Clarkson was established in the year 1839. At that time the brethren, Nauhaus and Adolph Kuester, made a hut with the branches of trees, and slept in their waggon. A mud house was afterwards erected, which is still in existence. Now, the missionaries, br. A. Kuester and Gustavus Scharf, with their families, occupy a good house, built of brick, with a verandah in front, covvered with vines, and a row of orange trees partly in blossom and partly covered with fruit. The simple, but pretty church, is just opposite the dwelling-house, while on its side a new building is in course of erection, in which it is contemplated to have a blacksmith's and a carpenter's workshop, along with a bakehouse. All the work is done by the Hottentot and Fingoo members of our church. The houses of the inhabitants form a fine wide street. Situated as this settlement is on the side of a lovely chain of mountains, from whose glens there issues an abundant supply of clear water, quite sufficient to turn a mill, it produced a very pleasant impression on the visitor. The horizon is bounded by the sea, which is about seven or eight miles distant. Towards evening, the congregation assembled in considerable numbers in the church, and welcomed us by singing several verses, first in the Dutch, and then in the Fingoo language. We were astonished and delighted with the singing of these people, who have been collected into a congregation within the last fourteen years, and of whom few, if any, could formerly sing at all. Br. Koelbing and myself both addressed the meeting, each of us having to avail ourselves of an interpreter. Indeed, my discourse had to pass through two channels, having first to be translated into Dutch, and subsequently into the Fingoo language, by the interpreter Zwelibanzi. On the morning of the 16th, we visited the school, which is conducted by br. Scharf, with the assistance of Nicholas Oppelt, who has been educated in the Training-school at Genadendal. The pupils receive instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography, but particularly in Bible history and in singing. Those who are able to read fluently, are instructed in English. DEAR BROTHER, From br. J. C. RREUTEL. ENON, March 9th, 1854. I write to you from a district which your dear father once visited, and from a place of which he may be said to have been the founder. How often do I not think of him! He is still remembered here, with great affection and respect. We have been greatly comforted and encouraged by the kind and cordial manner in which we have everywhere been received. The gardens and fields of Enon have produced a large crop this year. You may see large ears of Indian corn in every house. Br. Lehman showed me one barley-stalk, on which there were fifty-four offshoots from the single grain. In a spiritual point of view, likewise, the congregation appears again to be promising a richer harvest than for some years past. The times of adversity and trial have had their salutary effect. Upon visiting the inhabitants in their houses, I was able to satisfy myself that the labor of our brethren is not in vain in the Lord. They are working with great faithfulness, both in spiritual and in temporal things. Sr. Lehman, I am sorry to say, is so poorly, that she requires rest and relaxation. Her husband would gladly continue active at his post if there were not this circumstance to prevent him. They will, therefore, return to Europe next year, in charge of seven or eight children of our mis sionaries here. I am continually interrupted by persons coming to say farewell. An old woman, Susan Arnold, has just been with me. She was a child, living at Genadendal, when your father arrived there, and remembers him very well. Numberless are the salutations, which we are requested to deliver to the congregations at home. We had wished to start early this morning, but the oxen had run away, and have not yet been found. We are here, as you see, under the control of the oxen, as we were at Clarkson under that of the mules. But patience, patience! From br. J. F. WEDEMAN to the MISSION-BOARD. ROBBEN-ISLAND, Aug. 15th, 1853. In September, we had our speaking, in which fifty men and twelve women took part. The number of sick females is on the decrease; but this is not the case with the men. Our speaking this season has been very refreshing, since a great many victims, both of the leprosy and of chronic diseases, who have but lately come hither, expressed themselves in a manner that could not but cheer and encourage us. A Caffre, who speaks Dutch, said, with tears