Just yesterday evening or this morning someone told him that the broadaxes had arrived. This moved him to come to me with the request that the newly arrived gifts might be accepted by him and others in a way that would cause no sinful offense. At the same time he recounted to me what his state of mind had been before, during, and after the dedication hour and how our dear Lord had calmed his spirit further by means of the newly arrived blessing, so that he had even made new arrangements at the mill for bringing up the lumber. On Tuesday he had wished to hear nothing of it. He received not only a broadaxe but also marking pencils, a vial of Schauer Balm and something for his child; and this turned his spirits to great joy, praise of God, and thanksgiving. At the same time he came to such a good material agreement with someone else through mutual compromise that we were justly pleased with it. [There is much joy at the orphanage, in our own families, and among those who have already received some of the blessings we have received; it will be equally great among the others once they have received their share to the extent possible. Each family will have a glass of Schauer Balm.] Because the carpenters can be copiously supplied with red marking stones, and yet a good share remains, other men are receiving some too.

The linen which was sent along is being cut into pieces; and, as far as it will last, shirts are being given to those who need them most against the winter. The women who have very small children or are expecting them are receiving cotton bonnets. In like manner they are to be lent small porridge pans and drinking cups for weaning their children away from the mother’s breast or other necessary use so that others in the congregation may enjoy this benefaction by and by. The N. woman, who is in especially painful physical circumstances, is being particularly strengthened in her faith by the hot water bottles, sponges, herbs, and roots sent over especially for her. She considers herself unworthy of any gift, rather she believes she has earned the long lasting disorders and pains by the sins of her youth; and thus she has also made it a matter of conscience not to use anything against them. However, since she sees that God Himself has caused all sorts of things to come over to her from Europe to cure and alleviate her dangerous condition, she will gladly use everything in faith, humility, resignation, and in praise of the Lord; and she wishes the worthy benefactors and their families thousandfold blessings. A year ago God granted her a stove for keeping herself, in her bodily frailty, and her sickly children and others in the orphanage warm. However, since the oven’s warmth by itself will not suffice for the aggravated disorders and pains, He is also supplying hot water bottles and other very useful things against the winter, by which much good will come to other ill persons and lying-in women. “Lord we are not worthy of the least of thy mercies,” etc. Genesis 32:10, 2 Samuel 15:20.

Friday, the 9th of October. [Mr. Zouberbühler came to me and asked for a written statement attesting to his suitability as a preacher for the Reformed community in Savannah.¹⁰ I could not accede to his request because I have no contact with him whatever; and if I were to write Mr. Oglethorpe what I have heard from the people of Purysburg and elsewhere, it would hardly be a recommendation. He was content with my prudence and will now ask the Reformed minister /Chifelle/ in Purysburg to write a few words in his favor and take them to Mr. Oglethorpe. That man is much better able to do so than I, since this candidatus¹¹ takes communion from him. He also showed me a written testimony which his deceased father had put down shortly before his death and in which he declares his son suitable for the office of a minister and recommends him to the readers of this statement. I will, however, be able to inquire about him from the Reformed people in Savannah, whether they hold him in esteem and confidence, and he is now content to ask only that of me. He is a very young fellow and has nothing but bad companions, whether English, French, or German, which is much to his disadvantage. I presented to him the importance of the ministry from my own experience and gave him the most important little book by the blessed Korthold, on the heavy burden of the ministry, to take with him, which he will return to me after reading it.

[This very same Mr. Zouberbühler brought me a new letter from Mr. Oglethorpe in which he reports having received certain news from the Trustees that a transport of Salzburgers had been expected in England toward the end of July, and that said transport would shortly arrive here to our pleasure and the greater success of our labors. He then goes on to mention German people; and I do not know whether he is referring to the Salzburgers or other Germans who are supposed to be sent over here. He informs me that certain people had persuaded the Honorable Trustees to settle these Germans on the other side of Ebenezer Creek, that is to say, a little ways beyond us up the Savannah River. He refuses to consent to this plan, and has sent orders to Col. Stephens to prevent it by all possible means because this scheme would lead to these people’s ruin in many ways. They would be placed among new people and experience much suffering at their hands, in particular the Indians. The following paragraph makes me think that he is speaking of other Germans who are come to this colony together with the Salzburgers. I quote him,

“But, if they are joined under your prudent directions, they will have the benefit of both temporal and spiritual instruction, and NB being mixed with the Salzburgers, who know the country, will be by them instructed, how to work to advantage. I have therefore wrote to Col. Stephens, that he should according to your advice place the New Comers in such Lotts, as you shall think best, etc.”

[But if these are to be other German people, particularly a mixed lot, as in Savannah and Purysburg, I would very much wish that they build their own town and be supplied with their own minster. For we have only been appointed to minister to 300 Salzburgers, and this number will eventually be reached. We are quite busy enough with their public and private affairs. Quite apart from the fact that the so-called] The Salzburgers whom we are awaiting with desire and joy will, we hope, join most scrupulously with their compatriots, and I am impressed that our people are preparing themselves with huts, foodstuffs, butter, etc., for their worthy and loving reception. The so-called High Germans,¹² who, as long as they remain unconverted, think themselves better than the Salzburgers, do not fit well at all amongst our simple parishioners, as we have sufficiently experienced. Whenever German people convert to God, they feel righteous love for us and soon with our people; but prior to that they are actual enemies.

[Nonetheless,] it would be very good for our increased congregation to be given the fine piece of land beyond Ebenezer Creek too. Even if they did not live there themselves, they could use it very well on account of the pasturage because the cattle are increasing from year to year. [But if Mr. Oglethorpe does not feel so inclined (as can be inferred from his letter), nothing can come of it (and one would be ill advised to propose this matter to him as practicable and advantageous.)] The Uchee Indians, who are very bad neighbors anyway, would let this piece go for a song, as Mr. Oglethorpe well knows.¹³ Hence he does not consider it impossible or difficult to get it from them by a fair contract. They have abandoned their old dwelling places and have moved off in the direction of Augusta, so that we see they place small store on the narrow strip of land. It is our comfort that whatever God grants us and has intended for all eternity will have to become a certainty in His time, Acts 17:26.

A German named Dresler moved here from Savannah this week with his wife /Catherina/ and will settle amongst the Salzburgers by the mill stream. He is an honest man and is weary of the miserable¹⁴ life amongst his compatriots. Shortly before his departure he had the misfortune of having a well-known thief among his people steal from his locked hut and strongbox 4 ь Sterling that he had earned by the sweat of his brow. A short time previously his hut had burned with many things in it; also his child, who had been alone in it, had been badly injured and had later died from it. Without the man’s prior knowledge other people used forbidden prophetic arts by means of certain secret things (apparently similar to magic) to seek out the thief, and were so bold as to accuse a certain Reformed man of the robbery. He was this Dresler’s comrade in service and labor; further than that there was no witness and the matter rested simply on the secret (black) arts. It is said to have caused many difficulties in Savannah and I will have plenty to hear when I go there.¹⁵

All kinds of satanic arts are in vogue amongst the people there; one could hardly find superstition any greater in popery and no remonstration from God’s word does any good. This Dresler’s wife does not yet have the same mind as her husband and is not yet well-grounded in Christianity. However, we hope she will receive the desire for truth so that they can dwell amongst us with joy and blessing. This man has a very thorough understanding of viniculture and is quite willing to impart all the benefits of planting, cutting, grafting, etc. to our people. Today a very pleasant tasting blue wine grape was brought to me from the neighborhood, and it amazed me that the vine bloomed only at the beginning of August and that the grapes have become ripe at this time. The vintner recently told me that he knows how to cut in such a way that some vines bloom late and bear fruit twice (if I understand him correctly), but I will not believe the latter until I see it myself. In the meantime it is nonetheless peculiar that the one vine bloomed so late and bore grapes. Usually the grape vines bloom here already in April and have ripe grapes in mid-summer. The wild grapes ripen late because they are hidden in the bushes and grow entangled amongst them. I have seen in the Lord Trustees’ garden, and learned from the gardener, that in the winter he plants a wild grape vine, and in the spring he grafts a cultured shoot upon it (which here is the easiest and best way to get quick-growing and good grapes), and the grafted shoot blooms and has grapes even in the same summer.

The 10th of October. Today we answered General Oglethorpe’s two letters that had come to my hands just this week [and they will be sent off to Col. Stephens’ hands next week for posting. Since he seems displeased at the Trustees’ decision to buy from the Uchee Indians the plot of land on the other side of Ebenezer Creek for the newly arrived Salzburgers, I wrote him that I had not really given any occasion for this decision in my letters, except for the fact that at the time of our request to move from Old Ebenezer, we had stated our desire for this land both directly and in writing. Even if the Salzburgers were not to settle there, it would be good if we were given it for pasture, which is quite excellent there. Else the Honorable Trustees might wish to establish their cattle pastures there for their numerous cattle so that our people would have for their exclusive use the whole plot of land between the mill creek and Ebenezer Creek, particularly since, with the advent of a new group of Salzburgers, the stock of cattle will increase with the blessing of the Lord.

[In this manner we would be rid of our wicked and uncontrollable neighbors, the Uchee Indians, whom we have not hindered in any way but against whom we have most scrupulously observed the laws of hospitality. However, we have reaped nothing but much damage from them, as he will have seen from the list of particulars which we sent through Mr. /Thomas/ Jones. However, we shall not insist on our will regarding this land but submit ourselves to the good advice and understanding of Mr. Oglethorpe, in particular as we know from our seven years here that he has acted as a father toward this colony and in particular toward our congregation.]

Amongst other things I reported to him that I was very pleased he had given orders to Mrs. Hewett, who speaks the Uchee tongue, to come to me with their chiefs. I hope that I can accomplish so much through her that they will not again disturb and harm us. I gave him most grateful thanks for the 5 ь Sterling he had again dispensed for the purchase of young white mulberry trees for our congregation; and I reported to him that the gardener in the Lord Trustees’ garden also wishes to let us have a good quantity if Mr. Oglethorpe consents. We too had raised a good quantity of seeds; but, because the Salzburgers have a great desire to produce silk by and by, it will be hard to bring too many of them to our place. What we do not need we will give over to the expected transport.

[I am also obliged for his order, which was transmitted through Col. Stephens and a captain in Purysburg to his gardener in Savannah and on his estate at Palachocolas, to let me have, at the customary time, a number of good cuts from his vines. These slowly take root and yield very good grapevines. I also informed him that, in his letter of April 27 last, Mr. Verelst had let me know that the Trustees had paid in London for the Swiss linen which I had delivered to the storehouse.¹⁶ However, he had not mentioned with a single word the costs for my house, which I had recommended to the Trustees’ generosity and kindness on several occasions; I therefore was not yet able to pay him the ь 20 Sterling which he had advanced to me for the construction of said house. I would be much obliged if he should mention this matter on my behalf to the Trustees. For the house is part of the public buildings, and after my retirement it will revert to the Trustees’ disposal.

[Since he had previously worried that we might build the church not in the town but on the plantations, I now informed him that the church was now almost entirely completed with the funds which God had provided through Mr. Whitefield and from Germany; if I now could receive from some benefactor about 6 ь Sterling, I could pay for everything that is still missing in the upper floor, the windows, and doors. The church itself is not only large enough for us but for all those who will come after us. I also did not wish to miss the opportunity to mention that the high floods have damaged the mill dam, which the members of the congregation are now ready to repair.]

Mr. Oglethorpe made it very clear in his letter that I am again to be closely tied in once more with the management of external matters of the expected Salzburgers and of the Germans whom he would like to settle in our area. Hence I am writing him very humbly and clearly that I would like to be spared that, because such outside duties are harmful and hindering not only to my health but also to the performance of my duties. I said I had made my desire for a Christian and understanding justiciary¹⁷ felt several times in letters to patrons and friends in Europe, and that hence I was asking that he himself might be helpful therein. I find myself quite obliged to be of utmost service to the General for the great good will he has borne me and the congregation; but, I said, I could no longer engage in such external details and adjudications.

Sunday, the 11th of October. [The rain started yesterday and is continuing throughout the night and today. Public services were held on the plantations today, as is customary every fortnight, so that attendance was not quite as hard on the people as if they had been forced to come all the way into town. Those who live in town are much better off in many ways, since they have the prayer meetings and Sunday night services right in front of their doorstep, as it were; and we must attest that they attend services diligently and constantly, although many are beset by attacks of the fever. May God grant that nobody remain content with outward appearances and acquiesce therein, but that everyone be heartily concerned with the wedding robe of which today’s gospel treated.]

Our loving God and Father strengthened me once again so much today that I was able in the morning to recite the important and very comforting doctrine in the regular Gospel Matthew 22:1 concerning God’s gracious invitation to the wedding feast of our Lamb; and in the afternoon to reiterate the catechism and to pursue the matter in more detail. And, because I still had strength left at the prayer meeting, I read aloud, to my own and others’ great edification, the right heartfelt letter in which our esteemed and right dear Deacon Hildebrand had written to us both and had poured out many heartfelt good wishes on us, our families, and the congregation. Also his dear little children added a few short verses to the end of the letter, which gave me cause once more to inspire our children by means of the Gospel honestly to surrender their hearts to the Lamb of God, our dearest Soul’s Friend and Bridegroom, from which they will have the most blissful profit in time and eternity according to the content of the introductory words of Revelations 19:9, which we had today.

Monday, the 12th of October. Lemmenhoffer asked me to come to him and his wife at their plantation. He said they were very downcast because of their child whom God had gathered to Himself through temporal death last week. It seemed to them they had overlooked and neglected something during its illness or that God considered them unworthy to bring up a child, since this one was the third taken away so soon through temporal death. God willing, I will call on him tomorrow. In the meantime I gave him instruction and comfort from God’s word. [Since the water has fallen and run off into the lower lying areas, two of our congregation left today for Carolina, to fetch the mares bought for the community and a riding horse for the orphanage, which is indispensable for our cattle in the woods. A pious and interested Englishman of my acquaintance in Carolina bought them for us, and we can rest assured that we will not be cheated, as is customary here.]

In the crate from Augsburg we received some sermons that Inspector Rende had held on the annual thanksgiving feast at the local Lutheran poor house. Today after the home prayer meeting and to my great blessing, edification, and strengthening of faith, I read the sermon that was preached in 1740 on the forceful verse of the apostle St. Paul (Ephesians 3:20) concerning the boundless omnipotence of God. The appended short report of the Lutheran poor house itself as well as the edifying and fundamental exposition of the worthy author in his sermon reminded me of our almighty, wise, and most indulgent God and heavenly Father’s miraculous and blessed guidance of our congregation and orphanage in Ebenezer, where, with every trial that came to pass, He has acted with superabundant kindness for more than seven successive years, surpassing all that we prayed for or understood.

At this autumn season, when provisions and clothes are very expensive partly on account of bad harvests and floods and partly on account of the continuing war and when our dear benefactors in Europe have enough to do and to care about with their own poor, there are still new trials, to be sure. But they move us only to prayer; and we wish by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Friend of the poor, to do as we are taught in the song: “Act like a child. Lay thee in thy Father’s arm, ask and implore Him to have mercy on thee [as He is wont to do],” etc.¹⁸ To this end the above-mentioned important sermon and the fine report of the Lutheran poor house should again encourage me and the widows, orphans, sick, and suffering. I am advising our pious orphan-father and mother /Kalcher/ to read it devoutly as if it were composed and sent to us at the command of our miraculous and gracious God Himself for the strengthening of our faith.

In the recent evening prayer meetings these days it has been very impressive to us to see how David’s heart was full of the compassion and fidelity of God even in his troublesome circumstances while he was going barefoot and in great dearth during his exile, 2 Samuel 15, surrounded by his equally miserable and troubled little band of people. The great emigrant Jacob also remained faithful, Genesis 32:10. We ourselves desire to hold to our faith like a mighty immovable anchor; thus will our little vessel of hope and faith not rock unsteadily; rather stand unswerving even in the depths of all misery and even if it were abandoned by all human help. We wish and heartily request the experience of this compassion and fidelity of God for all our worthy benefactors in Germany in the current troubled times so that through it they may be sheltered, nourished, and warmed as beneath the two wings of our loving God and Son of Man, through whom we have received grace and truth. “Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.” [How much we enjoyed, in yesterday’s evening prayer meeting, Deacon Hildebrand’s reminders of the spiritual and physical benefactions of the Lord which Ebenezer has received in the years past. Here, we found good occasion to remind our listeners, both adults and children, to take care in discharging their duties. For all this, may God be praised. We have a Lord who helps. Hallelujah.]

Tuesday, the 13th of October. Lemmenhoffer and his wife were very happy when I visited them prior to the edification hour, imparted comfort and instruction to them from God’s word, and prayed with them. The husband asked me how matters would stand with the little children in heaven and whether those who did not yet know how to talk in this world would be able to use their tongues to praise God, if they died at so tender an age as his child had done. I told him my simple opinion, to wit, that the great weakness and imperfection in which our little children must be born and brought up stem from our terrible fall from grace. If the fall from grace had not intervened, all little children would be born in the image of God, without pain and with a certain perfection. But now they bring a wretched and lamentable form with them and must feel the bitter fruits of the fall, as their parents who bore them must too. I said that in heaven the blessed, hence even the smallest little children, have the perfect image of God and that frailty and sorrow will lie beneath their feet. Hence, although it might be well that they retain their small stature, as may be conjectured from Revelations 20:11-12, they will be as capable as the full-grown of all blessedness of the children of God. The small stature will be no impediment to it; in itself it is no imperfection. All consummate righteous and chosen ones comprise one most glorious temple of God, in which not only the great columns and cornerstones but also the smallest things redound to its completeness and splendor. Here in this world, to be sure, they did not know their parents, but when the latter follow them in Christian faith, the children will learn about them from their most dear Savior and rejoice eternally with and about their pious parents, who led their children to the Lord Jesus and who helped advance their eternal salvation. What mutual joy that will be!

This simple tale [(although based only on conjecture)] drew sweet tears from the mother and gave both parents new courage to prepare for eternal salvation with evangelical fervor. In its great fever the child had had spots. From this I was able to assure them even more than I had assured the husband yesterday that they had overlooked nothing in the child’s illness. In fact nothing occurred intentionally (for their love for the little child was very great); if an omission crept in from weakness, then they should heartily and humbly beg God’s forgiveness for it (as did David with the words, “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret errors,” etc.), in the name of Christ, cf. I John 3:20-22.

In the edification hour I read aloud the two letters received from Augsburg, just as their pleasing and edifying content had been revealed to us on Sunday in town and yesterday in the evening prayer meeting. Initially I recited to the dear listeners the little verse: “The Lord hath been mindful of us; He will bless us!” That He is blessing us from near and far we can recognize from the blessing which has reached us safe and sound in the chest from across the broad and dangerous sea. It is a clear testimony that He has not forgotten us but is remembering us with grace, which means more to us than if all the kings and lords in the world were to remember us. In both letters we are told much, to our inspiration, concerning how we should apply this gracious remembrance of God and His spiritual and physical blessings: children and adults must come to a heartfelt, spoken, and active praise of God. We told them we must look not only upon the gifts but also upon the circumstances in which they were sent to us through the good hand of God. This, we said, would place into our hearts and mouths all the more material for praising our so good and kind Lord. We said nothing in the works and gifts of God was to be regarded as insignificant, for it all came from the great Lord upon us insignificant men, who are not worthy of a splinter or bean.

During the building of the mill, I told them that I had had the opportunity to write to our worthy Senior Urlsperger regarding some broadaxes (because our best one was broken beyond repair) and not only was he willing in the matter; but God, I said, had awakened still more patrons and friends in these troubled times to contribute something until there was an entire crate full. I explained that not only were the carpenters right kindly provided for, but also lying-in women and other ill persons were supplied with hot water bottles, and children with the sponges, small porridge pans, caps, and little drinking vessels. Indeed, even the still unborn children were provided for by means of edifying hymns and a printed prayer for pregnant persons. Since two boxes of Schauer Balm and a few pieces of linen were included too, the adults also will be gladdened. From the letters and the report of the Lutheran poor house it is clear that there is much need and dearth in our dear fatherland, hence plenty of indigenous poor to provide for; yet even so the Lord thought of us in grace and inclined our benefactors’ hearts in genuine love towards us.

I cited some words from the above-mentioned report, namely, that the contribution for the support of the poor collected in the poor-boxes of the six Lutheran churches in Augsburg consisted in the main of quite small gifts so that for many a guilder more than 400 hands had given something. Indeed, this should arouse us to consider what our miraculous Lord does for us not as insignificant, but as exalted. Everyone should say, “Should I not sing unto my God, should I not be thankful?” He would have to be an arch-miscreant who neglected this duty!

