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work of God in the souls committed to their charge."

There were four pastors or teachers as they were called, at Herrnhut, and these persons were regularly ordained. They were overseers of the whole flock, and were the only men except the eldest, and one or two of the helpers who were allowed to converse with the women. The elders, and teachers, and helpers, held one weekly conference concerning the state of the souls under their care, another concerning the youth, and a daily one relating to the outward affairs of the church. The censors, monitors, almoners, attendants on the sick, servants, schoolmasters, young men, and even the children, had also their weekly conferences relating to their several offices and duties, and once a week there was a conference at which any person might be present, and propose any question or doubt. Public service was performed every morning and evening at eight o'clock: it consisted of singing, and expounding the Scriptures, with a short prayer, which in the evening was usually mental; and this latter service concluded with the kiss of peace. On Sunday, in addition to the daily service, and the regular church service at Bertholdsdorf, the superior eldest gave separate exhortations to all the members of the community, who were divided for that purpose into fourteen classes, spending about a quarter of an hour with each class. After the evening eight o'clock service, the young men went round the town singing hymns. On the first Saturday in the month the sacrament was adminis

tered, and they washed each other's feet, the men and women apart; the second was a solemn prayer day for the children; the third was set apart for a general intercession and thanksgiving; the fourth was the monthly conference of all the superiors of the church. And a round of perpetual prayer through every hour of the day and night was kept up by married men and women, maids, bachelors, boys and girls, twenty-four of each, who volunteered to relieve each other in this endless service.

The children were prepared by their education for a life of such continual pupillage. They rose between five and six, prayed awhile in private, and worked till seven; an hour's schooling followed, and then the hour of public service. From nine till eleven they were at school, they were then indulged with an hour's walk: at twelve they dined altogether, and worked till one: from one till three writing or working were the order of the day, arithmetic at three, history at four: work again at five, supper at six, and more work till seven: a little prayer at seven, and a little walking till eight, when the younger children went to bed, and the larger to public service, and when this was done they were set again to work til bed-time, which was at ten. Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and English were taught. There were no holydays or relaxation of any kind, except the little time allowed for walking.

It is somewhat remarkable, that Wesley should have said nothing of their customs respecting matrimony. He took the account which they presented

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to the Theological Faculty at Wittemberg, and appears not to have enquired farther. In this the Moravians say, "We highly reverence marriage, as greatly conducive to the kingdom of Christ: but neither our young men nor women enter into it till they assuredly know they are married to Christ. When any know it is the will of God, that they should change their state, both the man and woman are placed for a time with some married persons, who instruct them how to behave, so that their married life may be pleasing to God. Then their design is laid before the whole church, and after about fourteen days, they are solemnly joined though not otherwise habited than they are at other times. If they make any entertainment, they invite only a few intimate friends, by whose faithful admonitions they may be the better prepared to bear their cross, and fight the good fight of faith." This passage Wesley inserted in the second part of his journal, without any comment or farther explanation. The presumptuousness of a community which could thus expect that its individual members would certainly be informed, whether it was the will of God that they should marry, or remain in singleness, and the fanatical spirit in which this wild opinion is expressed, were too congruous to his own state of mind at that time to excite in him either surprize or disapprobation. There were, however, other circumstances connected with the subject, which it may seem extraordinary that he should not have noticed. The very account which he published, imperfect as it is,

exhibits in a manner sufficiently glaring one inconvenience arising from the unnatural separation of

This is carried so far, that in their burial-places there are "distinct squares for married men and unmarried, for married and unmarried women, for male and female children, and for widows." (Wesley's 2d Journal.) The same separation was observed in the burial-grounds of the Guarani Missions, and there also, as with the Moravians, "the church-yard was what a Christian place of burial should be, a sacred garden of the dead." I transcribe from the Periodical Accounts of the Moravian Missions, (Vol. iii. p. 35.) the description of that at Bavians Kloof, in the Cape-Colony. "As our burying-ground was nothing but a wild and rough looking field, divided from our garden by a small path, brother Rose undertook to make it look more decent. Having measured a square of an hundred and eighty feet, he divided it into nine compartments, with paths between them. As we have no stones here fit for grave stones, each grave is marked with a short post, upon which a board is fixed, with a number painted upon it, referring to a groundplan which exhibits a catalogue of the deceased. A broad path leads in a strait line through our garden, into and through the buryingground, this path is inclosed by rows of trees, and the burying-ground is surrounded with a hedge of roses. All our Hottentots assisted with great willingness in compleating this work, and are highly pleased with the regular and decent appearance of their future resting-place."

It is from what he has seen among the Moravians, that Montgomery has imagined his beautiful burying-place of the Patriarchs.

A scene sequestered from the haunts of men,
The loveliest nook of all that lovely glen,
Where weary pilgrims found their last repose.
The little heaps were ranged in comely rows
With walks between, by friends and kindred trod,
Who dress'd with duteous hands each hallowed sod.
No sculptured monument was taught to breathe
His praises whom the worm devoured beneath;
The high, the low, the mighty and the fair,
Equal in death, were undistinguished there,
Yet not a hillock mouldered near that spot,
By one dishonoured, or by all forgot;
To some warm heart the poorest dust was dear,
From some kind eye the meanest claim'd a tear.
And oft the living by affection led

Were wont to walk in spirit with their dead,
Where no dark cyprus cast a doleful gloom,
No blighting yew shed poison o'er the tomb;

different sexes, ages and conditions: men and women of marriageable years, were presumed to be so ignorant of the manners and duties of the married life, that they were "to be placed for a time with some married persons" for the purpose of instruction. This would be ludicrous if it were not pitiable. The system indeed of taking children from their parents, breaking up domestic society, and sorting human beings, like cabbage plants, according to their growth, is not more consonant to nature than the Egyptian method of hatching eggs in ovens: a great proportion of the chickens are said to be produced with some deformity, and hens thus hatched bear a less price than those which have been reared in the natural way, because it often happens that they will not sit upon their eggs, the course of instinct having been disturbed.

From this preposterous education, it followed necessarily that there could be little predilection between parties who had never seen each other in domestic life, and to whom indeed no opportunities of intercourse seem to have been afforded. In consequence therefore of this discipline, persons who were disposed to marry usually left the choice

But white and red with intermingling flowers
The graves looked beautiful in sun and showers.
Green myrtles fenced it, and beyond their bound
Ran the clear rill with ever-murmuring sound.
Twas not a scene for grief to nourish care,

It breathed of hope, and moved the heart to prayer.
World before the Flood. Canto 5.

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