be affirmed of
many Moravian mission­aries. Their lives and unselfish services are the glory of
Christ and the Church. David Zeisberger and his sixty years of self-sacrificing
labours among the American Indians is fruit which abides to-day. Frederich
Martin, one of the first Moravian missionaries to the negroes on the island of
St. Thomas, was one of the Lord’s chosen vessels and a typical Moravian. He and
a fellow-worker were put in jail chiefly for preaching the Gospel to the blacks.
More than three months were spent in a miserable prison; but the Spirit-filled
missionaries gave themselves to prayer like Paul and Silas in the Philippian
dungeon. Their faithful negro congregation, nearly 700 communi­cants, gathered
daily as near the jail as possible to join in singing and hear the sermons of
their captive ministers. A great revival followed and large numbers were
converted. Suddenly Count Zinzendorf arrived on his first missionary journey,
accompanied by two couples to reinforce the overworked and imprisoned
missionaries. As the ship drew near the beautiful island the Count said to his
fellow-­workers:

"What if we find no one here? What if the mission­aries are all dead?" To this
one of the young workers quietly replied: "Then we are here," whereupon Count
Zinzendorf uttered the oft quoted exclamation " Gens aeterna, diese Maehren!"
"An eternal race, these Mora­vians!" The Count soon secured the freedom from
jail of the sick and half-starved missionaries. He was amazed at the greatness
of Frederich Martin’s work and wrote back to Germany: "St. Thomas is a much more
wonder­ful miracle than our own Herrnhut. After fourteen years of most
sacrificial service Frederich Martin has reached the end of his earthly
pilgrimage. More than fifty of his fellow workers have already laid down their
lives. To his weeping wife the dying missionary says: ‘My dear heart, I shall
probably soon go to my Saviour. Do thou always be happy in Him. With me it is
unspeakably well, and if my spirit flies away to Him, please ask the Governor to
permit my earthly tabernacle to rest on the plantation beside our Chapel.’ "
When his death was announced to the congregation the place became such a scene
of weeping that the service had to be brought to a sudden close. Of such trials
and triumphs of faith the history of Moravian foreign missions is full to
overflowing and they constitute our richest heritage and our most glorious and
abiding fruitage. "They overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of
their testimony, and they loved not their lives even unto death" (Rev 12:2). The
other great and most abiding contribution of the Moravian Church is its
hymnology. In proportion to its size it has given far more hymns to Christendom
than any other Protestant denomination. This precious offering of sacred song
may be traced directly to the Great Revival. In a former chapter this has
already been demonstrated. The following illustrations will more fully confirm
this claim. The great Moravian poet-preacher and evangelist John Cennick is
conducting one of his famous open-air meetings. Multitudes flock to hear him and
are born again through faith in the precious blood. One day a young Scottish
day-labourer by name of John Mont­gomery is awakened and converted through the
preaching of Cennick. He joins the Moravian Church and thus John and Mary
Montgomery become Moravian missionaries. On a little island in the West Indies
He the earthly re­mains waiting for "the shout, the voice of the Archangel and
the trumpet of God." Their little son James is edu­cated in the Moravian school
at Fulneck and becomes ultimately the greatest writer of hymns the Church has
ever produced. In many of the large Protestant hymn books, the following authors
are generally found in the first rank: Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley and James
Montgomery. The last named has certainly written some of the finest hymns in the
English language. The following first lines will indicate how wide and varied
their scope as well as how rich and spiritual their substance:

Angels, from the realms of glory Wing your flight o’er all the earth;

Hail to the Lord’s anointed, Great David’s greater Son;

Go to dark Gethsemane, Ye that feel the tempter’s power; In the hour of trial,
Jesus, plead or me;

Hark the song of jubilee, Loud as mighty thunders roar; The Lord is my Shepherd,
no want shall I know I feed in green pastures, safe-folded I rest;

Sing we the song of those who stand Around the eternal Throne;

Servant of God, well done!