A Salzburger /Sanftleben/ who was hurrying with me from Lemmenhoffer’s plantation to the edification hour attested his joy at the newly-arrived Schauer Balm and recognized in it a special providence of God. A short while ago he had only a few drops of it left, part of which he gave to his very sick little child to ingest, and part of which he spread over a certain part of the child’s body. The effect was so good that the little child became lively and well. He said he believed that, if he had had more, he would have been healed sooner of the disorder in his foot, etc. At the same time he complained about his wife /Magdalena/, who, he said, would not allow herself to be led to penance through God’s kindness. The Schauer Balm was distributed after the edification hour, and it awakened joy and praise of God. On this occasion our dear Lord graciously caused a few bothersome points to be properly settled and attended to, to my own and others’ amazement (since we were expecting some problems). Thus God knows how to prepare a way so that everything will go better than anyone could have imagined. Here too the word is: “God can do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”

Wednesday, the 14th of October. A certain inhabitant of Savannah, a potter /Duche/, intends to travel to London on business shortly and is willing to forward some things for us. In the summer and autumn we gathered all sorts of seeds and kernels for planting, which we hope to be able to send best by this opportunity in a little chest to London, and from there further to Augsburg to Mr. von Münch, who has asked something like that from us. There are not yet many rarities amongst them because till now our people have been able to worry only about extreme necessities. Should the Lord bestow life and capability, we hope by and by to acquire all kinds of very good plants, flowers, and herbs. Since wheat, rye, barley, oats, etc. were also requested, such things have been included, but I fear that not much will be left by the worms, which are very injurious to these grains in this warm land. In the meantime I hope the above-mentioned benefactor will accept the intent for the deed this time, till we are in a position to serve him with something better and also with a few curiosities. [We have written some letters to our benefactors and friends this week so that everything will be ready when the opportunity arises.] The above-mentioned potter is a very capable and intellectually curious person, who has found out a lot about many things in the country and can give the people very good advice about how to profit as he himself does from these things in the realm of nature that God has already granted to this land above all others.

With General Oglethorpe’s authorization he has traveled amongst the Indians up in the mountains and has seen all sorts of singular things or else learned them from reliable persons. Amongst other things he recounted to me how amongst the Cherokees (a very populous nation, and amicable to England) where upon a cliff the footprints of an entire fleeing people, to wit, many men, women, and children, and all kinds of poultry, birds, and animals may clearly be seen. One also sees an imprint of a fallen man who is trying to rise by supporting himself on both hands; this can be seen because his posterior and his heels are imprinted on the rock as in sand. I believe this from this righteous man’s tale as certainly as if I had seen it myself. The Indians themselves can tell all about this phenomenon. In the same region there are also some fire-spewing mountains,¹⁹ also a great cave in the cliff from which flows constantly a certain material which turns to stone when it falls to the ground.²⁰ There are very many deep caves, just as in Canaan. He can hardly find enough words for the bounteousness of the country and the evil of those traders living amongst the Indians. They not only give the Indians every opportunity for disorder, but also set their own bad example.

Amongst the whites themselves there is nothing but enmity, deception, and treachery, and all this from selfishness. Each strives by all kinds of practices to attract many Indians to himself for business purposes.²¹ Thus one undermines the next, and they all incur debts and finally run away from them. The Creek Indians are more addicted to excessive drink than the Cherokees. To be sure, the latter are happy to drink themselves full if they can get it for as good as nothing, but they prefer trading their deer and buffalo hides and beaver skins for things like clothing and other necessities rather than for rum or brandy. If the English did not supply the Creek Indians abundantly with such strong drink, they would seek it amongst the Spanish and French and shift their trade to them, since both have storehouses and trading posts on their frontiers. Of religion, by whatever name it may be called, there is not the slightest trace to be seen amongst the Indians and Christians.²² The Lord Trustees are still looking for a way to give the heathens who are allied to the English an opportunity to recognize Christ the Savior of the world. For this purpose they recently again asked for suggestions from Col. Stephens and Mr. /Thomas/Jones in Savannah in order to realize their good intentions. [I recently inquired of the Herrnhuter, Hagen, whether he was still willing to go among the heathen with the word of the Lord, for which purpose he had recently come into this colony. He replied thus: “If the Savior will open the door for me, I shall go, but not before that.” He has been staying with a merchant in Savannah for some time, and we hear little of his affairs. When we hold public prayer meetings and Sunday services in Savannah, he never shows up because he considers himself a minister on his own and is much enamored of his own supposed perfection.]

Thursday, the 15th of October. Schmidt’s wife /Catherina/ recounted to me that her husband had thought he would hardly get three bushels of rice because the land and crops on it had been inundated, but now he is discovering that his reasoned calculations had deceived him. He was getting more rice, she said, than he got last year, and corn as well, and thus God was able to preserve the crops even beneath the water. This Schmidt would have had the greatest loss from the water if our wise, gentle God had not diverted it in the manner just mentioned. This will serve the husband and wife, who both conduct their Christianity seriously, to put their disbelief to shame and to strengthen their faith. The things they said about this experience of God’s goodness were very heartfelt and impressive.

The high water has kept me from visiting more than a few of the dear people on their plantations till now. They regard it as a right great benefaction when one of us comes to them; and this, by the grace of God, has manifold spiritual and physical benefits. As soon as the members of the congregation have the time, I shall earnestly advise them to build a high, stout bridge between the town and the plantations, for this is almost indispensable for spiritual and physical reasons. [Now they are in full harvest and much occupied, but once the water has quite subsided, they will return to the mill construction and afterwards will finish the church. From time to time the carpenters also find an occasion to erect houses both in town and on the plantations.]

What a relief it will be when we receive more honest people in our locality, and amongst them those who know how to proceed with carpentry, construction, and cabinet work. May God bring them to us soon and in sound health! [I hope to have detailed news of these expected dear guests in Savannah, where I shall travel tomorrow, with God’s guidance.]

The Germans in Savannah wish very much to avail themselves of our office again to hear God’s word and to take Holy Communion; and in this we can likely serve them better this coming Sunday than at any other time. For that reason I shall travel there tomorrow morning. May God give me clear indications that I am making this journey according to His good and favorable will and will accomplish much good to His honor and to men’s salvation! General Oglethorpe is proving very kind towards the young Englishman Bishop.²³ Within just the last few days he sent me a note to the effect that he shall have as a present a tame young cow along with a calf from Old Ebenezer and over and above that 20 sh. Sterling. [The man there refuses to obey Mr. Oglethorpe’s orders because he is using the tame cows for his own profit; thus, he will have to take what he can get.] Tame cows are rare in this country, and it costs our people considerable trouble to make wild ones tame. But it is gradually becoming practicable to tame wild oxen, as I have seen at the orphanage.

Friday, the 16th of October. [My dear colleague, Mr. Boltzius, has traveled to Savannah today; may the Lord assist him and bring about much good on his behalf.] Because I (Gronau) had the opportunity today to travel to Purysburg (Hans Mauer went to fetch his wife from there), I accompanied him and I was not disappointed that I did. Peter Reiter was very troubled and downcast and had a great desire for one of us. Our dear Savior so blessed our conversation that things became somewhat easier for him, and I hope God will strengthen and finally perfect his faith. My question to him was taken from John 5:6, where the Lord Jesus asked the man who had an infirmity for thirty and eight years, “Wilt thou be made whole?” My question in this regard concerned spiritual health, about which he is especially troubled; and, since I noted clearly that he desired no more than this, I told him in Jesus’ name that he would be healthy and all his sins would be forgiven and he would have grace: he had no punishment from God to fear, rather he should be reconciled with Him through the blood and wounds of Christ and have peace. Now, I said, he should proceed with God as a child does with its own father and expect nothing but good. If he would accept in faith this message that I was bringing him in the name of Jesus, things would progress even though he might not yet feel the comfort, and his hitherto weak faith would become perfect. I was very pleased to be with him. The doctor was also pleased, for he had seen that the man was sad but could not give him proper consolation. Temporal things no longer delight this good Peter /Reiter/; hence a conversation concerning temporal matters could give him no comfort. As to his physical circumstances, he no longer has the pains he had before, yet he is still very weak and unsteady.

The Mauer woman /Catherina/ went home again joyfully because our dear Lord apparently blessed the medicines. The doctor gave her something to take along and was of the opinion that, if she used it regularly, her mouth would be fully cured. She has had to endure much. Last Monday he burned out some of the flesh in her mouth, being of the opinion that it was cancer. He showed me what he did it with; it is called lapis infernalis.²⁴ On the way home we edified one another with edifying conversations, and at last our dear Lord presented me with great blessing from the verse: “He that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about,” Psalms 32:10.

Saturday, the 17th of October. The day before yesterday I had something to do in old /Barthomäus/ Rieser’s hut. His wife was just having a fever. She called me and told me how our dear Lord was pulling on her so powerfully. Whenever she had fever, she said, she could best remain quiet and reflect. She thought of how her spirits were when she had lain ill in the poor house in Augsburg and Deacon Hildebrand had visited her. It appeared to her as if an angel of God were coming to her. Her second son Balthasar was very frivolous, hence Senior Urlsperger had recited for him the verse: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,” etc. She (the mother) did not place much importance on it at the time, but now she does because she recognizes how badly she spent her youth. I talked with her according to her circumstances and closed with a prayer.

Sunday, the 18th of October. Yesterday and today were very cold, so cold that we had frost last night (for the first time this year), yet the dear parishioners came in great numbers from town and from the plantations to divine services. Our dear Lord is working on our parishioners very powerfully; and, in order to attain His goals all the more, He is sending them many kinds of illnesses and other circumstances, all to the end that He may bring forth the glorious work of faith. Then it might be said of each of them that he now believes, as it is written of the nobleman, “and himself believed, and his whole house.” Profiting from today’s gospel, we showed how our dear Lord had sought this with the nobleman and had succeeded: He was seeking the very same thing with regard to our entire congregation. Now I hope that, through the mercy and loyalty of God, it will finally come to the point that we can say the words: “The ministers (in Ebenezer) believe with their entire congregation.”

[If some do not wish to be won over, God will cast them aside, or they will not be considered true members of the congregation. In the morning] we observed the verses in the Haus-Tafel²⁵ concerning the ministerial and ruling classes. In general we heard how God promised that, at the time of the New Testament, He would give the law into our hearts and write it into our minds so that each faithful person will not only happily perceive the duties he must observe in his station and calling, but will also seek to carry them out with joy. A minister may be especially inspired to carry out his office earnestly when he considers that his congregation is a congregation of God, which He has gained through His own blood. Acts 20:28.

Monday, the 19th of October. The home prayer meetings we have been having till now have been greatly blessed by our kindly God. In them we are now contemplating the benefactions according to the second article of Christian faith [and in particular that which Christ has won for us]; and in this connection we cite the most glorious and forceful verses. Today we heard how Christ won for us the cleansing and calming of our consciences. In addition we cited the glorious verse Matthew 11:28-29, wherein our kindly Savior calls the troubled and laden to Himself so lovingly that He may refresh them and bring their souls to rest, to the end that they may thus free themselves from their guilty consciences and enter into salvation through the blood of Jesus.

In today’s prayer meeting we used the story in Luke 10:10 ff., to remonstrate with the parishioners about what our kindly God is doing with them in our place: He is bringing the Kingdom of God so near that they can well feel it in their souls. Hence no one should remain a scorner of such treasured grace, as would happen if one did not truly let oneself be brought to penitence and to faith in the Son of God. [To His end God was working forcefully on them through His word and showed them so many physical blessings, but also much trouble and labor, so that even those who still lagged behind would finally convert: They should let themselves be won over fully, so that God will not descend on us with His severe judgment. May the Lord invest these words with His blessing and confirm His children in His grace and recognition!]

The 20th of October. I (Boltzius) had arranged with my dear colleague to be at home, with God’s help, at the time the edification hour was to be held on the plantations. Our dear Lord even advanced our journey so expeditiously that we arrived safe and sound at Ernst’s plantation between 8 and 9 in the morning, notwithstanding the high and strong waters. I had the boat rowed home and visited the still dangeously ill Ernst, whom my short consolation made very happy. The Purysburg surgeon has given him a bottle of medicine which may well cause more harm than good. Because of the external cures he has effected and is still effecting on Ernst, the Mauer woman, and Peter Reiter, the man has acquired a reputation amongst many here so that they would entrust themselves to him in all sorts of cases if he were closer by. [Those who know of our circumstances can hardly blame them.] However, because I know this above-mentioned surgeon has little understanding of medicine,²⁶ as a matter of conscience I must discourage rather than advise people to entrust themselves to him. God will certainly bring about an improvement in this matter as well!

The daughter of the honest merchant in Savannah, about whose bad throat we have reported, has been fully cured by a wise woman in Savannah within a few days. [The father seemed somewhat annoyed to be asked for another three guineas over and above what he had already paid, and all that for an unsuccessful cure.]

From Ernst’s I went directly to the place where the divine services are being held; and there I read aloud three of the edifying and very pleasing letters delivered to me in Savannah, to the great invigoration of myself and the parishioners. In them we found plenty of material for the praise of God and the heartfelt intercession for our worthy benefactors. The first letter was from our most worthy Senior Urlsperger. It was so written that we well see that it should have reached us before the above-mentioned crate. Yet, as our wise God does everything in His time, we were pleased that the letter arrived later and reminded us anew of the great good the Lord has done and is still doing for our benefit, in the hearts and through the hands of our benefactors and reminded us to bring Him our offerings of thanks with contrite hearts and on bended knee.

The second letter was from our dear Mr. Berein, writing in name of the worthy Court Chaplain /Ziegenhagen/ and wishing us much good. From him we received the first news in a letter to ourselves that a transport, almost complete at the time of writing, is certainly to be sent here. The letter was dated the 30th of May st. vet.²⁷ We encouraged each other to receive these dear guests with blessing and to prepare for their arrival, spiritually and physically for their and our refreshment (as one is wont to do for the arrival of a good friend). There were also a few (albeit quite sad) stories in the letter which should move and incline us to ask for intercession for our dear Fatherland.

The third letter, whose main contents we read aloud today, was from the dear Mr. von R. [Reck] from N. [Halle]. It moved me so much in Savannah that I wished to find time to answer it right away. Today God sent me and others new edification from it. I note from pieces of evidence in it that our dear Lord has drawn the dear man’s heart right close to Himself and has, through His spirit, made him right honest and upright towards Himself and his neighbor. He has once more become right dear and worthy to us, for the sake of God’s grace which is in him [and now everything that has happened previously both on the voyage and here in this country is fully forgiven, resolved, and forgotten].²⁸ May he requite him the love he bears in the Lord for the entire congregation and its principals, and which he is showing in practical matters according to his ability. May He make him into a blessed instrument of His grace in Mr. von N.’s [the Baron von Ende’s] esteemed house and elsewhere.²⁹ The above-mentioned great patron /Ziegenhagen/ is still thinking about our congregation in a material way, for which may the Lord Jesus richly reward him in time and eternity! We will shortly put to use the remaining letters and the main contents of the preface to the 5th Continuation.

[These letters have been held over in Charleston for quite some time, and I shall ask Mr. Berein and Mr. Newman to address future mail to Mr. William Hopton an industrious and loyal merchant in Charleston who, as the Trustees’ agent, takes care of forwarding letters and other mail from here and receives mail on their behalf. But when the captains take letters to the mail-house, they cost money, remain undelivered, and can end up in the wrong hands. At the time of Mr. Berein’s writing, no letters from Germany had arrived, else he would have sent them along. But we were glad to learn that our letters and diaries not only of last year but also of the beginning of this year have reached Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen and have been sent on by him.]

From Halle only two letters were enclosed, one from our worthy Pastor Majer, and the other from Mr. von Reck, which is quite old. How gladdened we are to hear that the work of the Lord is still going on through the labors of His servants in Halle [particularly the townsfolk] even though Satan is resisting the kingdom of Christ and the work of His servants in gross and subtle ways, as in Paul’s time, 2 Timothy 3:8-9.

In Savannah I held prayers with the Germans several times, preached a sermon Sunday morning, celebrated Holy Communion with eighteen persons, and held a repetition in the afternoon. On each occasion our dear Lord granted me much assistance. Provisions are scarce and expensive here; and it is the same in Frederica, where a short time ago a sloop from New York with all kinds of provisions and a large boat with hundreds of bushels of corn went aground before reaching Frederica. The Spaniards got some of the stores and the rest was spoiled by the water, and this is a new chastisement for this country. General Oglethorpe got two hundred Indians from upcountry to help him and found almost no provisions on hand for them, so that the dear gentleman will certainly be in a tight dilemma. He is said to be considering besieging St. Augustine once again, but since the last siege was raised the Spaniards are said to have fortified the place rather strongly with new walls and other things.

Till now the northern part of this colony has been governed by three magistrates in Savannah, but now the Lord Trustees have decreed an advisory council consisting of a director and four assessors³⁰ who will decide everything. The Lord Trustees will accept no other suits and petitions but those which pass through their hands. They have passed many other very salutary decrees and published them in Savannah, but some of the disgruntled [and restless] people, who are full of British liberty, are still not complying, rather, they are making every effort to stand directly under the royal government like the other colonies and not to recognize the Lord Trustees as their superiors.

[Before I returned home, Col. Stephens’ son /Thomas/ had come here at great inconvenience and cost and attempted to make our people join the side of the Malcontents by promising all sorts of sweet-seeming liberties. However, they all referred themselves to my decision and also told him to talk to me, so nothing came of it. A reasonable Salzburger came to me and told me of his attempts at persuasion, adding that this had made him think of the recently discussed story of Absalom, who in the same unlawful and finally unsuccessful manner had attempted to deprive his father of his throne: thus was the way these people treated our benefactors and authorities. Another man came to me and recalled the same passage; so that I could see anew the good that this holy story has wrought among us. The man /Thomas Stephens/came also to me and listed many considerations concerning future problems. I refused to hear him for good reasons, taking care that he and his accomplices would not become embittered against us. The good Col. Stephens, who is president of the above-mentioned council, must suffer much grief and anguish because of this son, who is letting himself be used to speak against the Trustees before Parliament in England, where he will shortly return. And this he must reconcile with obedience to his father and his superiors.]

Wednesday, the 21st of October. The potter from Savannah /Duche/ is at our place to install a small stove of fired tiles in my house, according to which model others can be made in the Salzburgers’ houses. It is the kind that is usually called draft-ovens in Germany. It is heated in the room and the smoke is led out through a pipe so that one needs no separate chimney or flue. The tiles are hollow and a little concave so that the cement, which presses in very tightly, does not fall out. In this manner the sides of the oven are made thick and durable. He has fired several hundred of these tiles at my request, so that several people can be supplied with them, since only sixty are needed for each oven. The fact that in times of both health and sickness the people cannot keep themselves warm may contribute much to the fevers which last so long at our place. This kind of oven will be a simple and good means of getting warm dwellings. For little infants, who can least stand the changing air currents, it will be an indispensable benefaction to get such inexpensive ovens. Everyone can make the stones required for the base of the oven, since they have only to be baked in the sun because no moisture gets to them.

The potter Duche is very obliging and is helping our people in every way. (In Savannah, I gave him a little box with all sorts of seeds for the Honorable Mr. von Münch in Augsburg, and today I wrote several letters which I will also ask him to take to London, where he will go in a few days to obtain some benefits for himself from the Trustees and through them from Parliament.) He has mastered the art of making chinaware or porcelain; this is much cheaper than that bought from China, yet his work is not the least bit inferior to it in quality. He is taking along much to London for display and also has General Oglethorpe’s emphatic written recommendation with him. But we worry that the East India Company would rather give him good compensation than let such wares be sent to Europe from here.³¹ He also knows a marble quarry in this country from which he is taking along samples. If he is successful in his intentions, he will bring many people into the country whom he will be able to employ in his work. He will have work for several hundred people in the country and on the river. [The letters we sent along with him are addressed to the above-mentioned merchant, Mr. von Münch, the Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen, Mr. Verelst, and Mr. Newman. Our diary is not yet fully up to date and we also have not yet answered the most recently arrived letters. All of this takes time, and we shall therefore send both letters and the diary through Col. Stephens, who will be glad to be of service.]

Thursday, the 22nd of October. [The Indian trader and captain³² in the little fort above Palachocolas who has been keeping our strong dray horse for the last 5 years has written me a kind note in which he let me know that he had only now returned from the Indians and found my letter at home. The horse was at his place, he had taken it from an Indian two years ago; and, since he did not know its owner, he had used it in the service of the Trustees. The man who brought the letter told me what a miserable horse it was and that it would never make it to our place.

[There are witnesses that the man had used it as a cart horse for roughly five years, and I shall therefore ask Mr. Oglethorpe to see that our rights be considered in this matter by making the man return a useful horse to us. Our two men who went to fetch some brood mares from Carolina told us that this captain had received them well and would even have fed them if he had had anything but unsalted, dry corn mush. These people care less for food than for drink, if must be; and they never want for the latter, and that is why they are rarely sober.]

A selfish man, through his cattle trading, has caused the cattle-scourge to be brought from Carolina to Savannah. Already a hundred head of cattle near the city have fallen victim to it. May God turn such evil away from our place according to His gracious will! We have warned our people to use Christian caution and not to let their cattle range close to Savannah. Perhaps the Lord of All will make use of the current cold weather to wipe out this sickness. If the cold should progress gradually as it began, we may have a hard winter this year too. The great supply of wood in our country was brought home to us when we read in one of the recently received letters of the great lack of wood in some places in Germany; and this taught us a very necessary lesson. One little regards what one has profusely and richly, and this furthers our ingratitude for and our abuse of God’s gifts. Against this we must always admonish ourselves. What God caused to happen near Frederica to the recently mentioned provision sloop and corn boat (both run aground) serves to make us all recognize with thanksgiving the special care God has taken for the gifts which have been sent us from Europe lately and previously.

