OCTOBER

Monday, the 1st of October. In my home prayer meeting today I began, in the name of God, the reading of the New Testament; and we are planning in this way to read through one gospel after the other and then the following books for our common edification. We read one verse after the other slowly and clearly, pausing a bit after a significant verse or expression or else reading it out again; and at the end of each lesson, which is constituted by a connected story or sermon, we mention for their edification something concerning the dicta classica¹ of what we have read. I am planning in the future to have the listeners read little pericopes, since this will greatly increase their attention. I will also let them recite the verses they already know so that the others will be stimulated to make the effort to learn them too. In our prayers we often hear our pious listeners praise the dear Lord for the blessing in the fields which He has granted and which is almost harvested. They also ask grace to use it as a blessing for the blessing and salvation of their souls, which, of course, no man can do through his own efforts.

N. had some business with me because of his sick child; and on this occasion I asked whether he was in harmony with his wife, etc. He had to admit that there was trouble sometimes, but that things were going better with her ever since I gave her some admonitions about two weeks ago.

Tuesday, the 2nd of October. N. N. is proving to be a righteous housefather, who not only sincerely allows the grace of God to work on his own soul but also applies the received grace for the edification and improvement of his family. The catechism has again become a cherished book for him; and, as is demanded in the name of God by the blessed Luther before each main part, he reads and teaches it simply to his wife and maid and thus does not leave it all up the minister. We notice his spiritual growth in all things.

Because of her continuous fever the Lackner woman became very weak yesterday, but today she recovered somewhat. She knows for certain that she is sick through the will of God her Father and does not ascribe it to the country or to other grounds or causis secundis;² and therefore she is very calm and wishes only that the Lord’s will be done with regard to getting well or dying. She is certain of the forgiveness of sins in Christ, her dear Savior, and knows that she has God as a friend, indeed as a Father. She is worried because she is so weak and cannot pray, but I assured her from God’s word that our loving and reconciled God demands no more from His children than He gives and that He does not look so much at the words as at the heart and that He also hears the desires of the miserable. Mrs. Gruber, in whose house she is, shows her more than motherly and sisterly loyalty and loyally shares with her those things from the prayer meeting and sermons that have been blessed in her own heart. She and her husband thank God a thousand times for having brought them out of Salzburg and out of the teeth of the enemy, just as He did the Children of Israel out of Egypt, even though they had little opportunity to pray to Him or ask Him to do so.

Rainy weather began yesterday and has continued rather hard today. It is just the time for gathering the beans, of which the people have already harvested a good part. Our heavenly Father knows what we need and will give us dry weather again at the proper time.

Wednesday, the 3rd of October. At my question a woman told me how she felt after taking Holy Communion. She said that during the preparation on Saturday she had become so very fearful that she almost left the church, but the dear Savior had later granted her so much grace that she had gone to the Lord’s Table with noticeable spiritual profit and will have reason to praise Him as long as she lives. Yesterday another woman said that her spirits were not very good at first, but a young Salzburger had read to her, among other things, the verse “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,” etc.; and this had made her heart light and full of sweet confidence. I also learned that Mrs. N. is now beginning to recognize better how well God has meant it with her journey to America and Ebenezer and that she did not wish to return, etc.

This afternoon Mr. Thilo unexpectedly sent me a book for which we had been waiting for a long time. It was B. Hartmann’s Pastorale Evangelicum,³ which had been given to him in Halle to bring to us but which, as he said, he had forgotten among his books. Oh, how dear this book is to us, and how much advantage we could have had from it in all sorts of circumstances, in which we needed good advice, if only it had come to our hands sooner. Dear N. had reported to us long ago in a letter that it was to be sent to us from Halle. May God let us use it with much blessing for the spiritual good of our dear congregation. In its notes it refers often to Consilia Latina B. Speneri,⁴ which we would like to have if God grants the means and opportunity. At our departure we could take only the German counsels with us; the Latin ones were not available at the bookstore of the Orphanage, and, as far as I could remember, not to be had elsewhere.

Thursday, the 4th of October. Mrs. N., the wife of N. who came from London,⁵ came to my room after the prayer hour and wished to say a few things to justify herself for her annoying behavior; and these were partly foolish and partly painful for chaste ears. She thought she had edified herself from the example of the pious Hannah, the mother of Samuel, and clearly seemed to be comparing herself with her, whereas it would have been better for her to pay attention to everything that was preached in today’s prayer hour concerning the two undutiful sons of Eli and their vexing behavior. The listeners were admonished not to accept the things they were told by them but rather to recognize God’s holy judgments incurred by those who had rejected the good opportunity and proffered grace for a thorough conversion; for God punishes sin with sin, and the people gradually become callous and incapable of believing. By comparing the pious Samuel with these children of Belial I could clarify the verse, “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, but whosoever hath not,” etc. I also recommended, for later reading, the late Arndt’s True Christianity, book I, chapter 7, especially its last part, which shows how one should judge the wicked behavior of people in Christendom. All mouth-Christians and hypocrites, who, even among us, are satisfied with external respectability, civil righteousness,⁶ and the external use of the means of salvation, and who time and time again suppress and smother the good emotions and chastisements of the spirit of God, were loyally warned against these spiritual judgments.

Friday, the 5th of October. No matter how much we need the barn, the people do not have the time to erect it, even though all the boards are lying at the construction site. The dear Lord has given us dry weather again since yesterday; and therefore everyone who has any strength for working, from the smallest to the largest, is busy in the fields harvesting the beans and, in part, the rice. We must also interrupt school for a couple of weeks, since the parents need their children for the harvest. Even the little children are used for something, even if they merely rock the babies, since the mothers are in the field or doing some other necessary work. The parents send their children to church and prayer hours regularly, and therefore they always have an opportunity to hear something good.

Saturday, the 6th of October. We hear from Charleston in South Carolina that almost a fourth of the inhabitants of this populous city have died of spotted fever in a few weeks; and it is also said that most of those who fled there from our colony have perished miserably, some from lack of food and some from this epidemic. Many have moved from Savannah and other newly established towns in this colony to Carolina and Charleston because they do not wish to work and be satisfied with little; but there, too, they have not received something for nothing.

Today I wrote a couple of English letters to London; and on Monday we shall have an opportunity to forward them to Colonel Stephens in Savannah, who, as secretary of the Lord Trustees, often corresponds with London and has the letters forwarded very safely via Charleston. One of them is to Mr. Verelst,⁷ in which I report at Mr. Oglethorpe’s command that the shoemaker Ulich died of a fever five weeks after his arrival and two weeks after his marriage with Margaret Egger and that he has left most of the leather that the Lord Trustees had sent with him. He, or his widow, has been completely paid for all the shoes he made for the congregation; but for the orphanage he did not make more than two pairs at half price. Since we now need shoes against the winter for the orphanage and since the orphanage owns a large share of the leather at the order of the Lord Trustees, I have asked Mr. Oglethorpe what we should do; and he gave me permission to have shoes made from the leather and to report it to the Lord Trustees in order to learn what to do with the remaining leather. Zettler is not capable of making really useful shoes, so we are hiring a shoemaker for a few weeks and giving him a certain sum for each pair.⁸

The other point in the letter concerns Mr. Schlatter’s linen, for which Mr. Oglethorpe cannot pay here but has referred me to the Lord Trustees. Both he and the storehouse manager, Mr. Jones, will recommend strongly that it be paid for soon so the merchant will not be hindered any longer in his business and so there will be no evil talk. I enclosed a letter to Mr. Schlatter’s correspondents, Messrs. Norris and Drewett in London, and advised them that Mr. Oglethorpe has given me good hope that the Lord Trustees will pay for the linen and that they should turn to them.⁹ We wish to send our diary shortly, just as soon as the long-awaited things and letters have arrived (we hope with the next ship).

Sunday, the 7th of October. A young Salzburger read to a married couple who cannot read those chapters of Arndt’s True Christianity that are prescribed for today’s gospel. When I came up, the woman said, pointing to the book, “That is a treasure. With it God led us out of Salzburg, and Moshammer (a Salzburger who died a blessed death) was His instrument.” Our parishioners make use of the late Arndt’s writings loyally and carefully; and there is probably not a family where one could not find his books on True Christianity, along with the dear Bible and the catechism. They have the praiseworthy custom of reading the chapter prescribed for each Sunday. Today we contemplated the gospel for the 16th Sunday after Trinity, “The Office and Work of our Dear Savior,” which, according to the introduction to the text, consists of (1) “He comforts those who suffer,” (2) “He makes the dead alive,” and (3) “He fills the heart of man with His blessed recognition.” My dear colleague concluded the fifth main point concerning the sacrament of Holy Communion. May the Lord bless everything!

Monday, the 8th of October. The Berenberger woman has hired herself out as milkmaid to the orphanage and moved in today. Her fever returned yesterday, and she was afraid that we might not take her now that she was sick; but I sent her word that she was dear to us in both well and sick days, she might bring her things in at any time and enjoy sick care, as God may grant it. I am pleased for several reasons that she has moved into the orphanage, especially because she is now working regularly and has her livelihood from it and will be less likely to live intemperately or to regret her voyage to America. Kalcher and his wife have learned to have patience, and therefore she is provided for here both physically and spiritually. Now all the women whom Sanftleben brought here have been provided for until the dear Lord shall provide further for those who are still unmarried. Until now we have been unable to get anything from the storehouse for the new arrivals except some Indian corn and rice, because the Lord Trustees have sent no orders to this effect. No doubt it was assumed that the women would find an opportunity to marry soon after their arrival. The Lackner woman and the Egger woman, who was the late Ulich’s helpmeet, have been sick from the very beginning and still are.

Before our private prayer meeting I was informed by two men that the Lord had blessed His word in them yesterday. One of them had achieved a true recognition of his sins and felt great disquiet and worry because of them; but the other had come to a confident trust in God in Christ. I gave both of them instruction according to their circumstances. Instead of the regular chapter of the New Testament that follows, I read to the gathering a piece from the late Prof. Francke’s sermon about the very dear lesson from the epistles we had yesterday, in which it is shown very emphatically and in detail that a zealously maintained prayer is the nearest and most certain way to growth and increase in Christianity, and what great harm and hindrance can arise if a man does not say his prayers seriously, even though he uses other good means diligently. It also shows very wisely the cunning of the devil and the deceit of the heart that can creep in during prayer. Afterwards a woman said that it was a beautiful lesson, which applied to her in all points: her prayers fared just as it is written here, etc.

Tuesday, the 9th of October. Schartner, who was received some time ago into the orphanage as the community’s cowherd, is receiving a good testimony from Kalcher, who says he is not only more regular in his work than formerly but that he also prays more diligently and accepts good advice for practicing an active Christianity. It is no little blessing for the community that the orphanage is providing its own herdsman with clothes, food, and other necessities. Because there are many people there, we require, to be sure, much for their maintenance; but so far the dear Lord has not let us suffer lack in anything. He openeth His generous hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing, and He will not forget the orphanage.

I found the Lackner woman a little stronger today than last Sunday. The violence of the fever and the constant vomiting are letting up, she is beginning to rest better, and she has more appetite for eating. She thanks the Lord for strengthening her enough so that she can collect herself and pray, and she remembers with pleasure the physical and spiritual good that the Lord granted her in N. and especially in N.’s house.

Wednesday, the 10th of October. Last week we proposed to several people in the community to accept work with the schoolmaster¹⁰ in Savannah. Some of them had an inclination to do so, but they soon thought differently and decided to remain here rather than disperse themselves. Today one of them reported this to me in the name of the others so that I might write it to the schoolmaster. The reasons the man gave that he and the others would rather remain here than accept work elsewhere pleased me very much and have good grounds. Among other things he said that the Trustees had spent so much on them to enable them to settle here and cultivate the land, and that they would not be able to do this if they scattered themselves in the land to earn money. They had stuck together in times of trial and want, had kept to God’s word, and had awaited the time of help; and therefore it would be improper and sinful to remove themselves now from the good opportunity and edification, since necessity demanded it less now than formerly. One could also see in the case of those who took work elsewhere that they got no blessing from it and that they now had less than the others. They had received such good land from God’s providence, he said, and they had promised to clear the plantations communally so that no neighbor would suffer; but this could not happen if some of them went to another place for several months.

The chief thing was the edification of their souls, and they would have to do without it at such a distance. Also, their families needed their help, which they would not be able to give them. To be sure, some of them lacked necessary clothing; but they hoped with time to find some work here and thus earn some money, as they have done before, which they could do easily without neglecting their own households. In answer I told this Salzburger that we do not begrudge our people any service, but they must check to see whether or not it is advantageous to them. Their reflection and decision pleased me, because I would prefer to have the congregation together rather than dispersed.

In a Salzburger’s house I found the catechism lying open; and, when I asked him whether he and his wife were studying it diligently, he used very fine expressions from this little book and its contents and complained that he had previously used it so little and had not found in it what he was now finding. I recited for them the verse “Except ye become converted, and become as little children,” etc.

Thursday, the 11th of October. This morning during my stroll in the fields I heard a voice behind the rice praying fervently; and, when I came closer, I saw two married people on their knees, a man with his previously frivolous but now better behaved wife. Even though I could not understand the words, I received a most edifying impression from the man’s sincere and imploring prayer, and from their humble gestures, since their eyes and hands were raised toward heaven; and this aroused me to the praise of God. Oh, if only everyone would learn to pray to God in spirit and in truth and would raise holy hands and hearts everywhere.

Recently I invited N. in a friendly way to visit the catechism lesson in my house, since she needs this practice because of her ignorance. Because she had remained away, I admonished her again this morning, and she promised to come; but she remained absent again today. A man complained to me that he could not persuade her to attend the evening prayer meeting because she considered church-going at night to be an innovation in our town, which is (according to her knowledge) not customary in the Lutheran Church in Germany. A certain man told her from his own experience of the utility of the Bible stories that are contemplated in the prayer meetings, and he told her again this morning that God had especially blessed the story of Jacob’s undutiful sons and their sinful behavior by letting him recognize his misery¹¹ and had gradually brought him to conversion. I, too, spoke to her movingly and tried to convince her that she is in a dangerous condition, which she cannot believe or recognize because she has no eye-salve.

Yesterday, during the story in which Samuel thought the voice of the Lord, who had called him, was a human voice, I showed that this error could be forgiven in the case of Samuel, as it is actually forgiven in verse 7 by the Holy Spirit, and that such an error had occurred for Eli’s sake. However, it is not to be forgiven in the case of blind Christians who make thousands of kinds of errors and do not wish to recognize God’s call: e.g., when God’s word is emphatically laid on their conscience, then self-assured and carnal people act as if it does not concern them. If the conscience is awakened and the Holy Ghost chastises them through the word so that they become disquieted, then they probably consider it an emotional disturbance and think that their sadness and disquiet come from a bad blood condition and forebodes a misfortune, or they ascribe God’s touch to some Satanic temptation. Especially when ministers perform their office individually and privately on an unconverted person and show him his cursed condition, then in his blindness he does not consider it the voice of God but of a partial person or of their enemy, etc. Thus we and others fare who mean well with their parishioners’ souls.

Friday, the 12th of October. Like several others in the community, Hertzog has had quartan fever until now; but our loyal God has meanwhile worked very powerfully on his heart. He considers it a great blessing that he is being used as a servant in the orphanage and, without any trouble on his part, receives his maintenance and such good opportunity to edify his soul. I visited him and gave him some necessary admonishments.

After the prayer hour in my house a woman complained of the distress she felt because she was sometimes too pressed to remember a single verse to give her encouragement and comfort, even though she had learned many of them by heart with God’s blessing and assistance. That depressed her even more and was a sign of the hardness of her heart, etc. During a certain task in her house, she said, she had remembered again the gross sins of her youth and, because of them, she had fallen into great pain and embarrassment before the holy majesty of God. The example of the great sinner Zachai, who had performed such great feats of penitence, still lay in her mind; and she wished to hear reports concerning some sins she had committed in Germany and had reported there by letter, so that she might be freed of her disquiet in this case too. She wished to be disgraced before all men and to subject herself to the worst punishment, for it was worth it. She could hardly marvel enough, she said, at the uncommonly great patience of God, with which He had put up with her for thirty-seven years. She requested from me a passion story extracted from all four gospels in order to read through it with prayer and pleading, to see whether it might bring her to a salutary remorse for her great sins and to a faith in the Lord Jesus, etc.

Another woman spoke from a similar poverty of the spirit and could not sufficiently lament and bewail her blindness, disloyalty, and sloth. I referred her to the beginning of Christ’s sermon on the mount, in which the Lord Jesus does not deny, but rather attributes, blessedness to those who are nothing in their own eyes, who mourn, and who yearn for help. Her sincere and humble prayer stood me in good stead and encouraged me to further earnestness.

Saturday, the 13th of October. So far God has granted us such beautiful weather for harvesting that we could not wish anything better. The beans are ripening completely and can be gathered dry; and therefore our people are getting as many this year, and a bit more, than in the last years, when, to be sure, the deer did not do as much damage but when most beans were spoiled by the rain. In addition to the beans they are bringing in the rice, which has right large and beautiful grains this year. Everything has turned out well and the good hand of the Lord has protected everything from harm; and he must be a very fortunate man who would refuse the good Giver a humble word of praise for it. We admonish against this diligently in our sermons and prayer meetings and humbly implore the Father of all Mercies for grace to use these and all other gifts with proper gratitude.

N. is not a little bit distressed that her sick and still very young child so often prevents her on weekdays and Sundays from visiting public services and the opportunity for edification in my house. Until now her husband has had much work on their plantation; and, when he is at home, he too likes to hear something again for his spiritual profit. From time to time she leaves her little child with her neighbor and comes to my house for prayer and instruction. However, her spiritual hunger is not satisfied by that, rather she would like to enjoy this good all the time. She thinks that this unavoidable obstacle is the reason that her prayer is so weak and fragile, as a result of which her spirit is so depressed that she would almost like to stop praying, because through it she is just sinning against our holy God.

I warned her, however, not to listen to such temptation from Satan and her flesh; and I showed her from God’s word, especially from Psalms 34:19, that our dear Lord is pleased, for the sake of Christ, by a struggling prayer that is difficult for the one who prays and displeases him because of the defects that adhere to it. If only she would continue to struggle and pray, I said, she would soon feel an advantage from it. In this way she would resist the devil, and he would flee from her. I made an appointment with her in order to read her some of this important material and to underline some basic and strength-giving verses for her. Her husband was happy that God had not let that occur which some people in Salzburg had wished and hoped for, namely that the archbishop and the clergy would allow the Protestants there to have Protestant ministers and thus be prevented from emigrating. For then, as this man thought, because of the many offenses, sinful customs, wicked acquaintances and comradeships God would not have achieved His purpose as He is doing in this wilderness.

Sunday, the 14th of October. Toward evening yesterday we had the pleasure of receiving a rather large packet of letters from our patrons and friends in Europe, for which both of us bent our knees before the throne of God, who has been reconciled by Christ and is exceedingly merciful, and thanked Him for this new blessing. Captain Thomson brought the letters along with the long-expected chests; and he sent the letters to Savannah, because he has sailed with his ship to Mr. Oglethorpe’s regiment at Frederica. Praised be the Lord our God for having preserved our reverend Fathers and friends in life and health so far and for having again inclined their hearts to send us spiritual and physical benefactions such a long way over the sea. May He bless in us all the edifying letters, which always suit our circumstances so well, as well as the physical gifts in the chests, which are presumably still in the ship; and may He let them serve for His eternal praise and our true well-being!

Several members of the community have been cheered by little letters; especially the penitent and sorrow-laden N. thought that what our dear Mr. N. included on her behalf in his letter was a balm on her head, and she listened to it with many tears of joy. Oh, how she will praise God day and night on her knees for letting things fare better so far with her and her former transgressions than she had thought possible. She told me in great humility and childish joy that God had beautifully blessed, for the strengthening of her faith, a certain circumstance in the story of the Passion, which she had begun to review word by word for her private edification. From this I can see that she is like a hungry little dove that finds a small grain where others would fly away.

