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Power from on High
A Modern Pentecost
The Moravians and
Count Zinzendorf
by John Greenfield
A Moravian historian wrote that church history
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: 5:00
a.m., 7.30 a.m., and 9:00 p.m. Everyone desired above everything
else that the Holy Spirit might have full control. Self love
and self will, as well as all disobedience, disappeared and
an overwhelming flood of graces swept us all out into the
great
ocean of divine love.
No one present could tell exactly what happened
on that Wednesday morning, August 13, 1727, at the specially
called communion service. They hardly knew if they had been
on earth or in heaven. Count Nicholas Zinzendorf, the young
leader of that community, gave this account many years later:
We needed to come to the communion with a sense of the loving
nearness of the Savior. 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 Savior. 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 help which the heavenly grace once
given
to themselves, so many thousand times confirmed to them since
then. Zinzendorf described it as "a sense of the nearness
of
Christ" given to everyone present, and also to others
of their community who were working elsewhere at the time.
The congregation
was young. Zinzendorf, the human leader, was 27, which was
about the average age of the group.
Out of Persecution
The Moravian brethren had sprung from the
labors and martyrdom of the Bohemian reformer, John Hus.
They had experienced
centuries of persecution. Many had been killed, imprisoned,
tortured or banished from their homeland. This group had
fled
for refuge to Germany where the young Christian nobleman, Count
Zinzendorf, offered them asylum on his estates in Saxony.
They
named their new home Herrnhut, “The Lord’s Watch”. From there,
after their baptism in the Holy Spirit, they became evangelists
and missionaries. Fifty years before the beginning of modern
foreign missions by William Carey, the Moravian Church had
sent
out over 100 missionaries. Their English missionary magazine,
Periodical Accounts, inspired William Carey. He threw a copy
of the paper on a table at a Baptist meeting, saying, “See
what the Moravians have done! Cannot we follow their example
and
in obedience to our heavenly Master go out into the world,
and preach the Gospel to the heathen?”
That missionary zeal began with the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit. Count Zinzendorf observed: “The Savior 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”. When the Spirit came prayer precedes
Pentecost. The disgruntled community at Herrnhut early in 1727
was deeply divided and critical of one another. Heated controversies
threatened to disrupt the community. The majority were from
the ancient Moravian Church of the Brethren. Other believers
attracted to Herrnhut included Lutherans, Reformed, and Baptists.
They argued about predestination, holiness, and baptism.
The young German nobleman, Count Zinzendorf,
pleaded for unity, love and repentance. Converted early in life
he composed and signed a covenant: “Dear Savior, do Thou be
mine, and I will be Thine.” His life motto was, “I have one
passion: it is Jesus, Jesus only.” Count Zinzendorf learned
the secret of prevailing prayer. He actively established prayer
groups as a teenager, and on leaving the college at Halle at
sixteen he gave the famous Professor Francke a list of seven
praying societies he had established. After he finished university
his education was furthered by travel to foreign countries.
Everywhere he went, his passion for Jesus controlled him. In
the Dusseldorf Gallery of paintings he was deeply moved by a
painting of the crucifixion over which were the words: Hoc feci
pro te; Quid facis pro me? (This have I done for thee; What
hast thou done for me?)
A Covenant and a 100 Year Prayer Meeting!
At Herrnhut, Zinzendorf visited all the adult
members of the deeply divided community. He drew up a covenant
calling upon them “to seek out and emphasize the points in which
they agreed” rather than stressing their differences. On May
12, 1727, they all signed an agreement to dedicate their lives,
as he dedicated his, to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Moravian revival of 1727 was thus preceded and then sustained
by extraordinary praying. A spirit of grace, unity and supplications
grew among them. On July 16 the count poured out his soul in
a prayer accompanied with a flood of tears. This prayer produced
an extraordinary effect. The whole community began praying as
never before. On the 22nd of July many of the community covenanted
together, on their own accord, to meet often to pour out their
hearts in prayer and hymns.