Through such sad instances which are known to us God affixes a light for us to recognize what advantages He causes us to enjoy; and it would be irresponsible to conform to other unthankful people in this country, on whom God Himself does not bestow the same treatment as on us. In reading the letters of our worthy Senior Urlsperger and our dear Mr. Berein, we were deeply impressed that everything they had wished for and requested from God had been fulfilled amongst us before their letters arrived. In the former it said, concerning the crate from Augsburg: “May God cause the (previously specified) gifts therein, all of which God presented to me in a few days, to arrive at the right time, safe and sound on the spot.” Dictum. factum.³³ To God be the glory! Among other things in Mr. Berein’s letter are the words: “His caring and paternal hand shall know in His time how to pay the outstanding costs of the useful mill, which was built under many trials.” How kindly and miraculously our dear Lord has acted nearby and from afar has been indicated in the diary, and we also mentioned various things, to the praise of the Lord, in the letter to Doctor Professor /Gotlieb August/ Francke, of 14 October of this year. Yesterday, as well as day before yesterday in the prayer meeting near the town, we read aloud both these above-mentioned letters for our edification and very necessary information, and we prayed to God about the matter.

That which we missed this time in edifying news from our worthy Professor Francke our loving God has presented to us in a very fine letter from Pastor Majer in Halle. This letter has proved itself written in the Lord to our own and our people’s souls to the extent that we cannot glorify our heavenly Father enough for the blessing presented to us through His spirit when we read it both in private and in public. May He reward him in time and eternity with superabundant blessings for all the love and pains he has so willingly undertaken till now, on our own and on the congregation’s part. May He cause all the good for which we begged in today’s prayer meeting when the letter is read, for him, his office, and his worthy family before the throne of God, abundantly to descend upon him, to the joy of his and our hearts. May He also reward the most treasured Mr. B. of N. [Baron von Ende], Privy Councilor N. [Mozstern], and Mr. von N. [Reck] for the physical gifts and benefactions which they caused to flow through the hands of the worthy Paster Majer upon us, the congregation, and the orphanage, with thousandfold physical and spiritual blessings, and may He cause His holy Name to be greatly praised and glorified when they reach here!

Friday, the 23rd of October. Along with the already mentioned letter from Pastor Majer we read aloud today, to the copiously gathered parishioners on the plantations, a few things from the recently obtained manuscript of the preface of the 5th Continuation, which we applied to our mutual edification. We have great cause to praise our miraculous God from our hearts for causing so many good things to come to us from the hearts and hands of his servants, of whom we do not consider ourselves at all worthy. The letters in the preface, which were sent along with material gifts for Ebenezer’s benefit, are full of vim and vigor and, through God’s blessing, will be of use to even the hardest and till now unthankful hearts among us. The faithful amongst the congregation heartily rejoice with us that so many righteous people in Christendom are mindful of our physical, spiritual, and eternal salvation and pour upon us the most heartfelt blessings, which even the Lord, as we have already had many proofs, will fulfill in His time.

May our dear Savior teach us simply and obediently to make note of His word, written to us by Pastor Majer from John 11:40, and may He help us both believe and practice through His word what we also find in his beloved writing: “Previous experience has taught you that God holds back and lets flow at the time He recognizes to be correct. Therefore our eyes should wait for him and look upon His hands. For God has pleasure in them who hope for His gifts. Where would hope otherwise remain in its practice? Hope awaits the correct time, etc. Oh, what the Lord has done for you so far! Yes! . . . if you consider with what love and kindness God has led you through so many miraculous paths all your life (especially in recent years), you can find no limit, etc. Now it is good to trust further in this known Lord! Happy you, happy we, that no temporal or material limits are set to such trust, rather that it is imperatively written to say: ‘Rely upon the Lord eternally, etc.’ As long as you do this, you are rich! To that end the Lord will bestow power upon you, etc.”

The dear pastor’s reflective and to us very gladdening words clarify the refreshing contents of the above-mentioned preface, when he writes: “Praise the Lord, who has always shown till now that He desires good for Ebenezer! You cannot and should not pronounce, write, or think of the name of your place without being strengthened!” Oh, yes! Just as we see once more from the letters we have received and from the previously mentioned preface that the Lord desires Ebenezer’s good, so too will our Fathers, benefactors, and friends quite clearly see the same from the letters and diary we have sent and are about to send; and with us they will highly praise the sacred and glorious name of our most treasured Emmanuel for the solicitude He holds over us. The word amongst us should always be: “If only I had a thousand tongues and a thousandfold mouth,” etc.

In the above mentioned preface there is a short letter mentioning some books presented by two good friends of the congregation. An error has been committed with regard to this package. There were two packages in the crate, both designated “G.O.” These letters were also on the letter to the Preacher Giessendanner in Orangeburg; and, because there were instructions in our letter to send him the books and a small amount of money, we sent him both packages marked “G.O.” some time ago, and thus he received those books that belong to our congregation. Now that we are aware of the error we regret it very much. The road to Orangeburg is a long one and dangerous, so that the books, if they are sent back here, would suffer harm. Hence we will have to leave them with him, and our dear Lord will know how to redress the loss. Nonetheless, I am writing the man in Charleston who forwarded our books to ask that those not yet sent to Orangeburg be sent back to us. The previously mentioned note to Senior Urlsperger was worded as follows: “The accompanying little box with bound volumes, to wit 6 hand Bibles, partly the Ulm edition and partly the Lüneburg edition, two Little Garden of Paradise,³⁴ eight communion booklets, most with gilt edges, along with the Glory and Dogma of the Augsburg Confession,³⁵ have been dedicated by two good friends to the Salzburgers in Ebenezer; and, because your hands extend to there, we entreat Your Grace to pack this little box along with the other physical gifts. May our dear Lord cause everything to arrive in good fortune in His time and to attain His goals!” etc.

Saturday, the 24th of October. I was very impressed by the fact that in the edifying preface to the 5th Continuation the worthy Senior excellently commends our congregation’s want to the benefactors in Germany, saying that some assistance is still indispensable to procure some horses, which we need for plowing, dragging up of building materials, searching for lost cattle, and many other jobs. Just at the time this came to our attention, our kindly Lord arranged to have a small number of mares purchased on credit, with payment over five years without interest. They are to be used in the above-mentioned labor and for breeding and have been brought to our place and distributed by lot. [The men who brought the mares here from Carolina did so with much inconvenience and danger; not only was the river which they had to ford very high, but the swamps and low-lying areas they crossed in the woods were still under water. They praise the Lord that He has let them overcome much difficulty and saved them from clear danger. Also, he let none of the horses drown, although on several occasions they came very close to it, and thus prevented much damage to this poor congregation.]

Even such secondary things (as they seem) strengthen us in our faith in God [qui in minimis saepe maximus³⁶ and] whose solicitude stretches out even over birds and beasts. Two of them ran away from the men while they were still in Carolina and doubtless went back to their previous pastures, for which reason I wrote two letters to the owner /Bryan/, who is so honest as to keep them until we have fetched them with the remaining ones that are still to be bought. The most expensive cost 5 ь 15 sh. Sterling. Riding horses and stallions, however, cannot be bought for less than 10 ь. or for more. [We do need at least one, however, for breeding.]

A captain from Purysburg /Lindner/ requested in a letter that we send him some of our medicine at the first opportunity. [It seems he had himself purged of the fever and became constipated, so that now is abdomen is bloated and he is suffering many inconveniences.] We are happy to serve even outsiders, wherein we can only follow the prescription and example of Christ, if only they will apply everything to God’s glory. He is offering us many favors in return.

Sunday, the 25th of October. Today in town and on the plantations those who intend to take Holy Communion this coming Sunday registered their names. Yesterday evening a person from the plantations made known to me her desire to go again this time; but her conscience was once more uneasy and made her very timid on Sunday when a certain scandalous matter was dealt with publicly before the congregation. She thought it might also be necessary for her grave case to be made public and, as it were, for her to be punished, although she well recognizes that, for many reasons well known to her and me, it is to be looked upon as a benefaction of God that the matter may be disposed of between her and God out of public view, just as He, through His providence, has allowed it to remain hidden and not become public. She was instructed as to why public scandals must be dealt with publicly, etc. Today she and others received from the gospel according to Matthew 18:23 ff. instruction concerning the gracious forgiveness of sins as an invaluable benefaction of God in Christ, as it is granted 1) from pure grace, where the horror of the Popish leaven of merit through works was revealed not so much to us as in us, and was dismissed as a matter prejudicial to the all-sufficient merit of Christ. 2) richly and abundantly, in that not a half or most but rather all debts and their merited punishment are remitted, more than the supplicant could ask or understand. At the same time the parishioners received instruction that the chastisements which the faithful must experience after their pardon for their salvation are not real punishments nor signs of God’s wrath. 3) not outside of but rather in divine order, etc. The Lord has shown today too that He desires to benefit Ebenezer and to bring the people not only to a recognition of their many sins and thereby merited punishments but also to His Son, the kindly Savior, so that everything may be forgiven them in His name at once for ever and ever.

Monday, the 26th of October. Yesterday I asked Sanftleben to visit his neighbor, the sick N. [Ernst] from time to time and to talk and pray with him from God’s word according to his spiritual situation. When I came to Sanftleben’s this morning I heard that he had been with him yesterday evening, had shared some things with him from the sermons, and had read him the 130th Psalm, which I had sent him for his reflection and perusal. The patient was so pleased that Sanftleben intends to visit him more often. When I walked into Ernst’s hut he thanked me for the psalm which I had sent and which had been blessed in him. I took pains to make clear to him and his wife from yesterday’s gospel that sin is the most dreadful of evils and will plunge the poor people who do not separate themselves from it through true conversion into temporal and eternal destruction. However, those who feel their sins and what they have committed since their youth in their consciences, those persons cry out from the depths from which neither they nor any other human can save them to the almighty and merciful Lord, who, as it says in the introductory verse in Psalms 130:4, bestows not only forgiveness but also fear of Him -- the latter being a clear and infallible criterion of the former.

The feelings of the pardoned sinner are written in the verse of the pious Joseph: “How then can I do this great wickedness,” etc., which I especially recommended to this Joseph N. [Ernst]; and I helped him beg God for this feeling. When I said something to his wife about the verse: “Sin is a reproach to any people” and described the torment of the damned in hell, he interrupted and told her that the body, which has to suffer from filthy worms, is a minor thing, whereas the pains of the soul are the real pains, etc. With that he was clearly alluding to what he must have been suffering in his conscience on account of his sins. He owes quite many people in the congregation labor for provisions and other things, but they have been happy to give them to him, and a few have even begun to build him a little hut wherein the harvested crops can be stored safe and dry. The two of them were also gladdened when I told them that a certain tool which he had purloined from someone was his as a present. For that, I said, his little boy would have to give thanks with mouth and hand, since it was to be put away for the lad’s use, the father not being in a position to use any hand tools. With regard to his bodily circumstances, he is still in danger, even though he no longer feels much pain. He becomes very weak especially at night and seems to have a dangerous ailment in his chest. May God let everything turn out best for him.

Tuesday, the 27th of October. No one has yet claimed the two large packages of sewing needles which were sent along with our three big boxes from Charleston to Savannah. On the small packages we see “Spanish needles from S.N.” in Latin letters; further than that we have no information about where they came from or to whom they were sent. Mr. Thomas Jones and others are certain they belong with the aforementioned boxes because they were delivered for us by the captain from the ship in Charleston and also because the writing is German even though the letters are Latin; also such needles may not be brought to England. Such a circumstance confirms even more the notion that they are sent here for us. Although all is still quite uncertain, since we find not the slightest mention of them in our letters, I recently brought back 12,000 and more of several types of sewing needles from Savannah and distributed them today on the plantations and in the town, but, to be sure, with the stipulation that whenever the owner makes himself known, all of us will have to consent to making a fair payment. Mr. Jones is selling them also in Savannah for our account, but we will not claim it before we acquire better justification for it. Each of the two packages wrapped in oilcloth is so heavy that it takes a man to lift it. We have wished to announce this matter in the diary again to see whether the error may be discovered in London or Germany.

Dresler and his wife, who moved to our place from Savannah not long ago and have settled down near the Salzburgers by the mill stream, are conducting themselves so well that everyone is gaining great love for them and is happy to have them as neighbors. We hope he will let himself be brought to a new birth by the word of the gospel so that the good in him may not be merely nature, but may rather be blessed by grace. In this way he will still be useful to himself and his neighbor. He still has a confused quarrel in Savannah, on account of which I had to advise him today not to rush to Holy Communion so quickly, but rather first to make his peace with God and his neighbor. Before his departure from Savannah he had lost 4 ь Sterl. from his locked house and chest. Since he was not at home, his wife allowed herself to be persuaded by evil people, mostly French, to attend a demonstration of black magic performed by a Frenchman who spun a sieve in order to ferret out the robbery.³⁷ Then, at the instigation of the same evil man, she laid the blame for the robbery on her husband’s comrade. Because of that a complaint was lodged with the authorities. To be sure, Dresler knew nothing of this godless performance, yet he did not conduct himself in all particulars as fits a Christian. The accused man wishes to save his good name with the help of the authorities, and this will cause Dresler trouble. This coming Monday I have business in Savannah, and Dresler wishes to accompany me; but I will take pains to bring about peace. In the meantime I have attested to the man my displeasure with this evil business and admonished him and his wife to repent heartily.

Wednesday, the 28th of October. N. [Schartner] acknowledged that he was very sorry for having caused me much sadness by his unrepentant and frivolous behavior. He said he was asking my forgiveness and wished to improve himself thoroughly. I reproached him with his evil deeds and showed especially how much harm he caused not only the orphanage but also himself by looking after the cattle so poorly and neglecting his duty by running hither and yon. Even now we have not recovered all the cattle we lost because of him. I read to him several verses from Holy Scripture wherein are to be found not only his sins but also their well-deserved eternal punishments. I told him a little about the pious shepherd Henning Kuhsen; and I also recommended to him such people for constant Christian company as could teach him by living example what pertains to Christianity. He himself acknowledged that it was more than a worldly kingdom if a person can truthfully say that he is now converted to God, has received a new heart and the Holy Spirit, that all his sins are forgiven, and that he is a child of God and an heir of eternal salvation.

Brandner is growing right noticeably in God’s grace. Recently he spoke with me on the road and in my rooms about the condition of his soul; and, as he acknowledged today, our dear Lord has thereby caused a marked advancement of his Christianity. He intends to go to Holy Communion, since I explained briefly to him what a great treasure of God it is. In it each and every penitent sinner is offered the external means which the great friend of man, Christ Jesus Himself, decreed, everything, nothing excepted, which He merited for us individually so bitterly and gladly. Therefore the Savior bestows in a special way the forgiveness of sins and life and salvation itself even on him who, during the preaching of the gospel Christ Himself bestows, is too shy to appropriate to himself with comfort the good which is proclaimed in it to poor penitent sinners. The day on which the faithful go to Holy Communion should be a festive and joyful day, for they are encountering a grace of which no angel can boast. Thus it is written so remarkably in Luther’s exegesis: “Whoever believes these words has that which they say and proclaim, namely, the forgiveness of sins.” The words here are of faith, not feeling; and it is too bad that many honest souls amongst us do not properly rejoice at the treasure of Holy Communion and do not let joy in the Lord be their strength. Such persons still feel so much evil, upon which they commonly look more than they do upon faith in Christ, who expiates and forgives all past and present sins.

Today I held up the very glorious verse Hebrews 4:15-16 to a pious woman who, through fear of making false comfort for herself, often looks more at her perdition than at Christ, the priceless Physician, and His medicine. To be sure, that verse mentions the weakness of the faithful but also the merciful high priest; and surely her weakness and feeling of sin should not hinder her from stepping forward with joy and, indeed, not to the seat of judgment but rather to the seat of grace. In the mysterious Jewish religion I am very impressed by how the most wise and merciful God ordained that each and every one of the children of Israel could appear in the forecourt by the altar with his guilty conscience along with a sacrifice and, for the sake of the perfect merit of the Messiah, could always receive forgiveness for all his sins for all time in this divine order. And, when the solemn feast of atonement arrived and the high priest came with blood into the Holiest of Holies before the seat of grace, then his and his entire people’s sins were at once disposed of. What then should we not attain, to whom the New Testament gives freedom every day to approach, with humble and trusting prayer, the seat of grace, which is Christ our most meritorious Savior Himself. Oh, if only everyone might properly avail himself of this not legal but evangelical joyousness, which poor sinners have in Christ’s name! What happy steps they would take in their Christianity, and how right glad their Christianity would become! I told dear Brandner something of the glorious freedom and superiority of the New over the Old Testament.

Thursday, the 29th of October. [We have learned from news brought here that there is a rumor that the English took Havana, and thus Cuba, from the Spanish.³⁸ This good news is said to have come from New York to Savannah. This would be a great benefaction for this colony and it would thus be said here too: God treats us not according to our sins, and pays back, etc. For if He treated this country according to the merits of its citizens and His justice, we should be as Sodom and Gomorrah!]

Since many thousands are praying so heartily and zealously in Europe for our congregation and hence for the entire country wherein we dwell, as we encounter anew so many right refreshing particulars and attestations in the fine preface to the 5th Continuation, I remembered, to my great strengthening, the noteworthy story in Genesis 18 that tells what the intercession of Abraham the friend of God brought about: if only ten righteous people were discovered in the entire region, the Lord would have spared the remaining wicked ones, of which there may have been many hundreds.

Our worthy Mr. Rende, Inspector of the Lutheran poor house in Augsburg, has written a brief but powerful letter to Bartholomäus Rieser and his family, which Salzburger, with his wife and three children, enjoyed much good in the poor house. This morning I read them the little letter, and this gave me an opportunity to speak of many good things with all of them. They said they are ashamed that they recognized far too little the many spiritual and physical benefactions they encountered there, and hence they had not been properly thankful either to God or to men for it, as would have been fitting, etc.

Last night the two black slaves were at our place. A few weeks ago they had been brought from Augusta to Savannah as miscreants and put into prison there. One night they burned away a large portion of the prison door with tobacco fire and, notwithstanding their iron chains, stole a small skiff. With it they finally came to us, sought food, and went off during the same night. Two of our people went after them, discovering the skiff, but no Negroes, on a steep shore. We have reported this to Old Ebenezer, where they may likely set out after them on horseback and soon find them. In this way they will hasten their gallows-punishment even sooner.³⁹

Friday, the 30th of October. My dear colleague has visited Peter Reiter in Purysburg once more and learned that the local surgeon has found it necessary twice more to pull his leg apart and set it properly, in the recently described torture-like ways, with cords and the greatest of force, and this caused the poor man much pain. But God strengthened him right extraordinarily. He is as quiet as a lamb and resigned to God’s will. The work of God’s grace, which began some time ago in his soul amidst the physical distress, is growing and increasing in such a way that we have cause to glorify the Lord’s miraculous kindness. [Friedrich Rheinländer desires to go to the Lord’s Table this time and it would seem that he has made Christian preparation to this end and continues to do so. He asked my forgiveness for having insulted me through the gross disobedience towards his mother and in other ways, etc. I said that as a man I was fully ready to forgive him, and that he would find the Lord Jesus and in Him the heavenly Father a thousandfold more willing to forgive him everything and bestow on him his eternal grace as long as he was willing to come with the prodigal son from the wicked to the good. At the same time he was given extensive instruction; and, if he heeds these, things will continue to improve with his Christianity.]

The first plow has been finished for the orphanage, and Kalcher tested it today. He has only one horse broken in for plowing, hence it went poorly. In the meantime we can already see what a benefaction it will be when our workers can set themselves to plowing. There are still some horses which can be gradually trained to plow, and God will provide for still more. I sense in myself a certain kind of convincing certainty that our dear Lord will, in His time, know how to bless our worthy Senior’s intercession amongst our very dear benefactors in Germany so that this intercession, which appears in the preface to the 5th Continuation⁴⁰ and concerns the procurement of horses, will be every bit as fruitful as all the others.

Today on the plantations and in town we concluded the reading and necessary application of the said preface; and, as we have always done till now, we praised God on the bended knees of our bodies and our hearts for His miraculous providential care for His little flock in Ebenezer, which we have recognized in the preface. Through the support of the Holy Spirit, as we felt especially in our hearts with this edifying preface, we were also inspired to further praise of God and to ardent intercession for our known and unknown benefactors. The love-gifts sent in by so many dear benefactors of all stations also reminded us of the little verse: “But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” Even if we in our need cannot recompense them in the least, they themselves will nonetheless recognize that it is a special kind of compensation of grace that their good deeds and sharing, even if only a widow’s mite or, lacking that, a heartfelt good wish or bit of advice and intercession before God and man, are called a God-pleasing sacrifice that counts for more than if all the kings and lords in the whole world found pleasure in it. Concerning their love-gifts, heartfelt good wishes, and intercessions it is written, “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.” For Christ’s sake they have penetrated like a pleasing incense directly into the All-holiest; and God will not forget such works of love, rather on the general Day of Judgment He will praise and eternally reward them before all the world, Matthew 25. His word says it, and that for us is an assurance enough. We still cry out to them from hearts desirous to thank them: “May the Lord grant you and your houses to find mercy and faith in the Lord on that day, for ye have so often refreshed us. Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever. Amen. Hallelujah!”