Our good and pious God has provided so abundantly for the orphanage this time that the barn we have begun can be paid for and other necessary expenses be covered; and this will strengthen to no little degree our faith in the unshortened arm of our living God. If He will but teach us to believe more and more, then we will see His glory both during and after our tribulations. I must also recognize with particular thanks that our worthy Mr. N. has dared in his faith to send a considerable sum to pay the building costs for the parsonage and for constructing the church. May God make us grateful! We do not doubt that our merciful Father in heaven has destined much fine blessing for us and our congregation from the letters we have received, since once again their main content is to be publicly known. May the Lord reward both our most worthy Mr. N. as well as all our dear reverend Fathers and patrons for the especial love and affection they have shown us and our congregation particularly, through their communal and very sincere and moving letters.

This evening during the prayer hour we made simple use of the precious letter that some servants of Christ wrote jointly to our congregation; and together we praised the Lord for all the good we experienced from it, invoked Him to give us obedient hearts to follow all admonitions loyally, and prayed for God’s abundant blessing as a recompense for this benefaction. I do not doubt that, through the grace of God, the forceful evangelical expressions of this letter, along with our admonitions, will encourage the members of the congregation to a new seriousness in their Christianity and to a renewed sincere praise of God for having brought them out of the turmoil of the world and into this tranquility and solitude and for having awakened so many pious ministers and other pious Christians to care for them as for their own children, brothers, and sisters and to work for their improvement. Out of the letters of dear Mr. N. we read publicly those points that were aimed at the congregation also or at least could give occasion for good admonitions.

It pains us and our honest listeners in our souls to hear that many Salzburg exiles are imitating the world and going the way of perdition. May God awaken the dead and strengthen those who wish to die. The damnation of such people will be manifold, as can be seen in the prefiguration of the judgments of the Israelites in the wilderness. May our Father in heaven reward the worthy Mr. N., our dear father in Christ, with thousandfold spiritual and physical blessings, as well as the worthy Lady von N.¹² and all our benefactors and friends for their especially hearty and constant love, their sincere blessings, intercessions, loving efforts, and all the kindness we have experienced so far from their faithful service. It is our new covenant with the Lord to struggle and pray for them all, as if for ourselves, before the throne of God so that we all may be given entry into the glorious kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that we will one day be placed guiltless and joyful before the countenance of His splendor.

Monday, the 15th of October. This morning N. called on me and told me with much emotion and many tears how much God had blessed yesterday’s reading in him. To be sure, things are going worse for him now than for other Salzburgers; yet he thanks God so heartily for His marvelous and good guidance in having led him in this wilderness to a recognition of his misery, that I am most delighted about it. In N. he was as well off materially as anyone was before him or could be now; and it pleases me all the more that his heart and mouth are full of praise and thanks for God’s wise and merciful guidance, even though he is now worse off than formerly with regard to physical provisions.

We omitted the Lectionem cursoriam N. T.¹³ at our home prayer meeting this time, and I read a very edifying letter from dear Professor Francke and the two letters from Mr. Berein, which he wrote to us in the name of Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen. All three were, God be praised, very refreshing for us and gave us much matter for the praise of God and for Christian intercession. Because the printed continuation of the Ebenezer reports has again reminded Prof. Francke of the paths on which God led us for our good in the years 1736 and 1737, I promised the congregation assembled for prayer that in the future, when these printed reports come into our hands, I will use them for this purpose here, too, according to the example of God, who let his servants remind the People of Israel of the old paths again and again for a very salutary purpose. He has helped us gloriously out of much hardship and tribulation and has often put our disbelief to shame; and He has also given us courage to trust further in His goodness in all fearful circumstances, and therefore in the hovering danger of war.

For our comfort Mr. Berein pointed out to us the 46th Psalm, and especially the words: “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.” At the same time, to strengthen myself and those present, I mentioned what we had heard on the occasion of 1 Samuel 1:3 about the beautiful name of God, when He calls Himself the Lord Zebaoth, which name appears to have arisen in Samuel’s time and, indeed, at Ebenezer, where the Israelites first suffered greatly because of their sins but later defeated their enemies because of their penitence and Samuel’s prayer. They will have said, “Our army is indeed very thin and we have become few, whereas the enemy are very mighty and numerous; but we have on our side the Lord Zebaoth (the Lord of hosts, at whose command everything in heaven and earth must stand). He can help through wind, thunder and lightning,” as it came to pass, chapter 7:10-12.

I read the beautiful 46th Psalm in its entirety, and it greatly refreshed me in this connection. We sang the song Ich hab in Gottes Hertz und Sinn mein Hertz und Sinn ergeben, etc. Yesterday the 5th verse of the song Wie ist es möglich höchstes Gut, etc. gave me a necessary admonition: “Thou art loyal, I unjust, Thou art pious, I am a wicked servant and must truly be ashamed that I, in such an evil condition, should receive any good from Thy generous and fatherly hand.” And this time our exceedingly merciful God is giving us so much. Because, to our comfort and joy, the letters we have received so often mention that servants and children of God in no small number are praying for us zealously, we remembered our duty to do the same for them with devotion and zeal in place of any repayment, as we have been requested to do several times in letters. And because (God be praised!) this has been done by so many honest souls in my room and because we have often mentioned the dear benefactress of our congregation, the worthy Lady von N.,¹⁴ before the throne of our merciful and reconciled Father, we hope that our poor prayer, which, however, is based on Christ’s merits and intercession, will be applied by Him to help her in the former unpleasant circumstances that were mentioned in a letter and that He will superabundantly bless her and her husband and entire family for her continued benefactions.

Tuesday, the 16th of October. Yesterday toward evening I visited the sick Lackner woman and told her during the conversation that Mr. N. was still thinking of her in right fatherly love and was commending her very kindly to our spiritual care and concern, etc. Because she herself could tell me how people prayed both day and night for Ebenezer in this dear father’s house and because I could confirm this from the letters we had just received, I applied this to her comfort and to the strengthening of her faith and said she should be comforted in her physical weakness because, as a member of our congregation, she lay in the heart and mouth of this dear man and other saints on earth, and the heavenly Father will surely let the hour come that He will bless her and their prayers for her recovery, provided it is pleasing to Him and useful to her. She considered herself entirely unworthy of this remembrance and intercession, and also of the benefactions she had enjoyed in Mr. N.’s house; and she wished them all physical and spiritual blessings from God in return. She lies there like a quiet lamb and says, “If only I go to heaven and remain unseparated from Christ, then I am content.” Because she considers herself a miserable person, I reminded her of the lovely verse, “I will look upon him who is miserable and him who is of broken spirit,” etc.,¹⁵ likewise, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,” etc., and also, “The Lord hath said, I will not abandon you,” etc.

Christian Riedelsperger asked me for advice as to what he should do. He said he had already written three letters to his two sisters and to three close blood-relatives in Lindau, but had still received no answer. In them he had reported, to the praise of God, how much good he was enjoying here in physical and spiritual things and that their assumption had not proved true that he would never find things better for his soul and body than he had had in Lindau. Because of his love for their souls he would like to have them all here in Ebenezer, and he did not doubt that, if they once broke through all prejudices and came here, they would not only be pleased with all the arrangements here but would also praise God with him for the grace that He shows here. I advised him to continue earnestly with his intercession for his relatives and to write on their behalf to Master Risch, who would soon learn whether they had received the letters and how things stood otherwise with the state of their souls. This Riedelsperger has such an honest love for his countrymen that he would like to bring all of them out from the chance of temptation and tell them what the Lord has done for him and how much it cost Him to save him from his blindness and his own selfmade piety. He is also a very useful and serviceable man in external matters.

N. requested that he and his wife might alternate in visiting the catechism hour in my house, since their little child and household conditions do not allow both of them to come at the same time. He regrets that so many of his countrymen and acquaintances are letting themselves be overcome by bad examples in Germany; and he believes for sure it would not have gone better with him if he had remained there, even though the ministers there apply every effort and work on the Salzburgers. His heart has been very touched by dear Mr. N.’s expression: “I am pleased to hear that so many Salzburgers recognize why God has led them to Georgia. They will all recognize it.” His eyes filled with tears at this and he thanked God, who had brought him here; and he wished that he would not resist the spirit of God that is working on his heart through the word, etc. This N. is a very useful man in the congregation and will be even more useful when God has completed the work of conversion in him. For some time he has had quartan fever, in which our loyal God is tugging on him loyally.

I was visited by an Indian who had four letters from Savannah with him, which he must take back and forth among the Lord Trustees’ officers who are with the Indian nations. The letters were numbered with I, II, III, IV so that he could deliver them one after the other at the proper place without confusion. He is, as he let me understand, being sent up to the Cherokee Indians by Mr. Oglethorpe, who is still in Savannah, in order to bring down a number of them against the Spaniards for the good of our colony. A couple of weeks ago two Englishmen rode up to the Indian nation with a commission from General Oglethorpe for this same purpose.

After the catechism practice a German man from Old Ebenezer asked me to baptize a child there, for whose sake I rode there immediately; and because of that I was prevented from holding the prayer meeting because I returned too late. My dear colleague, who holds prayer meetings in my stead when obstacles arise, had journeyed to Savannah early yesterday with three Salzburgers because of the chests that have arrived.

Wednesday, the 17th of October. My dear colleague returned hale and hearty yesterday from Savannah; but he had travelled in vain because Captain Thomson had sailed directly to Frederica with his ship and had sent nothing but letters and a few indispensable things to the storehouse. It is assumed that he will come to Savannah with his ship in three weeks, and therefore we will have to be patient about the chests until then. Mr. Oglethorpe mentioned to my dear colleague that he wished to help bring a new transport of Salzburgers here, if only our Salzburgers would deliberate as to how much money each new colonist would have to have for maintenance in the first year. The Lord Trustees would rather give money than provisions, and this would be very useful for the people and for our entire community.

In the evening prayer meeting today we concluded the sad, but very important, story in 1 Samuel 4, which we had begun last week. At its conclusion we were reminded to pray diligently and zealously for our dear Germany, from whence so many charitable gifts have flowed to us in previous times and this time too, and to ask that God’s mercy might hold back the spiritual and physical judgments that the people, like those in Silo, bring on their heads through their ingratitude for the treasure of the gospel. We also prayed that the Lord would arm with strength from on high His servants, whom He has arrayed from time to time, so that they might step before the abyss and awaken the sleeping sinners through their sentry cry.

Because there was still some time, I read briefly what Mr. Berein had extracted from Mr. N.’s letter of 7 July 1739 and sent to us at the request of our dear Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen. They were pure testimonies of a constant fatherly love, with which he most tenderly embraces us unworthy ones and our congregation, especially the pious ones, and assures us all of his prayers and those of many servants and children of God in N. and elsewhere. God be praised for this! The intercession of so many righteous ministers and pious Christians is such a dear blessing that we do not know how to value it highly enough; and the pious among us praise the Lord for it with mouth and heart. My dear colleague had an especial pleasure in hearing the inspirational and strength-giving letters, and therefore I did not wish to continue with them in his absence. In the coming prayer meetings I shall read the remaining ones; and I know in advance from previous experience and from the grace of God that much edification, joy, and praise of God will arise from them. If I had not been kept from the meeting in the orphanage at noon today by a severe attack of fever, which held me in bed for four hours, I would have read Mr. N.’s beautiful letter to the elders and children in the orphanage, from which I hope for the blessing of the Lord.

Thursday, the 18th of October. Our parishioners of both sexes gather in my room for the catechism hour in such numbers that they have no room; and therefore I shall be required to divide the sexes so that the women come on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while the men come on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but I shall teach them the same material so they can repeat it all the better at home. In this way one of them can always remain at home and perform the household chores while the other is at the lesson. The dear people cause me uncommon pleasure through their desire for the truths of the catechism and their simple conduct during the questions and answers.

At the beginning of the lesson a small assignment from the catechism is repeated verbotenus,¹⁶ and the Bible verses we have had the last time are recited loudly and clearly so that they can be gradually learned through constant hearing even by those who do not know them. Next I pose some questions about the divine truths that have been preached last and continue in order with questions and answers, in accordance with the twenty questions appended to the catechism. May God bless all this to His glory and to the salvation of the congregation! If there are not too many present, then we can arrange everything all the more simply with questions and answers, since some of them show more bashfulness in a large crowd, and thus this division will be useful in various ways. Sanftleben’s sister has now joined us on two occasions; may God grant that she be constant and eager!¹⁷

In the evening prayer meeting I read two very edifying letters from Prof. Francke, and God granted us much edification from them. Through them we were reminded of the especial ways and guidance of God in the year 1738, and we were shown how many advantages our congregation has over many thousands in Christendom, which we must, of course, apply loyally and gratefully if we do not wish to lose these splendid advantages. It was also lovingly suggested to our listeners that, when they gradually move out to their plantations and cannot have such rich spiritual refreshment in the regular prayer meetings as they have had so far, they should arrange their home devotions and spiritual practices and especially their prayers, following the example of others who are already doing it here and there. All this was impressed on them emphatically.

Among other things I reminded the listeners of the story from Genesis 41, which tells of the seven fat and the seven lean years. Had our pious God, who loves living things, not granted Joseph wisdom in his heart to gather supplies during the rich and inexpensive years for the lean years, how miserably things would have looked for everyone, even in his own father’s house. God had let us live together so, I said, for almost six years, during which we have had fat years in spiritual things and much opportunity to lay in stores. Who knows what kind of times are coming? Therefore, if anyone is frivolous and does not accept God’s grace for a thorough conversion, things will probably look bad for him when he no longer has such rich refreshment and perhaps will be removed from our particular supervision. To confirm the warning against disloyalty toward such excellent grace, I admonished my listeners from the story of the city of Silo, where divine services were held for a long time but, because the people did not use this advantage properly, God cast the candelabrum from its stand, etc. In their unconverted and godless nature, they were helped as little by their physical trust in the Ark of the Covenant as the Jews were by their trust in the temple and other advantages (Jeremiah 7). Nothing counts before God but a new creature, and for this all advantages must be applied.

Because the love and care of Prof. Francke and other dear benefactors in Germany shine remarkably in our eyes, I have publicly offered to compose a letter of gratitude to the Salzburgers’ known and unknown benefactors in the name of the entire congregation, if only they will give me the opportunity by expressing their opinion. I already know in advance that they will all be very pleased with it, but I prefer for them to initiate it themselves and express their grateful spirit. Several have already asked us to write something for them. May God reward everyone abundantly!

Friday, the 19th of October. This morning I had our little flock in the orphanage before me, twenty souls in number, sang with them the song of praise Man lobt dich in der, etc., and invoked God’s blessing for our undertaking. Next I read the right fatherly and most enjoyable letter of Mr. N., which he had addressed to the father, mother, and children of the orphanage; and at every point I added the necessary application to remind them of the many marvelous ways of God they had experienced in this house in order to awaken them to His praise and to encourage them to gratitude. When reading the beautiful superscription of Psalms 146:9,¹⁸ I remembered the beautiful song Lobe den Herrn, O meine Seele, ich will ihn loben, etc., which was based on this psalm. We do not yet know the melody; but, as soon as we can find some time, we will familiarize ourselves with the melody and with the exceedingly beautiful content, which well suits our orphanage and reminds us of our duty in all happen-stances and also points out the well of comfort in times of want and tribulation.

Children and adults both listened to the content of the letter and the accompanying admonitions with many tears. At last we fell on our knees, praised the Lord for all His kindness, and prayed for our worthy Mr. N. and all benefactors of the orphanage and the community. After the prayer I asked what winter clothing I should buy for the children and adults from the money which dear Mr. N. has donated to the orphanage, trusting in the living God, and which I should borrow on a note according to the good advice of our worthy Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen.

What we might need to cover the building costs for the barn and what might be required for other expenses will be provided by the almighty Creator of heaven and earth, who has hitherto shown that the orphanage is His work. The five cowherds receive all their clothing from foot to head from the orphanage, and this is a great benefaction for the poor in the community. If God grants something for the poor-box, as has occurred again this time, then the orphanage receives a hand from it in case of emergency, if perhaps a leak must be stopped here or there; and this is not at all against the intent of the dear benefactors, as we see from Senior Urlsperger’s letter. Oh how good it is when both young and old among us are reminded also from afar what great advantages they have over many others in Christendom, as was done particularly yesterday and today in the letters we read. It makes a great impression. The difference between us and others in this colony is apparent, for the poor in no other place are so well provided for and no other people enjoy such special care in spiritual and physical matters as in dear Ebenezer. The Lord hath done it, and it is His work. Halleluiah!

The Lackner woman has been very weak again for several days, now that the vomiting has begun again. Both my dear colleague and I visited her yesterday and today and spoke with her from the holy gospel about the preparation for a blessed departure, at which time she always proves very edifying and prays sincerely with us. During her last weakness, when the vomiting subsided, I had already offered her Holy Communion; however, because she had begun to recover, she hoped to enjoy it with the congregation. Because I found her very weak yesterday, as I reported to Mr. Thilo, our doctor, I let Mrs. N.¹⁹ ask her after my departure whether she would like to take Holy Communion before her anticipated demise. I had my reasons for letting her be asked by this person, who does her many kind services in both spiritual and physical ways. Today I learned that she longs for this spiritual medication right sincerely and will expect me in the evening, when the fever and vomiting have passed. At first, after asking her a few questions about Holy Communion, I recited the gospel verse “Come unto me all ye that are laden,” etc., which she herself slowly repeated; and she eagerly heard its gospel content from me. After a humble prayer in which I humbly presented to the true Savior these and other glorious promises, such as “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth,” etc., and “They that are whole need not a physician, but,” etc., I administered Holy Communion to her according to Christ’s institution, fell on my knees with two Christian women who were there, and thanked Him for this dear gift and blessing that had been granted to Elisabeth Lackner. Twice she opened her arms and then closed them again as if she wished to embrace the Savior, and said, “The Lord Jesus is with me.” I prayed for her the beautiful words, Ich habe Jesu Fleisch gegessen, sein Blut hab ich getrunken hier. Nun wird er meiner, etc.,²⁰ which she herself repeated very movingly. I told her that, God willing, I was going to travel to Savannah tomorrow and could therefore not visit her for a few days, whereupon she wished me much good on the way.

Saturday, the 20th of October. Yesterday in the evening prayer meeting my dear colleague, Mr. Boltzius, read publicly the joint letter that was written to us by some servants of the Lord in Germany, partly because there are so many beautiful and edifying things in it and partly because it contains much about the importance of the ministerial office and clarifies what was said last Sunday, from the catechism and in conjunction with the Haus-Tafel,²¹ of the ministerial office. The letter shows that the names Holy Scripture gives to ministers were aimed only at the good of the congregation: e.g., when they are called “watchmen,” it is a great blessing that ministers look after their flock and ask about them. Therefore everyone should be pleased when we perform our office on him in this way and not say, “Who told on me?” when we ask about this or that person. Likewise, when they are called “father,” by whom spiritual children are begotten, one can see the purpose of the ministerial office, namely a new birth; for in Christ Jesus nothing counts but a new creature, and therefore everyone should let this purpose of God be achieved, etc.

When it is written that our desert is being threatened by the enemy with an even greater devastation, then they are thinking about what they fear most, namely, the bad examples here in this country, and they hope that the dear Lord in his mercy will keep our congregation from being spiritually devastated by them. May He also make come true what is written at the end of the letter: “And we wish you for the future the strength of the resurrection of Jesus so that, despite all suffering, you will be comforted and that you will be blessed by and rejoice in the conversion, strengthening, fortifying, and preserving of the souls entrusted to you.” We consider it a great blessing when we are so greatly awakened from afar. May the dear Lord repay such love a thousandfold.

Our spirits often sag, but we are comforted again by having a Jesus who gave Himself for the sake of our sins and was resurrected for our justification; and that gives us strength and joy to proceed with comfort in the suffering connected with our ministerial office, to struggle, to fight, not to step back, to persevere, and to overcome, as is indeed demanded of a minister in the above-mentioned letter, if the demanded loyalty is in fact to be crowned. The more a minister recognizes in a living way the death of reconciliation of Jesus Christ and the strength of His resurrection, the more he is put in a position to perform his office with blessing. I was very much struck by what I had as an exordium last Sunday from 2 Corinthians 4:13-14, “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.” For this purpose may the Lord place His blessing on our office for our people and on the offices of these worthy ministers for theirs! What is written in their worthy letter can give us hope that we will have in our resurrected Savior a loyal, mighty, and kind Lord, who liveth from eternity to eternity. etc.