On August 5 the count spent the whole night
in prayer with about twelve or fourteen others following a large
meeting for prayer at midnight where great emotion prevailed.
On Sunday, August 10, Pastor Rothe, while leading the service
at Herrnhut, was overwhelmed by the power of the Lord about
noon. He sank down into the dust before God. So did the whole
congregation. They continued till midnight in prayer and singing,
weeping and praying.
On Wednesday, August 13, 1727, the Holy Spirit
was poured out on them all. Their prayers were answered in ways
far beyond anyone’s expectations. Many of them decided to set
aside certain times for continued earnest prayer. On August
26, twenty-four men and twenty-four women covenanted together
to continue praying in intervals of one hour each, day and night,
each hour allocated by lots to different people. On August 27,
this new regulation began. Others joined the intercessors and
the number involved increased to seventy-seven. They all carefully
observed the hour that had been appointed for them. The intercessors
had a weekly meeting where prayer needs were given to them.
The children, also touched powerfully by God,
began a similar plan among themselves. Those who heard their
infant supplications were deeply moved. The children’s prayers
and supplications had a powerful effect on the whole community.
That astonishing prayer meeting beginning in
1727 went on for one hundred years. It was unique. Known as
the Hourly Intercession, it involved relays of men and women
in prayer without ceasing made to God. That prayer also led
to action, especially evangelism. More than one hundred missionaries
left that village community in the next twenty-five years, all
constantly supported in prayer. One result of their baptism
in the Holy Spirit was a joyful assurance of their pardon and
salvation. This made a strong impact on people in many countries,
including the Wesleys.
John and Charles Wesley
In 1736 John and Charles Wesley
sailed to America as Anglican missionaries. A company of
Moravian
immigrants was also on the vessel. During a terrible storm
they all faced the danger of shipwreck. John Wesley wrote
in his
journal: “At seven I went to the Germans. I had long before
observed the great seriousness of their behavior. 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
Savior 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 mainsail 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’”.
In Georgia, John Wesley sought
spiritual counsel from the Moravian bishop, A. G. Spangenberg.
Back in England in 1738 the Wesley brothers became intimately
acquainted with the Moravians, especially Peter Boehler who
later became a leading Moravian bishop. On March 4, 1738,
Wesley
wrote 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 convicted
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 off, or not.
He answered, ‘By no means.’ I asked: ‘But what can I preach?
He said: ‘Preach faith till you have faith.’ Accordingly, Monday,
the 6th, 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.”
Eventually John Wesley came to
assurance of salvation. His own testimony reads:
“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
that 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 often
met together then for Bible study and prayer. George Whitefield’s
biographer wrote: Whitefield began the New Year (1739) as gloriously
as he ended that which had just expired. He received communion,
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 New Year’s Day 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 Hitchins,
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, O God; we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord!’”
Wesley’s estimate of the Moravian
revival which resulted in his own conversion was prophetic.
When Peter Boehler, nine years his junior, left England for
America after 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!
Peter Boehler wrote to Count Zinzendorf, saying: “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 the Savior, His blood and wounds, and the forgiveness
of sins”.
Impacting All Sections
of Society
Zinzendorf’s speaking, preaching
and letters were full of Christ. Everywhere the Moravians went
they spoke of their Lord, sang of him, and witnessed naturally.
The Holy Spirit had filled them, as in the early church, with
great love for their Lord. Their Bishop Spangenberg, for example,
told how Johannes, an Indian chief who had been a very wicked
man, was converted. The chief said that once a preacher came
to their tribe and proved to them that there was a God. They
informed him that they were not ignorant of that and told him
to go away. Another preacher came and told them not to steal,
drink too much, or lie. They regarded him as a fool because
they already knew that, and they sent him off to preach to his
own people who were worse than the Indians in those vices. Then
Christian Henry Rauch, one of the Moravian Brethren, came to
his hut, sat with him and told him about Jesus. Then fatigued
from his journey, Christian Henry lay down and slept, unafraid
of the chief. Johannes could not get the Moravian’s words out
of his mind. He dreamt of the cross. He told his tribe about
Jesus and they repented as the Holy Spirit moved their hearts.