Rest from thy loved employ;

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed;

Sow in the morn thy seed, At eve hold not thy hand;

Come to Calvary’s holy mountain, Sinners ruined by the fall;

Jesus, our best beloved Friend, Draw out our souls in pure desire;

Jesus, in love to us descend, Baptize us with Thy Spirit’s fire. For ever with
the Lord!

Amen, so let it be!

Life from the dead is in that word, ’Tis immortality. At a missionary meeting in
Liverpool over which the famous Methodist teacher and scholar, Dr. Adam Clarke,
presided, James Montgomery was one of the speakers. The beloved poet often
referred to his dear parents who laid down their lives for Christ in a foreign
field and exclaimed: "They finished well. I, too, am the son of a missionary."
He closed his address on this occasion by reciting a missionary hymn which he
had just composed, viz. the one beginning:

Hail to the Lord’s Anointed

Dr. Adam Clarke was so impressed by its spiritual depth and beauty that he
requested the author’s permission to publish it in his now famous "Commentary."
Thus James Montgomery’s seven stanzas occupy nearly a full page in this great
work in connection with the seventy-second of which it is a paraphrase. Dr.

Clarke introduced it with this note:

"The following poetical version of some of the principal passages of the
foregoing Psalm was made and kindly given me by my much respected friend, James
Montgomery, Esq., of Sheffield. I need not tell the intelligent reader that he
has seized the spirit and exhibited some of the principal beauties of the Hebrew
bard; though (to use his own words in his letter to me), his hand trembled to
touch the harp of Zion.’ I take the liberty here to register a wish which I have
strongly expressed to himself, that he would favour the Church of God with a
metrical version of the whole Book."

One more instance may be given of the abiding fruit of this great revival both
as it relates to foreign missions and the songs of Zion. About the same time as
the preceding incident took place, Dr. Thomas Chalmers was on his way to London
to preach the annual missionary sermon for one of the great societies-a sermon
which gave him a world-wide reputation as Christian thinker and orator. On his
way to this appointment he turned aside to Sheffield in order to become
personally acquainted with James Montgomery and gather additional facts and
inspiration for his great arguments. This visit was described years after in a
letter from Montgomery to Dr. William Hanna and is found in his excellent
biography of Dr. Chalmers. It is in part as follows:

"On a dark night in April (I have forgotten the year) two strangers called at my
house in Sheffield; one of whom introduced himself as Mr. Smith, bookseller of
Glasgow, and his companion as the Rev. Dr. Chalmers of the same city. Of course
I was glad to become personally acquain­ted with so great and good a man, and we
soon were earnestly engaged in conversation on subjects endeared to us both.
Though at first I found it difficult to take in and decipher his peculiar
utterance, yet the thoughts that spoke themselves through the seemingly uncouth
words came so quick and thick upon me from his lips that I could not help
understanding them; till being myself aroused into unwonted volubility of
speech, I responded as promptly as they were made to his numerous and searching
inquiries concerning the Moravians, among whom I was born, but especially
respecting their Scriptural method of evangeliz­ing and civilizing barbarian
tribes. In the outset he told me that he had come directly from Fulneck, one of
our principal establishments in England, and where there is an academy for the
education of children, in which I had been myself a pupil about ten years in the
last century. At the time there were many scholars from the North, as well as
Irish and English boarders, there. My visitor said that he had invited all the
Scottish lads to meet him at the inn, and ’how many think you, there were of
them?’ he asked me. ’Indeed, I cannot tell,’ I replied. He an­swered: ‘There
were saxtain or saventain.’ (I cannot pretend to spell the numbers as he
pronounced them to my unpractised ear) and I was so taken by surprise that I
exclaimed abruptly: ’It is enough to corrupt the English language in the
Seminary.’ In that moment I felt I had uttered an impertinence, though without
the slightest consciousness of such an application to my hearer. Instantly
recovering my presence of mind I added: ‘When I was a Fulneck school, I was the
only Scottish lad there.’ An angel visit short and bright it was to me, and I do
not remember that I ever spent an hour of more animated and delightful
intercommunion with a kindred spirit in my life. Our discourse turned
principally on the subject of Moravian missions in pagan lands, and the
inability of our few and small congregations to raise among themselves the
pecuniary expenses of maintaining their numerous establishments in Greenland,
Labrador, North and South America, the West Indies and South Africa. Hereupon
Dr. Chalmers exclaimed: ’I mean to raise five hundred pounds for the Brethrens’
Missions this year.’ ‘Five hundred pounds for our poor missions,’ I cried; ‘I
never heard of such a thing before.’ He re­joined, ’I will do it.’ But while I
heartily thanked him, and implicitly believed in the integrity of his
intentions, I could only hope he might be able to fulfil it, and within myself I
said, ’I will watch you, doctor.’ I did so, and traced him through sermons,
subscriptions, collections and donations, till these had realised a sum nearer
six than five hundred pounds."