A couple of years ago, to wit on 26 August 1737, Court Chaplain Lau, who ordained us, sent us a special letter that is so dear to me that I often read it for fresh encouragement. Because it is so very edifying, I shall incorporate it in this diary, particularly the four noteworthy points that are presented in it:

“I treasure the wealth of the mercy of God in Christ that the heavenly Father has let flow to you so far in so many hardships. Oh, if only we could properly value and sufficiently praise the fact that our God did not consider His own Son too dear but sent Him to us for our sins and healed our wounds through His wounds. Yes, that is the way it is. We must never forget that the Father has led us through living faith to a common possession of, and participation in, the death of Jesus Christ. Soul, do not forget it! Whenever my heart wishes to vacillate and despond, God gives me grace to remember earnestly that His Son is mine, and in this contemplation I always find my rest and refreshment. May the Lord not let a single day, not even an hour pass by in our life that we do not think of the death of Christ and of its glorious strength. This first occurred to me during the sighs with which I prayed to God to give me what I should write to you. We can rightly look upon it as our chief pastoral care to let Christ’s death, blood, and wounds become fresh and new every hour in our hearts and to renew in our hearts, through a reaffirmation of faith, the assurance that we are the children of God and fellow heirs of the glory of Jesus Christ.

“(2) Through the contemplation of what the Father has granted us in and with the Son, we wish to encourage ourselves sincerely not to tire in our work but to run with patience into the battle that has been ordained for us. Running and at the same time fighting is, to be sure, something difficult, especially when enough inner and outer enemies are there who try to interrupt both and to exhaust us. I speak from personal experience when I say that there are a thousand snares that Satan sets for us. Especially our own heart, because of its own natural heaviness, always sinks again to the earth and to its cold and lukewarm nature so we must keep watch over ourselves at all times and, as it were, wind up the clockwork of the heart time and time again if we do not wish eventually to die in ourselves and forfeit the crown. But I have found nothing more proved and more serviceable than a constant anazopurein²² of the evangelical grace that is in us. A heart that swims in the blood of Jesus Christ like a little fish in water, and a pastor who firmly holds his element in the dear treasure of grace of the glorious gospel does not die but ever gains new strength to be loyal and cheerful with patience in the office for which God has chosen him. The superabundance of the inner well of grace is the best food for our parishioners and best hits the goal for which we should always aim in our office. Dear Father, transfigure Thy child Christ Himself in our souls so that we will rightly know what we have in Him and how graciously Thou hast blessed us in Him.

“(3) I find something very special in prayer and learn to understand better what an unlimited mercy of God it is that we are free to step before His countenance and to speak as with a reconciled father with Him before whom all Seraphim hide themselves. Yesterday someone told me that, if he could not pray any more, then he would not wish to live another minute. However salutary prayer is for us, the devil tries just as hard to keep us from it. One can often be so preoccupied with the operation of one’s business (to say nothing of other snares) and be so intoxicated in spirit that, without noticing it, one becomes involved in a great activity without having discussed it properly with the Father in heaven. From this, I have noticed, come disquiet and suspicion and, if the work does not turn out well, despondence. Or, if it succeeds, pride and self-confidence. On the other hand, if, before undertaking a project, we step before God with the smallest things as well as with the gravest and speak with Him about it until our hearts are warmed and we come into a cheerful calm, and if even during our occupation we sigh to the Lord who rules all things, then I have found this advantage, that we can be calm, thoughtful, sober in our spirits, and full of confidence. When the work has been completed, our hearts can remain humble if it turns out well and yet remain full of faith even if the work seems to have turned out badly. Lord, teach us to pray!

“(4) I have found that the devil tries to tire the soul through external difficulties. So many things occur here and there and even from outside that seem to run directly counter to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Then it costs much to keep on guard so that we will not be beguiled. Often worries arise and bring us into great agitation. Sometimes we are depressed and would rather throw everything away than remain standing at our post. In such instances, I have experienced that it is very useful for us not to believe that we understand the way in which the Kingdom of God is to be built but to allow God, who has promised His Son in order to give us all the ends of the world as a heritage, to take entire charge of how this is to be brought about. One should be a spectator precans²³ of His miracle and wait patiently for what will come. One’s courage must not sink, above all one’s spirit should not become enmeshed in earthly worries. Just sweeping out a house in faith is an accomplishment that pleases God in heaven.²⁴ There is always someone, perhaps just a child, to whom we can tell something about the Lord Jesus. If we have been true and patient in small things for some time, then God will come before we expect it and clear the road further, and advance the gospel through our better service. Oh what a great thing a wise and loyal housekeeper is!”

Mrs. Schweighofer came to me this morning and brought two little letters that were written to Senior Urlsperger, one of them by her oldest daughter and the other by one of the orphans. She told me how, yesterday evening before they had written the letters, they had prayed together that God would give His blessing to their writing. This morning her daughter had read the letter to her, at which she (the mother) could not hold back her tears. This Mrs. Schweighofer wishes for nothing more than for her children to devote themselves honestly to the Lord; and she would have the greatest joy in the world if this should happen. She remembered her former condition when she had gone around bent and bowed and could find no comfort and could not trust herself to obtain it. I asked her when she had come to a complete breakthrough, and she answered, “In the orphanage.”

Sunday, the 21st of October. Today there was a strong wind and it was also very cold, yet the congregation attended in a large number to hear the preaching of the divine word. I preached to them on the gospel for the 18th Sunday after Trinity: “The living recognition of Jesus Christ and the good that is in Him, as the chief thing that a man should seek in this world.” This was first clarified in detail, and then I showed “for what a man is made fit through this,” namely, to love God with all his heart, etc., and his neighbor as himself. Christ was contemplated especially with regard to His person and His office as intercessor; and I showed the good that we have from it. I also demonstrated in detail, with the aid of the Holy Ghost, that this is the important thing that the listeners should not only grasp according to the letter but especially learn on their knees so that they might immediately lay a firm foundation for their Christianity and then continue to work further on it.

The exordium was taken from the Epistle to Philemon, verses 4-6; and, because so much, if not all, depends upon this matter, it was repeated during the afternoon. In the evening I read to some people who had gathered in my room, both adults and children, the useful applications of the 110th Psalm from Frisch’s David’s Harp.²⁵ May the Lord in His mercy place some blessing on all this work for Christ’s sake! May He open my eyes better and better so that I will learn to know Christ better and so that all my sermons will aim at nothing but to lead my dear listeners with the aid of the Holy Ghost to a living recognition of Him and to show how they can take from that all their strength for an active Christianity. The Lord has greatly blessed in my soul the late Prof. Francke’s Paraeneses concerning the epistles to Titus and to the Hebrews.²⁶ I read them while I could not hold school because the children were being used for harvesting the crops. Since, God willing, I shall begin school again tomorrow, I beg our dear Lord to give me grace to use what I have garnered through His blessing and to apply it to His glory.

Monday, the 22nd of October. During a visit I spoke with a person who told me how she was faring. Sometimes she savors the grace of God in such a way that she is moved to many tears by it, because she considers herself entirely unworthy of it. At other times, however, she is wholely depressed, namely, when she thinks back on her previous life and can find no comfort and help. Yesterday, she said, she could not go to church but had to remain warm in bed at the doctor’s orders because of an illness. She was greatly troubled because she kept being overcome by sleep and could not pray so earnestly as she wished to. This reminded her of another person who, even when she was just as weak, still showed such great earnestness in prayer that she forgot about eating and everything else because of it. This increased her worry, and therefore she could not be content; and today things were not getting any better. She was praying, to be sure; but she was finding no strength.

At this point I showed her what was lacking, namely, the living recognition of Jesus Christ; she imagines Him and the heavenly Father quite different from the way He has revealed Himself in His word. To be sure, when recognizing her sloth she should not become frivolous; but she should not lose courage either, or she will lose everything. Instead, she should lay aside the sin that is clinging to her and making her slothful; she should advance with patience into the struggle that is ordained for her and, at the same time, learn better and better to set her eyes upon Jesus, the Beginning and End of all faith. She should use the reading of Holy Scripture and the practice of prayer with the aid of the Holy Ghost in order better to recognize Jesus Christ’s dear work of redemption and the father-heart of God that has been reconciled by it. This would give her the greatest strength for remaining serene and comforted in her Christianity despite all feeling of her remaining defects and shortcomings. May the Holy Ghost itself transfigure Christ in her and lead her in all truth!

Various matters detained me in Savannah, so that I arrived home again only today at noon, hale and with God’s blessing, praise the Lord! On Sunday I preached to the German people for the last time, because our circumstances will not allow us to divide ourselves any longer and be absent from our congregation several days every four weeks for the sake of these people. Also, we see little or no advantage from our work because, despite all public and private admonition, the people continue in their profane and, in part, frankly godless behavior. Also, they have wished to use us as advocates and intercessors in their physical distress, which oppresses them in their physical work because of their sins, more than they have wished for us to tend to their souls and their children’s souls. When it turns out that we cannot agree with their requests or if our intercession has no effect, then they cast the blame on us.

In the sermon that I held for them on the regular text for the 19th Sunday after Trinity, I presented them with “Three Main Obstacles to a True Conversion to God”: (1) disloyalty toward the convincing truth of God’s word, (2) self-deception, (3) unyielding ignorance. The words of the exordium were from Paul’s farewell sermon in Acts 20:26-27, which, as usual, was repeated in the afternoon and further applied. Now these German servants are resuming their complaints. Previously they have received provisions of meat, corn, flour, and butter; but now, because the Trustees’ storehouse is closing and no more foodstuffs can be bought, those who work are receiving, instead of provisions and clothes, a certain sum of money, which does not please them as well as the previous provisions, with which they had formerly found much fault.

Mr. Oglethorpe was still in Savannah and I had two opportunities to settle several matters for the congregation. The letter I had recently written to Mr. Verelst was still in Savannah; and, because I learned from my dear colleague that Mr. Oglethorpe had changed his mind about the Swiss linen,²⁷ I communicated the letter to him. He approved of everything in it and wished every precaution to be taken to have it carefully forwarded in the Lord Trustees’ packet. He again mentioned the reception of a number of German people at our place, for whose passage and support in the first year the Trustees would pay, but the colonists would have to pay it back in a few years. This would not, however, be appropriate for the Salzburgers.

He again requested me to write to Prof. Francke for a preacher for the German people in and near Frederica. He would pay his salary, but he will have to know how to suffer some and renounce comfort for the sake of the Kingdom of God. I requested a written plenipotentiary power for this with his signature, and thus it stands for the present.²⁸

Here in Savannah, right in the middle of the street between the city hall where church is now held and the churchyard, I found the grave of the Indian King Tomochichi, around which a square fence of thin boards has been made and on which a stone epitaph is to be erected in the future.²⁹ He had been sick for a long time, and finally died, in his house on Pipemaker’s Bluff, where a few Indians live together; Mr. Oglethorpe had a coffin made for him and had him brought to Savannah by water. He was received at the landing by several citizens of the city and carried to his place of burial. During the procession Mr. Oglethorpe and five of the senior officers of his regiment held the pall, the coffin was accompanied by the queen and two Indians who were always with him to manage his affairs, and by Mrs. Musgrove and a great multitude of people. The citizens stood at arms and fired three salvos, and the cannons were fired too. He himself had requested to be buried among the white people, because he counted himself among the Englishmen and the king’s subjects.

Mr. Oglethorpe misses him very much because he always sided loyally with the English and always served their best interest. There is no colony except ours in which the Indians have not killed many white people, especially at the beginning. Whenever angry Indians here have wished to do so, this Tomochichi always stepped in between them and soothed them through clever words and said that, before they could kill any others, they would have to begin with him, since he was an Englishman too.

Usually, the Indians are accustomed either to burn or else to bury what the deceased has left behind in the way of household effects, provisions, and other things, by which they wish to prevent a wife from being tempted to murder her husband through greed for her husband’s goods. Through that she would gain nothing, because everything he possessed is burned, and what won’t burn is buried. One of the Salzburgers found something in the woods that looked like a grave, and on it he found a pewter spoon, which he is still using. I was told that every Indian contracts with his wife at their marriage that he will supply her with meat but that she will provide him with corn and with the preparation of the food (they do not need any laundry); and therefore the men do no work but go hunting and see to the meat and skins, while the women plant corn, beans, and gourds.

Mr. Oglethorpe communicated to me what had occurred and been agreed between him and the Creek Indians, to whom he had travelled a couple of months ago. Written on a document to which the names of sworn witnesses were attached, this was looked upon as a renewal of the treaty between the Indians and the English. The document, which was confirmed with the names and seals of the sworn witnesses, had the following content: On 11 August 1739 the chiefs and warriors and also representatives of all the towns of the so-called Creek Indians gathered first in Cowetas and afterwards in Cusitas, where Mr. Oglethorpe held a speech through an interpreter to all estates on a large square. Before the deputies proposed anything in reply, they drank to each other with their black drink (made of a certain kind of tea that grows here) according to ancient custom, through which they obligate themselves to loyalty and faith. Otherwise, if they do not keep their promises truly, they wish and believe that this water will have a harmful effect.

In their speech the deputies assured, as if with one mouth: (1) That they were still steadfastly persisting in their old love for the King of Great Britain and were still holding firmly to the treaty they had made with the Lord Trustees in 1733, of which they had given each and every town a copy at that time, which the deputies still had and showed. (2) That all the land between the Savannah River and the St. Johns (not far from St. Augustine), and all the islands lying between them, and from the sea to the mountains belonged to the Creeks through ancient right, which they had maintained against all usurpers; they could still show the heaps of skeletons of their enemies whom they had slain in defending this their right. (3) That they had enjoyed the protection of the kings and queens of England from olden times, and that neither the Spaniards nor anyone else had a right to this land and that they would not allow anyone to settle on this land except those whom the Lord Trustees recommended. They continued to recognize that they have ceded to the Trustees all the land from the Savannah River to the Ogeechee River and all the land on the sea to the St. John’s River and upland as far as the ebb and flood reach, also all the islands as far as this river stretches,³⁰ especially Frederica, Cumberland, and Amelia, which names they have given to these islands out of gratitude to the royal family. Yet they let it be known that all the land from Pipemaker’s Bluff, which lies four miles above the city of Savannah (where a few Indian houses are standing and where the deceased king Tomochichi lived), to the city of Savannah, also the islands of St. Catherine’s, Ossebaw, and Sapelo were reserved for the communal use of the Creek Nation. Mr. Oglethorpe promised them solemnly through a charter he issued to leave this stipulated land to them and to protect them in their rights against all usurpers. This was drawn up as a treaty and contract, signed, and supplied with the Trustees’ seal in the city of Coweta on 21 August 1739.

In Savannah I had planned to borrow on a note the money which had been intended for our orphanage by Senior Urlsperger, Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen, and other benefactors, and also what was destined for my house; but money is now so rare that no merchant could help me in this.

Captain Thomson is still in Frederica and is not expected in Savannah until Mr. Oglethorpe himself has arrived, whither he plans to journey in a few days. Mr. Oglethorpe wished to have some English orphans taken into our orphanage, but their mother would not consent to this because she wishes to be with her children. A German widow asked me to accept her daughter and take care of her here; and I promised to do so upon the intercession of a pious merchant, who had redeemed her through pure mercy from the hard treatment she was getting from her present master. The girl is generally hardworking, but occasionally she has an attack as if she were not in her right mind; and, because her master and mistress cannot get used to her weakness but beat her severely and rage at her, she runs away and hides for many days under the houses until extreme hunger and thirst drive her out again. Then, when her master catches her again, he hangs her up and cruelly whips her, and the wounds are washed with salt water, which is truly a right Turkish treatment. I would have taken the little girl in the boat with me, if only she could have been found.

Six other German children of the Evangelical faith at Fort Argyle on the Ogeechee River have lost their father and mother and a couple of siblings one after the other through death; and, because most of them are still small and not yet reared, the two largest sons, of whom the oldest may be sixteen years old, asked me to have mercy on them and bring them to Ebenezer, otherwise there was no one in their place who could help them. Mr. Oglethorpe does not wish to let them go, but my intercession did avail in having them taken to Savannah and sheltered there.³¹

Another German man, who also suffers a very harsh treatment, offered to serve me with his wife and two sons for eight years if only I would take him to Ebenezer. But I do not covet my neighbor’s man servant nor maid servant but am devoting myself more and more to retrenching my household. Meanwhile I have reported his justifiable complaint to the authorities, for which the masters look askance at me but can do me no harm. There are some well-intentioned people in Savannah, on whom the money would be well applied if one could advance them some money for their redemption, for otherwise they may well perish or lose their health. But this is entirely beyond our means. I have been assured by one of the authorities that the Lord Trustees will send a plenipotentiary who will hear all the complaints of the servants and their masters and pass judgment. Most of the servants are very wicked, disloyal, and treacherous people, who give an evil name to the others who are perhaps better or would like to become so.

Thursday, the 25th of October. A blanket from the orphanage was given to N. N. for his bed, and for this he and his pious wife greatly praised and thanked God. He was able to tell me several things about the providence of God that has ruled over him in physical and spiritual matters so far, and I applied this to make him be patient toward his wife, who cannot give him much help because of a natural defect and also because of a small child. She prays all the more often and zealously and performs all her limited activities in faith and in the fear of the Lord, which brings more blessing into his house than much human strength and skill. I also told him how highly I value Mrs. N. because of her righteous behavior and zealous prayer in the orphanage, even though she cannot work because of her physical infirmity. Her faithful prayer does more than can be accomplished through physical work, which is recognized, to be sure, not by her (for she lives in great poverty of the spirit and considers herself an inutile terrae pondus)³² but by those who have spiritual eyes with which to see. I often speak with him in favor of his wife, because there is no lack of people who make comparisons between his wife and others who can work, which have probably done him harm. He is beginning to judge his domestic situation not according to reason, but according to the rules of Christianity.

Today I could not speak with Miss Lackner, because she had entirely veiled herself and lay either in sleep or in extreme weakness. In recent days she had recovered a little, but this did not last; and for several days her breath has been so bad that the people who tend her must practice great patience and abnegation. Her brother has necessary work on his plantation and can probably not get away because of his cattle; but from now on it will probably be necessary for him to take care of her. The fever stopped; and, because she then got worse, this is surely not a good sign. The Lord has her in His hands; He will continue to carry out the good work that He has begun in her until the day of His epiphany.

Friday, the 26th of October. N. N. caused me a heartfelt joy yesterday after the evening prayer hour by his encouragement. He told me, to the praise of God, how his eyes were opening more and more to recognize his misery, to which his selfmade justification and piety belong, and to come ever closer to the grace in Christ that is so richly offered to all sinners. Last Sunday God granted him a great blessing in my dear colleague’s sermon; and he also noticed in the case of others in church that the gospel is a power that moves hearts, as he could recognize from outer symptoms (of which he cited some special examples). It pleased me to hear that he now recognizes better than previously the many advantages that our community has over many others; and he praises God for all His goodness. He can hardly marvel enough at his previous blindness, but even more at God’s patience, which has put up with him for so long. He also recognizes the grace in others of the congregation, and he knows how to make good use of everything he hears from God’s word in the sermons and prayer meetings.

In the evening prayer meeting we learned from the story in the 6th chapter of 1 Samuel that the Philistines asked their priests for advice as to what they should do with the Ark of the Covenant, which for them was an odor of death toward death (as the gospel is for many people in Christendom). They advised them as well as they could in their blindness as idolatrous priests, related the story of the obstinacy of the Egyptians and of their plagues, and chastized the Philistines and their princes for their obstinacy. And we do not read that they resented it, as many blind Christians do, some of whom desire no advice as to how to flee the judgments of God and to come to peace with God, and some of whom scorn the advice and become angry at the necessary chastisement and remonstrances about their sins. But, if the heathens profited from the stories that occurred in ancient times among the Israelites, and our marvelous God, who desires the salvation of all men, let the report of them come to the most remote and blind nations for this purpose, it is indeed a great blindness if Christians have no respect for these stories. And, in order that these people, and others like them, might be shamed and corrected in their blindness, I showed that Christ and His apostles (1 Corinthians 10 being read as a special example) cited and applied the stories of the Old Testament in their sermons. It is written twice expressly, loc. cit., why our merciful God let them be written down and preserved for posterity.