Johannes said to the bishop, "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."
In Europe, a countess with close
friends among kings, emperors and princes, famous for her brilliant
gifts and witty conversation, found that none of her amusements
and recreations satisfied her any longer. A humble Moravian
shoemaker came into her presence and she was struck with his
remarkable cheerfulness. She asked him why he was so happy and
he replied that ‘Jesus has forgiven my sins. He forgives me
every day and He loves me and that makes me happy through all
the hours.’ The countess thought about that and began to pray.
Conviction led her into the same joyful faith and she became
a great witness for Christ among titled people, especially in
the court of the Emperor of Russia, Alexander I, her close friend.
A New Song
Then, as now, the baptism in
the Holy Spirit upon the Moravians and then the Methodists,
produced
a flood of sacred song. Many of the best hymns may be traced
to this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Moravian hymns were
filled
with praise to Christ, adoration of Him as God, and proclamation
of His virtues and work. Moravian hymns were generally prayers
to Christ. It was a Moravian characteristic that their prayers
were generally addressed to their Savior. Honoring the Son
they
honored the Father who had sent Him as well as the Holy Spirit
who glorified Christ. The chief singer then was the godly
young
nobleman Count Zinzendorf. He became the prince of German hymn
writers.
England Saw Similar Developments
One of the many spiritual children
of Peter Boehler was John Gambold, a young clergyman of the
Church of England, an Oxford graduate and a friend of the
Wesleys.
He joined the Moravian Church and became its first English
bishop. Some of his hymns and sacred songs became well known.
Another
of Peter Boehler’s English converts was James Hutton, a famous
bookseller. He also wrote some precious hymns. The best-known
English Moravian hymn writer during the Great Revival was John
Cennick. At one of Cennick’s famous open-air meetings a young
Scottish laborer, John Montgomery, was converted. He joined
the Moravian Church and John and Mary Montgomery become Moravian
missionaries in the West Indies where they died and were buried.
Their son James was educated in the Moravian school at Fulneck.
James Montgomery ranks with great hymn writers of that era.
Charles Wesley had more than 6,000 hymns published after his
conversion in 1738 through the witness and prayers of Peter
Boehler. 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 every
one
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."
Fruit That Abides
A traveler of that period wrote
this striking testimony, “In all my journeys I have found only
three objects that exceeded my expectations: the ocean, Count
Zinzendorf, and the Herrnhut congregation.” Herrnhut had become
a spiritual centre visited by people from all parts of Europe
seeking to be saved or to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and
with fire. John Wesley’s visit to Herrnhut was 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 labor in
another part of His vineyard. O when shall this Christianity
cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea?”
At the end of his life Count Zinzendorf
could triumphantly say: “I am going to my Savior. 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.”
Over four thousand people followed
his body to its resting place on the Hutberg, including Moravian
ministers from Holland, England, Ireland, North America and
Greenland. His tombstone bore this inscription: “Here lie the
remains of the 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”.
Renew Our Days
The renewal of the Moravian Church
can stir our hearts to pray, “Renew our days as of old.” In
1927, 200 years after the revival in the Moravian Church,
the editor of The Biblical Review, New York, wrote: 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.
Their first great experience
that gave the Moravians such spiritual power was a personal
experience
of salvation. The second great experience that gave them such
spiritual power and leadership was the baptism in the Holy
Spirit.
Dr. J. Kenneth Pfohl, a Moravian pastor, wrote in The Moravian
in 1927: “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 great 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. In another article in
The Moravian, Dr E. S. Hagen declared, “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.”
...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.
The day of revivals is not past.
The Holy Spirit still waits to fill believers with power from
on high.
Adapted from
a reproduction by Geoff Waugh of John Greenfield’s “Power from
on High”.
Edinburgh: Marshall, Morgan, and Scott.
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