How better can we close this chapter on the abiding fruit of the Great Revival
as it is to be found chiefly in Moravian missions and in Moravian Hymns than
with the touching Missionary prayer of James Montgomery, himself the indirect
product of this mighty movement:

O Spirit of the Iiving God, In all Thy plenitude of grace, Where’er the foot of
man hath trod, Descend on our apostate race.

Give tongues of fire and hearts of love To preach the reconciling word;

Give power and unction from above, Where’er the joyful sound is heard.

O Spirit of the Lord, prepare All the round earth her God to meet;

Breathe Thou abroad like morning air, Till hearts of stone begin to beat.

Baptise the nations; far and nigh The triumphs of the Cross record; The name of
Jesus glorify, Till every kindred call Him Lord!

"Standing in the foreground of all Paul’s mental processes was Jesus the
Messiah. From the moment of his conviction that Jesus was the Messiah he
transferred everything in Judaism to the head of Christ, and at once we had the
doctrine and science of Christology in its highest development. Paul did not
bother much about the direct words attributed to Jesus. Few of these are
mentioned in his epistles. They were jewels, it is true; but he had a still
greater jewel; and this was the death of Jesus on the Cross. This was for Paul
the center of all things, the event which made forgiveness of sin possible, and
which was demanded by the justice of God. It was by Jesus’ death that Paul
himself had conquered death and had obtained forgiveness and life"-(Professor
Adolph Harnack, of Berlin, in The Christian World.)

"Scotland, happily, is still very rich in great preachers, scholars and
theologians, but I think they will be the foremost to admit that none of them is
quite on the same level as the master we mourn-Principal James Denney. . . .His
wife, who gave him the truest and most perfect companion­ship, led him into a
more pronounced evangelical creed. It was she who induced him to read Spurgeon,
whom he had been inclined to despise. He became an ardent admirer of the
preacher and a very careful and sympathetic student of his ser­mons. It was
Spurgeon perhaps as much as anyone who led him to the great decision of his
life--the decision to preach the stoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
was all in all to him. He spent and was spent in making it everything to the
Church"-(Sir W. Robertson Nicoll’s appreciation of Principal James Denney,
author of The Death of Christ).


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  CHAPTER 7: 07 - RENEW OUR DAYS
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CHAPTER VII

Renew Our Days

"TURN Thou us unto Thee, 0 Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of
old" (Lam 5:21) This was the closing prayer of Israel’s great prophet Jeremiah.
This also was the dying petition of the great Bishop of the Ancient Moravian
Church, John Amos Comenius. And as young Count Zinzendorf read these words he
exclaimed:

"I could not peruse the lamentations of old Comenius addressed to the Anglican
Church-lamentations called forth by the idea that the Church of the Brethren was
coming to an end, and that he was locking its door. I could not read his
mournful prayer, ‘Turn Thou us unto Thee, 0 Lord, and we shall be turned; renew
our days as of old,’ without resolving there and then: ’I will, as far as I can,
help to bring about this renewal. And though I have to sacrifice my earthly
possessions, my honours and my life, as long as I live, and as far as I shall be
able to provide even after my death, I will do my utmost that this little
company of the Lord’s disciples shall be preserved for Him, until He comes."