Saturday, the 27th of October. While I was visiting the very sick Lackner woman, a Salzburger woman told me how good it is when one does not postpone one’s penitence until the sickbed; for then one has enough to do with one’s sickness and more than a few days is needed for the important change of heart. Some time ago, she said, she was violently sick with fever, at which time she prayed to the dear Lord to grant her a bit longer period of grace, even if it were only for two weeks, to prepare for the great change between time and eternity. He had heard her, yet it was still going badly with her. She had once heard, she said, that the Lord Jesus, at the right hand of the Father, is still concerned with our souls and is loyally tugging at them and working on them. Then she thought that, even if He had nothing else to do, He still had enough work with her, since her heart was so wicked, etc. Still, she was full of good trust in her good Savior, He would complete the work He had begun in her and her husband.

Sunday, the 28th of October. This morning Lackner brought me the news that his sister had passed away yesterday evening while we were at the prayer meeting. At the end she had not been able to say anything but “yes” and “no” and could scarcely hear, and one had to shout into her ear what he wished to say to her. She had taken no food, drink, or refreshment, or else she vomited it all up again. Her face had wasted away during her sickness, and her lips had swollen greatly, so that she was the very image of misery and could teach us what man has become through sin.³³ Tomorrow, if it pleases God, plans will be made for her burial. If wishes could help, we would gladly have kept this honest person with us longer; she would have made a good helpmeet for a pious Salzburger; but she wanted nothing more than for the Lord’s will to be done, and therefore we must be, and wish to be, content. Her brother resigns himself to this and makes the best use of this death. From today’s very beautiful gospel for the 20th Sunday after Trinity we took a comforting image of our perfect and eternal redemption through Christ and investigated in the examples before and in the text: (1) how ugly and misformed we appear without Christ and His redemption; (2) how glorious and blessed we can become in Christ and through His redemption. As an exordium we had the extremely precious words of Hebrews 9:12, “But by his own blood he entered,” etc. May the pious Savior be praised for the blessing which He again granted me from His sweet gospel; may He make us all use right loyally the grace we have received!

Monday, the 29th of October. The good harvesting weather has lasted uninterrupted for many weeks; and our workers have been able to garner their blessings from their fields dry, which is to be recognized with proper gratitude. Our desire for the gifts in the four chests that were intended for us long ago is very great, especially since most people have great need of the linen and other things that were sent. Now that the harvest is over, some of the people wish to go all the way to Captain Thomson’s ship at Frederica and fetch the things; but one of us would have to go along and we would have to have a good guide, because one can easily get lost on the water in the many rivers and creeks. Because of this and other difficulties such a long journey will probably not take place. We shall be unable to send our diary and the letters from us and the congregation until we receive the chests and the letters contained in them, which Sanftleben was to bring.

This evening after the prayer meeting several men and a couple of women again gathered in my room to have me read them the letter of admonition and exhortation that is being written to their compatriots, acquaintances, and friends, as well as the thank-you letters. They too had pleasure in them. Mrs. Gruber remained behind and asked me to send thanks in her name to Mr. N. and his dear wife for all the good that she, and especially her late husband, Moshammer had experienced on the occasion of their marriage and that had been wished for them with cordial love, and to report that none of their cordial good wishes had fallen on the ground, previously in the case of her late husband or now in the case of her, but that all had been abundantly fulfilled. He had overcome, and now she too was certain of the mercy of God in Christ. She had long wished to send her thanks, she said, but she had had to postpone doing so until now because she could not yet have said of herself with such certainty and joy what she can now say through the pure mercy of God. Today a Salzburger remembered the loving efforts of Mrs. N. when the last transport was dispatched; he marveled greatly at them and wished to be grateful for them, if only he could.

Tuesday, the 30th of October. This morning Paul Zittrauer was married to Anna Maria Heinrich,³⁴ who has served for almost a year in my house. During the meal the Salzburgers in attendance remembered Burgomaster Morel in Augsburg and could not find words to express how much good this distinguished benefactor had shown them. They requested me to send him their most obedient thanks for all the benefactions and much work he had undertaken so willingly both day and night as if they had been his own children. I hope the worthy Senior will give this dear benefactor our thanks in place of a letter from us, since time and our activities will not allow us to write to him. Since letters are more likely to go astray during this time of war than previously, we desire to write more often and to submit smaller diaries.

The recently received letters from Europe, which brought special blessings to me and others, caused me to read some of the first reports of the Salzburgers who came here to Ebenezer with us and after us; and, when considering the ways that God has gone with us from the beginning, I was not a little ashamed that at first I was disquieted by the fact that such reports had become known through publication. I thought they might have been harmful for our parishioners and other people, because some things did not rhyme well with the tribulations we had at the time; and I thought we might be misjudged in our office because of it, since people are accustomed to look upon external tribulations as something harmful and not to look through them at the salutary purpose of God and at the sweet fruit that finally follows them if one only persists. Now that the Lord has helped us through so gloriously and has treated us better than we deserve, or than we could have imagined, I am pleased with such printed reports; and I do not doubt that the Lord will bless in some souls the work which He has undertaken among us and which has been made public in this way. When we think back on these five years or more that we have been with the congregation, we must be ashamed of our many frailties, ignorance, and offenses and therefore humble ourselves before God. May He deign to illuminate us through His spirit so that we may henceforth perform our office with divine wisdom and strength and be useful to God and to men both near and far. They continue to work on us through letters and know that, through the grace of God, their words find a good place here and that in this way their work also is not fruitless in the Lord.

Our letters, which are to be taken to Savannah tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and forwarded to England via Charleston, are partly by us and partly by the parishioners. We have written to Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen, Senior Urlsperger, and Professor Francke, also to several ministers in Germany who sent a joint letter to us. The congregation is sending a letter of thanks to all benefactors in Europe, which we have accompanied with a postscript.³⁵ Likewise some Salzburgers and others are sending a letter of admonition and exhortation to their compatriots, friends, and acquaintances. The orphanage is thanking Mr. N. and other benefactors for all their love and cordial care in a little letter. May God bless it all!

Wednesday, the 31st of October. If another transport should ever be sent here (to which the Lord Trustees are not disinclined, but at present do not have the means), then they will probably send along some shoemaker who wishes to support himself among us in a Christian manner.³⁶ Now that the Lord Trustees are no longer maintaining a storehouse for provisions and supplies, if a new transport is sent here, the provisioning of the new colonists must be properly arranged in advance in England; for, if the Lord Trustees do not issue express orders for it, then nothing will be given here and it will take far too long if one must first write back to London concerning it.

NOVEMBER

Thursday, the ist of November. This morning my dear colleague went to Savannah with our letters and diary all packed together; and he will give them to the secretary of the Lord Trustees, Mr. Stephens, for forwarding. Rainy weather began already yesterday and has continued heavy today; and therefore he will have a very unpleasant journey. May God strengthen him and his travelling companions!

I now hold the catechism practice in the hour from eleven to twelve; because the time immediately after eating is difficult for me, and speaking then is bad for my health. I also hear that this time is almost more convenient for the people than the former one. They still attend in large numbers and are very sincere in reciting the main parts of the catechism and answering the questions I pose; so I promise myself, with divine assistance, much blessing from this lesson. After the lesson Mrs. Schweighofer remained behind and complained that her prayer was without strength or savor and that she no longer felt any comfort or assurance of God’s grace. She felt nothing, she said, but outright perdition and a very wicked heart, etc.; she would gladly bear all this and gladly fight against her enemies, if only God would not reject her, etc. I spoke to her sincerely and said that in Christianity there is a condition known as the condition of temptation, in which one must have faith without feeling and always simply go on praying, and in which one must pay no heed to all the clapper that the devil makes nor to all the objections of one’s body, etc. It is a good sign, I told her, that she hates, as much as Satan himself, all sins and all the wicked things that occur to her even while praying. She is still in Jesus Christ, and therefore there is nothing damnable in her, etc. I especially found for her the comforting words of God in Isaiah 49:13-16, “For the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. But Zion said,” etc.; and I let her take them home with her.

Friday, the 2nd of November. The carpenters have been prevented from building the orphanage barn partly through sickness and partly by their work of harvesting in the fields. Kalcher has now taken care of his harvested crops; and, for threshing his rice, he knows of a good place instead of the threshing floor. Therefore we have postponed this construction until some future time, and we have stored away the lumber and shingles safely so that they can be used in the future. The wood and roof shingles cost £19 9s 9d, which must be paid from the last physical blessings from Augsburg and London. Since we can get along this year without the barn, it is better for us not to incur any debts until we learn what the Lord is planning for us. The most necessary thing now is to lay a firm floor of sawn boards in the orphanage and to side the walls with boards so that this winter the adults and children will not be so uncomfortable and hindered in good works as last winter. Boards are now being cut for that purpose. If God grants enough to buy a stove and set it up in the house, it will be a great blessing for both the well and the sick. The carpenters assure me that the orphanage will last much longer if it is sided with boards so that the rain can no longer rot the wood by getting into the grooves into which the shingles or clapboards are fitted. If it is the Lord’s will for our little institution to grow and we are required to construct another building, then the present house could be used for all sorts of housekeeping purposes.

Saturday, the 3rd of November. My dear colleague returned to us yesterday evening from Savannah healthy and well preserved after delivering our packet carefully, so we hope it will go to London with some safe opportunity. He also brought with him the little German girl whom we have already mentioned and whom Mr. Flerel¹ has taken under his and his wife’s supervision. Because of her weakmindedness she does not get along in a crowd, otherwise we would have put her in the orphanage. To be sure, she has a poor but pious mother in Savannah, whom God has brought, in this new world, to the recognition of her sins and of the Redeemer of the world. Mr. Oglethorpe is still in Savannah and is waiting for the Indians who are to be used against the Spaniards. He has been heard to say that he wishes to write a letter to Prof. Francke and request him to send a minister trained in self-denial for the German people in Frederica, of which he is still expecting many more from the Palatinate.² He has also promised something to the theological student Zoberbiller, who has been preaching to the Reformed people on Sundays since his father’s death in Purysburg, if he will take charge of the people at Palachocolas who have moved there from New Windsor (the city that is to be built near Savannah-Town); and we should help him with good advice and give a testimony of his behavior and diligence.

Sunday, the 4th of November. N. N. announced that he and his wife wished to take Holy Communion next Sunday; and on this occasion he told me something from which I could recognize his increase in goodness. To be sure, he is having a rather hard time in a physical way, since he is old and is just starting his plantation; yet he is very content with God’s guidance and praises Him for bringing him not only out of Salzburg but also out of the Empire and for bringing him closer to His word in tranquility and to a concern for the salvation of his soul. He is humble at heart and considers himself (as his expression was) not worth the least little grain of rice; and he is working on his wife with great simplicity and earnestness.

N. told me that he will remember today, Sunday, as long as he lives; for God showed him great mercy two years ago in the repetition hour through the gospel for the 20th Sunday after Trinity, which we had today, and that he is still enjoying its fruit. He is no longer the Old Adam but has learned to know himself; he denies his personal justification and self-made piety, and only seeks his rest and salvation as a poor sinner in Christ and His eternal redemption. His mouth was full of the praise of God for the many spiritual and physical benefactions He has shown us here.

Monday, the 5th of November. Both last Saturday and also in this evening’s prayer meeting the story from 1 Samuel 7 reminded us, to the praise of God, that our loving God has already let us experience many Ebenezers³ in both spiritual and physical things. He has let us live together for almost six years now and has shown us so much kindness on the voyage, in Old Ebenezer, and now at this place that we have good grounds to remind each other of them diligently and awaken each other to the praise of God. It was also shown by the example of the penitent Israelites what we must do if we wish to have God on our side and as a furtherer of our work, namely, we must convert ourselves to Him in our hearts and bring the fruits of penitence. Then, according to God’s promise, we will not lack any good thing that we need for our life either here or beyond.

N. spoke with me about his intention of going to Holy Communion, and I found his words very edifying. He is otherwise very simple and has few natural gifts; yet he could tell me so much good out of yesterday’s sermon and even out of the Bible stories we have contemplated so far that I was truly joyful. Whatever he hears, he includes in his prayers; and for this purpose he locks himself in his hut so that no one will disturb him. He was not very pleased with those who run into his yard to draw water from the well right after church on Sunday, since the first thing they should do is to reflect about what they have heard and to pray about it.

Last week, when the congregation’s thank-you letter was to be sent to all the benefactors in Europe, he came to me several times and expressed his pleasure with it and wished me to send his greeting to these and those benefactors who had been kind to him, especially in Augsburg, Ulm, Memmingen, etc., some of whom he could call by name; and he wished me to assure them of his grateful remembrance of their benefactions. Among others he particularly remembered Lord and Lady von N.;⁴ but he was afraid that they might be displeased that his name was given among the signers, because he was such a bad person, etc. I set him right concerning this, however, since it is apparent that they are not ashamed of poor and simple people who are members of Christ, etc.

Yesterday in the repetition hour it was stated that people who wish to be saved should not hide the sins of their youth but must do true penance for them if they wish to win the mercy of God, the forgiveness of sins, and salvation. Sins that are past but not regretted are not forgotten by God, as by frivolous people; and it is not enough for one to have been punished by men and afterwards to have improved in his worldly life, etc.

Tuesday, the 6th of November. God is showing us great mercy this year not only by granting us a very rich harvest in every way but also by constantly giving us such good weather that everything can be brought in dry to the very end. Also, there has been no frost yet either, so the pumpkins and sweet potatoes can still grow. Most people have received so much produce that storage space has become too limited and they must think seriously about new buildings. In the orphanage also we have received so beautiful a blessing in corn, beans, rice, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, etc. that we can rightly praise the name of our God for them. Kalcher told me that he can well feel that the Lord is with the work in the orphanage. Mrs. Kalcher said that if Mrs. Urlsperger, who observes the ways of the Lord in her housekeeping, should see this blessing with her own eyes, she would not be able to hold back tears of joy. We shall not forget to praise together the loving Giver of all good gifts as soon as the sweet potatoes are harvested. Wherever our pious people go, we hear them praising God; and they consider themselves unworthy of such gifts.

Wednesday, the 7th of November. A Salzburger woman who registered for Holy Communion gave me great pleasure through the testimony she made of the grace of God in Christ which she had experienced so far and which she had comprehended in faith; and this encouraged me to a new seriousness in the Christian struggle in which she had proved so loyal and had triumphed so gloriously even here against her enemies, to the praise and renown of her merciful God. She wishes nothing more than for her husband, on whom God is working with loyalty and profit, to achieve a complete certainty of his state of grace, for which purpose she encourages him very evangelically from her own experience. Her expressions concerning the nature of faith and its various struggles and victories were right exceptional and gave me material about which I plan to preach next Sunday, God willing. Our dear parishioners are often our best reminders concerning this or that text to be preached, and in many instances we have thought of this or that consideration simply by looking at them and recalling the state of their minds during our lectures. Usually, the wonderful Lord lets me find a good place to apply these thoughts.

I experienced a good example of this just this morning; in the last repetition hour God directed my mind to some material that made an impression on several people, as they revealed to each other during their work. The above-mentioned Salzburger woman carries around with her the verse, “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore will he teach sinners in the way,” etc. She says that this verse applies well to us Salzburgers: the Lord has well instructed us on our way and is still doing so. What a blessing it is, she said, that He let things be hard for them in Salzburg. Had it been a little bit easier and more bearable for them, then she and others with her would have remained there; and from that it could be seen that the cross, which seems disagreeable at the beginning, is very useful, etc. Ebenezer, so far the Lord has helped us,⁵ and she praised the Lord that Ebenezer was the city of her spiritual birth and of many others.

A pious single Salzburger asked me to examine him as to whether he could go to Holy Communion in accordance with the present desire of his heart. To be sure, it is written, “But let a man examine himself,” etc.; yet, in order to deceive oneself all the less, it is necessary to subject oneself to the examination of one’s ministers. In order to come to my point, I asked whether he is still consorting diligently with his neighbor, who would also like to be saved but is still so weak; and I learned that he had had a useful conversation with him and another man at work just yesterday. Another man, whom he did not name to me, had asked him what it meant when it was constantly emphasized that one should free oneself from one’s former sins, and the man had become quiet when he explained it to him. He knew that a newly converted Christian, even if he is still just a beginner, is subjected to being ensnared by the devil in spiritual and physical arrogance until he makes a big thing of the good received and scorns his neighbors, and that this is the most direct way to separation. However, if one penetrates as a woe-begone sinner into the poverty of the spirit, tries to be justified through Christ alone, and lives holy and piously for this reason and remembers how long God has put up with him, then he is acting humbly. A man who imagines himself holy and pious without justification is a miserable and dangerous person, etc.

Thursday, the 8th of November. N., who spoke to me about his state of mind and his Christianity when he came today to register for Holy Communion, pleased me so much that, from the depth of my heart, I had to praise our loving God, who means well with all poor sinners, for the grace He has shown him. For some time he has felt many kinds of physical infirmities, which he looks upon as forebodings of his approaching death. His sins, which he can well feel, cause him much worry; and sometimes it seems to him as if he has been too sinful and has already missed his time of grace. However, since God has imbued him with a disgust and loathing for all sins and because he now feels more strength than previously to resist enticements to sin and other disturbing emotions, he accepts all this simply and as a good sign. He also said that this made him hope that God will not reject and damn him; because, if He had wished to, He could have done it long ago. Now He has shown him so much mercy, and is still doing so, that it will not have been done in vain.

Among his chief blessings he counts the fact that he had come to a partial recognition of the truth already in Salzburg and that he had been led out of his dark and superstitious fatherland. He had grown up in blindness, he said, and was already grown when a Protestant servant had lent him a little book to read, and in it he found more beautiful things than he could remember ever having read. His desire for the evangelical truth and for the unmutilated use of Holy Communion was so great that he could not rest until he reached a Protestant country. His greatest wish and desire now was to praise God evermore for all His work and benefactions; and he related some special items that he is accustomed to introduce into his praise of God, which concerned the three main articles of the Christian faith in general and, particularly, what He had shown him in his fatherland, after his departure, here in Ebenezer, and especially in the orphanage. He also told me how he prays for his own and other people’s needs, all of which was in accord with the image of salutary dogma and the thoughts of a true Christian. At his departure he asked me not to become tired of him at the orphanage, especially since he cannot work much because of his infirmities. The abundant care he enjoys there in soul and body he attributes chiefly to God and thanks Him for it; yet he should thank me too, etc. He now recognizes better than previously what a jewel the orphanage has in N. and N.;⁶ and he was not at all pleased with N. and two other people, whom they were never able to satisfy.

In yesterday’s prayer meeting we heard, from the example of the Israelites in 1 Samuel 8, what self-will and carnal thoughts desire and what a burden they bring down on one’s neck, this being something that people do not believe at first but afterwards have to experience to their own harm and sometimes too late.

This evening before the prayer meeting a Salzburger woman called on me to receive instruction about some things that occasionally transpire between her and her husband. Her husband is somewhat careless, does not pay attention to the housekeeping as she would like, and becomes irritable and angry if she says anything to him. At the same time he is not practicing his Christianity as seriously as he should. As examples she related several special things that had caused anger, disquiet, and trouble; and from this I could see that the husband is not in the right but has proved obstinate and defiant and has sinned through harsh words. However, I could also not approve of her behavior toward him, her contradiction, urging, comparison with other husbands, reproaches, etc. I showed her from the Haus-Tafel,⁷ and especially from 1 Peter 3:1 ff., what her duty was according to God’s commandments, namely, not to command, reproach, contradict, but rather to subject herself in all things (provided they do not run counter to God’s word and her conscience). According to verse 4 she must, I said, show a meek and quiet spirit through the grace of God and speak with her husband in such a way as to tell him in a loving and humble way what she sees differently, but otherwise be obedient, even if her suggestion and advice do not please him. At the same time she would sigh and pray sincerely for herself and her husband and loyally perform her work as her husband wishes it. If any ill effect were to occur in the housekeeping when she had done her part in this way, then she would not be to blame; but through the providence and grace of God and through her prayers her husband would become wiser because of it and would learn to reflect so that he might well be won, according to verse 1, through her quiet, humble, and obedient spirit, and in the absence of words. I assured her that I had told her husband, like her, several times what his duties were and how he should behave toward her. She was well pleased with all this and desired nothing more than to be instructed how to behave properly.

