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"Are you willing," he asked Dober, "to consult the Saviour by means of the Lot?" "For myself," replied Dober, "I am already sure enough; but I will do so for the sake of the Brethren." A meeting was held; a box of mottoes was brought in; and Dober drew a slip of paper bearing the words: "Let the lad go, for the Lord is with him." The voice of the Lot was decisive.
As soon, then, as the leading Brethren in Herrnhut such as John de Watteville, Leonard Dober, David Nitschmann, the Syndic, Frederick Köber, and others had recovered from the shock occasioned by Zinzendorf's death, they set about the difficult task of organizing the work of the whole Moravian Church.
The young men were resolute, confident and undismayed. If they had to be slaves to preach the Gospel, then slaves they would willingly be!87 At last Dober wrote in person to the congregation and repeated his resolve. The Brethren yielded. The Count still doubted. For the second time a momentous issue was submitted to the decision of the Lot.
Thomas," he wrote, "is a greater marvel than Herrnhut." For the last three years that master missionary, Friedrich Martin, the "Apostle to the Negroes," had been continuing the noble work begun by Leonard Dober; and, in spite of the fierce opposition of the planters and also of the Dutch Reformed Church, had established a number of native congregations.
For the first time in the history of Protestant Europe a congregation of orthodox Christians had deliberately resolved to undertake the task of preaching the Gospel to the heathen. As the Lot which decided that Dober should go had also decided that his friend Leupold should stay, he now chose as his travelling companion the carpenter, David Nitschmann.
He was poor; he was humble; he was weak in health; and he spent his time in praying for the Church and attending to the spiritual needs of the Single Brethren. But gradually the situation altered. For the last six years the office had been held by Leonard Dober. He had been elected by Lot, and was, therefore, supposed to possess Divine authority.
At the time when Leonard Dober set out from Herrnhut not a single other Protestant Church in the world had attacked the task of foreign missions, or even regarded that task as a Divinely appointed duty.
It had already sent Hans Egede to Greenland and Ziegenbalg to Tranquebar, on the Coromandel Coast; and it sent its men as State officials, to undertake the work of evangelisation as a useful part of the national colonial policy. But Dober and Nitschmann were on a different footing.
If the reader consults any history of Christian Missions88 he will see that long before Leonard Dober set out for St. Thomas other men had preached the Gospel in heathen lands. But in all these efforts there is one feature missing. There is no sign of any united Church action.
But already the Count had taught the Brethren to regard the daily Watch-Word as a special message from God. He consulted his text-book. The very answer he sought was there. "It is not a vain thing for you," ran the message, "because it is your life; and through this thing ye shall prolong your days." And yet Dober was not quite convinced.
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