We do well to register a similar vow and holy resolve. This great celebration of
our spiritual renewal as a Church two hundred years ago will stir every true
Moravian to pray, ‘Renew our days as of old."

What those days were has recently been set forth by the editor of The Biblical
Review, New York, in the following lines:

"No matter whether one is sympathetic toward the idea of revivals or not, if he
wants to study the question thoroughly, he cannot afford to overlook the history
and teachings of the Moravians. Theirs has been from the beginning a great
Revival Church, and its service to the general cause of Christianity, and to
foreign missions in particular, is deserving of wide recognition. The story of
their spiritual development and its influence is one of the most inspiring in
the annals of Christianity." In order to pray intelligently the prayer of the
prophet, "Renew our days as of old," two questions at once suggest themselves:

1. WHAT WERE THOSE EXPERIENCES?

2. HOW MAY THEY BE RENEWED? Their first great experience which gave our fathers
such spiritual power was I. A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE OF SALVATION.

They had found to their sorrow that there was no salvation from sin in good
works or in Church and creeds, still less in their own faulty conduct, culture
or character. They fled for refuge to Jesus the Crucified and, gazing upon the
bleeding, dying, Lamb of God they experienced a blessed sense of pardon and
peace. Here it was that the Holy Spirit bore witness with their spirits that
they had become by faith the children of God, having passed from death unto
life. This personal experience of salvation; this assurance of their pardon and
adoption into the family of God, gave our fathers such boldness and power in
testimony not only in heathen lands, but also in the chief cities of the world,
in the universities and royal courts of Europe.

Personal experience of salvation was described by Count Zinzendorf in one of
their first Synods in the following sentences:

"1. Justification is the forgiveness of sins.

"2. The moment a man flies to Christ he is justified.

"3. And has peace with God, but not always joy.

"4. Nor, perhaps, may he know he is justified till long after.

"5. For the assurance of it is distinct from justifica­tion itself.

"6. But others may know he is justified by his power over sin, by his
seriousness, his love of the brethren and his hunger and thirst after
righteousness, which alone prove the spiritual life to be begun.

"7. To be justified is the same thing as to be born of God.

"8. When a man is awakened, he is begotten of God and his fear and sorrow, and
sense of the wrath of God, are the pangs of the new birth." On a certain
occasion when ordaining a missionary, Count Zinzendorf asked him, "Brother John,
dost thou know His wounds? Hast thou sought and found pardon through their
merit?" In order that every member of the Church might have this personal
experience of salvation each congregation was divided into the following five
classes:

"I. Those who are spiritually dead.

"2. Those who are awakened and seek to be saved.

"3. Babes in Christ, i.e., new converts.

"4· Young men in Christ.

"5. Fathers in Christ." (1Jn 2:12-13)

Another great leader in those wonderful days and years of revival was Peter
Boehler. He defines this personal experience of salvation in the following six
sentences:

"1. When a man has living faith in Christ, then he is justified.

"2. This is always given in a moment.

"3· And in that moment he has peace with God.

"4. Which he cannot have without ultimately knowing that he has it.

"5. And, being born of God, he sinneth not.