Saturday, the 31st of October. It has now been announced to the parents on the plantations that in Ruprecht Steiner’s house, where the church gatherings are still being held, some arrangements have been made to instruct the children in singing, praying, and reading and in the catechism and that the knowledgeable and heartily pious /Simon/Steiner himself wishes to place himself at our disposal for the purpose. He is doing it only as a test and will happily subject himself to our examination so that, if the children are not properly attended to, another may be put in his place. Till now he has been quite sickly; but, if God strengthens him and he retains his present willingness to teach the children along with the otherwise burdensome duties of his calling, we could not desire a better person at this time. He is certainly a spiritual priest, anointed by the Holy Spirit, and this promise applies to him as it does other Christians who are desirous of salvation: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,” etc.

The glorious characteristics of wisdom from above are found in the dear man as described in James 3:17; and therefore we can also hope a blessing from his dealings with his children, which, he said, he would also consider the desired salary and reward for his work. The worthy Senior Urlsperger wrote in his last letter of 10 February: “God’s little streams of blessing are still flowing and wish to pour over Ebenezer. In a few days God has granted me everything you expressed so great a desire for, etc.” At that time we wrote only about various external things needed by the carpenters and others in the congregation, and God made hearts willing and capable for it. From this our faith and hope are strengthened that He will cause His little streams to flow upon Ebenezer so that this currently installed schoolmaster may be paid a salary, as we really cannot ask him to work gratis, and the parents are not yet in a position to pay any tuition.

NOVEMBER

Sunday, the 1st of November. On this day of our Lord fifty-one persons among us attended Holy Communion; and the Lord granted much blessing through it and through the preaching of His word concerning the regular gospel of Matthew 22:15 ff. and from the catechism urging the last part of the Table Talk. May He maintain this blessing into all eternity! A few people from Purysburg were with us, and some of them took Communion. A Purysburg widow with three small children was aroused by God’s word some time ago and again today and was brought to the idea of moving to us and supporting herself as best she can with God’s blessing by spinning, knitting, sewing, and a little farming. It is her purpose to make use of better instruction in Christianity here and to put into school her oldest girl, who must walk, or rather crawl, on her knees. If God ordains for her to find a dwelling here, I will not be against it because of some material difficulties people may have. If a soul may be won, then all difficulty is repaid superabundantly, even if it were the greatest.

Mr. N. /David/ [Zuebli] of Purysburg, who has been visiting the prayer meetings and divine services again for a few days, is learning to love and trust us so that he wishes he could change his circumstances and live among us with his family. However, he is still buried too deep in material involvements that cause him much spiritual harm. May God help him out of them! He has a commission from two Christian friends in Germany, who would like to live in quiet and prepare themselves for eternity, to seek out a place of residence in Carolina or Georgia. He has a strong inclination to recommend our community to them because he hopes they would achieve their good purpose here with God’s grace. They wish to live from their own means, take up some land, and perhaps begin a little business to serve their neighbor, if an opportunity can be found for that.² He knows them personally from his own experience; and we would gladly grant their wish provided God has ordained for them to win eternal salvation in our place. There is space enough, also room in the wounds of Jesus for all weary and burdened sinners on the whole earth who are earnestly seeking quiet and refreshment under the soft yoke and light burden of our Lord Jesus.

Monday, the 2nd of November. Necessity required me to go down to Savannah today in our boat. I must baptize some children, deliver our bundle of letters and our diary to Colonel Stephens for safe forwarding, serve the recently mentioned Dresler in his confused affair, and help a couple of young men with their intended marriages. Therefore I cannot free myself of this trip even though I would rather remain at home and perform my regular duties here, which are dearer and easier for me than making such trips. We are always bogged down in material matters which we must take care of. I hope that, with God’s help, we will be able to transfer them to someone else when the expected transport arrives.³ [This time letters were sent off to Senior Urlsperger, Prof. /Gotthilf August/ Francke, Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen and Mr. Berein in one letter, Deacon Hildebrand, Pastor Majer, Baron von Ende, Mr. von Reck, and other Christian friends in Augsburg and Halle and also to our families at home. May the Lord accompany these letters by water and land, and may He deign to lay His blessing on them.] My heart is now filled with the little verse of Psalm 33: “For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.”

At eight o’clock my dear colleague, Mr. Boltzius, traveled in God’s name down to Savannah. [The Lord Jesus, who said: “Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world,” may He fulfill this in him abundantly in all circumstances on the journey and even in Savannah; and also in me who am remaining here.] This morning I read through the sermon and the Contemplation of the Use of Scriptural Solitude⁴ and find so much beauty in them that I laud and praise God for them and wish the servant of God who sent them to us rich blessings from the loyal and blessed Savior. I believe the Lord will grant a blessing from them to our salvation-hungry souls in our congregation and surely even to those who have not yet had any real seriousness of purpose so that they too will be encouraged to come to such a blessed acquaintance with the Lord Jesus; and I am therefore planning to read them aloud today and tomorrow in the prayer meeting, God willing, and tomorrow at the edification hour on the plantations. May the Lord grant for this the spirit of wisdom and understanding so that it can be made useful for each of them according to his circumstances.

Tuesday, the 3rd of November. When I reached the plantations in my pursuit of edification, I found Steiner teaching at school. The children were very quiet, and they all showed pleasure at going to school. I recited for them the little verse: “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early will find me,” Proverbs 8:17, and prayed with them. Steiner is a true Israelite in whom there is no guile; and, since he prays diligently, God will grant him wisdom and blessing too for his work. His honesty is also attested by what he told me Sunday a week ago when I was out there for the sake of divine services and dined with him (as I am accustomed to do when I hold divine services on the plantations every fortnight). He reminded me of the exodus from Salzburg, and he marveled at the miraculous guidance of God in that they were expelled not to their harm but to their good. Their enemies had to help them come to the gospel and to a recognition of the good that is in it. “He wished God to reward them for this. If he could do good unto them, he would gladly do so.”

In the evening a person told me that our dear God had granted her a great blessing from the repetition hour on Sunday. Therefore she felt very good yesterday; and, when she got fever in the evening, our dear God had granted her from His word a new assurance of gracious forgiveness. Thus she realized how the dear cross [which our dear God lays upon His people] is actually something useful; and that concurs with what I said this evening in the prayer hour about the dear cross from the Contemplation of the Good Use of Solitude. For there it is shown how even the dear cross for which true believers praise their Lord is an especially dear fruit which faithful and God-loving souls offer to their Savior in solitude. The Contemplation of Solitude has many devotees in Ebenezer who have been revealed to me yesterday and today, and I believe that even more will be revealed. [To be sure, I had not thought that there could be so much good in it as I actually found in it and as, with the help of God, I shall still find in it. Because it is so glorious, it is now my true and sincere resolution to spend all my time with it so that I may someday be a beautiful fruit on His table in heaven. If the Lord Jesus already has His pleasure and joy in those who belong to Him here, even if they must make their lamentations to Him, how will it be there?]

Wednesday, the 4th of November. Toward noon I called on a Salzburger who also attested how much the readings in the prayer meeting yesterday pleased him; and he regretted that he, like some others, had been prevented by necessary business from attending the prayer meeting [the day before yesterday. He said he hoped there would be a time when he would be able to hear the first part of the beautiful Contemplation of Solitude being read; for I have promised, both here and on the plantations, that if a few souls wished to hear it again, I would gladly read it to them once more. This Salzburger told me that yesterday during his work his mind had recalled something he had heard being read twelve years ago in Salzburg. The book treated of “Refreshment Hours”⁵ (he could not name it more closely), and in it [on the first page] was shown how a man must leave all and come to Jesus, and then he will be truly refreshed. This recollection had penetrated deeply into his heart [and therefore he told it with great emotion. This well agrees with what is said about this in the Contemplation of the Good Use of Solitude, where it shows how such a reminder soon serves a man either to greater humiliation if he has not used such signs of mercy well or to the praise of God if he has made good use of them with the aid of the Holy Ghost. Both are a pleasing natural fruit that such a soul offers in solitude to its dearest Savior, who is greatly refreshed by it.]

Because my dear Savior, who putteth all aright, has put this Contemplation of the Use of Solitude into my hands [and before my eyes], I recognize better what a benefaction it is that God has led us into this wilderness, where we are removed from the hubbub of the world. To be sure, there is no lack of external and internal enemies; but we do not have as many obstacles from the bustle of the world as others in Germany and other places who, if they have faith, can still overcome them. [From now on our loving Savior will grant us mercy to make far better use than previously of this beautiful opportunity in this wilderness, into which we came not without a regular calling. May the Lord abundantly bless the dear minister for the Contemplation he has sent and let him have great joy in his family and all his congregation. Since I took more time in town, I finished this text only today, mainly because at the end of Monday’s prayer meeting someone asked me not to rush through it so that he would have a greater benefit from it.]

Thursday, the 5th of November. Today I spoke with two men [a couple of men]. One of them wished to perform faithfully what he had heard at the prayer meeting. He said it will be easy now to turn his heart toward Jesus during working time too because his present work is an easy one; but, when he has to work harder again, he will not be able to. But I answered him that he should garner a store during his present work and then it will be easy afterwards during the harder work too to get along with the Lord Jesus. One must fight for it, and one will accustom oneself through practice. [Another man told how it had come especially to his mind last night that God would show him mercy today. I told him that God would rather do it today than tomorrow, and I reminded him particularly of the words of Isaiah 30:18.] Motivated by his conversation, I told the other man the words of Isaiah 30:18: “And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you.” In the evening after the prayer meeting I recommended to him the following words of verse 19 to read later: “He will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of the cry; when He shall hear it He shall answer thee.”

The late Moshammer’s widow /Maria Gruber/told me her husband /Peter/ had said he sometimes became very tired from hearing God’s word even more than from working. The reason for that had been that he listened seriously with all his physical and spiritual strength, which had been weakened by hardships and severe sicknesses, and had tried hard to take it all to heart and mind. Concerning the first words of the third article: “I believe in the Holy Ghost,” he said they are very important. When you reach these words you must keep calm and think about them. [His widow recognizes well that she lost something great in her husband; she would have liked to keep him longer; but, since it pleased God otherwise, she at least hoped to see him again in eternity through the grace of God.] Not long before his death he told his wife she should always try not to remain behind.

Friday, the 6th of November. My /Boltzius’/return from Savannah was delayed much more than I could have expected; for my fellow travelers and I reached the Salzburgers’ plantations only at nine o’clock yesterday evening. Because it was cold and dark, I had to spend the night here. This morning I held the edification hour and baptized the child of Dresler, whose wife had unexpectedly borne a daughter during his absence. My present travel has had many advantages, of which I can tell only a few here. On the way down I visited Peter Reiter, who is lying sick near Purysburg; and he was very pleased at my visit and encouragement. I spoke to his heart from the verse Hebrews 2:17-18 and used the gospel for next Sunday concerning the superabundant strength of Christ in healing a sick woman and in reviving a dead one. Thereupon we prayed.

It was a comfort to him that the Lord Jesus had been led into temptation kata panta⁶ in just the way that he, Peter Reiter, was being tempted. For example, He too had to allow His limbs to be torn apart, He had also come among strangers who were mostly irreligious and worldly. He had borne these and all other sufferings and temptations for us and for our reconciliation. He also knows how all His members feel, even this Reiter, who has been honestly converted to Him. He knows and recognizes what bites and burns, He well understands how a sick person feels and He will let him profit from all his suffering through His omnipotent, wise, and kind providence, and He will finally save him from it. The re-setting of his leg takes no end, for which reason he must indeed suffer the most excruciating pain. Although in this regard he often thought, and still thinks, of his trip to the siege of St. Augustine, I nevertheless told him that God is not acting toward him in anger, but rather everything that is happening to him is part of His fatherly and salutary chastisement and that there is no wrath in it. For the God who forgives sins for the sake of Christ also sends all punishments, and there is no anger left. He had a certain request, which he revealed to me with tear-filled eyes, but his spirits soon came to rest and peace again.

I had scarcely reached N. [Savannah] before a little girl, [is among the children in the orphanage and] who had been called to her sick mother /Ursula Meyer/, told me that her mother was asking for me. When I came to her, the first thing she did was to accuse herself of being a great sinner. Contrary to my expectation and in the presence of various people she confessed such a quantity of sins against the eighth commandment that I was all the more appalled [because she had previously appeared to us and others as a pious and Godfearing person]. She pointed out two places where her stolen goods were lying, which she wished to have fetched and returned to their rightful owners. Hereupon I questioned her and her little girl more deeply; for several weeks ago it had already seemed suspicious to me that the latter had [brought] so many, and also expensive things and clothes [to our place]. Even though I had investigated the matter then in N. [Savannah], I had been unable to find anything definite. Through this violent fever God extracted more than I and others were able to expect or were willing to believe.

I gave her instruction from the law and the gospel and showed bow she might free herself of all her sins. I happened to have a little medicine with me which I gave to her and which our loyal Physician and Savior has obviously blessed. It will not please N.N. and a few others [the Herrnhuter Hagen and a few Englishmen who are on his side] that this woman [whom he is trying to win to his party] has used my office in this way. I visited her several times and commended her to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. She is inclined to come to Ebenezer.

Several times I held edification hours in the evening for the German people, during which I have been able to detect clearly the blessing and effective power of the Holy Ghost. God be praised! Also, three children were baptized, the third one only yesterday morning, because of which my return journey had to be deferred longer. The parents, who are otherwise accustomed to give gluttonous feasts at baptisms, were severely warned not to sin against God by such misbehavior and disgrace the baptism their little children would receive. A very wicked father, who does not even respect the means to salvation, is now getting better thoughts. Other people spoke boldly to him, and he promised me to improve. Dresler’s matter is now settled, so we are pleased. [Our letters have been delivered, for forwarding, to Colonel Stephens, who has received new letters and will therefore make arrangements to send his and our letters as quickly as possible. He has received news that some sixty Salzburgers are underway and are expected toward Christmas. May God lead them with His eyes.]

The matter of Mr. Thilo’s provisions has been put into perfect order at the storehouse; and an additional 5 ь 17 sh. 7 d. has been paid to me for him, which he was still to receive for provisions for the first three years, which ended already early in the year 1740.

In Savannah there are no foodstuffs to be had for money; and therefore they prefer to give money instead. I had a safe opportunity to transmit fifty-five pounds to the righteous planter /Jonathan Bryan/ who had bought horses for us and wishes to supply rice for the orphanage and for the newly arriving Salzburgers. In a little letter I asked him again for the rice, which will hardly be obtainable this year; and I also asked him to deliver it into the storehouse in Savannah.

Mr. Jones and Colonel Stephens paid me 77 ь Sterl., which is to be applied to constructing the mill at the command of the Lord Trustees. In recent days the water has again been rising rapidly, which is something extraordinary this year. It is said to have rained steadily for three months in the mountains.

An honest man from the plantations was fetching medicine in town for his child; and he told me that this child’s words were very meaningful and refreshing for him. Last night, among other things, it said in its violent fever that it believed that the dear Savior would soon take it to its little brother, who died here a few years ago. He and his wife are trying to raise this child of three years, which is their only one, in the fear of the Lord; but in this he realizes that it costs much and is beyond one’s natural abilities. He is very poor, and he and his family lack clothes and blankets for the cold winter season, which has just begun. The Lord, who has now provided salt for the entire community and the orphanage so that we can get it at a very cheap price, will also provide other necessities at the proper time.

Today on the plantations the story of the 15th Chapter of the 2nd Book of Samuel was repeated, and in it we saw what a great honor it is to belong to the order of Emigrants and Exiles, who, to be sure, fare badly in this imperfect world, as we see in the case of Jacob and David, but who stand under the special care of God, who can provide counsel even in the greatest shortage and in the greatest danger. May God grant to all our people the mind of David, who was a faithful and God-trusting exile and wished nothing more than to have a pure divine service, even if everything should go so badly in external matters. [To be sure, there are weaknesses and faults to be found in him, as we can see from v. 34, but for all that the good in him must not be overlooked or even questioned, as is often done in the history of emigrants by malicious people. In this time of war and dearth of all things, our listeners have again been referred to the right strong weapons of Christians and all honest exiles, as shown in the New and Old Testament, that is to say preces and lacrymas.⁷ This we find not only in David, v. 30,31 and Psalm III, but also in Jacob 13:15. Many use these blessed weapons for our benefit in Europe, and thus we shall not lack in them either. The company that these emigrants and exiles must suffer in this world we can also see from David, ch. 15 and 16. He had good and honest people with him who strengthened him always, but also was surrounded by vicious people of all kinds in whose behavior he did not have any share. His conduct in all internal and external circumstances is immeasurably beautiful, and we cannot thank God enough for this heartening and useful story.

Last night there was the first heavy frost of the winter, and I could share, during my stay on the plantations, what it means to be living in a mean hut and to lack sufficient covers and clothing. May God remind our benefactors, in view of our poor congregation, of that which is said of faithful, loving and much tested Job, ch. 29: 12, 15, 16, and ch. 31: 16-20; God surely did not include this text in His holy word for the sake of Job only, but also to move with this beautiful example other Christians and successors who have been blessed with material belongings. And, God be praised, this has happened with many. He is fulfilling His promise in them. Isaiah 58: 7 et. seq.]

Saturday, the 7th of November. Because there are no winter clothes to be got in Savannah, some of the Salzburgers wanted to buy some in Purysburg; but they find all the wares very expensive. Besides that, the tradesmen accept Sterling money only at a quite low value, that is 1 sh. for 9d, which makes a big difference in the total. In Charleston the bills of exchange are still very high, although gold, silver, and our Sola-Bills⁸ are valued very low. Because of that, some of the Salzburgers have resolved to go to Charleston themselves to buy some goods, for which they would get a bill of exchange either from us or from Mr. /Thomas/Jones in Savannah. In this matter we must wait for more divine guidance. We are still lacking a big boat and a helmsman who knows the way exactly. If our people had only gone this way one more time, they would no longer need helmsmen from Charleston. I wish there were someone among us who would collect a lot of goods at reasonable prices. The tradesmen in both Savannah and Purysburg seek very great profits. Because of the war everything is very expensive anyway; and, when the confusion with money and the greediness of the tradesmen are added, then poor people come off badly with their limited money. [We have news that two more merchant ships have arrived at Charleston that have brought all sorts of new goods. We had wished that they had also brought letters for us so that we would know with certainty whether or not it is true, as we read in the Charleston newspaper in Savannah, that war has broken out between Sweden and Russia and also that the French have crossed the Rhine with 60,000 troops, in which case our dear fatherland must have suffered very much again.⁹ May the Lord let all this serve to the good of his servants and children!]

Sunday, the 8th of November. Today two boats with Englishmen arrived at our place. The first arrived during our afternoon prayer meeting and the other one came during our evening prayer meeting. Both times there was a message for me, but we did not let it disturb us in our devotion. In general the people in this area do not attach great importance to Sundays and holy days. So our Lord makes nothing of the violation of the holy commandments, but pursues them with His holy judgments [which, however, are as little recognized as His blessings are]. While I was in Savannah a couple of days ago they buried a captain’s helmsman who had fallen out of a small boat not far away from the shore and was drowned. This same captain sent me a letter by these people, who arrived at our place yesterday evening and continued their journey to Palachocolas. The first boat, which came from Savannah Town, brought us wheat for seed; but instead of letting it disturb us during our prayer meeting, we let it go on to Savannah. Tomorrow our boat will go to Savannah to get salt, which has already been bought for the community and the orphanage at a reasonable price; and I am writing a letter to Mr. Jones to ask him to send the wheat up here together with the salt.

The great cold is continuing day and night; yet we are not disturbed in our prayer meetings either in town or on the plantations. Both children and adults attend diligently, and God is repaying this with much spiritual blessing. We are holding the Sunday prayer in the church too because there is more space and convenience for it than in my house. Because the evenings are getting longer and longer now, we are planning to resume our song lessons soon. It is too bad that the people with good singing voices here mostly moved to the plantations. Perhaps some people who like sacred music will come with the new transport and will wish to join the few here in town for that purpose.

Monday, the 9th of November. [Last week while I was in Savannah the Reformed minister from Purysburg /Chifelle/ was with my dear colleague and informed me through him that he cannot give General Oglethorpe a recommendation for the young Zouberbühler, who is applying for a parish for the Reformed people in Savannah. Although he goes to Holy Communion with him, he does not know him any better than that, except that he once heard him preach. For that reason he had already written to the General and excused himself. This same preacher learned from a surgeon who had returned from Frederica that this Mr. Zouberbühler had also applied for a position as ensign in the regiment and, because he could not receive one, he is now seeking an ecclesiastical office. This sounds rather scandalous. He will not receive a recommendation from us because we do not know him. If we were to report what is told about him in Purysburg and elsewhere, General Oglethorpe would hear some right wicked stories. I shall write to General Oglethorpe this week and will report to him that I know of nothing for which to recommend this young person, yet several Reformed people in Savannah would like to have him because he well suits their purpose.]

There is no preacher now in the whole country of Georgia, except a student of divinity /Barber/in the orphanage at Savannah. But he is not yet ordained and he does not perform any sacraments. In Darien, close to Frederica, the Presbyterian preacher Mr. [Mc]Cloud¹⁰ has moved to Carolina, where he is now preaching. I do not know the actual reasons why he has left his congregation. He is said, incidentally, to be an honest man.

