nothing but "Jesus Christ and him crucified;" and neither do they; 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 whether 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 cometh by hearing. These converts multiplied, and, in many instances, they have settled around them. It is true that they have had unexampled success in the business of civilizing their disciples; but it has arisen from their having stood longer on the vantage ground of the previous knowledge of Christianity with which they had furnished them, than any other missionaries; and the peace, and order, and industry, which are represented by rash and superficial observers, as the antecedents of the business, are, in fact, so many consequents flowing out of the mighty influence which attends the word of their testimony. It is well that the Moravians have risen into popular admiration. This will surely give weight to their own testimony about their own matters. And when one of their members publishes an account of the manner in which the United Brethren preach the Gospel, and carry on their missions among the Heathen, information from such a quarter will surely be looked upon as of higher authority than the rapid description of a traveller. Now such a treatise has been published by Spangenberg; and it does not appear that any preparatory civilization is now attempted by their missionaries, who have been engaged in the business for many years, and have been eminent above all others, both for their experience and their success. We shall subjoin a few extracts as being completely decisive upon this point. The method of the brethren to bring the heathen to Christ was in the beginning of their attempts, particularly in Greenland, nearly as follows: They proved to the heathen that there is a God, and spoke to them of his attributes and perfections. In the next place, they spoke upon the creation ;-how God had made man after 'his own image, which, however, was soon lost by the fall. They then made the heathen acquainted with the laws which : God gave by his servant Moses. Hence they proved to them that they were sinners, and had deserved temporal and eternal punishment. And from this they drew the consequence, that 'there must be one who reconciled them to God, &c. This method of teaching they continued for a long time, but without any success, for the heathen became tired of such discourses. If it be asked, how happened it that the brethren 'fell upon the said method, I must confess that I am apprehen'sive I was myself the cause of it. The first brethren who 'were destined for Greenland, went to Copenhagen by way of Halle, where I at that time lived. They tarried a few days ' with me, and conversed with me relative to their intentions. Upon this, I gave them a book to read, (for I knew no better at that time,) in which a certain divine treated, among the rest, ' of the method to convince and to bring the heathen to Christ. 'The good man had probably never seen an heathen in all his life, much less converted any; but yet he imagined he could 'give directions how to set about it. The brethren followed ' them, but without success. 'Meanwhile, it pleased the Lord our Saviour to give the congregation at Herrnhut more insight into the word of atonement through the offering of Jesus. Nor were the brethren wanting in declaring to those in Greenland, that they must 'preach Jesus Christ, if they meant to produce any blessing ' among the heathen. Upon this, the brethren began to translate some parts of the Gospel, especially what relates to the 'sufferings and death of Jesus, and read that to the heathen. This gave an opportunity to speak with them farther on that 'head. Then God opened their hearts that they attended to the 'word, and it proved to them also the power of God. They 'became desirous of hearing more about it, and the fire which 'had been kindled in them by the Holy Ghost, spread farther ' and farther. And thus many were converted to God; since 'which time the brethren were frequently asked by the heathen, 'why they did not preach sooner to them of Jesus; that they had been quite tired of hearing the discourses about God, and the two first parents, &c. Above thirty years ago, when I lived in North America, I 'sometimes got the brethren that were used occasionally in the 'service of our Lord to come together, in order that I might 'converse with them about their labours. Johannes, an Indian of the Mahikander nation, who had formerly been a very 'wicked man, but was now thoroughly converted, and was our 'fellow labourer in the congregation gathered from among the heathens at that time dwelling in Chekomekah, happened to ⚫ be just then on a visit with us, and also came to our little meet ، 'ing. He was a man that had excellent gifts, was a bold con'fessor of what he knew to be true, and understood the German language so as to express himself with sufficient clearness. As we were speaking with one another about the heathen, he said, among other things, Brethren, I have been an 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 camest." Another preacher came another time and would instruct us, 'saying, Ye must not steal, not drink too much, not lie, &c.'We answered him, "Fool, that thou art! dost thou think that '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, one of the 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, &c. Upon this he lay down upon a board in my hut and fell a-sleep, 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 immediately, and throw him out into the forest, 'who would care for it? 