"6. Which deliverance from sin he cannot have without knowing that he has it."
Of Boehler’s two distinguished converts, John and Charles Wesley, the latter
through his matchless hymns, has wielded the greater influence. He has truly
been called "The Prince of Christian Poets." But while he had the fire of poetic
genius from birth, not a single Gospel hymn did he write until he had
experienced the new birth. The story of his conversion is most striking and
instruc­tive. Boehler’s interview with him is thus described by Charles Wesley
himself in his journal:

"At eleven I awaked in extreme pain, which I thought would quickly separate soul
and body. Soon after Peter Boehler came to my bedside. I asked him to pray for
me. He seemed unwilling at first, but beginning very faintly, he raised his
voice by degrees, and prayed for my recovery with strange confidence. Then he
took me by the hand and calmly said: ’You will not die now.’ I thought within
myself: ’I cannot hold out in this pain till morn­ing. If it abates before, I
believe I may recover.’ He asked me: ’Do you hope to be saved?’ ’Yes.’ ’For what
reason do you hope it?’ ’Because I have used my best endeavours to serve God.’
He shook his head and said no more. I thought him very uncharitable, saying in
my heart: ’What? Are not my endeavours a sufficient ground of hope? Would he rob
me of my endeavours? I have nothing else to trust to." A few weeks later Wesley
thus refers to another of the many visits of Peter Boehler:

"No sooner was I got to James Hutton’s, having re­moved my things thither from
his father’s, than the pain in my side returned, and with that the fever. Having
disappointed God in His last visitation, He has now again brought me to the bed
of sickness. Towards midnight I received some relief by bleeding. In the morning
Dr. Cockburn came to see me; and a better physician, Peter Boehler, whom God had
detained in England for my good. He stood by my bedside, and prayed over me,
that now at least I might see the Divine intention in this and my late illness.
I immediately thought it might be I should again consider Boehler’s doctrine of
faith; examine myself whether I was in the faith; and if I was not, never cease
seeking and longing after it till I attained it." To ask an apparently dying
minister, and a missionary at that, if he is saved, might almost seem an act of
presump­tion and impertinence. But Christendom to-day may well thank God for
this faithful Moravian who dared to probe the soul of Charles Wesley. For, as
Dr. Charles Nutter, a well-known Methodist hymnologist, recently wrote in The
Methodist Review:

"More than six thousand of Charles Wesley’s hymns have been published. Wesley
wrote verses from the time of his conversion in 1738 until the time of his last
sickness in 1788, fifty years; but six thousand hymns would be one hundred and
twenty a year, ten a month, or one hymn every three days for fifty years." The
majority of his hymns testify to his great experience of salvation. Peter
Boehler had told him: "If I had a thousand tongues I would praise Jesus with
everyone of them." This prompted Wesley shortly after his conver­sion to write
the immortal lines:

Oh for a thousand tongues to sing My dear Redeemer’s praise; The glories of my
God and King, The triumphs of His grace.

He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free; His blood can
make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me. The question has been asked
whether this amazing experience made by Charles Wesley may truly be called his
conversion. He himself so regarded it. The change it worked in him was indeed
radical. Old things passed away; all things became new. This experience of
salvation caused him, who according to his own testimony was building his hopes
of Heaven on his own endeavours and had nothing else to trust to, to cry out in
anguish of soul:- Depth of mercy, can there be Mercy still reserved for me, Can
my God His wrath forbear, Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

I have long withstood His grace, Long provoked Him to His face, Would not
hearken to His calls, Grieved Him by a thousand falls.

Having found pardon and peace at the Cross, Wesley soon discovered that he can
enjoy this experience of salvation only as he continues to abide in the
Crucified One. Hence he utters the touching prayer:- For ever here my rest shall
be Close to Thy pierced side; This all my hope and all my plea, For me the
Saviour died. My dying Saviour and my God, Fountain for guilt and sin, Sprinkle
me ever with Thy blood, And cleanse and keep me clean. A number of years after
his conversion Wesley wrote another great hymn on the atonement, "Arise, my
soul, Arise!" Its theology, as well as its language, still bears witness to the
power of that great experience of salvation into which, under God, Boehler had
led him. The third and fourth stanzas are distinctly Moravian in their teaching
and phraseology:- Five bleeding wounds He bears, Received on Calvary;

They pour effectual prayers, They strongly plead for me:

"Forgive him, oh forgive," they cry, "Nor let that ransomed sinner die." The
Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed one;

He cannot turn away The presence of His Son; The Spirit answers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God. The second great experience which gave our
fathers such spiritual power and leadership was:

II. THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY GHOST On this point we wish to quote the words of
one of our own beloved pastors, Dr. J. Kenneth Pfohl. In a recent article in The
Moravian he wrote: "The great Moravian Pentecost was not a shower of blessing
out of a cloudless sky. It did come suddenly, as suddenly as the blessing of its
greater predecessor in Jerusalem, when the Christian Church was born. Yet, for
long there had been signs of abundance of rain, though many recognized them not.
In short the blessing of the 13th of August, 1727, was diligently and earnestly
prepared for. We know of no annals of Church history which evidence greater
desire for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and more patient and persistent
effort in that direction than those of our own Church between the years 1725 and
1727. Two distinct lines of preparation and spiritual effort for the blessing
are evident. One was prayer; the other was individual work with indi­viduals. We
are told that ’men and women met for prayer and praise at one another’s homes
and the Church of Berthelsdorf was crowded out.’ Then the Spirit came in great
power. Then the entire company experi­enced the blessing at one and the same
time." This baptism with the Holy Spirit endued our fathers with power from on
high. They experienced exactly what has been so eloquently described by that
prince of preachers, Dr. Alexander MacLaren, in his sermons on Ephesians.

"That power is given to us through the gift of the Divine Spirit. The very name
of that Spirit is ’the Spirit of Might.’ Christ spoke to us about being en­dued
with power from on high.’ The last of His promises that dropped from His lips
upon earth was the promise that His followers should receive the power of the
Spirit coming upon them. Wheresoever in the early histories we read of a man who
was full of the Holy Ghost, we read that he was ’full of power.’ It is power for
service. ’Tarry ye in Jerusalem till ye be endued with power from on high.’
There is no such force for the spreading of Christ’s Kingdom and the
witness-bearing work of His Church, as the possession of this Divine Spirit.
Plunged into that fiery baptism, the selfishness and the sloth, which stand in
the way of so many of us, are all consumed and annihilated, and we are set free
for service because the bonds that bound us are burnt up in the merciful furnace
of His fiery power. ’Ye shall be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the
inner man’-a power that will fill and flood all your nature, if you will let it,
and make you strong to suffer, strong to combat, strong to serve, and to witness
for your Lord." Our Moravian brethren knew this power two hundred years ago.
They had experienced to a remarkable degree the unspeakable blessings of Calvary
and Pentecost. The writer of these lines was at one time pastor of the historic
Moravian congregation at Nazareth, Pa. One of the first ministers of this
charge, Francis C. Lembke, whose pastorate here extended from 1754 to 1784,
during which time he also founded the celebrated school now known as Nazareth
Hall, is a remarkable illustration of the power of Calvary and of Pentecost as
experienced in the Great Revival. In 1733 this young man was student at the
University of Jena working for a doctor’s degree in philosophy. Some converted
professors and students invited him to their prayer-meetings and the historian
tells us the result:

"Through their efforts Lembke began to seek Christ with many prayers and tears.
One evening, while praying, he realised, through the Holy Spirit, that the blood
of Jesus Christ had cleansed him from all sin, and rose from his knees accepted
in the Beloved." In course of time he is appointed to a professorship in
Strasbourg and assistant preacher in the Church, of St. Peter. Of his great
experience there we read:

"The more he prepared his sermons, the less warmth and life they had. Of this he
was himself keenly conscious. His congregations decreased every Sunday, until at
last he preached almost to empty benches. He felt that he was not fitted for the
pulpit, and on one occasion became so utterly discouraged while preparing, that
he secured a substitute for the next day, late on Saturday night. He now made
his preaching the subject of special prayer, beseeching the Lord either to
relieve him of this duty, or to loose his tongue and give him grace to proclaim
the Gospel. The wonderful answer to these prayers we will set forth in Lembke’s
own words: ‘One day, when I entered the pulpit in great fear, crying for aid,
the Lord suddenly spoke to me His omnipotent word "Ephphatha." Pentecostal power
was given to me, and to the astonishment of my hearers as well as to my own, I
proclaimed the free grace of God in Christ with an overflowing heart and with
utmost freedom of speech.’