[Zant has suffered losses with his cattle several times; and recently he would have lost several pounds Sterling if a couple of Christian men had not taken a risk on his behalf and borne the greater part of the burden. I am happy that he has received help and relief in this manner because he might otherwise also suffer harm in his Christianity. He has an overly hasty disposition and soon loses hope when hardships and tribulations appear too great and long lasting, and this does him much damage both physically and spiritually. He is supplied with neither a helpmeet nor a plantation. He had joined with the late Peter Gruber to establish a plantation near the town, and they had already made a start. Now that Gruber has been dead and gone for almost a year, Zant has not been able to continue on this plantation, where there are no neighbors at this time, but has cultivated some pieces of land near the town and made a crop on them. God will look out for him also, and we too are always intent on finding him accommodations. He works gladly and always earns something as a day laborer and otherwise and can get along that way. But a regular household is far preferable for such people.]

Tuesday, the 10th of November. The whole community shows great desire for us to buy all kinds of winter clothes and the most necessary things for housekeeping, so we will send a big boat and some men to Charleston for that purpose. Today the people on the plantation sent me an entire catalogue of all sorts of necessary things with which they cannot do without. It is mostly concerned with winter clothing, blankets, cooking utensils, heavy and medium linen, shoes, stockings, soap, etc. It also seems that this trip can be made with God’s will; because there is not only a general demand for necessities but also four men who are ready to undertake this difficult trip. Also young /Jacob/ Kieffer has offered himself as a guide. Today I received a letter from Savannah, in which the captain of the orphanage there¹¹ offered us a passage in his petiagua.¹² We would prefer, however, to use a big boat, which we hope to get gratis from an Indian trader and in which we can bring a large quantity of different things, including salt and rice for the expected transport. I have already ordered a quantity of rice from a pious planter named Jonathan Bryan [who is often mentioned in Mr. Whitefield’s journal, and has provided us with very good mares.] The boat will go to his place first, and then it will go on to Charleston so that two important things can be done all at once. May God grant His blessings to this.

The most difficult thing in this matter is that we do not have any express order to draw a bill at this time. Lacking this, we would suffer great loss with our Trustees’ sola bills; because, like gold and silver, they are accepted at a very low rate in Charleston. [Almost no one in Charleston will accept General Oglethorpe’s regiment-bills for 1 ь Sterl. or less (for there are none for over one pound).] We want to ask Mr. Jones if he could send us a small bill of exchange instead of the sola-bills. But that would not be enough to buy such a quantity of necessary things as would justify the trip. With the kind permission that Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen recently sent us we are going to risk drawing another bill on the well-known Mr. Wm. Tillard in London, in the hope that our dear God will collect enough in Europe for our poor community and our orphanage so that everything can be paid for as it has been previously. [Therefore we will write regarding this to the Court Chaplain.]

To be sure, with God’s blessing our Salzburgers have received food from their harvest, but they cannot sell enough of it to buy clothes and other necessary things; especially since everything is very expensive during this time of war. The little money that they can spend is needed for building houses and a lot of other things. In contrast to the other people in the colony, they have not yet received the bounty for their harvest in 1739, although they have always been given hope as formerly.¹³ They are still to receive something for their work at the mill too, but that is not enough either. Therefore we will advance them the most necessary things from the blessing that the Lord may grant from Europe, and for that purpose we will have to run into debt. We know it is the intention of our worthy benefactors to help our people during their difficult start and not to let any of them come to grief with regard to health or food and even less in their Christianity, as would indeed happen to them if they had to seek work at some other place in order to earn money for clothes and other things.

This afternoon I received letters from Mr. /Thomas/ Jones and /Habersham/ the manager of the orphanage at Savannah. They requested me to unite a couple of Christian people, who are employed in that orphanage; and so it was done in my room in the presence of various Englishmen who had come along. God’s blessing on it! Both Mr. Jones and the manager assured me that I could perform the marriage without any hesitation, because the two engaged persons are beginning their marriage in a Christian manner. If we do not have such an assurance, we will not have anything to do with it. We have been spared from such things for a long time, because everybody knows that we will not unite a couple without the written assurance of the authorities regarding the Christian order in which the engaged people must live.

Thursday, the 11th of November. Several years ago we introduced a praiseworthy custom of appointing a certain time after the harvest for meeting in public in order to awaken ourselves from God’s word, song, and prayer to thank our dear Lord (who watches over our harvest faithfully every year). We scheduled this morning for it in town, and tomorrow we will offen the same thanksgiving sermon on the plantations.¹⁴ The ancient Israelites had been obliged to these exercises by God himself, as is witnessed in the remarkable 26th Chapter of Deuteronomy. This year more than any other, we are obliged to bring our thanksgiving offering to our Lord in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, because we have heard that a lot of people in Carolina and elsewhere have had a very small harvest because of the lack of rain or because of floods. In Europe many a farmer’s crops have been destroyed by the enemy, or he has been disturbed in his enjoyment of the harvest. Under the protection of our Immanuel we are not subject to such things; but along with our good harvest we are able to live calmly and quietly, with all godliness and honest.

During the spring the worms devoured the sprouted grain, but God demonstrated that He is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask.” We sang the beautiful hymn which seemed especially applicable to us: O dass ich tausend Zungen hätte. And before the prayer we profited from the words of the Apostle Paul’s gospel 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God Christ Jesus concerning you.” From that we clearly learned: 1) who is able and obliged to realize his evangelical Christian duty, 2) for what purpose it should be performed, 3) what obligates and drives us to do it. In the evening prayer meeting the first part of the sermon was repeated in public, and this is to be repeated during our next prayer meeting so that both old and young people are impelled through Christ’s power to realize the Proprium¹⁵ of the believers in the New Testament namely, “Prayer also shall be made for him continually (for the Lord Messiah), and daily shall He be praised.” Psalm 72:15. We have learned from Romans 1:21 what a punishable sin the neglect of this duty was even among the heathens.

Our boat returned from Savannah and brought back only part of the salt for the community and orphanage which I had bought and paid for. Our people tell me no reason for this. Yesterday I learned that General Oglethorpe had ordered that many oxen from the Lord Trustees’ cattle in Ebenezer should be herded together and butchered for his regiment. Without any doubt they need the salt very much for themselves. Perhaps we will get a big trading boat so that we can buy a large quantity of salt in Charleston and bring it here. In the meantime what has been brought up has been so distributed that nobody is prevented from slaughtering. We are just sorry that we sent the big boat to Savannah half loaded and have burdened four men, who have their hands full at home. Things like that happen sometimes if we are not present ourselves, but this runs counter to our own function in our community.

If the trip to Charleston takes place (as I do not doubt), it will be absolutely necessary for my dear colleague to accompany them; because we must buy our goods with bills of exchange we do not wish to suffer loss with the sola bills. At the recommendation of Jonathan Bryan, to whom I will write a letter, he will try to become acquainted with a certain merchant in Charleston who is supposed to send us various goods on credit in the future in case of emergency. At his order we will repay him everything with sola-bills, or with bills of exchange, in Savannah or in Purysburg so that it will no longer be necessary for one of us to travel to Charleston in person. Who knows what other purpose, through God’s providence, will be served by traveling with them.

Thursday, the 12th of November. Kieffer’s son-in-law /Depp/ told me that his wife /Anna Elisabeth/has borne a son whom he wishes us to baptize. The baptism was supposed to occur this morning on the father-in-law’s/ Theobald Kieffer’s/ plantation; but, because I was to officiate at the harvest thanksgiving on the plantation, my dear colleague made the trip to Purysburg this morning in my stead. My listeners were waiting already eagerly for me at the place for the divine service in order to unite themselves with me, through singing, the preaching of God’s word, and praying and thanking God for the blessed harvest they had received. I was much encouraged by their eager desire and full attendance; and God granted me much pleasure and physical and spiritual power to preach His word so as to animate us communally to gratitude toward God. May our Lord take pleasure in our simple exercise for the sake of Christ’s expiatory sacrifice and for our high-sacerdotal prayer. May He let Ebenezer become a valley of praise, where it will be written: “Let no hour pass without praising and loving.”

Our Salzburgers and other inhabitants are very busy at this time with preparing the ground for planting wheat. This year they have to do it mostly by hand, because the horses are not yet trained to plow. They are hindered a lot in their work by tertian and quartan fever (which is the most usual one). But the physical harm is slight compared to the spiritual profit they receive through this lasting cross and tribulation. And because, according to the content of the text we have been contemplating, we should be thankful for everything, these salutary tribulations should not be excluded, but included, with our duty of gratitude. It is written: “Let it come, since it comes from loving hands; it will quickly stop and take an end when God wishes to avert it. Children whom a father should rear to all good things, they seldom thrive well without the rod and discipline. If then I am God’s child, why should I wish to flee, since He wishes to draw me from sin and to something good?”¹⁶ Cf. 1 Peter 2:1-2; 2 Corinthians 12:7.

In dealing with the subject of this edifying verse, we also thought of the words of our loyal Immanuel, “For I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Just as we thank a medical doctor and surgeon when he advances our health with all sorts of amara (bitter medicines)¹⁷ and when he lances and presses boils and cauterizes putrid flesh, etc., such thanks are far more due to the true Physician and Savior for the dear cross. But no natural people, but only true Christians, are adept at this; and they must learn it ever better; then all tribulation will become very easy, if one believes what is written in Romans 8:17 and 2 Timothy 2:11-12. Meanwhile we are allowed, indeed commanded, to use our God-given remedies in our sicknesses, which consist so far only in fevers, and also to be helpful to our people in this. And because such remedies have not been adequate in our place so far or [as long experience has taught] not had the desired effect, we have resolved to have the prescriptions that our worthy Councilor N. /Walbaum/ sent us some time ago in cordial love prepared in the prescribed manner and to apply them in God’s name and with trust in His help. We hope that, in Charleston, we can acquire all the ingredients for it that we are lacking here. [We do not wish to take part in any of the incautious cures in this country, but the caution that has been practiced among us so far has a strong dose of negligence and carelessness, as everyone can see.]

Friday, the 13th of November. Because he was in Purysburg to baptize two children, my dear colleague also visited the sick Peter Reiter and learned that his leg is now beginning to improve. The most important thing, however, is that God’s work is beginning to reveal itself gloriously in his soul and that he is finding all sorts of physical harm, pain, and discomfort bearable because of the grace of God in Christ, in which he is participating as a truly penitent sinner. With others of his sort he had sinned gravely against the pious people among us, and this causes him pain in his soul. For this reason he wishes to apologize to the entire congregation for his sins and vexations.

The surgeon has sent me a note announcing that the expenses for Ernst’s care amount to 11 ь Sterl., which we had surely not expected. In German money it amounts to more than a hundred guilders; yet he believes that he has done a great deal gratis and is not requesting any payment for it because the man is poor. In this we wish to do whatever is in our power. I will also ask Mr. Oglethorpe and Mr. Jones for a contribution. The Lord’s arm has not been shortened, He will know how to give counsel and aid in this and other difficulties that burden us in the congregation.

Saturday, the 14th of November. We have obtained a trading boat from Palachocolas in which we can bring a great many things from Charleston at one time. Because God is facilitating this journey Himself through His providence and has made us and our congregation look forward to it eagerly, we have fully resolved in His name to go and we expect His blessing and aid on the journey. Armed with God’s word and prayer, my dear colleague /Gronau/ traveled with three men in the said boat to Savannah in order to preach to the German people there tomorrow. /Theobald/ Kieffer and his son /Jacob/will follow to show our people the way to Charleston and also to tend to their own business there. I have written to several people asking them to further our purpose in this journey.

Sunday, the 15th of November. Crause’s serving girl was injured on her eye; and, because he does not wish to fail to help her, he took her to the surgeon in Purysburg and left her for several weeks of treatment. Now he has fetched her back again; and, although improvement is still only hoped for, he still had to pay 20 sh. Sterl. This same Crause brought me a letter from the recently mentioned German captain /Lindner/ on a Purysburg plantation in which he thanked most gratefully for the medicines recently sent from Halle, which, with divine blessing, helped him back to health.¹⁸ If we had enough such proven medicines and if it were our office to serve the people of our place with them whenever necessity demanded, we do not doubt that God would give His blessing so that the fever would decrease among us, would not last so long, and would not return again so often.

Monday, the 16th of November. The Negroes who recently broke out of jail in Savannah in all their chains and manacles have been caught in Carolina not very far from us. The authorities in Savannah have, to be sure, requested them again and even put a high price on each of their heads, yet they have been sent to Charleston.¹⁹

The discord that has existed for several years between Carolina and Georgia has also done much harm to the trade with the Indians. The traders who depend on that province and have their Indian-trading licenses from there do not get along with the traders from our colony; and some of them, in order to draw more Indians to themselves, offer their wares cheaper than others, even though they suffer a loss thereby.²⁰ Now they would like to change things, but this would incite the suspicious Indians against them. Therefore the Indian traders are incurring debts they will never be able to pay. From the Indians they buy only all sorts of skins, which must always remain at the same price; but they take advantage of the Indians with regard to the weight. It is surprising that they do not ask the Indians for deer horns, which are consumed in great quantities in Europe for all sorts of uses and could be obtained from the Indian women for very little. Our clockmaker /Müller/, who can run a lathe, has used some for buttons, knife handles, etc. and finds them as good as in Germany.

Tuesday, the 17th of November. The wheat which came from Augusta last week as seed and which I bought for this purpose has been received very eagerly, and there are many requests for more. Therefore I would like to have an opportunity somewhere in this country to buy some more as seed for our people, because they are very desirous to plant wheat and other European grains. I do not consider it by chance that God granted us several bushels of wheat and oats as seed in the very same week in which we brought our dear God public thanks for the harvest we had received. At the same time, and without our selecting it, we made a start to prepare a bit of land for planting grapes. Similarly, last week things worked out for us to send a large boat to Charleston in order to buy inexpensive clothes, blankets, and other necessities. This reminded me of the verse: “Whosoever offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him who ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.” Our people are yearning for summer wheat and summer rye, but we do not yet know whether we will be able to get any. Perhaps it will be possible for us to get such things and other necessary seeds, for example flax, from a good friend in New York or Pennsylvania. Today I am going to write General Oglethorpe to thank him for the wheat and oats we received through his help; and I shall also mention that our people also desire the summer crops and flax. But the main purpose of this letter will be to intercede for the unfortunate Ernst so that he may receive some help in order to pay the 11 ь Sterl. he owes for medical treatment. The orphanage will not fail to give him and his family some tokens of charity if the dear Lord lets His wells of blessing continue to flow to it; but at present it is not possible for us to pay such a sum of money for him.

Wednesday, the 18th of November. The authorities in Savannah wish me to notify them as to the total of our harvest, because the Lord Trustees have to be informed every year about everything that has been harvested in the whole country. They do not desire to know about wheat, melons, peanuts, and other things God has granted us this year but only the quantity of Indian corn, beans, rice, and sweet potatoes. This year few sweet potatoes were planted because many of their seeds and seedlings had rotted in the fall and winter on account of all the great humidity. Afterwards the mice and ants ate the planted potatoes so that there were not many vines from which to get sweet potatoes (that being the kind that grow most abundantly). Yet the people are well content that God had granted enough for them and others to plant in the future.

Because I not only have the whole amount of the harvest but have also registered the amount of every single head of family on the plantations and here in town today in my notebook, I shall try to find some little space here so that the name of the Lord will be praised by us and others, not only in general but also for each gift that each family has been granted.²¹

Someone told me that N. /Ernst/ had sinned against his wife with hard words in anger, so I lost my hope that his penitence had been real. He had already asked me to come to his place at the end of the week; but my blood-letting, indisposition, and important business kept me from coming to him. He was unaware of the said affair: if he had said and done such things in a paroxysm of temper, in which he is often beside himself, he is heartily sorry, as he has already told his neighbor. He well knows that he had previously used such bad language, to which he has grown accustomed, so some of these old things may arise unconsciously and contrary to his thought and against his will. I find him very serious in his penitence; and he recognizes and regrets his sins deeply and from his heart; and he asks only for the Savior of poor sinners, Jesus Christ, to forgive him all his sins and to wash him in His blood and to take him thus to heaven from this miserable world, where he no longer desires to live. His remorse is honest and his longing for Christ is ardent and reveals itself through constant sighs and tears so that I greatly rejoiced at recognizing the grace that is being revealed in him.

I hope that our dear Savior has also accepted this great sinner and will dine with him here in spirit and there at the table of His glory. He remembers that he insulted and annoyed not only me but many people in the congregation, and that is why he wishes to apologize publicly through my person. I asked him whether he wished to take Holy Communion before his departure from the world. Thereupon his face showed joy and, with tears in his eyes, he said he would consider it a great benefaction if he could still attain it. Oh, how he thanked me for not permitting him the Lord’s Table in an impenitent condition. Because he had taken it badly in his blindness, he is now very sorry. Both the sick man and his wife recognized that they would have had to pay at Doomsday if they had received the venerable sacrament some time ago.

I asked the wife whether she too wished to prepare herself through hearty prayer to take Holy Communion with her husband tomorrow morning. Thereupon the husband turned to her very seriously and asked whether she considered herself worthy, for it is very important. The wife is on a good path too, and she recognizes now much better than before what an evil sin is and what it causes. I admonished them both to a Christian preparation, directed my prayer with them to this end, and promised to come back to them tomorrow morning. The man is much like the son who was lost and found again, especially in that he could only be brought back after great physical tribulations and judgments.²² He was received even though his purpose in returning was not very pure at first. How miserable and dried out his whole body must have appeared, since he had to support his life just from the husks and was hardly able to get even them. This man’s body is so scrawny and miserable that there is nothing to see but skin and bones. Yet, be he as miserable as he can be, it is written: “There will be joy among the angels of God for a sinner who does penance.” Today he again said that, if God had not given him that tribulation, he would never have converted but would have perished in his false security. Still, he is very content with everything God has ordained for him.

Thursday, the 19th of November. I was met on the street by a pious woman who was planning to come to me in order to complain that she was not progressing in her Christianity: she sees nothing but sin and perdition in herself, etc. I told her briefly what she already knows from God’s word, that our Father in heaven demands from us human beings, whom His Son has reconciled to Him through an eternal redemption, no more than what pious parents demand of their children when they have sinned: namely, they must recognize their wrongs, rue them sincerely, apologize for them, and promise and effect an improvement. That is the way God wishes us to be. That is the way we should come and request mercy in the name of His beloved Son. When a child insults its parents and then comes to them in that way, I think they will have already forgiven everything, even before the child finishes asking for pardon, as you can clearly see in the image of the father in Luke 15.

During that parable I remembered what our Lord Jesus Christ had said: “Except ye be converted, and become as little children.” Oh, what damage is done to good souls when they imagine our heavenly Father, who has been reconciled through Christianity, as more severe than natural fathers are towards their children! “Like as a father pitieth his children,” etc. God has a fatherly spirit, and our pain pains Him. It is written not only “Father,” but the true Father of all who can be called a Father of all mercy, a God of all grace, etc., rich in mercy on all those who invoke Him, even if they are the poorest and most miserable.

This morning I found N. /Ernst/ physically weak and full of pain, yet patient and content with God’s dispensation. Before I came to His hut, I had heard from Sanftleben, who had talked to him and prayed with him yesterday evening, a fine testimony of his desire for Christ and His Redemption. Because I wished to hold Holy Communion with him and his wife, I talked to both of them from the Order of Salvation²³ and reminded them that our Lord Jesus has assumed the sins of all men and has paid for them with His own blood and life. Because of that, our heavenly Father wishes to forgive all sins, even the worst, of all those who recognize and repent their sins and believe in Jesus.

At this point he interrupted me and said: “Our Lord Jesus had enough to do with all my many sins.” By this he meant to indicate the size and quantity of his sins, for which he was truly sorry. In addition he revealed to me that, after emigrating from his Bavarian homeland to the Empire,²⁴ he took a false baptismal name because he had always had a wicked and deceitful purpose of running away after committing evil deeds here and there because he thought he could remain better concealed in that way.

When I examined his wife, he encouraged her sincerely, even though he had found speech very difficult, to desist from her wicked nature and, in the future, to lead a different life before God and with her children. If he were to live longer, then he too wished a Christian life and would no longer insult God as he had formerly done. After I had prayed a confession to God for them and asked them about their penitence, faith in Christ, and their new resolution and had received good answers, I gave absolution in the name of and at the command of the triune God, which they sealed with a humble and confident “Amen.” They received Holy Communion with such yearning that I and two other people who were watching were deeply impressed. Finally I instructed them concerning what a treasure our Lord Jesus had granted them through His holy body and blood, and I thanked God and recited Psalm 23 for them in prayer. Because he could receive only a few drops of wine (since he can drink only a little bit), he asked me whether it would be enough. I satisfied him by quoting the little verse: “Thy blood, the noble juice, has such strength and power that even a little droplet can cleanse the entire world,” etc.²⁵

Yesterday evening there were three people with him, and during the night two, who read to him, prayed for him, and encouraged him. Despite his great physical weakness, he diligently requested people to read good things to him. Peter Reiter’s wife told me that, when she visited her sick husband on his harsh sickbed in Purysburg, he had said that, if our dear God had not attacked him so sharply, he would probably still be hurrying with false security on the broad way to hell; and this other man also recognizes and confesses this. God be praised for His ineffable grace!