Friday, the 9th of November. Today, instead of the prayer meeting in my house, I held the catechism practice with the women, since I had been kept from it last Tuesday because of blood-letting; but I still wished for them to keep up with the men in regard to the truths of the catechism. Our good and pious God lets me clearly feel His merciful presence in this simple yet very necessary work, of which grace I consider myself entirely unworthy. The people of both sexes always attend in large numbers and willingly, are gladly catechized, learn one major part after the other with its explanation, and comprehend the basic truths of the Christian religion correctly, as can be seen from the examination questions always posed at the beginning of the lesson. And, what is most important, their hearts are deeply touched so that they sometimes shed tears.

N. N. must have received a blow to her conscience; for not only did I see her before me with weeping eyes, but she also remained behind and complained to me that she had allowed herself to be tempted to very serious things in her country, for which she must still do penance. To be sure, they are not known here to anyone except N.; but God in Heaven knows them well, and she wished to reveal them to me too. I told her that she had sinned grievously; and I also held up to her the verse in 1 Corinthians 6:9 ff., from which she could learn how far she could come if only she would convert honestly to Christ: His blood makes all penitent sinners clean of all sin, etc.

A pious Salzburger was reminded very emphatically of the sins of his youth and thought it necessary to confess them to me, as he would gladly do, since he had not been punished by men. However, from his very first words I understood what he was aiming at and instructed him that it was not absolutely necessary to confess to his minister everything that had occurred in his youth, if no one had been vexed by it, unless his conscience left him no rest and he needed advice, instruction, and aid. Otherwise it is written, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,” etc.; and therefore it was only necessary for the sinner to settle the matter with God, whom he has insulted, through the intercessor Jesus Christ and to find mercy and forgiveness, which will take place richly and superabundantly if one crawls to the cross as a penitent and grace-hungry man. In sins against one’s neighbor, especially with regard to the Seventh Commandment,⁸ it is another matter, since God demands a release through restitution, which will occur if the penance is of the right kind. The man was very pleased with this explanation, and I asked him to call on me often.

There are several sinners in the congregation of whose serious sins from earlier times we learn from other people, or else we can almost notice by looking at them that they have a secret muck upon them. Now, because such sins did not happen among us and we may not reproach them with them and yet they must still be brought to recognize and regret such abominations and finally do penance for them if they are ever to be serious in their Christianity, we must attack their consciences with the law and bring to light the matter they have kept concealed. To be sure, this first touches others who are serious about their salvation and causes them to remember their former sins; but God also blesses this method with those whom we in fact meant to address, as can be seen in the recent example of a certain person.

Saturday, the 10th of November. General Oglethorpe has written a letter to me in which he requests a righteous theological student from Halle as a preacher for the German people in Frederica, of which still more are expected from Germany; we should ask Professor Francke for him at the first opportunity.⁹ He promises to give him £40 sterling per year for his maintenance. Before this letter reaches Halle, may almighty God choose and prepare a theology student who will be able to accomplish something useful here for the praise of His Glory and for the salvation of souls. Mr. Oglethorpe would be most pleased if it were to be someone who would enter into good understanding, brotherly love, and intimate correspondence with us and would persist in it steadfastly, for he himself knows from much experience in this country the advantages of such material, let alone spiritual, unity. While dining in his room with many of his colleagues he attributed the blessings he had seen in our community in part to the good policy that the members of the congregation are directed along only one path and follow these directions simply. We shall invoke the Lord of the Harvest to incline the hearts of our dear Fathers, who so far have always made common cause regarding our office, to an individual who will especially fit these circumstances. Perhaps we will think of one whom we have known as a loyal fellow-worker before the Lord in the Orphanage, whom, other things being equal, we could recommend.

Today a married couple was revealed to me because of their discord, neglect of communal prayer, etc., so I reminded them of their duty by reading from the Haus-Tafel and other works and exhorted them strongly. The man had tried as hard as possible to conceal his thoughts and he answered my questions right ambiguously and with mental reservations just so he might be admitted to Holy Communion; and for this reason I had to admonish him all the more seriously afterwards. During the prayer tears flowed often from his eyes; and from his subsequent humble behavior I could see that they were not from anger or wickedness. At his departure I reminded him of something that had made a great impression on him several years ago; and I hope the Lord will bless this in him again.

Sunday, the 11th of November. On this day of the Lord forty-five persons among us were fed at the grace-laden table of our dear Savior in Holy Communion; and may He bless this in all of us for the sake of His great and sincere love.

A woman from a plantation near Purysburg had come to us to take Holy Communion with us. Along with other listeners she heard much good from the word of the Lord, and may He bless it in her and us all. Today my dear colleague began to ask the first part of the catechism questions, after having completed the Haus-Tafel. We utilized the beautiful gospel John 4:47 ff. by treating it partly with regard to the nature and quality of faith and partly with regard to its growth and increase, these being the two most important items for being saved. God blessed this abundantly in me and, as I noticed, in some others too. Today there was a very strong wind, which will not suffer any light to burn in the old church hut, so instead of a repetition hour we gathered partly in my house and partly in that of my dear colleague, where we had our repetition and prayers. In the same way we gathered together yesterday evening in my room.

Last night we had heard that two couples, one of whom wished to take Holy Communion, were at odds; so this morning before church they were heard and reconciled by my dear colleague. This time we would also have confirmed some children who have been in preparation until now (not without advantage, God be praised!) and let them take Holy Communion, if their parents or guardians had gone this time too. Therefore it has been postponed until next time (May God let it be to their greater blessing!). The parents are not urging us to admit them soon but are fully satisfied with our decision. May God make us useful to old and young!

Monday, the 12th of November. Our church hut stands, as it were, upon weak feet; and last Sunday we were afraid the very strong wind might blow it down over our heads. Because God has allowed us to detect, in the last letters, a trace of His providence, which guards us in this matter too, we intend to make plans to build a church in His name as soon as the carpenters and other helpers are finished with their other construction. The wood that was cut at the expense of the orphanage suits the needs of this construction very well, according to the judgment of the carpenters; and therefore it will probably be used for that purpose. May God let us consult with Him in all things and begin with faith, and then it will succeed.

Tuesday, the 13th of November. We have again received news that the merchants in Savannah cannot lend money on personal notes. Because money is required by the congregation for buying winter clothing and other necessities and we would like to pay the debts for the orphanage, my construction, and other things, we have found it necessary for my dear colleague to travel to Port Royal or, if our note is not accepted there, all the way to Charleston, for which purpose people in our congregation have volunteered to row him there and back in our large boat. Consequently, he departed this afternoon in the name of the Lord after holding public prayers; and he hopes to find a good guide in Purysburg or Savannah.

Because there are safe and fast opportunities for forwarding from Charleston to London, we have transmitted a copy of the letter Mr. Oglethorpe sent me concerning the preacher desired in Frederica to Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen, together with an enclosed note concerning the circumstances of the German people at Frederica; also a few lines to Secretary Newman and an extract from the new and very brief diary to Professor Francke. May the Lord accompany my dear colleague and the letters he is taking with His blessing, and may He let us see him soon again in health. Both we and the orphanage, like several in the congregation, need various things which are not to be had at all in Savannah or are very expensive, but which we will probably be able to get from Charleston in this way.

To the praise of God a pious woman told me that she had been blessed last Sunday and during the previous preparation for Holy Communion with much edification but that she was now being depressed by her disloyalty and sloth, etc. But in truth she is such an honest soul as our good and pious God has before Him in Isaiah 54:4-17, and therefore I read this passage to her slowly and let her read it with me. I had to underline all this for her with red ink so that she might frequently remember these comforts of the Lord.

Wednesday, the 14th of November. We have now had two hard night frosts in a row, which were the first of this year. The Lord has granted our people many sweet potatoes and given them time to ripen and be harvested. The acorns have also turned out especially well, and the people gather them in quantity. One kind in this country is larger than is found in Germany; and, since the people have many other kinds of feed too, they would be able to raise many hogs this year, if only the bears in our region did not do so much harm. They swim across the Savannah River from Carolina to our side, as the Salzburgers have often seen while travelling in their boat. There are also a large number of walnuts, but the ones in this country have too thick a shell and not as much meat as in Germany; but they do have just as sweet a taste.

Old Ebenezer is now becoming entirely empty of people, since the Lord Trustees’ German servants, who were used at the mill, have been called back to work at Savannah. The mill has been taken apart; and, because the wooden and iron parts that were sent here from England may have cost very much, they do not wish to waste them but rather have them carried back to Savannah, which will again cause much expense. Bringing something from Old Ebenezer to Savannah requires much effort, time, and expense. Now there is only one German family left there, who must guard the wood and iron parts of the dismantled mill so that the Indians who pass through Old Ebenezer on their way to Savannah will not burn or destroy them. There is also an English family who are in charge of the Trustees’ cattle there.¹⁰ The Trustees profit from the cattle there, which have good pasture in the entire forest; and they would have even more profit if only they had experienced and loyal people in their service. They receive none of the butter or cheese; the little that is made is used by the Englishmen. Their actual profit is the increase in the cattle, since the cows are left with the calves and grow up all year in the forest without care or supervision; and thus the herd of cows gets larger every year, whereas the oxen are slaughtered when they are old and fat enough and are applied to the Trustees’ use. Therefore nothing will become of Old Ebenezer, and it is a shame that so much money was spent on it.

Thursday, the 15th of November. Soon after the catechism lesson we baptized twins, with which Ruprecht Eischberger’s wife was couched this morning. Until now the woman has had fever and a growth all over her abdomen, but God has mercifully helped her through.

After the catechism lesson a pious widow remained behind and said that God had greatly refreshed her with His word and that she would like me to underline the verse in Ezechiel 33, “As I live, saith the Lord,” etc. We treated the fifth question, “Do you hope to be saved?”, etc. and showed what it means to be saved, namely, to be saved from the unblessed condition of sinners and placed into the blessed state of the children of God. The first thought and the first question that occur to truly penitent people when feeling their sins and the punishment they have merited from them should be, I said, whether any mercy can be hoped for by such great and abominable sinners and whether even they can be saved. This was affirmed and proved partly from unambiguous Bible verses and partly from the fact that God not only wishes lovingly (as lovingly as the most loving person) the salvation of all men and gladly furthers it, but also is love itself; from which incomprehensibly high love He gave His Son as a Savior for the entire world and also clearly revealed the order of salvation, namely, conversion and rebirth, and ordained the means for salvation: the word of God, prayer, and sacraments, so that we might be led by them in the order of salvation and be preserved in it, provided, N.B., that we use them rightly. Within this order one can be sure of his salvation, without it there is no hope. God does not lead us to trust our salvation to feeling and savoring, but only to this order, etc.

Friday, the 16th of November. Among the last gifts, our dear Lady N. N. in N.¹¹ remembered our lying-in women with a gift of money, which, to be sure, we do not yet have in hand because we have not yet been able to borrow any money on a note. However, in anticipation of it we can already help such suffering people, as we are now doing for poor Mrs. Eischberger. May God repay her and all her illustrious family with interest in all their circumstances for this benefaction. Eischberger and she have been visited by a long-lasting domestic affliction in that he has suffered very serious attacks on both arms and chest and is still dragging himself around with them, whereas she has had fever and other severe bodily conditions for a long time. They have well used their little strength during the summer and also harvested a little for their needs through divine blessing, from which they will be able to eke out an existence until the next harvest. However, since the husband has been incapable of earning any money for clothing and other necessities, they need the help of kind people, especially now in the circumstance of her lying-in.

I am very impressed by the detailed instructions concerning the benefactions for our congregation and orphanage as they are specified in worthy Mr. N’s letter. We shall make even better use of them for the praise of God, the strengthening of our faith, and the intercession for such dear benefactors when we thank our dear God for the richly granted harvest at a special gathering in the orphanage, which is to be held with God’s help at the beginning of next week. In the story from 1 Samuel 10, which we are to contemplate now, we find the noteworthy circumstance that, on his return from Samuel, Saul was met in the name of the Lord by three men who greeted him in a friendly way and gave him two loaves of bread according to Samuel’s prophetic words; and in this we must marvel at God’s power to incline hearts. Here in Ebenezer we have received material enough for such holy and edifying admiration of the miraculous providence and government of God, according to which He has inclined the hearts of entirely unknown people in love and affection for us. God will continue to make good all want in the orphanage and congregation! He has everything in His hands. God is loyal if one turns to Him; if He begins well, He intercedes and accomplishes.

Saturday, the 17th of November. Our dear Father in heaven has granted me a great blessing in my house, which is very useful in performing several official duties. I have now dedicated one room entirely to the service of the congregation, especially since the place for our public gathering is very uncomfortable. Baptisms and marriages are performed here, and I am especially pleased that I can hold school here in the absence of my dear colleague and hold meetings with the adults of the congregation, namely, on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the women and on Wednesdays and Saturdays with the men, in addition to the prayer hour, which is held on Mondays and Fridays. It is a very fine thing that I can instruct the sexes separately in the catechism, since they show less bashfulness and more confidence, sincerity, and simplicity in the questions and answers. The meetings where we practice the catechism, wherein all principles of the faith and ancillary duties of our Christian religion are presented in order, are as dear to the people as any other opportunity for edification; and God dignifies us in this with His blessing. We detect a clear sign of God’s providence in the fact that He is once more letting us lead the entire congregation into the catechism and instruct them in the basic dogmas of Christianity before the people move to their plantations, where it would be less possible to do so.

One of Eischberger’s twins died this morning and was buried in the afternoon. The Salzburgers have long seen that the thin dwelling huts, in which they feel every change of weather, not only cause great discomfort in winter and summer but also cause harm to health; but so far they have been unable to do anything about it because they have had to apply their time to other necessary work to win their bread and to earn something for their needs. Also, they have had to do a lot of work in vain both in Old Ebenezer and here because they lacked their own land. This winter they are beginning new construction work on their plantations, and they will do everything they can to see that they get firm and well protected houses.

It is too bad that we have so few carpenters, otherwise the constructions would proceed much faster. In this matter also God has, for our good, disposed the Salzburgers to decline, with good reasons, the call to work on the orphanage in Savannah and whatever else is to be built there.¹² Mr. Oglethorpe was agreeable to this, although he had formerly wished to employ them here or there after he himself had seen the skillful and inexpensive construction of my house (for it is cheap compared to building costs in this land, even though in Germany it would be reckoned expensive). From now on he will not expect any outside work from them. At first we considered the offer from Mr. Oglethorpe and the schoolmaster in Savannah to be a blessing, but God knew and ordained it better. Oh, if only we would let Him lead and guide us in all things! The surveyor¹³ has not yet completed his work on the plantations; and, even though Mr. Oglethorpe gave him definite orders for this in my presence and even had his pay for work already done held back until its completion, he still does not come. However, this does not do the congregation as much harm as in earlier times. Meanwhile, we can see from this that this gentleman cannot always achieve his purpose at once, even with his authority and all the means he uses.

Sunday, the 18th of November. We received news from Savannah that my dear colleague found the desired guide to Charleston and departed from Savannah very early last Thursday. The merchant Montaigut, who usually accepts our personal notes, died recently; and apparently his widow will not get involved in any complicated business, all of which helps confirm the fact for us that this distant and difficult journey was necessary. May God stand by him and his travelling companions in every way! Such a separation for a short time teaches me what a blessing of the Lord our comradely friendship and work is. May He let us enjoy it for a long time in accordance with His mercy!

Monday, the 19th of November. We know of a Salzburger in the congregation named Hans Floerel who is a true fruit of God and has right fine qualities for a Salzburger schoolmaster. He has a beautiful gift in getting on with children, is loved in the entire community, is content with little, and thus useful to God and man. Perhaps God will incline his mind to accept the call to become schoolmaster; and we hope the praiseworthy Society will not refuse to allow him Ortmann’s salary, namely £10 sterling. It will please them that we ourselves, with God’s blessing, have trained a schoolmaster who suits the community and that they can thus save the cost of sending another one across the sea. The younger Zuebli would also accept the position gladly. Perhaps, if he lets himself be still better prepared through the grace of God, we can someday use him for some other purpose. The English youth, Bishop, whom I freed a short time ago and who is now beginning his own household, will gradually also qualify as a schoolmaster, provided he continues to accept good instruction and to grow in his initial goodness. He now holds the English school and receives £5 sterling from Mr. Oglethorpe.

Because the dear Lord has granted the orphanage a great physical blessing in the harvest they have gathered and has let much other good flow from the well of His goodness so far, we promised several weeks ago to thank Him publicly for all His kindness and benefactions at a time set aside for it; and this took place at about noon today with much edification for all of us. I had mentioned this plan last Saturday at the prayer meeting; and this had the good effect that the three front rooms of the orphanage were filled with men, women, and children, who showed through their presence and the hymnals and Bibles they brought with them that they had just as much reason as the orphanage to praise our merciful God with us for His kindness; and this impressed me greatly. Through the beautiful song Ich singe dir mit Hertz, etc., which was sung first, our spirits were already awakened to a grateful remembrance of the abundant benefactions we have enjoyed so far; and this was done even more afterwards through the presentation and clarification of the impressive verse in Joel 2:21, “Fear not, o land,” etc. This right golden verse was sent to our congregation with the last letters, together with a gift of money, by our dear Deacon Hildebrand in Augsburg; and, because it suited us well in our present circumstances, we made common use of it.

We have experienced many proofs that the Lord is doing great things in our dear Ebenezer, and these were cited individually for the praise of God. Therefore all those among us who become obedient to the voice of the Lord can be assured that they shall continue to experience the Magnalia Dei in their souls and bodies and that even our temporal enemies will not be able to harm us, no matter how great they might be. Therefore we compared the last words of the above-mentioned verse with Isaiah 37:24 ff. and especially with Psalms 76:11. Through the last words of the psalm our marvelous God had sowed a good seed into my heart through dear Mr. Hildebrand’s sermon in the Collegium Biblicum at Professor Francke’s house, a fact which he perhaps does not know.

We recognize well enough from the above-mentioned verse and from other items that were read from Senior Urlsperger’s list of the last gifts, in which the names of some of the benefactors are written, that pious people in Europe recognize the great deeds God has performed and is still performing for us in this corner of America, just as He formerly did for His people in that corner of Asia; and we recognize that they are pleased by them, praise God, and contribute everything possible for the glorification of God’s glorious name. This has aroused us to open our eyes rightly too, so that we will not overlook any of God’s miracles and fail to praise Him. After the prayer we sang the beautiful song Lobe den Herrn, o meine Seele, etc., which is based on the 146th Psalm and which had been assigned to the children to memorize. From now on they will also learn the psalm word by word, which might be, and might be called, the widows’, orphans’, and other needy people’s own psalm.

Several days ago, while we were discussing this public thanksgiving, Mrs. Kalcher reminded us that we had promised to praise the Lord together also for the orphanage’s well, which is a right great blessing of the Lord; and she said that it had gone with us as it had with Jacob in Genesis 35, who had to be reminded again by God of his almost forgotten promise. Therefore we included this blessing too in our humble thanksgiving prayer, which was based on Christ’s sacrifice of reconciliation. May God be well pleased with such practice in Christ and let it bear much good fruit!

According to the above-mentioned letter of Senior Urlsperger, many in the congregation will be refreshed by the charitable gifts to be received: e.g., the poor according to their circumstances, and particularly the sick lying-in women, by the gift of the House of N. and N.; the last seven colonists (who are still subject to some physical ailments) by the Evangelical Body in Regensburg; the colonists from Memmingen, twenty-six in number, by the praiseworthy magistrate there; our poor, sick, and impaired by the late Mr. Hüntzelmann through Schauer’s balm, linen, and money; and in part the entire community and in part our orphanage by worthy Mr. N., Inspector N., Pastor N., Mr. N., Mr. N., Privy Counselor N., Mrs. N., Mr. N., Mr. N., and Mr. N. Oh, may our loving God repay them all in time and eternity and write their names in the Book of Life! And since our loyal High Priest has so richly blessed us through the hands of these and many other spiritual priests, we can say from Ecclesiasticus 50: “Thank all ye God, who doeth great things on all ends of the earth,” etc.; He gives us all good. May He give you and us a joyful heart, and grant us eternal peace and ordain that His grace remain forever with you and us. And may He redeem us as long as we live.

