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Updated: June 24, 2025
As he himself was a Lutheran clergyman, he would stay at Herrnhut and minister to the Herrnhut Lutherans; and the Moravians could all sail away to Georgia, and live in perfect peace in the land of the free. The new Bishop was not to exercise his functions in Germany.
To them work was a sacred duty, a delight and a means for the common good. If a man is blessed who has found his work, then blessed were the folk at Herrnhut. "We do not work to live," said the Count; "we live to work." The whole aim was the good of each and the good of all.
He visited the University of Jena, founded a society among the students, and so impressed the learned Spangenberg that that great theological scholar soon became a Brother at Herrnhut himself. He visited the University of Halle, and founded another society of students there. He visited Elmsdorf in Vogtland, and founded a society consisting of members of the family of Count Reuss.
As the Counts agreed to these conditions the Brethren now laid out near the castle a settlement after the Herrnhut model, named it Herrnhaag, and made it a regular training-ground for the future ministers of the Church. At Herrnhut the Brethren were under a Lutheran Pastor; at Herrnhaag they were independent, and ordained their own men for the work.
For rich and poor, for Catholic and Protestant, for all able-bodied men and women, the same stern rule held good. If a man desired to settle at Herrnhut, the one supreme condition was that he earned his bread by honest toil, and lived a godly, righteous and sober life. For industrious Catholics there was a hearty welcome; for vagabonds, tramps and whining beggars there was not a bed to spare.
He could not even tacitly countenance those who held such tenets without grievous hindrance to his work. One is thankful to learn that he resisted his besetting temptation, and did not send to the Herrnhut brethren a rude letter which he had written, and thankful also to find that he did full justice to the good qualities of Count Zinzendorf.
At this Synod the deputy for Herrnhut was a lawyer named Riegelmann; and, being desirous to do his duty efficiently, he had asked for a copy of the "Synodal Results" of 1764 and 1769. His request was moderate and sensible. No deputy could possibly do his duty unless he knew the existing laws of the Church. But his request was sternly refused.
At the Synod of 1782, and again at a Conference of Diaspora-workers, held at Herrnhut , the Brethren emphatically laid down the rule that no worker in the Diaspora should ever attempt to win converts for the Moravian Church. The Diaspora work was now at the height of its glory.
For this purpose, therefore, he asked the settlers at Herrnhut to sign their names to a voluntary "Brotherly Union"; and the chief condition of the "Union" was that all the members agreed to live in friendship with Christians of other denominations, and also to regard themselves as members of the Lutheran Church. They attended the regular service at the Parish Church.
His visit to William Law at Mr. Gibbon's house at Putney in 1732 the correspondence he carried on with him for several years afterwards his readings of the mystic divines of Germany his loving respect for the company of Moravians who were his fellow-travellers to Georgia in 1736 his meeting with Peter Böhler in 1738 the close intercourse which followed with the London Moravians the fortnight spent by him at Herrnhut, 'exceedingly strengthened and comforted by the conversation of this lovely people, his intimate friendship with Gambold, who afterwards completely threw in his lot with the United Brethren and became one of their bishops, all these incidents betoken a deep and cordial sympathy.
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