Friday, the 20th of November. N. /Ernst/ died last night between eleven and twelve o’clock as fast as you can snuff out a light. After Holy Communion he hoped that the Lord Jesus would soon redeem him from this sinful and miserable world; and this hope was fulfilled sooner than I and the others had expected it to be. Among other things, Sanftleben had called this verse to his mind: “I know that my Redeemer liveth.” After that he asked quite impatiently several times, “Do you believe He will soon redeem me too?” He was content after being assured of this. We had noticed not the least impatience in him on his hard sickbed, and this too was testimony of the grace that had changed his heart. Formerly he had been a very angry, impatient, and unbearable man.

Yesterday I told some pious people about the grace God had granted this man for his conversion; and they rejoiced heartily at this great sinner’s penitence and praised God for it. I joined some righteous people in the orphanage, and we invoked God to continue helping him with his grace during his final struggle. He did this abundantly and gloriously as a faithful and true God. After receiving Holy Communion he had not wished to eat or drink anything more; he just said he was satisfied now and did not need anything more. He wished his dear brother Sanftleben /upon whom he could hardly look in his unconverted condition/ to come and pray with him as long as he could still hear, because he would die the following night.

During the reading from Schaitberger²⁶ he asked Sanftleben whether he thought God had forgiven him this and that sin. Because he received a favorable reply, he said: “Well, now I wish to die.” Before his death he was once again able to speak loudly, and he told his wife that she should not continue her old sinful ways but convert herself righteously. Thus she too would become a child of bliss. He would pray for her in eternity so that she might follow him into the kingdom of heaven. He had held his eyes constantly raised to heaven and had moved his tongue; and from these and other motions you could see that he was always sighing to God.

He told his little daughter that, if she wished to go to bed now, it would be the last time she could see him alive, for tomorrow morning he would be dead. During the night he asked Mrs. Sanftleben whether midnight and therefore his hour of departure would come soon. She had only assumed it, she could not tell him definitely; so he told her that he felt in his breast that midnight would come soon. She should call Sanftleben once again; and he still recognized him and still understood what he was calling to him. At last he beat his breast and then passed away. Doubtless there resounded in his heart the words: “God have mercy on me poor sinner,” then he entered into God’s house justified.

The day after tomorrow, God willing, we will treat the gospel for the twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity concerning the joys of eternal life. For our exordium we will have, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been,” etc. To be sure, N. /Ernst/ had been faithful over few and he had belonged to those who had agreed to work in the Lord’s vineyard only in the eleventh hour, yet he is deemed worthy to go into the joy of the Lord. “How great is the mercy of the Lord and His forgiveness for those who turn to Him.” Oh how great is the Lord’s mercy, which graciously reveals itself to those who convert themselves to Him.

Saturday, the 21st of November. This morning N. /Ernst/ was brought to town from his plantation, which is near the Savannah River, and was buried in the churchyard, because it was much easier to bring him to town on the water instead of taking the long and crooked way to the cemetery on the plantations. After the dirge had been sung in the house from which the body was to be carried, we read the important and most comforting 15th Chapter of Luke. Whoever had known him during his earlier days and his last days must say that it applied perfectly to him. At the churchyard I said something about the verse, “Jesus receiveth sinners and dines with them” for the edification of the pallbearers and discussed in some detail this and that about his true conversion.

Some pious people from the plantations had also come for the funeral; and, with the people from town, they accompanied this man, for whom God had shown His miraculous love, to his place of rest. Formerly he had been a very lazy, disorderly, and unfaithful parishioner. Because he had injured his left hand and could not work anymore, he spent his time in reading God’s word and the late Arndt’s books on true Christianity and on the Passion Story. Because he had also begun to pray, God set His work on him in such a way that He is to be praised and glorified on earth and in heaven. When a pious woman heard about this man’s repentance, she praised God for it and said, “Behold, from the multitude of miserable sinners our blessed God maketh blessed children.”

Sunday, the 22nd of November. On this last Sunday of the church year our dear God has made, if not the most glorious, at least a very glorious day by granting us a very rich edification from His holy word. Much was also contributed to our edification by the example of N.²⁷ as a sinner, on whom divine mercy has been made splendidly manifest. After the sermon I had to mention him because of all the vexations he had caused. I am comforted that during this church year our dear God has not called anyone into eternity unprepared, rather the three men who have died since the first Sunday of Advent fell asleep in the wounds of Jesus, as did some children who were taken away from us by temporal death during this year. Thus, after their departure from this world, they have heard from the dear mouth of our Lord Jesus the words, “Oh, thou good and faithful servant, thou hast. . .,” and they will hear, “Come, ye blessed of my Father,” etc.

Today our listeners were told that, if our gracious God had not borne the unrepentant sinners among us with great patience and forbearance and if He had not given them time and place to come to penitence, many of them would have experienced the terrible judgment that befell the unprofitable servant in Matthew 25:28-30, and they would have had to suffer in such judgment in all eternity. However, today He has wished, by holding up the joy of eternal life, to lure and incite us to penitence and true righteousness and thus to a God-pleasing preparation for a blessed hour of death. It is not without purpose that God let Peter Gruber die at the beginning of this church year, Simon Steiner after him, and Ernst at the end of this church year. He wished to show what He could do with many in the congregation; but He had not yet found them ripe for eternity. That surely means: God has patience with us and does not desire for anyone to be lost but that everyone turn to penitence. Glory and praise be to His holy name for ever and ever. Amen.

Monday, the 23rd of November. Yesterday evening a thunderstorm arose with heavy lightning and brought us a lot of wind and rain. May our Lord rule according to His free power, but only in a way that is useful and good for His creatures.

Last Friday I returned home sick from the plantations and had to suffer somewhat that afternoon and the following evening from a fever that caused me much pain in my body and all my limbs. But God heard our sighs and blessed our use of our blessed medicines in me, so that on Saturday morning I was freed of all my pain, even of the pain in my breast. Thus I was able to attend the burial, joyfully hold the evening prayer meeting, and prepare myself from God’s word for Sunday; and I also accomplished some business. Yesterday I was stronger in body and mind than I have been for a long time /which I mention only in order to praise God/, so that I was able to edify myself with the members of our dear congregation three times from God’s word and through prayer.

The late Dr. Richter is very useful to us with all his blessed medications and gives us much occasion to praise God. However, we are refreshed most by his songs and his other good reports. At last night’s prayer meeting, in order to clarify a certain point I had made in the sermon, I read the parishioners the edifying letter the late Dr. Richter had written to his mother about the faithful and blessed departure of his brother from this world. Through it our dear God granted me and others much edification and encouragement at the conclusion of this last Sunday of this church year, which has been so blessed for us. Now we must say, “Make your lamps ready and fill them with oil.”

This morning Johann Paul Mueller (the clock-maker’s only son) married the girl Anna Maria Kraemer, the only daughter left by a German servant who died in Savannah. During this wedding the 15th Psalm was brought to the attention of the bridal couple and their friends. If married people conduct their lives as we see in examples of the patriarchs and others in scripture, especially in Zachariah and Elisabeth, they will be happily married forever. And this should always be the aim of a Christian life; otherwise it would just be a life of misery.²⁸

Tuesday, the 24th of November. We have again held our edification hour twice at the mill because many men are working there. They are working seriously now, and on the side where the water had torn a hole they are now driving strong pilings with such force that one must marvel. The water is getting higher again, and this is making the work much more extensive. Still, they hope to make the mill operate as soon as the river falls again.

An Englishman not far from Savannah sent me a letter asking me to come down to baptize his child, which is already four weeks old and has now become sick. However, I answered him that I cannot leave my congregation during my dear colleague’s absence and that he should look around for another minister. If they wish to be married, they will travel or send a long way to get a minister who will please them and do what they wish; but in the case of a baptism most of them do not wish to take much or any trouble or expense to send a boat or bring the child. The Englishman simply wants me to come down to baptize the child and thinks that I can merely use the people from our place to carry me down there. However, we are rightly cautious because our inhabitants already have enough work and have to make many other unnecessary trips.

Wednesday, the 25th of November. A pious man complained that it grieves him greatly that he is often hindered from the common morning prayer with his family. The children are ill and restless so that his wife is tired and exhausted in the morning and therefore needs rest. I told him not to worry about this, because there is no express commandment saying that we are obligated to pray at a given time or under certain conditions. If he could not pray with his wife very early before his work, then perhaps it would be possible during the early hours or at some other time. Whatever his wife is doing for their children day and night in faith and from obedience and from love for Christ is a divine service too. And it will be true someday that “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

To counter the doubts that occur to this man during his prayers, I presented him some of Christ’s promises with the words: “Let His words be certain to you, and even if your heart says only ‘No,’ then let,” etc.²⁹ He remembered that it has now been ten years since God deigned to have him expelled from Salzburg with his fellow countrymen. He had had a very strict governor, of whom he had been afraid and because of whom he feared he might not hold firmly to the truth he had discovered but apostatize. He had devoted himself to prayer; but then in an hour of need he had felt great joy at confessing the truth to the authorities, a joy greater than he had ever felt before. He marvels at God’s miraculous guidance and is humbly pleased with all the good he has received. N.’s /Ernst’s/ blessed death made a great impression on him as it did on other pious people because he had known him previously during his state of impenitence and disbelief. He had considered him the most insolent and evil person at our place, as he actually had been. But God be praised that he had changed and that he had finally become obedient to the gospel Romans 6:17. He was sorry for other people in the congregation who are mired in external respectability³⁰ and are therefore hard to convince of their great danger.

Thursday, the 26th of November. We persuaded N.’s wife not to remain with the external exercises of Christianity, where many defects may be found, but to recognize her deep perdition and disbelief through the chastisement of the Holy Ghost. I reminded her again of the verse: “Thou knowest not that thou are wretched, and miserable.” It would be frightful if someone were to be found among those people who are introduced so expressively in the Wisdom of Solomon, Chapter 5: “It was we who strayed from the way of truth.”

During their time of grace they had thought themselves wiser than the pious people, and they considered their own way the way toward heaven, even though it led to hell. It says of the broad way: “Many there be which go in thereat,” whereas it says of the narrow way: “and few there be who find it,” namely, because they are not looking for it in Godly order. On the other hand, no searching and finding are necessary for the broad way to hell, for everyone walks on that way from nature. She has more literal knowledge than her very ignorant husband. I admonished her to help him come to a better understanding, which could happen only if she would become righteous. In that man there is no more zeal to learn, otherwise he would come diligently to God’s word and would miss no opportunity to observe, repeat, question, and pray about it. She was now speaking better than before, but deep in her heart she still may not believe that she is in a damned condition and is still walking on the broad way.

In the meantime I had to tell her what I think about her so that she can never say, “This is the man who did not tell me the truth clearly and did not warn me enough against self-deception.” She said she believed that I did not wish her to go on a wrong path, but on the right path, for everything I told her agreed with God’s word. Her neighbor is again beginning to go to church regularly every Sunday and to appear to be devout, for he had withdrawn himself from the divine services for some time out of sheer opposition to our office. Yet we see no further evidence that he hates his former life and is letting himself be convinced that he has not made the least start in a true Christianity. As often as we try to persuade him of that, just as often we burden ourselves with an almost unreconcilable hate.

Friday, the 27th of November. The widow from Purysburg³¹ of whom we recently reported something arrived at our place today with her three little children and all her things in order to go to church and keep her children in school. She had very wicked parents and a very wild husband, who died a miserable death in the water. We shall soon see whether or not she is going to do the right things. May God bless His word in her for her conversion! She understands tailoring, with which, if she is honest, she will be able to serve the community, and from this she too will profit. Gottlieb Christ is the only tailor among us, and he can do just a tenth of the work that needs to be done.

In Dresler, who recently came to us from Savannah, Kogler has received a knowledgeable and loyal co-worker, who has worked with water power in Germany. Dresler also has some good ideas concerning our damaged dike, so we hope that the damage will turn to our advantage and to the strengthening of the entire mill dike. The pilings are being driven very orderly and successfully on various sides with united forces; and many fascines have been prepared for filling the holes and dangerous spots very fast and for covering them with earth. We see it as a merciful dispensation of God that this man has come to our help in this important water work quite contrary to our expectation and without our desire. He also fits in very well with the Salzburgers because of his Christian simplicity and honesty.

Some months ago they cut lots of wood in the forest that they were intending to use in another way to strengthen the dike and to avert further breakthroughs by the water; but it would not have been so practical or useful. This wood can now be used very suitably, because it has been cut apart with a board saw and prepared as pilings. Since these are hard and thin, they can be driven very deep into the hard earth as if they were tipped with iron, which could not possibly be done here for lack of a smith and sufficient means. If it should please our dear God to let the water go down, we hope to be able to use the mill soon again, and for this we will all praise God. Sometimes I remember that General Oglethorpe had, not without reason, feared that the mill would not be able to stand firm in the strongly running water, for the river flows very violently here when it rises. We will learn from the damage, but we are not sorry we placed the mill here. Even if it requires more labor and money, it is more useful than if it had been placed on a river like Ebenezer Creek, which is fed only by rain and some little springs and is almost dry at some places during the summer. Our heavenly Father has already granted many expenses for it, so He will easily grant even more. “For when he speaks, so it comes to pass; when He commands, it already stands.”

Saturday, the 28th of November. Praise be to God who has again let us conclude a church year with blessings and in peace. We concluded it in our home prayer meeting in the evening and publicly with God’s word and prayers. We confessed to our Lord our sins of commission and omission and begged Him in Christ’s name to forgive us; and we renewed our resolution, through the help of the Holy Ghost, to live an honest Christian life from now on so that someday all of us in the congregation will be able to sing an eternal hallelujah in heaven for all the blessings we have received. In our Old Testament story tonight we finished the 16th chapter of 2 Samuel. From it the spiritual emigrants received much instruction and consolation on their way to eternity. Although it was very cold, especially in the evening, the parishioners who live near town did not let it keep them from attending the prayer meeting diligently.

May God grant that the eager desire for His word and its faithful application and preservation will always be combined; for then they will find a blessed profit from it even in eternity. It is an ineffable kindness of God that none of them, neither adults nor children, died unprepared during the last church year. It is said that Spielbigler, who moved to Charleston some time ago with his mother, died over there, which news makes me shudder, for he would not let himself be warned. If he were dead, his mother could palpably see that God had overthrown the support on which she had so greatly depended and perhaps He wishes this judgment to lead her to penitence. In the long run it cannot turn out other than bad when people separate themselves arbitrarily from the means of salvation that God grants at our place, either through hate for our office or for worldly reasons. What begins and continues in sin can last no longer than the nature of Absalom and Ahithophel, of which we heard some important points today.

Sunday, the 29th of November. Our good and pious God granted us much edification from His word on the first Sunday of the new church year. He also repaid in my soul the spiritual work I have had to do in the congregation because of my dear colleague’s absence and which has made my body quite weak; and He let me perceive some fruit in my parishioners. In this year, in addition to the regular gospels, we shall use the Sunday and holy day epistle lessons as a basis for our edification, after having catechized the entire catechism last year with much spiritual profit. It so prepared both the ministers and the congregation that all of us, be it this year or in the following ones, can go into our joy and be together forever in the church triumphant.

Monday, the 30th of November. General Oglethorpe has donated 5 ь Sterling to our community with which, according to his order, I have bought young white mulberry trees from an Englishman in this colony; and these were brought here on Saturday. There are twelve hundred of them, and twenty-two such young trees will be allotted to each family. To be sure, they are very small, but that does not matter because, as we have already seen from the test at the orphanage, they grow rather high in one year and are usable soon thereafter. In all this we see what God has granted us, including the new transport, which will have the advantage that everyone who has an inclination for it will be supplied with peach and mulberry trees (of which a good quantity of seeds have grown at our place this year).

If our people had had instruction right away in making silk, as they now have, and if they had been supplied with a good number of white mulberry trees, then they would now be enjoying a considerable advantage with little effort. However, the first establishment in Old and New Ebenezer were so difficult for the first three transports that they could not have become involved in such things. They lacked private property for a long time? and, after they finally acquired it, they had to concentrate, with God’s blessing, on producing those foods that are the most common and most sure. The mulberry trees must stand in a place that is protected by a good fence, for otherwise the leaves are devoured by cattle and especially by deer. It happened to the young Kieffer that he had, to be sure, sown good seeds for white mulberries in his land yet received a wild variety. That is said to occur sometimes, but we do not know the reason for it.

It is a major difficulty for farmers in this country that they must well fence in everything they sow and plant, because everything would be destroyed by wild pigs and cattle that are free to run around in the town and the fields.³² Especially the fields where wheat, rye, barley, etc. are sown must be protected with a firm fence of stakes, otherwise the sprouted seed is not safe from wild animals, especially from the little hares, which creep through the smallest holes. The raccoons, which look almost like monkeys, and the wild cats, are caught by the dogs and the hares are caught by the house cats.³³ Little can be accomplished by shooting, since they make their forays at night.

DECEMBER

Tuesday, the 1st of December. Ruprecht Steiner is running the school at the plantations very properly, he treats the children in a very tender and fatherly way, and he is led to all necessary truth by the Holy Ghost that dwells in him. In addition to spelling and reading he teaches them all sorts of Bible verses, which I have them recite to me when I go out there on Tuesdays and Fridays for the edification hour. I also let the children recite their reading lessons to me, and from that Steiner can better learn the method we consider the easiest and most comprehensible for the children. He is poor in spirit and considers himself quite unworthy of this important work. However, because he prays diligently, studies in advance, and controls himself before teaching and controlling others, God has glory, the children have profit, and we have joy from his work and behavior.

When I came home I found my dear colleague /Gronau/ at home fresh and healthy. Our dear God had led him and his traveling companions in such a way that we are fully convinced that the trip occurred according to His gracious and good will and that much good had been accomplished with his blessing to the advantage of the whole congregation. The goods were bought inexpensively and were brought here undamaged and without any danger; and they will be used by pious people with praise to God. God also gave him an opportunity to preach the word of God to the German people in both Charleston and Savannah and to baptize two children.

Wednesday, the 2nd of December. Ott was in Charleston with the others. Because N. /Ernst/had died in the meanwhile and had given so much evidence of a true conversion and a resulting blessed death, this made a deep impression on his spirit. With this emotion he came to Peter Reiter, who told him, with impressive and heart-moving words, of the magnalia Dei¹ which the Lord had done on his soul too during his bodily tribulations. This has again awakened Ott to such a seriousness in his penitence that he can hardly testify it to me without tears. Previously he had sinned with Peter Reiter (as young lads are accustomed to do); and, since God had converted the latter, He is using him as a good tool among his old comrades. He had already resolved to confess openly such sins that others had committed with him and for which he had to feel so much fear in his soul as well as the heavy hand of God on his body; and he had resolved to show his friends the opportunity and circumstances by which they might come to a recognition of their sins and to true penitence.

To be sure, this dear man was fetched from Purysburg last Monday and brought to his plantation; however, he is not yet entirely cured but must walk with difficulty on two crutches. Nevertheless, he is improving; the surgeon let him return to Ebenezer with the certain hope that in some time he will be able to use his injured leg as well as formerly. What the cure will cost, we have not been told. It is good that he is with us again and can enjoy better care and also good company and Christian encouragement.

It is very edifying for me and others to hear that my dear colleague and his traveling companions heard a Moorish slave woman on a plantation singing a spiritual at the water’s edge. After they had come to her master, they learned that, a few days ago, this heathen woman had attained a certain assurance of the forgiveness of sins and the mercy of God in Christ and that she, along with others who love Christ, was shouting and jubilating because of this treasure. Her masters themselves fear God heartily and endeavor by word and example to further the kingdom of Christ in the hearts of men, also in the hearts of their and other people’s Moorish slaves, who gather from the vicinity at this plantation for the sake of spiritual exercises and edification.² On the other hand a certain man told my dear colleague in Charleston something about a certain N. in Carolina that sounded very bad, namely, that he treated his Negroes more tyrannically than any other wicked man in the country.

Previously we had never heard anything about Saxe Gotha in America; but now we hear that it is a city that has been laid out in South Carolina on the way to Orangeburg one hundred English or twenty-five German miles from Charleston and is occupied by Germans. Most of them must be Reformed; a Reformed man, whose character we do not know, is preacher there.³

Thursday, the 3rd of December. The things that were brought in Charleston for the congregation have been distributed in good order by our parishioners; and it is too bad that they will not go far enough for every hut to be completely supplied with necessary clothes. Yet every family has received something; and perhaps our dear God will give an opportunity for them to be served further in the same way. The things were bought inexpensively, and only a small charge has been laid on the more important pieces to cover the travel costs. From that everyone has recovered his expenses abundantly, yet the goods have still remained very inexpensive. For what they have now received for one shilling six pence they would have had to pay at least three shillings in Purysburg or Savannah. Our people have now received these goods for their work at the mill, for which I should have paid them some time ago. I myself do not know what kept stopping me; but now I see that it was so that they would not have to take their little money to Savannah or Purysburg and bring home expensive and shoddy goods. For the orphanage I have had to borrow various items of these goods; and I hope our dear God will soon grant us something in order to pay them back.