I utilized the three noteworthy signs that the prophet Samuel made to Saul in the name of the Lord in chapter 10 in this way: whoever remembers his mortality rightly is satisfied with little through the grace of God, even if it were only a piece of dry bread. If God, as He has promised, fills his needs, then this should bring him to the multitude of spiritual prophets and priests to say humble thanks in their company (but also in his closet) for all His kindness and all good guidance of the Lord and to ask Him for grace to be and to remain loyal. How much more that should be the case if God grants us more than our basic needs. God has always placed a great blessing on common prayer and praise of God.

Toward evening in my room it was revealed to me that two people, a man and a woman, had received much blessed edification through God from the meetings in the orphanage. Among other things the woman said with tears that God had already blessed the edification and the orphanage prayer meetings in her often and right amazingly, and today too He had again granted her something that was necessary for her. He had revealed to her in conscience that she had previously insulted God and her neighbor so much, yet He was doing more good for her than for others; He had saved her from Salzburg like a tinder from the fire and was following her with great patience and mercy. However, her frivolity and disloyalty were so great, she said (then her tears flowed so richly that she did not hear my encouragement the first time).

To comfort this sorrowful soul, I told her from yesterday’s gospel that it is a good sign if the dear Lord drags us before the judgment throne of our conscience during the period of grace and holds everything up to us to our shame and humiliation. He is only doing it to prepare the poor sinner properly for the mercy and forgiveness which He has already prepared. I also reminded her of the comforting little verse that was so sweet for us yesterday, Hebrews 7, “Our merciful High Priest is also able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him,” etc., and therefore this evening hour too is a time for being saved, etc. Yesterday, from the gospel for the 22nd Sunday after Trinity, God proclaimed to us both mercy and wrath, mercy to the penitent and the humble and mercilessness and wrath to the impenitent and the wicked.

In the afternoon we heard something about the questions in the interrogative parts of the catechism concerning our loyal intercessor Jesus Christ; and we learned that His office as intercessor, the reconciliation He has instituted, and the goods of salvation He has obtained apply to all, even to the greatest sinners, of which we receive the most certain promises in the gospel, in the words of the sacrament, and through the dear pledge of His body and blood in Holy Communion.

Tuesday, the 20th of November. The economy of the orphanage required us to build a durable s. h. pig sty of heavy wood.¹⁴ It is so arranged that a rather large number of hogs have room in it, and separate appended stalls have been made for fattening them. Over it is a good attic for storing and threshing rice, which we have greatly needed. Even though it is only a sty, the construction costs have amounted to £6 sterling. But it is so firm and durable that the orphanage will derive benefit from it for many years. In the beginning the Salzburgers built stables and other buildings only of planks, which were built quickly and with little expense; but there was no profit in this because they had to repair them every year and rebuild them very soon.

Wednesday, the 21st of November. After the troubles I had yesterday, our kind Savior refreshed me again abundantly in the catechism hour as well as through the visit and encouragement of some pious men. Oh, how the dear people thank God for revealing to them their imagined and self-made, but entirely inadequate, piety and righteousness through the light of His word, which also sets aright what is concealed in the heart. They have learned to believe that it costs more to be saved than is generally thought and that there is a great difference between one who has come close to the kingdom of God and one who has actually broken into it through an earnest struggle of penitence and faith and who seizes the kingdom of heaven with force.¹⁵ They heartily wish that they could tell all their compatriots, especially their near of kin who are partly in the German Empire and partly in Prussia,¹⁶ that, to a large extent, they had previously been caught in self-deception and had never truly experienced penitence and faith; and they wished to warn against this dangerous snare of the devil. One of them had asked me several times already, and again today, to write a letter to his righteous brother, whose attitude he had formerly been entirely unable to accept and also to inform his other brothers and sisters, who were not so righteous, what the Lord had done to his soul; and for this purpose he himself dictated the material to me.

Another praised the kindness of the Lord, who had powerfully inclined his heart, which had been against the voyage to America, through the entirely open and free advice and prayer of our dear Senior Urlsperger, to accept the call. And there are several here who will thank him before the throne of God in blessed eternity for his fatherly love and concern for their true salvation. Another gave me pleasure by inquiring carefully after the merciful will of God and how to please Him in certain secular circumstances and he shared my pleasure greatly when we found something in the word of God that serves his purpose. God granted him a beautiful blessing last Sunday and during the communal thanksgiving for the blessed harvest. The little verse Joel 2:21, which we had as a text, had served him and his wife very well previously in certain difficult circumstances.

Thursday, the 22nd of November. Last night our gracious God showed me and my wife great mercy by giving us the joy of seeing a young and well-formed little son, who was baptized this morning.¹⁷ The words in Joel 2 “The Lord will do great things,” as well as in the song Wirds aber sich befinden, dass du ihm treu verbleibst, so wird er dich entbinden, etc. have become right alive for me through this new experience of God’s help. He receives the name of Gotthilf Israel, the first name as a constant and grateful reminder of the especially experienced help of God, the second as testimony of my brotherly love and respect for my dear colleague and brother-in-law, Mr. Israel Christian Gronau.¹⁸ May God let him be a true Israel in the future, as he has now become through holy baptism, and thus be useful to Him and his neighbor. While preaching about the inestimable grace of God in last Sunday’s gospel, the 130th Psalm became for me a right golden jewel; it tells of the long desired and awaited help of God and promises and offers Israel much splendor, and it tells how it is finally received and enjoyed.

Friday, the 23rd of November. Yesterday and last night there was a rather harsh cold, which is very frightening for the poor who lack clothes. God will help; for many will be refreshed when my dear colleague returns from Charleston and we have received the long-expected gifts from Captain Thomson’s ship. From the orphanage we give the poor as much as we can and as much as God grants us the ability to do. Last week I had already written to the storehouse manager in Savannah for a bolt of woolen cloth on credit, but he had had so much to do when an express boat arrived from General Oglethorpe that he missed the opportunity to send anything. If we wish to accomplish something, then we must travel down ourselves often, which, however, is not possible now because of my dear colleague’s absence. The boards have been cut for covering the outer walls of the orphanage, and the carpenters began yesterday to put them up; and this is a blessing not only for the occupants of the house but also for the house itself, because the rain will be less able to damage it and penetrate through the cracks and joints. The name of the Lord will be praised by the pious people there for this benefaction too, as has already been done today in our private prayer meeting. The Lord will also provide for a pair of oxen and some glass for windows.

Saturday, the 24th of November. At about noon an Englishman brought me two Indian chiefs who wish to go to General Oglethorpe, and I was requested to send them down to Savannah without delay. We would surely like to be spared from such commissions before Sunday, if it were only possible. The Indians whom Mr. Oglethorpe wants against the Spaniards are hunting in the forest; and these two wish to get oral and written orders to call up the Indians for service. Once they have his word, it will mean as much as if the King of England had said it. Smallpox is said to be still raging among the Cherokees, and this is one of the reasons that the men would rather be in the forests than at home.

The surveyor has assured me in a letter that he wishes to be here shortly and finish his work. He also promises me a drawing of our plantations and all the land that belongs to our town which will please me and all our patrons in Europe. I had requested this from General Oglethorpe; and therefore this offer of the surveyor is a result of the order he received from Mr. Oglethorpe.¹⁹ This man had secretly informed Mr. Oglethorpe that the Salzburgers were not going to let the 200 feet on each side of Abercorn Creek lie vacant for the common use of the colony, as is the express order of the Lord Trustees in the entire country, but use it as their own property. I advised this gentleman that the opposite was true, namely, that they had, to be sure, cut down the trees along the creek but did not therefore consider the land their own, although in the beginning they would plant it (in order to eradicate the bushes and shrubbery).²⁰

He was satisfied with this, yet he demanded that all the trees within 200 feet of the river on both sides should remain standing, because it was very convenient to have wood near the water. I spoke about this with the leaders of the community and learned that, if the wood had to be left standing, they would suffer a very great loss from it. The high trees would cast much shade, in which corn and beans will not grow in this country; and thus a large piece of land as far the shade reached, would be useless. Also, wild and harmful animals, vermin, and wicked people would hide in such a forest on both sides of the river and cause the people great damage in their huts during their absence. Moreover, across the river, where the good plantations actually are, there is low land that is flooded several times during the year; and therefore houses or stables cannot be built there but must be built on this side where there is high land. Now, if the trees should remain standing on either side for a depth of 200 feet, the people would lose all view of their fields; they already have a long way from their houses to their cleared and planted land, which is very inconvenient both for work and for harvesting their crops. Both men and women go to work; and damage will occur if they cannot see their huts.

We know from experience that, as long as trees stand near the dwellings, the people cannot keep chickens and other fowl or even pigs. What a great hardship this would be. Also, a certain kind of quadruped that the English call raccoons and possums hide in the trees and often dig up the planted corn from the ground and devour and destroy entire ears. In addition, in some years we have had an extraordinary multitude of birds that do great damage to the corn and especially to the rice; and no amount of watching and scaring off can help if there are trees nearby. There may be even more reasons why these trees cannot stand, but they are not known to me. Because the trees are more harmful than useful, I hope our people will not be burdened with having to let them stand. Enough wood remains standing near the river that could easily be brought to the river, if it should be needed, once the people have gained a bit of strength.

Abercorn Creek is so very shallow, narrow, and crooked that timber rafts cannot possibly be made in it, or it would cause uncommonly great expense. There is enough wood all along the Savannah River, even if it should remain standing on our plantations as far as the 200 feet go. Through this order they perhaps wished to prevent trees from being felled into the river, through which the river might be made, if not unusable, at least difficult of passage. However, this is not to be feared in Abercorn Creek, for self-interest will keep everyone from letting trees fall into the water, because the present clearing of the river is costing much work.

Sunday, the 25th of November. According to the old calendar we have only twenty-three Sundays after Trinity, and today we concluded the church year. We encouraged each other through the words of Ecclesiasticus 50:24-26 to the praise of God for the spiritual and physical blessings we have enjoyed so far; and we took from the gospel several necessary admonitions for examining and awakening ourselves. May the Lord bless this in all of us so that we will reject everything that has run counter to salutary dogma in our congregation and so that it can also be said of us: “Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” In the afternoon we finished the last questions from the interrogative part of the catechism; and in the new church year we are to take up the regular Sunday and feast day epistles for the edification of the congregation. Today I was still alone, and therefore the repetition could not be held. The cold was very great and, if my domestic situation and strength had allowed me to join with the parishioners in the warm room, several (and many, if I had given the signal) would have attended. Only one room has a stove; and steps will be taken in the future so that the other can also be used in winter. Several children were present at my home prayer meeting.

Tuesday, the 27th of November. Yesterday the dear Lord let my dear colleague and his travelling companions return here hale and with His blessing to my and the parishioners’ joy; and he, as well as we here, has cause to praise the goodness of the Lord, who doeth great things in all places. He let him succeed in everything on the journey and in Charlestown even better than he had expected, for which may His holy name be praised! Our dear Lord wonderfully ordained for my dear colleague to become acquainted with a couple of honest, kind, and helpful merchants in Charlestown who deal together and who accepted our note without hesitation and will accept others in the future and be ready to serve us in all ways. Their names are Messrs. Wragg and Lambton.²¹ If there should be a lack of safe mail from this province to London, our letters would be forwarded most safely and swiftly if we can first get them safely to Charleston; for our last and small packet is to be sent with the next ship, and our large packet, which we addressed to the Lord Trustees’ secretary in Savannah, is said to have already been forwarded via Charleston.

In Charleston many people have died of hemorrhages and spotted fever; they infect each other and often are carried away suddenly. Now everyone is healthy again and doing well physically. As recently reported, they have brought a Spanish sloop into Charleston, in which they found only letters at first but finally found gold and silver in the water cask. Nothing is heard of any hostilities from Frederica or the Spanish coast except that three Scotch Highlanders, who went into the woods unarmed, are presumed to have been murdered by hostile Indians. Two of them were found dead without a skull or male organs, and the third may have been dragged off and burned alive. For the Indians treat their prisoners very barbarously.²²

Wednesday, the 28th of November. Since the 19th question from the interrogative part of the catechism was treated last Saturday, I read to the congregation what our blessed Luther had written so impressively in his preface to his catechism on page 10 about scorn for, and scorners of, Holy Communion.

On Monday I was asked by Pichler,²³ in his and others’ names, to attend the thanksgiving ceremony they wished to hold some day next week in grateful remembrance of all the blessings they have received from God as well as for the good harvest they have had. He was delighted with the devotional service we had had in the orphanage for that purpose, which he would have liked to attend, for (he said weeping) it had once appeared that he would receive little or no grain but that the Lord had now blessed him abundantly.

This morning I went to this Pichler’s plantation; and I was agreeably impressed that the people there, both men and women, were awaiting me eagerly and had made good arrangements for joint edification. A nice crowd had gathered and I preached to them as I had done recently in the orphanage, using the beautiful words of Joel 2:21 as a basis for our edification. In conclusion we knelt and thanked our loving God for all the blessings He had shown us, especially in Old Ebenezer and here, and encouraged each other to pay careful attention to His ways and works, which are always great both in the realms of nature and grace, and to find greater pleasure in them. I came home so late that the usual catechism hour could not be held this time. What a great and excellent blessing the dear Lord has shown the Salzburgers with the land on Ebenezer Creek is now known to everyone; but it will be really revealed only when they have cultivated it in the fear of the Lord and have enjoyed its fruits. If they should wish to ask for anything better they would be sinning against the good Giver. The only inconvenience with it is that the path from here to there is rather difficult to walk when it rains; but this can be corrected gradually through joint work.

Thursday, the 29th of November. Now that God has given them a good harvest, and especially much corn, our people often speak of a grist mill, which they would like to build on a good place they have found on Abercorn Creek if there were some money for it. Grinding with our hand mill is hard and slow; and, because it is used daily, it is often unreliable. Since it is driven by two strong people, or by several if they have a lot to grind, they have to work hard for the meal, which is indispensable for them. It is especially difficult for the people on the plantations, who have to carry their corn here and their meal back again on their backs. Mr. Oglethorpe once offered to help us with a mill; and therefore I shall write to him soon and inform him of our carpenters’ plan to build a mill on Abercorn Creek.

For a long time Rottenberger has had quartan fever, which is greatly consuming his strength. We need him very much as a skillful carpenter; but God knows better what is good for him and us, and He is working mightily on his soul and trying to free him better and better from all impurities. He complains that he cannot visit the evening prayer meetings even on good days because the wind penetrates the church hut and causes drafts that do him much harm. The construction of a church should be the first thing for which our loving God, in His good time, will provide the costs, as He has begun to do, if only we had more carpenters. Our carpenters do not wish to neglect their farming, and this should not be advised, so one thing must be done after the other.

Friday, the 30th of November. To the new colonists who came here with Sanftleben we have distributed the viaticum they received from the Evangelical Body.²⁴ Ulich has died; and his widow, the Egger woman, has received his share. The Lackner woman had received more clothes in Augsburg than she would have received from this money, and her brother is heir to all her things. Senior Urlsperger writes that, because she is poor, the 2 florins 50 kreutzers spent for her in Augsburg should be considered a present; and now this will fall to her brother if Senior Urlsperger consents, otherwise he will give it back. We request his opinion in this matter. Ulich’s young widow will marry Lackner, who has already announced it to me. His sister had recommended this woman to him on her deathbed, for already during the voyage she saw that she suited him. In him she is receiving a pious Christian and an industrious worker as a husband and will therefore be provided for in body and soul.

DECEMBER

Saturday, the 1st of December. This week we made use of various circumstances from the 11th chapter of 1 Samuel, which were related to the circumstances of the times in which we live through the grace of God, now that we have come so close to the new church year and to the solemn contemplation of Christ’s incarnation. God touched the hearts of the Israelites and filled them with His fear, so that they gathered unto their anointed and proclaimed king. The joyful news of their approaching aid and redemption was sent to the hard pressed citizens of Jabes in Gilead, who well recognized their great need, danger, and misery; and this aid actually followed. Also, Saul’s enemies and opponents experienced the mercy and forgiveness of their king, who did not wish to avenge himself but rather to forgive and forget the insult, after their hearts had been won and brought to metanoia.¹

Yesterday evening we had the first part of the 12th chapter, from which we superintendents and ministers of the congregation could learn good lessons at the conclusion of the church year. This evening we learned what mercy the Lord had shown the Israelites and their ancestors in physical and spiritual things and how their behavior had been toward their Allhighest Benefactor: they forgot Him, substituted Him, and rejected Him and chose in His stead vain and transitory things, etc., for which, however, they had to feel His heavy hand. He sold them as evil-doers to strange and tyrannical masters, just as the English are accustomed to send criminals into slavery in America; yet, when they called out to Him in their need, He looked with mercy upon their impure prayer, which had been forced out by their plight, and let His help and salvation fall upon them, but with bad results on the part of the Israelites, etc.

Just as this serves us to examine ourselves at the end of this week, of this month, and this church year, we should also let the following admonition of Samuel serve to awaken us, namely, the admonition to fear the Lord our God, to serve Him, to obey His voice, and not to be disobedient to His mouth; then He will grant us more and more grace and strength to follow Him. Indeed, He Himself will lead us with His hands and eyes and go before us to clear the path; otherwise things would go no better with us than with the Israelites. God be blessed for this beautiful text, which He has surely been keeping for us until this noteworthy change in time! Our loyal God, who blessed this text in me, will also bless it in other people and let us enter this new church year with such a resolution that beginning, middle, and end will be, and will remain, good.

Sunday, the 2nd of December. On this first Sunday of the church year God has brought salvation in Christ very near to us; and our sincere wish in our prayers is for everyone to accept it and be saved. This year my dear colleague is using the regular Sunday readings as a basis for the catechization, after having gone through Luther’s Small Catechism last year, and from it the five main parts and likewise the dogma of the keys to the kingdom, the Haus-Tafel, and the interrogative parts. This year I am again presenting the Gospels, the contents of which I present briefly without a special exordium, and from which I take something for the main instruction to elucidate, confirm with Bible verses, and apply as is required by salutary dogma and the circumstances of our parishioners. Today the main instruction was this: our chief care in this church year and in our entire lives should be to learn to recognize and love Jesus Christ our Savior rightly through the Holy Ghost.

I have announced to the congregation that I shall not let myself be kept from the repetition hour this year by anything (unless by sickness or unavoidable travel), because its value is very apparent and I wish this year to further the dear parishioners’ recognition of truth to godliness in every possible way. If strong wind and rainy weather make our meeting hut uncomfortable for holding the repetition hour, we will come together in the orphanage. Perhaps our heavenly Father will soon help us to a regular house in which we can gather for the glory of God and our own edification. Yesterday and today we have had rainy weather, which made the sermon very difficult for me because the rain was violent in the morning. For we can hear every drop that falls on the roof; and we must speak all the louder if the listeners are to hear anything.

Monday, the 3rd of December. N.’s wife was confused about a matter that had occurred to her before her departure from Germany, so I visited her today and spoke to her and her husband about it; and this was so fruitful that she could understand everything better than a few days ago and was content in her heart. When such people let themselves be corrected, it is useful to them and pleasing to us. It is very good when they just speak out their thoughts, for we are glad to set them aright through God’s help and blessing. Both of them are now very contented and know how to get along with each other better than at the beginning of their marriage.

Instead of the house prayers today I held the catechism lesson with the men, since I had had to cancel it once last week because of my trip to the plantations. I hear that the men are beginning their work on the plantations and therefore are pleased if the catechism lesson is held with them on Mondays and Saturdays, because then they need not miss any of them even if they are out there all through the week. I was glad to hear that they do not wish to miss a lesson, because through the grace of God they feel its value. Toward Christmas I hope to be finished with all articles of the Christian religion. May God continue to give me strength and the parishioners willingness and diligence to contemplate the word that is preached and to transform it into life!