in his eyes: "I had the opportunity of hearing the word of God from my childhood, but I disregarded it, and lived in sin. Although conscience often warned me, I could not gain the mastery over my evil heart. I had a presentiment that the Lord would visit me with the leprosy, though I perceived no signs of its approach; and I even communicated this presentiment to my parents. Not long afterwards, the disease made its appearance. The Lord sent it, that my soul might be freed from the bondage of sin. Often did my parents warn and entreat me not to forsake the Lord; but I did not attend to their admonitions, and therefore the Lord has seen fit to chastise me." A chronic patient declared: "In my childhood, I was instructed in the word of God; but in after years, I was very wild, and spent my time in the service of Satan. Now I cannot sufficiently thank the Lord, for not utterly casting me off, but graciously granting me time for repentance. What I heard in my youth from the Holy Scriptures, and the prayers which I then learnt, now recur to my mind; the Lord hath shewn me, that I am lost and undone by nature." Even among the most ignorant, who have been here a long time, and whose senses seemed so blunted through hard usage and neglect, that they appeared almost in a state of total imbecility of mind, I have perceived some pleasing tokens of progress in divine knowledge. Of the fifty men with whom I conversed, thirty-six are still unbaptized, and among these are some, who have never even entered a church. Some of the whites, who are chronic patients, mostly in consequence of their dissolute lives, are even worse than the heathen. It is indeed necessary here to combine the wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove. Often do I feel deeply my great weakness and insufficiency. The thought frequently troubles me, that perhaps I may have been guilty of neglect, in dealing with such as are so quickly and unexpectedly carried off by death. This place is truly a field of death. In the course of last year, I accompanied seventy-seven corpses to their final resting place, and this year, up to the present time, as many as sixty-three. Let me entreat you, dear brethren, to be earnest in prayer to the Lord, that He would graciously strengthen me, enabling me to be faithful and useful in this sphere of labor. Subscriptions and Donations received by Rev. C. F. Seidel. NAZ.-Dr. Ch. Sellers, '54. NEWYORK.-Gust. Hauser, '54. LANCASTER. Mrs. Kaufman, '53 & '54. PHILA.-Rev. W. Stratton, '54. Mr. Matson, '54. SALEM.-Rev. W. Bahnson, '54. BETHANIA.-Th. Lash, '53 & '54 LITIZ.-Mrs. Matilda Zitzman, '54. Donation towards the Missions of the U. B. From a brother in Philadelphia-$10. OBITUARY. Departed on the 20th of July, about 1100 miles distant from his home, viz: in Green county, State of Missouri, our brother JOHN G. HERMAN, Bishop of the Brethren's church, and President of the Provincial Elders' Conference of Salem, N. Carolina, in the 66th year of his age, while on a visitation-tour to our Mission among the Cherokee Indians. Soon after Easter he had left his home and family at Salem, N. C., in good health, and having accomplished the object of his mission, he had gone several days on his homeward way, when he was arrested by the hand of the Lord. A malignant fever, after a few days' illness, terminated his pilgrimage here below and his services in the church militant. Our br. Herman is well known throughout the Brethren's Unity, having served in its three Provinces in various capacities. In the year 1844 he was appointed a mem ber of the Unitys' Elders' Conference, and as such made a visitation throughout our Mission stations on the West India islands. At our General Synod in 1848, held at Herrnhut, he ably discharged the functions of President of that body, and in 1849 he was appointed to his late station, as presiding Elder of our Southern Provincial Conference in North Carolina. 3 Moravian Church Miscellany. A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF THE UNITED BRETHREN IN AMERICA. "I AM THE WAY, AND THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE."-John 14. 6. COMMUNICATIONS.-The Editor is not to be considered responsible for the opinions of his correspondents, on subjects respecting which the Church allows a diversity of sentiment, BETHLEHEM: PUBLISHED FOR THE CHURCH OF THE UNITED BRETHREN. Subscriptions and Payments Received by the Rev. David Bigler, 522 Houston St., New York, Rev. Edm. vian Church Miscellany, Bethlehem, Pa. PRINTED BY JULIUS W. HELD, BETHLEHEM, Pa. Franc. Wolle |