Today, already by noon, two employees of the storehouse in Savannah came to us and brought letters and at the same time the news that the dear Salzburgers, for whom we have been waiting a long time, have arrived at Tybee. Mr. Jones has written to my dear colleague Mr. Boltzius that the captain is planning, God willing, to come to Savannah with the ship tomorrow and that it would be good if he were to be present at the time. Therefore in God’s name he traveled already today with said dear friends, who had made the long trip up for our sake.

The dear Lord, who hath helped them so far, will continue to help them at our place so that they will be able to say “Ebenezer!”⁴ It was my prayer when I returned to our place from Charleston that our dear God would help the dear Salzburgers for whom we were waiting so that they too might say what I can now say, namely, “Ebenezer!” And behold! God has now brought them near to us and will soon bring them to us. Hallelujah! Thus God hears our prayers for Christ’s sake. For, all in all, I must confess to the praise of God that on my last trip everything went for me just as I had prayed it would! He showed my soul and my body so much goodness that I do not know of ever having taken such a blessed journey. May the dear Lord never let me forget it! Now the Lord shall be my God!

On the way there I asked Him, among other things, to point out to me a house in Charleston where I might pass my time in quiet; and behold! God heard my prayer. With the man with whom I lodged I could sing and pray both mornings and evenings; and, when I came home at noon from my business, I could compose my spirit in quiet. On the way back I asked the dear Lord, among other things, to bring me at least as far as Savannah before Advent Sunday so that I might spend my time there well with the Germans; and behold! It came to pass. I arrived there early on Saturday and could hold a prayer meeting in the evening and preach to the people twice on the following Sunday, for which the dear Lord strengthened me and prepared me underway.

The dear Lord had also stood by me especially while I was preaching His word in Charleston. A rather large crowd of German people gathered both mornings and afternoons. On the way there I had thought that, if I should have an opportunity to preach in Charleston, I would take the gospel for the Twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity. However, when the time came, I thought it better to lay a short verse on their hearts which they could better note; and the dear Lord granted me the verse from Isaiah 45: “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.” The dear Lord stood by me especially in this sermon and, as noted, did not leave it unblessed. And, since I had used this verse as my basis in the morning, I constructed upon it what is said of the Lord Jesus in the said gospel. May the dear Lord be praised now and forever for all help and blessing!

Friday, the 4th of December. Because the dear Lord had shown me so much goodness on my journey and because we had received the news of the happy arrival of the Salzburgers, we cancelled yesterday’s actual evening prayer meeting in order to praise God publicly and communally. We sang Solt ich meinem Gott nicht singen, nicht danckbar seyn? etc. Then I showed the reason why this prayer meeting actually should be postponed. Thereupon we bent our knees, prayed, and praised God. May the dear Lord let all this please Him for Christ’s sake.

In this evening’s prayer meeting I read the congregation two letters, one from the Commissary /Vigera/, which he had written to us from Savannah and in which he gives us some reports of what the Lord had done for them, including, among other things, that on the whole voyage no enemy ship had met them, which is quite amazing during this time of war. We who belong to the first transport and came here in peacetime experienced things quite differently; yet no pirate ship could have harmed us because God was with us. The other letter was from Court Chaplain Butjenter; and in it he announced, among other things, how the flames of war had broken out everywhere in Europe and are still breaking out. We made use of these circumstances and presented them to the dear Lord in communal prayer.

Saturday, the 5th of December. Today the dear Lord again reminded me of the journey I had taken, and I well recognize that it was made according to His will; and that too brings blessing and comfort in all circumstances. I believe that the trip should have been made neither earlier nor later. If it had occurred earlier, then I would not have experienced what I actually experienced on Mr. Bryan’s plantation; for God had helped the Negro girl through on the evening before I arrived.⁵ Previously she had been in difficult circumstances; but on the evening before my arrival God had granted her comfort and filled her heart with His love, and this is something truly great. It is surely a great thing when God holds such a person in the work of penitence, as He bears witness of it in His words; but it is something even greater when He is finally through.

If I had traveled later, then the dear guests would have arrived while my dear colleague was home alone, and then he would have had to leave either the congregation at Ebenezer or the newly arriving friends alone. But thus they came while I was at home again and after the things we had brought back with us had been put in order. Should one not always allow oneself to be led by such a pious God, since He always knows how to arrange things so well? Yea, yea, I herewith offer myself to Him again, to be and eternally remain His, and to let myself be led by Him alone. May He strengthen me for this through His mercy and through the Holy Ghost.

Sunday, the 6th of December. Today it has been excessively cold; yet the dear parishioners gathered in a good number; and the dear Lord let us hear much good and granted much good to our souls. Also, we baptized Pletter’s child, which had been born the previous night and had been carried to town by the midwife. Although it had been born on such a cold night in a poor hut and had been brought such a long way in the intense cold, one could not see by looking at the child that it had been harmed. Thus our dear Lord knoweth how to preserve such weak little children even in such circumstances! All that should indeed strengthen us in our faith so that we will resign ourselves entirely to Him and be content with all His guidance. Last Thursday Mrs. /Eva Regina/Schweiger also bore a healthy little son into the world. The dear Lord helped the mother through her birth circumstances very quickly, which was all the more marvelous because she had been very much afflicted with epilepsy until then. Thus the dear Lord shows that He can perform far more than we ask or understand. May He be praised and glorified for that!

Monday, the 7th of December. I can well observe that God is in the school with me; and, even though I cannot yet see any really noticeable blessing in the children, I can at least see that they are attentive and listen devoutly. Therefore I have hopes that the Holy Ghost can accomplish something in them all the sooner.

This evening I heard from a pious person that N.’s /Ernst’s/ conversion made a deep impression on the congregation. She had probably never seen so many people at a burial as at his. On the following Sunday, she continued, she had been walking with another person and had come to the grave of this man who had died so blessedly, and she had again discussed and contemplated the great miracle that God had performed in this man before his death. May God ordain for it to incite all frivolous people to an emulation and to awaken all penitent people more and more to a childlike trust in the Savior of poor sinners.

Tuesday, the 8th of December. Today I held the edification hour on the plantations and, because the dear people of the new transport who had come to us yesterday by land via Abercorn had assembled in a large number, I took something exceptional for my text, namely, Psalm 57:10, “For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.” From it I tried to present my dear listeners the goodness and truth of God in detail and to impress them on their hearts and to show how concerned God is to grant them the wealth of His goodness in this new land and to gather them under His two great wings. Then they would be assured, comforted, and content in all circumstances; and God would also care for their physical needs and let all things be allotted to them. All those with whom I spoke are very well satisfied and contented; and they tell how much good God has done for them through other people too.

Wednesday, the 9th of December. A week ago tomorrow I arrived at Savannah late at night and was received very kindly by Mr. Jones, who immediately arranged for me to go in a few hours with the Commissioner, Mr. Vigera, in the captain’s boat to our dear people on the ship. Dear Mr. Vigera was lodging with Mr. Jones and praised not only his civility but also his edifying household devotions, from which no one could keep him and his family. What he had recently let me know in his letter, he now told me in more detail, namely, that God had shown untold blessings in Germany, in London, and on the sea to the entire transport, which had been dispatched with millions of blessings and had been accompanied at sea with the most heartfelt and constant intercession. It was a special blessing that our dear God had brought them from land to land in six weeks and kept them entirely unharmed in storms and bad weather and had mercifully averted dangerous sickness and cases of death.

As I was approaching the ship at nine o’clock on Friday, I called this verse to the men and women of this fourth transport, who were coming toward me in large numbers: “We have a God who helpeth.” At the same time I told them that ever since we had received letters about the gathering of the fourth transport we had prayed publicly and implored especially the Lord of heaven and earth that, through His wisdom, omnipotence, and kindness and to His praise and our and their joy, He might soon bring us our dear friends who had set their minds on Ebenezer. Likewise there had been many prayers for them in Europe, I said, of which they and we now had clear evidence that He had heard them mercifully. For they had completed the difficult sea voyage quickly, had come ashore healthy, and had not had the least fear of the enemy. No warship had escorted them; and the Lord had probably ordained this so that they would put their trust in Him alone and now give Him alone all the glory.

Just as our marvelous God had obviously furthered the entire sea voyage of this transport, which had received such abundant blessings and prayers, He would do it today and on following days too with their complete transportation from the ship, which was lying at anchor in the mouth of the Savannah. For He had so ordained that, at the hour I was going to the ship, I received a petiagua to bring half the rather bulky baggage and a rather large number of men, women, and children without any delay from the ship to Savannah and to a house that had already been prepared and provided with wood, food, and helpful service. It was also a very special benefaction that a certain Englishman had prevented us from sending home the trading boat we had used in going to Charleston, for it too fetched people and baggage from the ship so that they could then be brought to Ebenezer in our boat.

At the news of the arrival of the new transport, whose subiecta,⁶ names, and professions had been sent me by Secretary Newman in a very friendly letter, our parishioners were so pleased that they came to Savannah in four boats, namely, two large ones and two small ones, to fetch these dear guests. Sunday arrived during the unloading and the arranging of necessary things, and we spent it with other German people both publicly and privately with the preaching of the divine word, with singing, prayer, and good conversation to our great enjoyment. Even on the petiagua on which I was we sang and prayed diligently and made this or that salutary admonition, which was well received; and whatever errors were seen to have been brought from the ship were redressed.

It was not until Monday that Commissioner Vigera arrived in Savannah with the remaining new colonists who had been left behind because of their baggage, for a strong wind had prevented them from leaving the ship. Several times the wind tore away one of our boats, which had been attached to the ship by a chain, with the greatest violence and carried it far away, yet it was finally found again to our amazement and contrary to our expectations. News was now brought to me that a colonist by the name of Künlin, who had come aboard ship sick, had died. I had called out to him too the verse: “We have a God, who helpeth,” which he himself recited back very cheerfully with the rest of the words,⁷ and after my departure he said that God had now comforted the man and that he was content. Our Salzburgers who had come to the ship sang and prayed with him, and then he died. I would like to have seen him brought ashore with the first petiagua so we could have taken better care of him in all sorts of ways; but this time it could not be done. His wife /Maria/ is now a widow, and their child a fatherless orphan. Our orphanage stands open for both of them. Our honest Rothenberger has now taken them into his house and care until she herself says what she would like to do.

Before I departed from the ship with the dear people, we saw a large ship that was approaching ours under full sail and finally cast anchor. On the previous day heavy firing had been heard and our pilot had not yet returned with his boat, and therefore we assumed that it was a Spanish privateer. However, we soon learned that it was the ship that was to bring more than a hundred Swiss to Georgia.⁸ At the same time we heard that the poor people in the ship were lying very sick and that over forty persons had died. There were many young children in it who had lost their parents through death. In spite of that, they had to remain from Friday to Tuesday evening, that means five whole days, in the crowded and stinking ship until Mr. Jones himself finally made arrangements to bring them ashore. In the meanwhile I had to travel home with our boat and know nothing more as to how they are faring.

The Lord Trustees have written to Colonel Stephens that the adults among these Swiss are to receive in all fifty shillings sterling instead of provisions and other necessities, and the children half that amount. Oh, what advantages our fourth transport has had in all things! They have had sufficient healthy food; and, if any malcontent wished to complain, his healthy color, good physical condition, and good spirits would contradict him. The ship provisions had been entrusted to an honest Englishman /Terry/ who was on his way to Frederica and who proved to be very paternally inclined toward our transport, so that they all took leave of him with gratitude and tearful eyes. He also showed me his respect and love for these dear people and recommended them as a pious and diligently singing and praying little flock.

In Savannah they were richly restored with fresh and healthy food in two quarters, where they could maintain a fire and keep themselves warm against the cold weather; and they were awakened to much praise of God. Fresh meat, vegetables, and sweet potatoes were a remarkable refreshment after the ship’s provisions they had had up to then. They remembered diligently and with great gratitude what kindness had been shown them, especially in Cannstadt by His Excellency Privy Councilor Georgi and other benefactors of all classes. All of us who hear and read of the charitable gifts that have flowed abundantly to them and all of Ebenezer must marvel at the kindness and providence of God and also say, “Lord, we are too insignificant for all the mercy and loyalty which Thou hast now done for old and young, large and small, healthy and sick!”

Already in Savannah I had informed my dear traveling companions and current parishioners something about the great benefactions from Württemberg and Halle (which had been brought along in several chests especially for the fourth transport but also for the entire congregation, for the orphanage, and for us). I reported this so that they might be encouraged with me to praise the Lord and to intercede zealously for all our dear benefactors. Oh, what a spiritual blessing we hope to attain from the splendid letters which have already come to our hands from Augsburg, Halle, and London and which are said still to be in the chests.

I was very distressed at heart when I heard in Savannah that someone in our congregation had been suspected of having written to the Lord Trustees that our dear M. Jones treated the people here in a very strict, unfriendly, and severe manner.⁹ It would be not only the greatest ingratitude but also the most shameful untruth to write such a thing, since we have experienced exactly the opposite, namely, nothing but upright love and a right paternal inclination toward us and others and have enjoyed very many benefactions from him previously and are still enjoying them. We cannot tell with what love and kindness he receives us and how well he accommodates us when we and our people come to Savannah. He is serious and strict with wicked people and cannot tolerate injustice, desecration of the Sabbath, etc. I fear that some people who do not like the dear man write evil about him and then put the blame on other people. They would be pleased if Mr. Jones’ affection for us would turn into disfavor or even if he were dismissed, which, however, would redound to the great harm of the whole country. As soon as I write to the Lord Trustees, I shall write the truth so that they will know that Mr. Jones is no cruel man and tyrant but a father toward all who conform to good order; and I shall ask them to reward him for the great kindness he has shown us.

Three days ago, while I was traveling down from Purysburg to Savannah, I received a long and at the same time very friendly letter from General Oglethorpe in which he attempted to persuade me with many arguments not to relieve myself, as I wished, of my secular duties and judicial office, but to bear this burden further, etc. Thus, even before I came to the fourth transport, I received from him a new calling to assume these secular duties, and to this I was also driven by the love that God had placed in my heart for the fourth transport, which He has led here so marvelously and gloriously. Our worthy Mr. Ziegenhagen also lets us observe in his dear letter that it is better for me to continue bearing the burden of secular duties than to let harm be done by others.

We hope we will have good assistance from Mr. Vigera. Our worthy Mr. Müllern is held in great love, esteem, and blessing by the whole transport and would have been a very useful tool of God if the Lord Trustees had resolved to send him to this country as commissioner and justiciar. They shy at the expense, since the country has many other debts. Yet I wish they would consider that, in traveling back and forth by land and water for secular reasons and taking care of the congregation’s needs, we too expend clothes and money and also lose many things that we could save if we were concerned only with our spiritual office.

Against my will I almost spoiled my best gown, since we must travel back and forth by day and night in all kinds of weather and must sometimes make do with any kind of encampment. Yet even here it is written, “Be careful for nothing, but in everything . . . etc.,” Philippians 4. This apparently insignificant point strengthened my faith, and that of my traveling companions too, when I read in the specification of the charitable gifts that had just arrived that we had also been sent black clothes and nightgowns, which otherwise cost a great deal here and are sometimes not to be had. The Lord commanded our dear benefactors and inclined their hearts to it, for He knows our needs very well. Although my business in Savannah during these three days was very heavy and taxing, the weather uncomfortable and depressing, nocturnal rest poor, and care of the body very irregular, I must still declare to the praise of God that He so strengthened me in body and spirit that I enjoyed continued health. I considered this a seal that the Lord has pressed on the command I again received from General Oglethorpe to take charge of the secular affairs of the congregation. Lord, here we are. Do with us as it pleaseth thee!

Thursday, the 10th of December. Yesterday evening in the prayer hour I reminded the listeners that our gracious God had recently shown our congregation right great blessings, for which we had good cause to praise Him with heart and mouth. I) He had given us a better harvest than others in this country and this neighborhood and had known how to preserve our crops from the inundations that had caused great damage from time to time. Thus He had not only shown us a blessing but had actually granted it. II) He has kept us so far in peace, so that we can still serve Him in tranquility, edify ourselves from His word, and tend to our calling. Things look miserable in other places, and even in our dear Germany; yet God has spared us, not because of our merits and worth, but according to His great mercy, and He is giving us time for a conversion and a firm foundation in Christianity. We should diligently remember the verse that served as our text at our commemoration and thanksgiving feast: “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse,” etc. III) That He has now brought us the fourth transport safe and sound, as we had asked Him to. During their journey and actual arrival, there have been many marvelous and edifying circumstances which should serve to impress all honest souls among us and to lead us to a recognition of God’s miraculous goodness and guidance. On the occasion of this transport our loving God has awakened many benefactors in many places, for us who have lived in Ebenezer until now; and they have wished to help us and thereby refresh us with outstandingly beautiful gifts. IV) In addition to the charitable gifts that have been brought to Savannah safe and well preserved along with the transport, we have also received many very inspiring letters which we should value even higher than physical gifts because of their spiritual and edifying contents; because in them we find much matter for our edification and our preparation for blessed eternity.

The Lord is granting us these benefactions, and others like the church and mill, with the purpose of luring to penitence all those who have lacked it so far or of leading them better and better into true Christianity. However, it is to be feared that all those who do not let this purpose of God’s goodness reach them will experience God’s seriousness according to the content of the above-cited verse. Cf. Joshua 24:10. For, should any man insult and reject this love, for him will remain zeal and vengeance. Thus, through these and similar admonitions, the minds of the dear parishioners were prepared for the subsequent reading of the letters and for the distribution of the charitable gifts. Then we bent our knees and praised God in Christ’s name for all His goodness and prayed for us and for the benefactors.

This evening we read a part of the very affectionate letter from Senior Urlsperger dated the 20th of July of this year, from which our dear God granted much pleasure to me, and I hope to others too. How marvelous is the Lord! He let Senior Urlsperger receive our letters from Ebenezer on precisely the day the fourth transport went on shipboard at Cannstadt and was therefore en route toward Ebenezer. Likewise, he learned of our needs from our letters and diary just when God had already let such a great physical blessing be brought to the ship for our orphanage and congregation; and this again strengthened our faith in His fatherly providence. It is also something special that a certain benefactor in Strassburg had thought of us and remitted twenty-five guilders for a cow for the poorest member of Christ in the community. And thus we clearly see that the Lord cares most closely for the poorest, if they fear Him. “Think not on the heat of thy tribulations” (of which there are many in the congregation because of spiritual and physical circumstances, but all for the glory of God and the salvation of man) “That thou art abandoned by God,” etc. “God is the true magician,” etc.

On this occasion we remembered that, five years ago, God had given the third transport twelve cows, for which the rule was made that they should be distributed among the poorest. Great are the works of the Lord (which He doeth daily on us too), whosoever observes them, he has pure joy therein. The safe voyage for which our worthy Senior Urlsperger had wished and hoped for those in September of last year and in February of this year has, thank God, occurred. We have received everything correctly and well preserved, and again we have been encouraged to praise God. God has also heard his prayer and that of other servants and children of God for the strengthening of our bodies and for a blessed performance of our office, for we have abundantly experienced the goodness of the Lord, which up to now has ruled in a fatherly way over our persons, our office, and our congregation.

This morning I traveled with my dear colleague and a couple of other friends to the plantations, where the men, including some of the new parishioners, had gathered in one place at our request. First we regulated the payment for the work on the mill and also what had been expended for the clothes and other things that had been brought from Charleston for the congregation. Then it was agreed to let the dear people of the fourth transport share our harvest so that no one would suffer any lack of food. For what had been so abundantly gathered in this year’s harvest our wise and wonderful God had let grow for these people too. No corn is to be had in this country.

They have been joyfully received into the Salzburgers’ houses on the plantations, and still more would gladly be received if they were present. The people in town have also waited for these dear guests and offered them roof and rooms and other necessities; but there was no one left over for them, except that a few single women had been taken into my, my colleague’s, and Rothenberger’s house and into the orphanage. They eat and share what their hosts have, and this pleases their palates and encourages them to praise God. The widow /Künlin/ called on me this morning and praised God with tears and raised hands for His fatherly providence and kindess. She has two places for her and her child’s spiritual and physical care instead of one.

Tomorrow, God willing, an ox will be slaughtered for them at the orphanage, and the meat will be distributed among them on the plantations. The Salzburgers wished to let the newly arrived families share their plantations, but later it was deemed advisable, if they are going to stay together, to assign them a good piece of land below the mill at the end of the plantations, which they will cultivate next to the others and thus enjoy very great convenience. Today a firm hut and kitchen near the city were evacuated for the surgeon, Mr. /Ludwig/ Meyer, which, in everyone’s judgment, will suit him well. There is a little garden next to them which will be gladly relinquished to him even though wheat has already been planted in it. Another man offered his well fenced garden for his use. At the request of a righteous physician and at his own inclination he will devote himself here to botany and accept the help of our physician in it. He was very pleased that, when he first went ashore for Künlin’s burial, he immediately found a kind of aloe on the shore of the river that greatly encouraged him in his plans. His brother /Johann Georg/, a young person, is a purse maker, who will devote himself here to tailoring and thus serve the people and support himself, since we are lacking a tailor. In this way both he and we will be helped.