Tuesday, the 4th of December. Yesterday evening we utilized that part of the Bible story from 1 Samuel 12:5 and 16-18 by warning each other against scorning the word preached in the name of the Lord, since God is showing us the mercy of letting us hear it this year too for our salvation. The prophet had emphatically and movingly reminded his listeners of their sins and especially their obstinate and perverted request for a king (whom they had first chosen unbendingly and firmly in their hearts and then requested, verse 14). However, he could well see from their eyes that they were little moved by his remonstrances but, in the manner of frivolous parishioners, had considered their sins to be slight and perhaps thought, “Samuel is treating such trivialities as sins; his office requires him to preach a sharp sermon. He may be angry with us because we do not wish to have him and his sons as our regents. Let him say what he will, and let us believe what we wish,” etc. They probably blessed themselves in their hearts and judged their behavior not according to divine law but according to God’s providence: because they had succeeded against the Ammonites under the leadership of their king, they underrated all the more their sin of abandoning their Lord of the Covenant and King of Grace and of trusting in carnal power.

Therefore, at Samuel’s prayer, God had to show by the weather that not human words but His word was being preached to them and that Samuel had not made their behavior into sin but that it was in itself a great evil and wickedness before the Lord, which not only was a sign for the Israelites of what God could have done to them before the judgment throne because of their wickedness, but also serves us as an example of what will come to all disobedient and recalcitrant parishioners, even among us, if they reject His grace this year too. This was shown to us clearly from Psalms 7:12-14, and in Psalms 11:6 and elsewhere. And, as we see in Samuel’s example what a trusting prayer can obtain from God, a zealous practice of prayer should be desired this year by the hearts of all, even of those who are indebted to, and ruled by, sin and are therefore frivolous at heart. For, although Samuel as a prophet had the exceptional advantage of being able to perform miracles through his prayer, penitent people who pray with belief still have in common with him that their prayers are pleasing to the Lord and that He hears them according to His will and for their salvation. We are not a little bit disturbed that some people in the congregation are not improving, even though the will of God is being revealed to them with much effort from week to week, indeed, almost daily. And, since the Lord is blessing it in some of our people and they are experiencing the power of the word for a spiritual conversion, the blame must just lie in the disloyalty of the former kind of people.

N. is penitently confessing his sins during his physical tribulations, and he told me several things that revealed a sinful condition to him some time ago during a sermon, as well as quite recently. His spirit was very mellow, and his eyes flowed over as he told of his spiritual misery and the unmerited mercy and patience of God. Through the catechism and what was preached with it God touched his heart mightily; and, like other people who yearn for salvation, he considers this hour a great blessing of the Lord. Because he can now seldom visit the prayer meetings and did not visit the one yesterday, I told him of its main contents and opened the Bible for him to the two verses from the 7th and 11th Psalms and admonished him to use the present period of grace in such a way that he might come not only to a penitent recognition of his sins but also to a trusting seizure of the merciful forgiveness of sins and to a certainty of the state of grace.

Wednesday, the 5th of December. Captain Thomson, who has our chests in his ship, has not yet come to Savannah because (as they say) he was not allowed to unload the things that are destined for Frederica and Mr. Oglethorpe’s regiment until Mr. Oglethorpe himself had come to Frederica, and this was greatly delayed.

Simon Reiter announced that he had resolved with God to marry one of the serving girls² who were brought to our place last year by General Oglethorpe and to declare his bans publicly next Sunday. He fears God with all his heart; the maid has a good testimony from the honest Ruprecht Steiner, in whose service she has been so far, that she has not only performed her work quietly and loyally but has also accepted good instruction and proved diligent and serious in prayer and in attending church. He brought her along to my study (as must always occur before the bans are published) so that I could discuss necessary things with them both and pray with them.

Thursday, the 6th of December. Two women spend much time with each other and remember the good that is told them from the word of God. For their spiritual awakening I told them of the edifying transformation and hopeful departure of the late Mrs. Gschwandel, by whose childlike nature and patient lamblike behavior I am still impressed. She knew about true conversion and rebirth and how much struggle is required for a serious practice of Christianity, but at the same time she experienced until her death the love and assistance of the Lord Jesus. Mrs. N. told me that God was continuing the work He had begun in her and that she was now experiencing what she had once heard a year ago in a sermon, namely, that when one comes to a recognition of sin and penance, neither food nor sleep tastes good, etc. The devil plagues her very much at night too, whereupon she becomes very frightened; but she gets up and prays, and then things go better.

In today’s catechism lesson another woman had heard the verse, “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure”; and she said to me, “No one likes to do anything in the world in uncertainty. Why shouldn’t we gladly try to reach certainty in the work of our salvation?” In today’s evening prayer hour, on the occasion of the 13th chapter of 1 Samuel, we treated this necessary matter, namely, coming to a correct firmness of heart in our conversion and rebirth. Saul allowed himself to lack this, to his great harm; and therefore he failed the test that Samuel set for him in the name of the Lord and was repudiated because of his side-stepping and disobedience toward the will of God, which he wished to conceal behind some external divine service. From the judgments of God that were visited upon the Israelites we learn in general what sin causes, since they could have fared very well with their king if they had obeyed the sermons of the prophet and had chosen the good and correct path that he had shown them, for God was accustomed to reward their piety abundantly with temporal happiness too. All this, together with the other circumstances in the Bible story, gives us very salutary instruction at the beginning of the church year.

Friday, the 7th of December. Rather late this evening the younger Zoberbiller³ of Purysburg came to me and brought a German captain and judge from there with him.⁴ He had with him a letter to me from General Oglethorpe that announced that Mr. Oglethorpe wished to settle his barony near Palachocolas, which lies in Carolina near Georgia above Purysburg, with a few families of Swiss from New Windsor and North Carolina, and that the said Swiss had petitioned him for Mr. Zoberbiller as their reader and preacher and that he had appointed him for this purpose. Because Zoberbiller had requested a recommendation from him to us, Mr. Oglethorpe wished to make it at this time and to request our friendship, good counsel, etc. for him. We accepted Zoberbiller with love. However, because it was already late at night and he wished to travel further at daybreak, we did not have much opportunity to discuss with him all that might be necessary.

Saturday, the 8th of December. A servant of the Trustees, who had worked in Old Ebenezer with his wife, asked me to help him get permission to move to our place and take up land here. He wishes to redeem himself, provided the Trustees will give him credit for three years, for which the clockmaker Mueller will be answerable and give several clocks as a pledge.⁵ The congregation will consider what should be done about this. We would like to help German people of our confession to live among us, but we need caution in this so that we will not admit all sorts of people.

Gabriel Maurer wishes to marry Held’s daughter,⁶ one of the girls sent here, and requests that the bans be posted tomorrow; and therefore there will be three couples to marry in the coming week. May God make them all into right Christian spouses who will conduct their married life for His glory, the edification of the congregation, and their own salvation.

Sunday, the 9th of December. All day long we had a very cold and strong wind, which inconvenienced us no little bit in our meeting hut. For that reason the repetition hour had to be held in the orphanage, which is now well protected on all sides and therefore rather warm, even though we still have no stove or fireplace in it. When more of our parishioners have moved to the plantations and divine services are held out there on Sundays too, we plan to gather on Sundays and for the prayer meetings here in my house, for which we do not now have room if all the congregation are together. Nothing will come of the church construction until God bestows some means for it and our people have first established themselves on their plantations. Until then they will have no time to help with the construction of the church.

Monday, the 10th of December. This morning I married two couples, namely, Simon Reiter to Magdalene Gebhart (whose father is in Frederica)⁷ and Martin Lackner to Ulich’s widow, the Egger woman. They are all honest people and, we hope, will lead their just-confirmed marriage state in the fear of the Lord and to their own salvation. At the wedding they were reminded of the words of 1 John 2:17, “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof,” etc.

This evening there was no prayer meeting because of the great cold, so the gifts that were sent for the people from Memmingen were distributed to them. Because of our lack of small money this distribution had had to be postponed until now. Each of them received one florin or, according to the English money, 2 shillings 2½ pence. This benefaction is new evidence of the heart-guiding power of God and should rightfully arouse us to His praise and to trust in His further help.

Tuesday, the 11th of December. This morning I married the third couple, namely, Gabriel Maurer and Elisabeth Held, whose father⁸ is a servant in the orphanage. I likewise expounded for them, and for their friends who had gathered in my house for the marriage ceremony, the important words from 1 John 2:17, which may God bless in them. Because necessity requires the people to begin their regular work on the plantations, the young men are looking around for loyal helpmeets; but there is a lack of them among us, and those who are not provided for must wait for what divine providence might allot to them sooner or later.

Saturday, the 15th of December.⁹ Mrs. N.¹⁰ is approaching her confinement; and, because she would have no help from knowledgeable women on the plantation and would lack other necessary care, her husband requested us to provide her with a little room in the orphanage for a few weeks. The orphanage is there only in order to give help to needy people in the congregation in all sorts of ways as far as it is possible. We have now finished everything that had to be built because of the winter both in the house and in the kitchen, down to a few window sills and the installation of the glass. To be sure, this cannot be paid for now; but the workers will be patient until God grants something again, and they do not suffer any want because of it.

Sunday, the 16th of December. Yesterday toward evening I was in N.’s dwelling to settle and put to rights a disagreement in which they were quite involved with someone concerning external matters. In this I found N.’s spirit more composed and more inclined to compliance and reconciliation than ever before in the past. After that was done, I informed them of how I intended to dispose in the congregation of the matters by which they had caused vexation and to receive them again into the community of the Christian church; and they were both fully satisfied with this.

This morning after the sermon and church prayer, I read the following to the congregation: “I must announce to the Christian community that, through the grace and mercy of God, N. and N. have come to a recognition of their sins, through which they have caused offense in the community and have distressed both us ministers and also other pious Christians and that they have assured me before God that it is true that they have recognized and regretted their sins. As penitent sinners they hope, for the sake of Christ’s merit, to receive forgiveness from their heavenly Father for all their sins and for the vexation they have caused; and they have earnestly resolved, through the power and aid of the Holy Ghost, to live from now on such a life as suits a Christian. And therefore they request the Christian community to forgive and forget all the wrong they have caused until now for the sake of God’s love, with which He loves even the greatest sinners, and at the same time to pray for them sincerely that God may continue to grant them His grace to carry out, with His help, the resolution they have made before Him.

“If anyone in the community should hold anything against them, he is asked to tell it to them with an open heart. They are willing and ready to settle everything in a Christian manner and thus to reconcile themselves with God and man. And, since there are still some present in the community who are not looked upon as members of the congregation because of their apparent impenitence, to which probably external vexations have been added, and who must be repelled from the table of the Lord until they show a true internal and external improvement, these are admonished and requested on this occasion, for the sake of their own salvation, not to sin even longer and even more through persistent impenitence and not to esteem church penance lightly, to their dreadful judgment, but to ask God likewise to let them penitently recognize their godless nature and to grant them grace to bring forth fruits of penitence so that they too can be recognized again in the same way as members of the congregation and so that the name of the Lord can be praised through their reception into the communion of the Christian Church.

“Moreover, they might well reflect on what the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 6, ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man soweth,’ etc., and likewise Hebrews 13, ‘Obey your ministers, and submit to them,’ etc.¹¹ If any among the pretended or lip-Christians in the congregation should be so bold as to reproach these or any other persons in similar circumstances for these matters which have been disposed of and forgiven, or who consider this kind of church penance to be a degrading thing and calumniate it, he is in darkness. But may God, who has pleasure in penitence and in the life of the poor sinner, bless in all our congregation, for their eternal salvation, the office of the gospel and at the same time the lawful use of the key of binding and loosing as a benefaction which Christ has granted His church. I shall close for the instruction of you all with the words of the blessed Luther from our Small Catechism: ‘What is the office,’ etc., pages 66-68.”

On this day we again had much rain; and, because it continued in the evening also, we gathered together in the orphanage for the repetition hour. God be praised for all the blessing that He granted me again from His word. May He let all of it serve to fill me and my dear colleague rightly with His dear grace for this edifying period before the Holy Days, so that we will be capable of imparting it properly to our dear congregation too. Oh, how much is demanded of a preacher of the gospel! Oh, how little one thinks of it when accepting His calling! May God just help us through!

Monday, the 17th of December. Because we shall go to the Table of the Lord next Sunday, several members of the congregation came to me this morning to speak with me about the state of their souls; and they caused me great joy with their openhearted confession. I notice how God is ever better revealing their perdition to them, at which they sigh, despair of themselves, and seek all their salvation in Christ alone. Others are increasing in grace and are becoming ever more cautious and ever more aware of what manifold tricks the devil uses to ensnare their souls and to make them slothful and careless on their path to blessedness.

On this occasion it becomes apparent that the Lord richly blesses His word that is proclaimed in the prayer meetings and on Sundays. He blesses it for chastisement, instruction, admonition, and comfort; and this gives us new courage to continue working with hope in the name of the Lord. Yet there is no lack of those who have gone to Holy Communion several times but have not improved and whose dangerous condition will have to be held up to them again this time; my trail was blazed for this purpose by what we noted today about Saul in chapter 14 of 1 Samuel. In his many transgressions this king was not told the truth by anyone except by Samuel, whom he could not bear because of it, just as he could not bear the priests of Silo. This was, however, a very great misfortune for him, as it is for all from whom the truth is suppressed. And on this occasion I said I regretted that there were several in the congregation who did not like it and proclaimed it to be hostility, if we said in affectionate terms that they could not pass thus into the foro divino¹² and are not worthy to go to the Lord’s Supper. And now the test will come whether they will be able to bear the truth this time when they register for Holy Communion, or whether they will bring forth the old bald excuses, evasions, and exculpations (which were also announced today).

Tuesday, the 18th of December. I have heard that the public acceptance of N. and N. into the community of the Christian Church has made a deep impression on some of the congregation; and, because some of them have implored God for their conversion, they have great joy at this beginning and praise the Lord. To the praise of God a married couple told how useful they have found the catechism that has been expounded so far and the divine truths that have been preached with it, for they have begun to understand everything in the sermons better than previously and to relate all the truths together in a correct manner. In church they only listened, they said; but here they themselves were asked and, if they answered awkwardly and were corrected, this left a lasting impression. Regarding the catechism, God has often been praised by the mouths and hearts of the pious listeners.

God is working very powerfully on Mrs. N., as others, too, have noticed in her. However, she is still very bashful and does not consider herself worthy of joining us on such occasions when we gather together. However, as often as she has dared to do so and has broken through her shyness, she said, the Lord has always granted her great edification, which she repeats to her husband, to his and her joy. Many are bashful, to the harm of the Kingdom of Christ and to their own spiritual harm, and one is afraid of and flees from the other. Therefore we make an effort to bring honest souls together under our supervision, even if they are only beginners, so that they may get to know each other properly in the Lord and will be able to profit from each other’s gifts and grace. We are beginning our song hour again, in so far as it can take place without harm to my health and other activities. Perhaps this is also a good way to flow together in a Christian manner for mutual advancement in the good. This evening we learned the song, O grosse Freude, etc., which is composed incomparably beautifully both in text and tone, and also Die güldene Sonne, etc.; and, although very few in number, we were especially refreshed by them.

Wednesday, the 19th of December. At the beginning of this week N. requested me to remonstrate with a certain person about the sin of wrath, through which she was doing herself much harm, and today I had a right welcome opportunity to do so. She had been with someone because of some business, in which someone wished to burden her with some unpleasant and mendacious matter, which was said to have been hatched by Mrs. N. As soon as she came home, her anger revealed itself by sharp censures against N., and the agitation would have continued for a while on both sides if we had not arrived unexpectedly and reproved her from God’s word. When she began to reflect, she was amazed at the special providence of God, who had (1) let something befall her through which her wicked heart was again revealed so that she might recognize how little foundation it has, and (2) let me arrive so that I would know it too and could see, from a clear example, what overhastiness and quick temper was in her and so that I had been given such a good opportunity to work on her according to necessity and the nature of the situation and also to prevent her from confusing herself even further and hindering herself in her preparation for the holy days.

I told her that a Christian must be indifferent in all external matters, calumnies, and gossip and act as if he does not hear them; if one wishes to fight everything through and always have the last word and to convince wicked and slanderous people of one’s innocence, one will speak many words in vain and finally have nothing but disquiet from it. I particularly reminded her of the verse in Colossians 3:12 ff. and spoke of the sinfulness and harm of her emotions. In today’s prayer meeting we heard that God often ordains all sorts of things for men and lets them get into all sorts of vile situations only to reveal their hearts for their and other people’s good; e.g., both the unchanged and unbroken heart of King Saul and also the good foundation of Jonathan in similar circumstances (chapter 14) were revealed. So far we have recognized abundantly from many special cases what a miserable creature an unconverted and worldly-minded man is and how troublesome he is for other people. And even now, if one were to describe the life of an unconverted man, as the Holy Ghost did in the case of Saul, one would likewise discover nothing but foolish, stupid, and pitiable things; but such blind people do not wish to recognize this in themselves but think themselves very clever.

The Lord is working very powerfully on N., and I was greatly pleased by his humble confession of this and by the great humility of his heart at his disloyalty and many shortcomings. He has a very loyal helper for his Christianity in his wife and he well recognizes the excellent grace that God has given her, and he profits from her. He wept when he talked about the disquiet and distraction that he has caused himself because of his plantation and he will ask God for grace to comply with the little verse that was said to him at his marriage: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God,” etc. This man and other similar very simple and previously ignorant people are a living witness that grace can set all men aright, even foolish and silly ones, if only they do not wish to persist wantonly in their ignorance. Therefore we cannot be content with those who cite their age, weak memory, negligence in their youth, etc. as the reason why they are, and remain, so ignorant. It is merely sloth and disloyalty.

N. and N. have been such people until now. For some time we have had to repel them from Holy Communion for that reason, and this has had a good effect. Today I spoke with them very stirringly and instructed them as to how they could discover their blind and very corrupted hearts. N. was so disquieted at this that she could not accept the gifts that were given her because of her poverty and she could not speak a word for pain and weeping; and, when she came to me in the afternoon, she gave me a good reason for this. Now they are both very desirous of being instructed and are happy that N. is going to move into their dwelling on the plantation and remain until he himself can build something and that he will help them in their undertaking with reading and praying, as he has also promised me to do. It truly pleases me that they are so desirous for Holy Communin and would rather do and suffer anything than to be kept from it so long.

Thursday, the 20th of December. N. N. is also registering to go to Holy Communion this time. At first she was very restless and needed instruction, and therefore it was good for her to postpone the taking of Holy Communion until she is better prepared. As long as she has been a servant girl in the orphanage she has not only been very calm and contented but has also been worked on so powerfully by the dear Lord through His word that she sincerely regrets and deplores her previous sinfulness and unconverted condition and has resolved to become a different person. Oh, how she thanks the Lord who brought her here and even led her into the orphanage. Although someone tried to turn her against Mrs. N.,¹³ she finds the exact opposite and asks her to treat her more severely and more seriously and not be so lenient with her, because she needs discipline. God is showing especial mercy to Mrs. N. and is properly preparing her through His gospel to be a useful instrument to help her neighbor in spiritual and physical ways.

Mrs. N. came to me this morning with her girl, and both of them caused me much pleasure with good resolutions they revealed to me. The girl is following a good path; and I hope, not without reason, that she will become a wise virgin.¹⁴ They have united themselves in a fine way, and I gave them some admonitions with regard to their Christianity, the use of the means of salvation, and some external physical circumstances. How good it makes me feel when those whom I have helped prepare for taking their first Holy Communion take firm root and reflect in themselves the life of Christ. Oh, if all would recognize that Christianity is not a fearful work but a royal banquet and gives nothing but royal prerogatives!

Friday, the 21st of December. A mother told me that she had more joy and contentment from her seven-year-old son than from the others. When he comes home from school he generally brings her a precept or a good little verse and also says his prayers in childish simplicity. Once, when he came into the room with a little book and was asked by his older brother what he had prayed, he answered, “You shan’t know, for only the dear Lord and I know.” However, because they persisted in finding out, he said that he had called upon the dear Lord for another heart that would be better than his old one. Now he is happy that my dear colleague has given the children freedom to come to him for prayer and Christian preparation next Monday, since no school will be held because of the feast day that falls on Tuesday.

From the orphanage we received the joyful news that God gave the children a great awakening yesterday and that now almost all are serious in turning their hearts to the Lord Jesus, and this has made a deep impression on the adults. Some of them have requested me to let them attend the song hour in my room too, and I permitted this under the condition that they would bring not only their mouth but also a devout heart that was ready for the praise of God, which they must request from heaven above; and they promised to do this. In this practice I do not wish anyone but those who are concerned with edifying their hearts and who would like to become more closely acquainted with other salvation-hungry people through an edifying conversation, prayer, and praise of God. May God bless and hallow all this to His glory!