"From that day he preached sermons that caused a sensation throughout the city.
The Church of St. Peter was crowded, whenever he appeared in the pulpit. In a
little while the aisles, and even the pulpit steps were filled with hearers,
until the building could not contain the multitude which flocked together."

Let it be carefully noted that this mighty baptism with the Holy Ghost was
received in answer to earnest and importunate prayer. It is perfectly Scriptural
and in fullest harmony with the history of every great revival that believers
meet together to pray for the Holy Spirit. God still pours water on those who
are thirsty, and His Spirit upon them that ask Him. The nearest approach to that
great revival two hundred years ago is the recent outpouring of the Holy Spirit
in Korea. How did that wonderful movement begin, which some one has called "an
appendix to the Book of Acts." The historian of the revival tells us:

"A few missionaries decided to meet together to pray daily at noon. At the end
of the month one brother proposed that ’as nothing had happened, the prayer
meeting should be discontinued. Let us each pray at home as we find it
convenient,’ said he. The others, however, protested that they ought rather to
spend even more time in prayer each day. So they continued the daily
prayer-meeting for four months. Then suddenly the blessing began to be poured
out. Church services here and there were broken up by weeping and confessing of
sins. At length a mighty revival broke out. And when the Church was purified,
many sinners found salvation. Multitudes flocked to the churches. Some came to
mock, but fear laid hold of them, and they stayed to pray."

One of the missionaries declared: "It paid well to have spent several months in
prayer; for when God gave the Holy Spirit, He accomplished more in half a day
than all the missionaries together could have accomplished in half a year. In
less than two months more than 2,000 heathen were converted. The burning zeal of
those converts has become a byword. Some of them gave all they had to build a
church, and wept because they could not give more. Needless to say, they
realized the power of prayer. These converts were themselves baptised with the
’Spirit of supplication.’ In one church it was announced that a daily
prayer-meeting would be held at 4.30 every morning. The very first day 400
people arrived long before the stated hour-eager to pray. The number rapidly
increased to 600 as days went on. At Seoul 1,100 is the average attendance at
the weekly prayer-meeting."

Verily the day of revivals is not past. The Holy Spirit is still waiting to fill
believers with power from on high. The Lord is waiting to be gracious, and "they
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with
wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk and not
faint" (Isa 40:31)." Our Moravian Brethren did what the prophet com­manded and
what the Apostles practised-they "waited on the Lord." What happened in Herrnhut
two centuries ago as a result of "waiting on the Lord" may take place again
to-day. God knows it is as sorely needed now as it was then. The two times are
very much alike. Dead orthodoxy had degenerated into rationalism, worldliness,
vice, crime and atheism. Then the great revival came and, as the historian Green
tells us, saved England from plunging over the precipice into the unspeakable
horrors of the French revolution. If civilization to-day is to be saved and
become Christian another revival is absolutely necessary. In a recent article in
The Moravian, the President of our Provincial Elders Conference, Dr. E. S.
Hagen, wrote as follows:

"The great revival in 1727 in Herrnhut was the normal and logical result of
prayer and the preaching of the Word of the Cross. ’Christ and Him Crucified’
was our brethren’s confession of faith, and ’the inward witness of remission of
sins through faith in His blood’ their blessed and quickening experience. Lecky
in his History of Morals says, of John Wesley’s conversion, May 24, 1738, in the
prayer meeting of Moravian Brethren in Aldersgate Street: ’What happened in that
little room was of more importance to England than all the victories of Pitt by
land or sea.’ Our honoured President, Calvin Coolidge, never said a truer thing
than when he gave as his deliberate conviction that ’what this country needs is
a revival of religion.’ A renewal of our days as of old involves a return to
fervent prayer and to the earnest and effectual preaching of the remission of
sins through the vicarious sacrifice and the shedding of the blood of Jesus
Christ the Son of God. Revival time is coming. We cherish a high expectancy of
it. Sooner than we dream of, to God’s people, who give themselves to earnest,
persevering prayer, and the Scriptural testi­mony concerning the Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the windows of Heaven will be opened."