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 us. I thought-this is very strange, and went to interpret to the other Indians the words which Chris'tian Henry spake farther to us. Thus, through the grace of God, the awakening among us took place. I tell you, there fore, brethren, preach to the heathen Christ and his blood, and 'his death, if ye would wish to produce a blessing among them.' Such was the exhortation of Johannes, the Mahikander, to us., 'But the brethren were already, before that time, convinced that 'Jesus Christ must be the marrow and substance of the preaching ' of the Gospel among the heathen, even as he is in general called, with justice, the marrow and substance of the whole Bible. The ground of this position is contained in sect. 9, and following, where we treated of the Apostles' labours among the Gen'tiles, Nor shall we do amiss if we follow the method of the Apostles, who, in their office, were under the peculiar leadings of the Holy Spirit, as far as it is applicable to us. Hence what 'Paul writes to the Corinthians-" I determined not to know 'any thing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified,”. ' is a firmly established rule for us in preaching to the heathen.' (Spangenberg's account of the manner in which the United Brethren carry on their missions among the Heathens. Section 44, 45, 46.) Before we give any more extracts from Spangenberg, we cannot help remarking on the efficacy of the simple word upon minds totally unfurnished by any previous discipline whatever. This is something more than matter of faith; it is matter of experience: it is the result of many an actual experiment upon human nature. And how comes it, therefore, that philosophers of the day are so often found to flinch from their favourite evidence on every question connected with the truth and the progress of Christianity? 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. The worthy men of this denomination have long laboured in the field of missionary exertion, and Greenland was one scene of their earliest enterprises. In their progress thither, they were furnished with a cloistered speculation on the likeliest method of obtaining access to the mind of a savage for the truths of Christianity. These men had gone out of Germany without any other instruments for their work than the Word of God in their hands, and a believing prayer in their hearts. But the author of this speculation had thought, and thought profoundly on the subject; and the humble brethren bowed for once to the wisdom of this world, when his synthetic process for the conversion of savages was put into their hands, and they took it along with them. Thus furnished, they entered upon the field of exertion and never was human nature subjected to experiment under circumstances more favourable. Never did it come in a more simple and elementary state under the treatment of a foreign application. There was no disturbing cause to affect the result of this interesting trial; no bias of education to embarrass our conclusions; no mixture of any previous ingredient to warp and to darken the phenomena, or to throw a disguise over that clear and decisive principle which was on the eve of emerging from them. The rationalising process of the divine was first put into operation and it failed. Year after year did they take their departure from the simplicity of his first principles, and try to conduct the Greenlanders with them along the pathway which he had constructed for leading them to Christ. The Greenlanders refused to move a single step, and with as great obstinacy as the world of inatter refuses to conform her processes to the fanciful theories of men. The brethren, disheartened at the result of an operation so fatiguing and so fruitless, resolved to vary the experi ; ment, and throwing aside all their preparatory instructions, they brought the word of the testimony directly to bear upon them. The effect was instantaneous. God, who knoweth what is in man, knoweth also the kind of application that should be made to man. He glorified the word of his grace, and gave it efficacy. That word which he himself commanded to be preached to all nations, to the barbarians as well as the Greeks, is surely the mighty instrument for the pulling down of strong holds; and the Moravians have found it so. The Greenland experiment has furnished them with a principle which they carry along with them in all their enterprises. It has seldom failed them in any quarter of the globe; and they can now appeal to thousands and thousands of their converts, as so many distinct testimonies of the efficacy of the Bible. We like to urge the case of the Moravians, for we think that much may be made of it in the way of reclaiming that unhallowed contempt which some of the ablest, and most accomplished men in this country have expressed for a righteous cause. The truth is, that these Moravians have of late become the objects of a sentimental admiration, and that too to men whom the power of Divine grace has not yet delivered from their natural enmity to the truth as it is in Jesus. Their numerous establishments, and the many interesting pictures of peace, and order, and industry, which they have reared among the wilds of Heathenism, have at length compelled the testimony of travellers. It is delightful to be told of the neat attire and cultivated gardens of savages; and we can easily conceive how a sprig of honeysuckle, at the cottage door of a Hottentot, may extort some admiring and poetical prettiness from a charmed spectator, who would shrink offended from the peculiarities of the Gospel. Now they are right as to the fact. It is all very true about the garden and the honeysuckle; but they are most egregiously wrong as to the prineiple; and when they talk of these Moravians as the most rational of missionaries, because they furnish their converts with the arts and the comforts of life, before they ever think of pressing upon them the mysteries of their faith, they make a most glaring departure from the truth, and that too in the face of information and testimony afforded by the very men whom they profess to admire. It is not true that Moravians are distinguished from other missionaries by training their disciples to justice and morality, and labour, in the first instance; and by refraining to exhort to faith and self-abasement. It is not true, nor does it consist with the practice of the Moravians, that in regard to savages, some advance towards civilization is necessary preparatory to any attempt to christianize them. This attempt is made at the very outset; and should they meet with a fellow creature in the lowest state of uncultivation, it is enough for them that he L |