All through yesterday’s evening prayer meeting our loving God especially revealed Himself in order to prepare the members of the congregation for the approaching partaking of Holy Communion. Satan has also been right active in hindering this blessing and in instigating harm, as I discovered in the case of a couple of families. They perceived the depth and artifices of Satan, let themselves be reprimanded, wept bitterly, and promised to humble themselves properly before God, who had revealed their hearts to them in such confusion, and to apply this case to their recovery and caution.

Saturday, the 22nd of December. This day has, to be sure, been a day of much restlessness in my office, but also of much spiritual refreshment. Several people have had to be repelled from Holy Communion, among whom are N. and also N. Indeed, we have no pleasure in this but only great trouble, but it is better to be severe when the circumstances require it than to become guilty of alien sins through permissiveness.¹⁵ Despite all seriousness and warning, some still go to Holy Communion without showing any improvement afterwards. However, we cannot prevent this when such people conform to all external order and church discipline, pretend that God has worked grace in their souls, and promise improvement. God will help us perform our office for the salvation even of those who so often deceive us, and most of all themselves.

During the catechism lesson, in which the dogma of Holy Communion was treated today, God brought one of them to a recognition of his unworthiness when he heard that faith is not ignited (as in Holy Baptism) but is strengthened in Holy Communion; and therefore it is absurd and most punishable if anyone comes to it without faith and spiritual life. Likewise, if anyone receives the body and blood of Christ under their visible signs with only the mouth of his body and not with that of his faith, he is sinning grievously, whereas penitent and believing communicants achieve manifold profit. He therefore remained behind this time and will let himself be properly prepared. Another honest man, who had heard the words of 2 Corinthians 13, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith . . . except ye be reprobates,” would have remained behind too if I had not advised him against it because he felt himself to be full of perdition. He reveals the symptoms of a worthy communicant.

Three girls from the orphanage were with me yesterday evening also and told me that God had let them fully recognize their perdition and that they had resolved to convert themselves righteously to God. I reminded them of what they had promised previously when they had felt the many tugs of God’s grace. Because of that I was afraid, I said, they would not remain serious for long, so I recalled several verses to them. However, they assured me that, through the grace of God, they were and would remain serious, etc.; and they asked my pardon for previous naughtiness, etc. We are planning to let two of these orphans partake of the Lord’s Supper. I had discussed this previously with Kalcher and his wife, who hope with us that this confirmation of the baptismal covenant will make an impression and bring a blessing, especially as their spirits are still very soft and pliable. I also discussed what was necessary with the parents of the other three children who are to be admitted for the first time.

Today we came to the end of the catechism and the Christian dogmas, after these had been introduced and contemplated with men and women weekly for four hours in my house; and I must rightfully praise and thank our merciful God for having strengthened me so far and having shown me so many traces of His blessing. May He further grant His prosperity to all that is planted and watered so that among both adults and children many, and if possible all, will be prepared for His praise as trees of righteousness and plants.

Sunday, the 23rd of December. This time we had fifty-five communicants, including the four girls and one boy who were admitted today for the first time. The names of these hopeful children are Peter Arnsdorf, Agnes Elisabeth Mueller, Maria Christina Helfenstein, Maria Schweighofer, and Magdalena Haberfehner, whose parents are living or else died here some time ago. They have been in their preparation for a long time and, with divine aid, have attained a fundamental recognition of the basic and main truths of the Christian faith, about which they were examined publicly this morning. The grace of God has shown itself very powerfully in them, especially in the recent past, of which not only we, but also the parents and those serving in place of parents have given testimony. For this reason we can present them to the congregation with joy and good hope and perform the act of confirmation on them. This has again made a great impression on these children and on the adults, as was sufficiently indicated by the many tears that were shed. All in all, this day has been a very edifying day of preparation for the approaching holy day; and for this may the Lord’s name be praised.

We cannot remember whether we have ever incorporated into this diary the manner in which the act of confirmation is customarily held among us; and therefore we will do it on this occasion in keeping with our duty to account to our Fathers for all our official acts. (1) It is announced to the congregation one or two days in advance that some children are going to be confirmed, and this important undertaking is recommended for communal prayer. (2) Instead of the regular sermon, the children are examined publicly about several important articles of faith; and they must verify all the points with chosen verses of scripture, without referring to the Bible. Time does not usually allow the catechism to be recited, but this is not really necessary, because generally they recite it in the afternoon on Sundays between the first and second song. The entire examination is arranged for the edification of the entire congregation.

(3) The examined children step up to the altar and are addressed as follows: “Dearly beloved children in Christ, you are planning to go to Holy Communion today with the congregation for the first time, for which reason you have been instructed from the divine word according to the grace that God has granted and have been prepared for this important undertaking with many earnest admonitions and hearty prayer. In the examination that has just been held you have given a sample of the content of the Christian dogma that has been taught you so far from God’s word for the recognition of your salvation and the practice of true godliness. From this the Christian community has been able to perceive that you have been directed not to human teachings and fables but to the unfailing word of God in order to found your faith upon it and to learn the path to salvation from it. It remains to remind you briefly of what God has undertaken with you already in your tender youth and what grace He has shown you in Holy Baptism and what you in return have agreed to and promised Him through your godparents and witnesses.

1. “First of all, you should know and believe with certainty that in your tender childhood you truly received Holy Baptism according to Christ’s institution and entered through this door into the communion of the Christian Church and all the blessings merited through Christ. That you are really baptized is not only proved by your name, but also your parents and sponsors, if they are still alive and present, will assure you of this most certainly. You should doubt their assurance and witness all the less, since your parents must account for you on the day of judgment as the children entrusted to them. In order for you to have a sure and certain proof of your baptism after the death of your parents even in this strange land, we will register in our regular church book your name, the day of your birth, and baptism from the baptismal certificate you have brought or other certain and unquestioned assurances, and from this you will always and under all circumstances be certain of what we are now saying.¹⁶

2. “As said, you are to be reminded of what great mercy God showed you in your tender childhood shortly after your physical birth. The Lord Jesus, who instituted Holy Baptism as a means of grace and salvation, has let you be truly reborn in His blood of reconciliation, in which the water, although true water, is not something simple but a water composed at God’s command and united with God’s word. He has cleansed you of all your sins and has clothed you, as with a beautiful garment, with His innocence and with His righteousness, which is valid before God. And, as it is so beautifully written in the catechism, He has poured the Holy Ghost upon you abundantly so that you might become heirs of eternal life through the grace of the Holy Ghost and as reborn children of God. God has promised and given you these and similar blessings so that you will learn to know His love, to value His grace, and to flee and avoid everything that is repugnant to this holy God as your great benefactor. This you have promised through your sponsors who represented you at your baptism: namely, you have renounced the devil and all his works and all his essence and have devoted yourselves to the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—in childlike obedience and sincere faith and have promised not to seek your salvation and bliss in any other than in the triune God, in whose name you were baptised.

“You have promised to love Him above all things and to serve Him with an unblemished conscience and also to carry your cross patiently behind Christ your dear Savior and to prove yourselves steadfastly as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Now have faith in the first point: you should not doubt in what the triune God has granted you in baptism; for Christ says expressly that the Kingdom of God belongs to those children that are brought to Him, and consequently all the blessings that are in the Kingdom of God are theirs. To confirm this He also says in Mark 16, ‘He that believeth and is baptized, he,’ etc., Now you are baptized, and you have also received the true faith through baptism, which is a bath of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Ghost; and thus, according to the content of this pronouncement of Christ, you are saved and have been placed into the blessed state of grace as children of God, which is indeed an uncommon and praiseworthy blessing of God.

“The second point, however, which concerns your promise to God, requires more examination because daily experience unfortunately proves that men do not keep to what they have promised so holy and firmly in baptism, whereby they invalidate their baptism as long as they continue as breakers of their covenant and draw down on their heads the judgment of eternal damnation. Now you too have promised the dear Lord in baptism to have nothing to do with the devil, his works, and his nature, but rather, according to your baptismal covenant, to live a godly life until your end. Have you not promised this? Answer: ‘Yes.’ But have you kept what you promised? Answer, unfortunately: ‘No’; and therefore you have again forfeited the once-offered grace of baptism, and God would have had cause to drag you away as perjurers and oath-breakers and cast you into perdition. However, he has waited until now for your penitence and the renewal of your baptismal covenant and has given you sufficient means and opportunity for it.

“Now it all depends upon your examining and testing yourselves as to how your hearts now stand. Whether, through the grace of God, you have learned to recognize and regret your scandalous disloyalty, covenant-breaking, and forfeiture of God’s grace, as well as the many sins you have committed from youth on? Whether you are now tired of the yoke of sin and wish nothing more than to renew your baptismal covenant and, instead of children of wrath and damned and lost sinners, to again become children of God? If you sincerely recognize and regret your sins and your relapse from your baptismal covenant and yearn as penitent sinners for the forgiveness of your sins and the grace of God in Christ, then confess it publicly with your mouths too. Answer: ‘Yes.’ Then I herewith renew the baptismal oath of each of you before the congregation, etc. I, N. N., herewith renew, etc. I believe in God the Father, etc.

“Let us next pray sincerely to God as follows: ‘Merciful and ever gracious God, we thank Thee sincerely not only for instituting holy baptism through Christ Thy dear Son our Lord and Savior but also for letting all of us, and therefore also these children, partake of it in their tenderest youth and for pouring the Holy Ghost over them abundantly and letting them be truly reborn through it and be made children of God and inheritors of eternal life, instead of children of wrath. Oh Lord, we and they are far too unworthy of all the mercy and loyalty Thou hast shown us. Oh, if we had kept faith and a good conscience and had remained loyal and steadfast in Thy covenant: but now our conscience tells us that we have broken our baptismal covenant through willful sins and have therefore buried the baptismal grace we have received; and thus we have returned to such an unblessed condition that we would have long since been thrust into the abyss of hell and damnation if Thou hadst wished to reward and punish us according to our sins. Have then sincere praise and thanks, oh Father of all mercies, for Thy patience and forbearance that Thou hast had with us to this very minute.

“These children must also confess this sin of transgressing their baptismal covenant, and they humbly confess herewith their sins and implore mercy. Oh Father, spare them, do not punish them as they deserve, think not on the sins of their youth and their transgressions but remember them according to Thy great mercy for Thy goodness’ sake. Send them divine remorse and sorrow and the earnest resolution to persist loyally, through Thy grace, to persevere in the baptismal covenant that they are now reestablishing with Thee in the name of Jesus Christ and through the Holy Ghost and to guard themselves all their lives long so that they will not acquiesce in any sin or act contrary to Thy commandments. Remind them diligently of what has been said to them now publicly from Thy word and according to Thy will.

“Print Thy word of truth, in which they have been instructed until now, into their tender souls and do not let them become liars and disloyal people in regard to what they have again promised Thee, but rather arouse them to seek strength from the wounds of the Savior through constant and sincere prayer to lead a holy life that accords with their promise and is pleasing to Thee so that they may achieve the goal of their faith, namely the salvation of their soul. Hear this, oh dear God for the sake of Christ and in the power of the Holy Ghost. Amen! ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, etc.’ Fill this Thy child, oh Lord, with Thy Holy Spirit and with all the treasures of grace and salvation that Thy dear Son has won for us so that he will be Thy own and live with Thee in Thy kingdom and serve Thee in eternal righteousness, innocence, and bliss until it finally reaches the place of everlasting joy and glory! Amen! May the Lord bless you all, and guard you, etc. May the Lord, the triune God, bless your goings out and your comings in from now until eternity. Amen!”

This time the wisdom of God marvelously ordained that all the young people who have previously been confirmed in the congregation were present at the ceremony today, three such children having come from Purysburg. Because some of them had become unfaithful or at least lukewarm toward our dear God, their spiritual circumstances required me to remind them of what great mercy God had previously shown them and what they had promised Him in return when reinstituting their baptismal covenant and how necessary it was for them to set out again on the path of peace they had once walked. We hope this will not be without a blessing.

Monday, the 24th of December. Mrs. Pichler is in childbed in the orphanage, where we have given a little place to her at the request of her husband and out of love for their souls. God has shown Himself very merciful and helpful in regard to her labor, as her husband told me with tears in his eyes. How much we would like to show kindness to everyone, especially to those in the congregation, if only we had the means. We hope that the fountain which has flowed so abundantly so far will continue to flow to this little institution so that many more poor, widows, orphans, sick, strangers, etc. can be refreshed by it. He has granted us His Son and transfigured Him in various souls in the orphanage, and He is beginning to transfigure Him again. How could He not grant us everything with Him?

N., whom we have recently accepted again, is accommodating himself to all good order and is content and grateful for everything that God is doing for him without his merit. He is again feeling strongly the pull of the Father to the Son.

Kieffer of Purysburg, who formerly had two daughters in the orphanage, is again requesting us to accept three of his children into the orphanage and school; and he promises to repay everything that is spent for them. So far he has not been able to pay back all of what was previously paid out for maintenance and some clothing; but we are overlooking this and not pushing him, because the money is not there.

This evening we had the gospel scheduled for yesterday, John 1:19 ff., as a basis of the preparation for the Christmas celebration, and the dear Lord let it be a blessing for me and others. The main dogma that flowed from the gospel was that it is God’s serious wish for all men, even the worst and most perverted¹⁷ sinners, to come to His Son and to the enjoyment of His grace, and this was expounded from the gospel and from comforting scriptural passages. Yesterday the gospel could not be treated because of the examination of the five children.

Tuesday and Wednesday, the 25th and 26th of December were the feast of Holy Christmas. Our merciful God has shown us much grace in these days and made His word of the comforting Birth of our Savior right sweet and savory for us; it has proven itself a vivifying word in several souls and as one that is entirely worthy of being received. In the evening after the repetition hour many people gathered, and we learned some beautiful Christmas songs for the praise of God and prayed together. It was as if we were already in heaven. We sang the two songs, O grosse Freude, etc. and Wie kündlich gross sind doch die Wercke, etc. publicly in all four voices, and this brought much joy and edification. Mr. Thilo has a fine bass voice, can read music very well, and is therefore very useful to us in this celebration of edifying music. God be praised for this blessing, too!

For the past two weeks we have had the most pleasant weather, warm both day and night, but without rain; and therefore the weather did not cause us the least discomfort during the holy days.

Thursday, the 27th of December. Nearly all the men have gone out to the plantations, partly to build huts and partly to work in the fields; and during my visits I found only women and children at home. Because it was rainy or windy toward evening, we did not hold the prayer meeting but came together in my house, where I posed some questions on the Christmas material and read the 72nd Psalm. The remainder of the evening we spent in learning the song, Uns ist geboren Gottes Kind, etc. and with prayer.

Friday, the 28th of December. The surveyor has finally returned here and wishes to complete his work; but he is returning entirely empty-handed as previously and is demanding provisions for himself and several people as assistants in his work. I asked General Oglethorpe to give him orders requiring him to provide for provisions and fellow workers himself, and I don’t know why it is that he is again a burden to us. The Salzburgers are now fully occupied in preparing their land for planting, for which much work is again necessary because the land is uncommonly overgrown and entirely filled with thick trees, thorns, cane, and all sorts of thick bushes. Therefore we cannot presume upon them to go around with the surveyor and to lose their time.¹⁸ Also, they are very poor in the shoes and clothes that they must have when surveying the land and that are quickly torn. To be sure, the expenses previously incurred for the surveyor should have been made good from the storehouse in Savannah, but this has not yet happened, and I would not dare to request Mr. Oglethorpe to pay back what is now to be spent. Also, we are not now in a position to pay something like this ourselves unless the congregation can and will find men who wish to help the surveyor; in that case, we would provide for this man’s food, drink, lodgings, and laundry, which will amount to more than five shillings per week. Our people, who do not understand English and prefer to perform their work in quiet, do not suit this man’s work. This very same surveyor surveyed Mr. Oglethorpe’s barony near Palachocolas a few weeks ago and received people and provisions for this work; therefore, those who are moving there from Purysburg and elsewhere have no more difficulties.

Saturday, the 29th of December. This evening we began the story of David, the beloved servant of God (which his name means and which his deeds prove), with the 16th chapter of 1 Samuel; and hardly any other story so well suits the conditions of our time. May God let everything that is preached from it be blessed in the young and the old for a recognition of truth for bliss, so that they will not merely stop at hearing and enjoying these remarkable stories. Rather, may the purpose that God is seeking through them be achieved in them all; and may we, through His grace, avoid the footsteps of sin but instead accept, and be blessed in so doing, the grace that others have accepted and thereby been made children, servants, and handmaidens of the Lord. We warned each other against disobedience to the enticements of God’s spirit through the gospel, since we learned in the last story how ill Saul fared because of his disobedience. If disobedience against the divine law is so great a sin, what will disobedience against the gospel be, as St. Paul concludes in Hebrews 2:2 ff.? After the prayer meeting a room full of eager people again assembled in my house, where we again learned a song, in the company of my dear colleague and Mr. Thilo, and finally prayed.

Sunday, the 30th of December. We utilized today’s gospel, Luke 2:33, in such a way as to direct our thoughts, as far as can be done wisely and in good order, to the simple and edifying intercourse of the first believers of the New Testament; and we were able to learn much from it for our awakening and imitation. We experience and well know the blessings of such unaffected and wisely arranged intercourse between souls in regard to themselves and others. Therefore we would much like for the bond of upright Christian love and edifying intercourse to be tied ever tighter and for the weak, complacent, legalistic, and other such people to be attracted to it. The Lord has already done great things in us, and He will surely let it come about that both great and small will serve Him, the Lord, with childish spirits publicly and privately, and that we shall all become right ardent in our love for God and for one another.

After the sermon we sang chorally the exceedingly beautiful song Uns ist geboren Gottes Kind, etc. Since the repetition hour could not be held in the miserable hut because of the rainy weather and because, for several reasons, there is no place in the orphanage either, we again gathered in my room and learned with four voices the glorious song Singt dem Herrn, nah und fern, etc., which Senior Urlsperger had given to the third transport to take with them. Next we prayed together that God would give us grace to close this old year well and to receive the new one with blessing. Oh, if only everything in Ebenezer, in London, in Halle, in Augsburg, and everywhere could be filled with the glory of the Lord, which is bearable and lovely in Christ.

Monday, the 31st of December. For several days, and again today, we have had rain, and it has been very cold. The path to the plantations is very bad, yet our people have to walk it because of business and divine services. In one region they are planning to build bridges over a little river that flows into the Savannah River and across a couple of swamps so that we can pass back and forth all the more easily, as this will be necessary in a short time because many of the people are moving to their plantations. They would like to have one or two prayer meetings each week; and, because even now many cannot attend the prayer meetings all week long and do not come to town until Saturday, we were asked to hold a longer prayer meeting for the workers on Saturdays than is ordinarily held. They do not wish to miss the Bible stories, especially now that they are treating of David, for the Lord has laid such great blessing on it, of which certain particulars were cited.

At the same time I learned that the new songs, which have been sung chorally in church several times, have made a deep and pleasant impression on one and all, and this inspires us to continue this good practice. A woman told me she heard a neighboring woman praying on her knees with many tears in a place, while her husband and others were occupied with external matters. She had been made sincerely happy by this and had hoped that this woman would someday see the truth, but she dropped it all again and went her old ways. As the first was pleasing for her, so the second was depressing. To be sure, even the naughtiest among us are mightily awakened by the word; but it is always our complaint that, because of their disloyalty, it does not take them far, and old acquaintances do each other much harm. They all love the good and hold fast to good practices, and they may well be convinced that they are not yet in a condition pleasing to their God, but for many of them it does not progress beyond this. May the eternally loyal and merciful God, who has helped us so far and has let us perceive many traces of His grace in the execution of our office and in our Christianity and also in our external domestic affairs during this past year, be humbly praised for all His goodness, aid, help, and care! May He grant that in this newly beginning year 1740 we will be something for the praise of His Glory both in and outside of the community, and may He let us and those who hear us come ever nearer to the jewel which the heavenly vocation in Christ holds out to us!

Soli DEO Gloria!¹⁹