God grant the speedy fulfilment of our dear brother’s wish and prayer! Let us
ponder the remarkable testimony delivered several years ago at Northfield,
Mass., by that beloved man of God, whose praise is in all the churches, Dr. F.
B. Meyer:

"Those of you who visit London might very well walk down from Holborn to Fleet
Street by a little street which is known as Fetter Lane. When you are halfway
down Fetter Lane, on your left hand you will see a very simple doorway, and over
it the words ‘Mor­avian Chapel.’ Whenever I go down that street I stop there for
a moment and lift my hat. I feel all I felt by Moody’s grave this morning.

"What happened there? Well, Wesley, as you know, came to America, to Savannah,
but he did not accomplish anything very great, for he had not yet reached the
dynamic of which I am talking. He was an ordinary man. He came back to London,
and in London he met a very remarkable man, Peter Boehler. Peter Boehler was
connected with Count Zinzendorf. The Moravians are the disciples of John Huss,
as you know, and they lived in the power of the Holy Spirit of which I am now
talking. Wesley learned all he knew from those godly people.

"When he came back again to Aldersgate Street he met forty or fifty people and
asked them to meet him again at five o’clock that afternoon in the Fetter Lane
chapel; and they did. Wesley, his brother, Whitefield, and a number more whose
names are written in the book of life were there. They remained for some time
quiet, searching their hearts. Then they waited on God, and in the fellowship of
that hour they became conscious of the movement of the Spirit of God. They fell
on their faces, Wesley says in his journal, and lay there, overcome with
gratitude, and then they rose and sang the Te Deum.

"The next day Whitefield took the coach down to Bristol, and began preaching
there in the power of the Holy Ghost. After about a month Wesley followed, and
for forty years they went up and down our country in the face of every sort of
resistance. If you read Wesley’s sermons you will find them interesting, but
neither the sermons of Whitefield nor Wesley have any traits of supreme genius.
But they had the dynamic, they had the power of the Holy Spirit." Our calling as
a Moravian Church hall been truly set forth by our great leader, Count
Zinzendorf, in the following weighty sentence:

"I am destined by the Lord to proclaim the message of the death and blood of
Jesus, not with human wisdom, but with Divine power, unmindful of personal
conse­quences to myself."

What is this declaration but the "Blood and Fire" slogan of the Salvation Army?
It was the favourite phrase of Evan Roberts, the youthful leader of the Welsh
Revival: "Remember the blood! Catch the flame."

We take our leave of these memorable events and persons with a parting look at
that noble youth, fresh from the highest schools of learning, abounding in life,
genius, and wealth, standing before the picture of the bleeding, dying Saviour,
pondering the searching ques­tion, "This have I done for thee! What doest thou
for Me?" We hear him exclaim as his life’s rule and motto:

I have one passion, it is Jesus, Jesus only.

We will heed his exhortation as he sings:

Rise, go forth to meet the Lamb, Slumber not midst worldly care;

Let your lamps be all on flame, For His Coming now prepare.

Then when’er you hear the cry, "Lo, the Bridegroom draweth nigh,"

You will not confounded be, But can meet Him joyfully.

Let us walk the narrow way, Watchful, cheerful, free from toil;

Trim our lamps from day to day, Adding still recruits of oil;

Doubly doth the Spirit rest On his happy peaceful breast, Who himself to praying
gives,


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/greenfield-john-power-fom-on-high/
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