Friday, the 11th of December. This morning for the first time I had the pleasure of having both the old and the new parishioners together in the edification hour and to speak with them publicly for the praise of God and for their edification. I told them what had already been done for the fourth transport from the spring on. The first news of a hoped-for transport gave us new material for our hearts and mouths for a constant intercession; and among other things we often wished for them from our hearts just what David wished for the honest Ithai and his people on their pilgrimage. “May thou and thy brothers encounter mercy and truth.” They were commended and sheltered by many hundreds of honest souls in Europe and by us poor people in this place through prayer, imploring, and blessed wishes under the two great wings of the Lord, which are called Mercy and Loyalty or Grace and Truth. Therefore, now that they have withstood the land and sea journey to the praise of God and to our joy, they can say: “Lord, we are not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou has shewed unto thy servant.”

Our faith has now been greatly strengthened; and through experiencing the goodness of the Lord, who has heard our poor prayer, we will be encouraged to continue asking much for us and other people, to the praise of His name and to our joy. They should also know that our marvelous and merciful God also saw to their provisioning through the good harvest He granted to us this year above all others in the land, for He knoweth all His works both in this world and in eternity. He knew, and in His loving counsel He resolved, that at this time a new transport would be sent to Ebenezer in accordance with His gracious will. He also knew that the transport would have its physical needs, which He has intended for it for all eternity and which He has granted at this time beyond their requests and expectations. These and other noteworthy circumstances should convince them that they have come here not by human but by divine counsel; and, since He had already cared for them so lovingly before their arrival, they should give Him credit for nothing but good in all tribulations, which cannot remain absent.

The people of the first three transports would tell them into what straits our miraculous yet gracious God let them come, yet He let none of them be mired or perish in them. We would take nothing in place of the trials we had had and the manifold aid of the Lord, which experience was now doing us much good. They, to be sure, would not be privileged to experience the same trials, because they were not coming to a new forest, rather to an already cultivated and well-ordered place. Nonetheless, they would have to remember well that they were not in Heaven or Paradise, rather in the imperfect, miserable world, where it is said: “Without a cross, no Christian.” And I would have to tell them in advance just what Paul previously told the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 3:4 [cf. Acts 14:22], they should suffer tribulation, as has already happened, but only for their salvation and fortification in grace.

If it depended upon us and our benefactors, we would make it as easy as possible for them; but God is the Regent on earth, of whom faithful people recognize: “Thou shalt guide us with thy counsel, and afterwards receive us into glory.” We also told the entire congregation how many treasured benefactors the Lord had awakened for us in Wurttemberg and other places. They had richly donated many benefactions not just to the 4th Transport but also to all Ebenezer, and those had been brought here safely notwithstanding the perilous sea journey. By means of these our dear Lord wishes to further not only our physical but also our spiritual and eternal good, to which end He has already caused right edifying letters to come to our hands, from which we will soon share many fine things with the congregation. In the case of all spiritual and physical benefactions it is said: “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth Him,” and it would be a downright shame and an irresponsible thing for anyone not to credit this good Lord with all good, who has already done so much for us. Finally I reminded them all of their further duty from the recent harvest and thanksgiving sermon on Thessalonians 5:8, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you,” etc. I had them all look up and underline these words.

After the prayer I kept the people of the 4th transport back to discuss a few things with them concerning the money they had exchanged and their plantations and their own land. We hope to settle them comfortably and according to their wish so that those who get along well together will come into the same neighborhood. They are settling close to one another so that they will be as near as possible to the church and school. There will be more to report on this matter very soon. They all show themselves to be very pleased in their current quarters, are gladdened by the Salzburgers’ arrangements, and praise God for everything they have encountered of His solicitude, both previously and now. In sum, they give us much pleasure and make all our labor easy, and I hope to God that He will reveal to us His glory in this transport too.

Kalcher slaughtered an ox today which he distributed amongst them as a gift. He considers himself quite unworthy of the benefactions which have flowed to him and his family again this time, and at the same time obliged him to serve these dear strangers to the best of his ability (I may well say beyond his ability), since God has shown his body and soul so much good in this pilgrimage and has continued daily to do so. I found a few men of the 4th transport grinding their corn at the handmill. I told them and others that God would let them learn how bitter the grinding seemed to our own people year after year so that, with us, they may deem the mill, which will be easy to repair at low water, to be a great benefaction of God.

Saturday, the 12th of December. There have been a few Indians staying here for several days who have never been here before. Today a well-formed and courteous man called on me and offered me a buffalo skin. I do not know whether it is a present or whether I should give him something else for it, because I wish to have no dealings with him in that regard. The Lord Trustees have forbidden all those who have no licentia¹⁰ (as they call it), on pain of severe punishment, to trade with the Indians. Their purpose is the welfare and advancement of peace between the inhabitants and the Indians. One is rid of them sooner if one has no commercial dealings with them, especially since we know from experience that they cause more evil than good when they stay in one place for long. Last week General Oglethorpe sent me a present for the bad Uchee Indians, by which he hopes to win them and bring them over to a good trust in us. In his letter he expresses the wish that the parents could be moved to send their children to our school and makes a few suggestions to that end. May God make them practicable!

This evening we held with the congregation a special prayer and thanksgiving hour, in which we remembered the special benefactions of the Lord which had flowed to Ebenezer right richly this time from Augsburg, Stuttgart, Halle and other places. We praised the most generous Donor for it; and, with prayers and entreaties, we wished all known and unknown benefactors of prominent and humble station thousandfold spiritual and physical blessings from the abundance of Jesus. Before we knelt, I specified briefly what benefits our gracious and merciful God had shown us:

I). It was an inestimable benefaction I said, that, as Senior Urlsperger reported, people were praying constantly and fervently for us in so many places. The Lord has richly heeded them according to His promise; for we have encountered nothing evil, rather purely good, in spiritual and physical matters. It is written: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, if it is earnest,” as we recently found corroborated in the story of David and Jacob, who both prayed powerfully and humbly, 2 Samuel 14:31-32, Genesis 32:9. Since now the prayer of the faithful for us is ardent, it has accomplished much, and for us this is indeed a benefaction worthy of gratitude. It was certainly not by chance and happenstance that the ship full of Swiss was sent off almost simultaneously with the 4th transport and thus made landfall in Georgia and that, although the Lord Trustees made all good arrangements for their support, the 4th transport nonetheless enjoyed very great advantages on the entire journey and came ashore healthy. By contrast, the greater part of those poor people died underway or were housed in Savannah sick and miserable. Contraria ixuta se posita magis elucescunt.¹¹ It is therefore an especial benefaction of the Lord that we have so many intercessors and helpers in His praise amongst Christian people of many different stations. Should we not praise God with them?

II). This time our kindly Lord has bestowed upon the entire congregation a great physical blessing, which is in the boxes from Augsburg, Stuttgart, and Halle. The entire congregation may partake of it, and even the poorest have been remembered and a few of them mentioned by name. I believe that many a pious and Jesus-loving poor person has lamented his dearth to his Father reconciled in Christ, and now he is getting his favorable hearing, for “He will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him,” etc. “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him.” Besides the presents of all kinds of things and medications, our dear Lord, who knows our circumstances and the numerous most necessary expenses, has granted a handsome gift of money, which was, for the most part, also gathered in the Duchy of Wurttemberg through the service of a prominent and valued instrument, Lord Privy Councilor Georgi, but also in Augsburg and Halle. This money is dedicated partly to the church, partly to the orphanage, and partly to the congregation as a contribution to the poor and also to defray the most necessary expenses aimed at the good of the congregation. For example, the lying-in women were given some assistance, and the midwives were paid. What money remains from the church in town will be applied to a church on the plantations, where it is just as needed as in town, and God will grant the remaining expenses for it. What joy we have when we trust in Him! Also my house, my dear colleague’s house, Mr. Thilo, the carpenter Kogler, Kalcher, and other useful people in the congregation were especially remembered with good gifts. To what other congregation in America do such benefactions occur! Oh, give thanks, give thanks unto God with me, give our God the glory!

III). To the benefactions received this time belong particularly the valuable and magnificent books sent to us and the congregation from Halle and Stuttgart, once more a right special blessing of the Lord. Till now God has made our Ebenezer like a gathering place of choice good books, from which the people in Savannah, Purysburg, and other places have also been able to partake extensively, at no cost. In this too Ebenezer has the advantage over many thousands of other places in Christendom. Should that not awaken us to an inward praise of God and to heartfelt intercession for our dear benefactors? It is a pleasing favor for us that many of our worthy benefactors have become known to us along with the circumstances of their persons, families, and the countries wherein they dwell so that we can bring their needs as our own before the sight of the Lord.

Sunday, the 13th of December. I received a letter from Savannah from the Commissioner /Vigera/ in which, amongst other things, he described the wretched state of the Swiss both aboard ship and now in Savannah. A man named Riemensperger, who fetched them from Switzerland, requested in the commissioner’s letter and in another letter from Charleston for one of us to come to Savannah and to take up the cause of these people. We would do it gladly if only it were possible this week, and prior to the holiday. A party of the above-mentioned Swiss will soon be taken by their leader Riemensperger to Saxe Gotha in South Carolina to settle. I fear they will go from the frying pan into the fire and into new distress.

Monday, the 14th of December. /Christian/ Riedelsperger today married the Schweighoffer woman’s eldest daughter /Maria/, who was first in the orphan house and served my dear colleague for some time. Just as the mother had previously prayed intensely for her little girl to be provided for body and soul with a Christian husband, her heavenly Father has now put cause for His praise on her lips: for this Riedelsperger is heartily God-fearing, manages his household very well, and has been successful and blessed in everything he has undertaken till now. At the marriage we showed them from 2 Peter 3:14 how they should spend their present time of grace in their state of matrimony according to God’s will: it should be for them 1) a time of waiting for the fulfillment of the divine promises, and 2) a time of worthy preparation for the coming of Christ.

Thursday (sic!), the 15th of December. I brought home to the congregation gathered on the plantations, as I had done on Saturday evening in town, the important causes that should awaken us to fervent gratitude and zealous intercession. The Lord granted me joy and strength in that as well as in reading and inculcating a few important points from the letters. By its important and blessed content the superscript little verse “Great peace have they which live thy law: and nothing shall offend them” became more dear and valuable to us than gold and silver. It was agreed after the edification hour that a few knowledgeable men of the old and new parishioners would inform themselves where the good land was in two areas, and report thereon. I hope God will give His blessing to it so that the people may be set to building on nearby land not only soon but also according to their wish.

Since our dear Lord has granted us considerable money for church construction, we likewise discussed completing the church in town as soon as possible and beginning a church on the plantations; for we cannot keep on asking our dear Ruprecht Steiner to hold the gathering in his dwelling, to the harm of his household, as the space for even the present parishioners is too constricted. Although neither of us is moving to the plantations permanently, nonetheless our dear benefactors will well recognize the need for a church there when they read that, for the sake of the women and little children, public divine services have to be held there every two weeks on Sunday, and that the congregation also gathers twice on workdays to be edified from God’s word with prayer and song. Construction always goes somewhat slowly in the congregation because the carpenters amongst us have been so few till now and their labor in arranging the plantations and cultivating the fields and various private structures have been so voluminous that one thing must wait for another. In addition the laborers are often afflicted with bodily weakness. It has been a great service for us that the very intelligent, skilled, and righteous Andreas Pilz has been sent us as a carpenter. Kogler deems him very worthy and hopes to accomplish much with him for the benefit of the congregation.

The reports transmitted from Prussia have been right edifying for us, and a special item of the history of our time.¹² May it be written for posterity. God be praised!

Wednesday, the 16th of December. I was called to the plantations this morning to baptize Paul Zittrauer’s little child that was born last night. On this occasion I visited Peter Reiter. To be sure, he was on crutches, but right comforted in his Savior. God is letting him better recognize his misery but also Christ the Savior of poor sinners, so that he will neither despair nor rely on false comfort and become self-assured. I read him the weighty words from Hebrews 10:35 ff., “Cast not away therefore your confidence,” etc., “For ye have need of patience,” etc. He thanks God for bringing him back to Ebenezer once more. He would rather be ill here than healthy in Purysburg amongst the coarse folk. The Mauer woman /Catherina/recounted just the same thing to me yesterday, when her husband fetched her back,¹³ in quite poor bodily circumstances. What Ernst, Peter Reiter, and the Mauer woman underwent is a special trial and paternal chastisement from God, through which they were better brought into quietude for reflection and, by means of the divine word, for penitence and belief in the Lord Jesus. In this regard they thank God for this divine ordinance more than they show themselves impatient and disquieted. Kogler accompanied me a bit of the way back; and, his eyes brimming with tears, he recounted to me how God has made Peter Reiter into a quite different man from what he had been before. How pleased I am nonetheless that this impartial, conscientious, and skilled carpenter received in the trunk from Wurttemberg a piece of clothing as a gift! Many hand tools have been used up in his work for the congregation’s benefit: he lost 15 sh. Sterl. in one day at the mill thereby. Hence it is fair and in accord with the purpose of the benefactors for us to think about him too with regard to the hardware in the trunk.

Thursday, the 17th of December. The letters from our dear Prof. Francke gave us new courage today in our ministry. We are being helped by so many dear servants and children of God, whom our Father in heaven cannot possibly leave unheard, consequently we can look forward to continued blessings from God in our future ministry.

Friday, the 18th of December. In the edification hour on the plantations we profited so much from the remarkable report in the worthy Prof. Francke’s letters on the internal and external tribulations that are befalling the Lord’s work inside and outside of Halle, that none of us, especially amongst the new parishioners, should despair or let his spirits fall if there are difficulties here and there in arranging their plantations and their households. God hath promised not to abandon or to forsake those who fear, love, and trust Him. He never said, however, that there would be no distress or trial, rather He has previously said in His word that we should compose ourselves for it. He has said He intends to help, but He has concealed the hour of His help from us and has directed us to wait. It is often said: “Mine hour is not yet come.”

The new parishioners are often referred to the experience of their countrymen in the congregation who can tell them that there have been all sorts of trials and exertions from the beginning till now in Old and New Ebenezer but that the Lord has helped us through all of them so far. Our gracious God has ordained for them to come ashore and to Ebenezer before Christmas; it might have befallen them otherwise as has happened to others, who drive around on the sea so long that they had to spend Christmas aboard ship. This kind dispensation of God, however, should remind them to apply their time of grace amongst us constructively, to prepare for the holy celebration in a Christian manner and to observe it to His glory and their salvation such that the first Christmas they celebrate in America and in the New World with a new heart might prove to be an eternal blessing.

With regard to the heartfelt wish of our worthy Professor, “that the Lord will cause the new transport to reach us safely and that all the gifts will cause us and our congregation joy, refreshment, strengthening of faith, and praise of God,” I expressed my wish that just as the first had occurred, the second wish might come to rich fulfillment so that no displeasure, grumbling, suspicion, envy, etc. might be felt in the distribution before us. I asked them to pray that we be brought more and more into a state to distribute the copiously collected gifts according to God’s will and the intentions of the benefactors. With that I read aloud to them the very pleasing four points our dear Mr. Ziegenhagen had most kindly written to us as general pre-reminders concerning the gifts of money and goods that were to be distributed. This was done to make clear to the people of the 4th transport that the many gifts in the crate from Wurttemberg were not destined for them alone, as some had suggested, but also to the other inhabitants of Ebenezer and that in the distribution of some of the money we had to consider just those who had little or nothing.

We deem it a great benefaction, which will greatly lighten the distribution for us, that the money from Wurttemberg has been exchanged for Sterling and everything parcelled out, whereby the particular sums may be applied according to the will of the benefactors. This evening we profited from the two very dear and impressive letters from Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen and Pastor Majer, with divine assistance and noticeably felt blessing, and we will do the same soon on the plantations. May God also restore copiously to them the time and energy they spent on it and inspire everyone [as is now our good intention] to fervent intercession for their worthy personages and their circumstances which have now become known to us.

Because of many other expenses, the Lord Trustees are not in a position to supply subsistence money to the 4th transport longer than six months, and therefore we are hurrying all the more to get them settled on their land soon so that they can seed their ground at the proper time and, with God’s blessing, hope for a harvest. Nine families have now already been provided for according to their wish and can remove any day to their own very well laid-out land as soon as their baggage and effects are brought up. They are: Andreas Pilz, Martin Lackner, Caspar Graniweter, Georg Glaner, Bernhard Glocher, Simon Rieser, Georg Eigel, Balthasar Bacher, and Hans Maurer. The single women are partly in our service and partly in that of the orphanage and other Christian people, till God sends them an opportunity to marry in a Christian manner.

Sunday, the 20th of December. Yesterday morning we held confession and prepared for Holy Communion on the plantations, and in the evening at the regular prayer hour we did the same with those who went to the Lord’s table today. They numbered fifty persons. N.’s wife was admitted amongst us today for the first time. Previously it was of no use to him himself to have her at this holy sacrament, which belongs only to Christ’s disciples, in the state in which she was then; but now he can vouch for her, and her desire for Holy Communion comes from a correct basis. Most of the new parishioners were at the public divine services and Holy Communion in town so that the church was practically full. Today our dear Lord has also caused us much good in recognizing our deep corruption and the depth of His grace in Christ. Because our miraculous God brought this 4th transport to the country and to Ebenezer in the Advent season, we mentioned the fact of this timing in our application and brought to their hearts the little verse, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock,” etc. for their constant remembrance and perception of the grace of the Lord that is working in them, and their resulting duty.

Monday, the 21st of December. Yesterday evening two Salzburgers took the trouble to bring to me hurriedly a dear letter from General Oglethorpe, which had come to the plantations via Abercorn. Someone had told them it was very important. From it we can recognize this dear gentleman’s honest feelings towards our congregation and all miserable people in this country.

In the afternoon Commissioner Vigera and the surgeon, Mr. /Johann Ludwig/ Meyer, arrived safe and sound amongst us. Privately and publicly we praised the Lord together for all His benefaction which had befallen them till now. In these two men we believe we have received two dear friends and helpers; and our Father in Christ will join our hearts through His spirit so that we will stand as one man, serve Him sincerely, and be profitable to our neighbors in both spiritual and physical ways. Mrs. /Elisabeth/ Meyer is still with their baggage and is coming tomorrow by boat, God willing, to our place. God has manifested a miracle of His love and solicitude in this frail lady, who was ill in Memmingen often and for a long time, by strengthening her body and keeping her in good and content spirits till now. In today’s evening prayer hour we took the little verses which flowed from the pure source of the divine word by means of the hearts and pens of our treasured friends and intercessors in Augsburg and came to us with the 4th transport. Yesterday afternoon my dear colleague made two of them, “Be careful for nothing, but in all things . . .,” etc. (Philippians 4), likewise, “And become as little children” (Matthew 18) profitable for the congregation, and today we repeat: “Great peace have they which live by thy law,” etc., and we observe at the same time the treasured words which stand at the head of the verses: Psalm 130: “I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope.”

Tuesday, the 22nd of December. All of the families of the 4th transport have now been provided with good land, and we are only awaiting the surveyor so that each householder may be shown the boundaries of his land. A few are getting their plantations on the right side of town on the Ebenezer Creek, and have only a half hour’s travel for church and school. A few are settling on a very good piece of land between town and the plantations, which the widow Gruber and Kalcher are ceding to the new colonists as their property. The remainder are taking their land below the mill near that of the old colonists. Some have land left over and have settled on only half their plantations and are filling out the remaining number of their allotted acres with land which has timber and pasturage and can someday be made profitable with little improvement. They all show themselves quite pleased with the fertility and position of their land. They see in the example of the old parishioners what a great advantage it brings even in bodily matters when neighbors are of one mind and help one another in fence making, construction, and other things. Hence I hope they will let themselves be moved to walk in the others’ footsteps for their own advantage. If they accept good advice, which the current inhabitants have been giving them on the arrangement of their domestic concerns, they will, with divine blessing, soon prosper. It is also a great benefaction that they are not burdened with fetching provisions, rather they can fill their needs in our place. They have exercised foresight by bringing all their things, clothes, and effects with them from Germany.¹⁴ The first colonists, on the other hand, in fear that they might have to pay the freight or be too burdensome to their benefactors, gave away or sold most of their things.

Wednesday, the 23rd of December. The surveyor /Avery/ has sent me the plan or sketch of the situation of our city, gardens and fields, which I have long wished to see in order to transmit it to our benefactors and friends in Europe. Everything was done very accurately, and only a few small marks are lacking to present everything better, for example, where the mill, Old Ebenezer, Purysburg, Abercorn, etc. lie, all of which will easily be supplied when he comes to us. This afternoon we were visited by the surveyor /Avery/whom the Lord Trustees are employing to finish a general map of the whole province of Georgia, which is more accurate than any ever seen. For this reason he and his people travel around the entire country and do their work especially on the rivers and river banks. He had himself guided through our place and was also on the plantations, and he promised to write many good things to the Lord Trustees about the arrangements, which he himself has seen. He wishes to return after the holidays and show our people an advantage at the mill which he said would prove very useful to us. He is a trained engineer and seems to be quite honest and obliging.

Our worthy Senior Riesch has done us a very pleasing favor in writing a very impressive letter not only to us but also to the entire congregation. In it he urges upon us especially the beautiful contents of the treasured words of Christ: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God,” etc. We rightly see it as something important that God causes such material to be guided to our minds at various times prior to the holy celebration of Christmas, not only from these letters but also by means of the precious and weighty verses transmitted to us. By this means we may avoid those cares which hinder us in the worthy preparation for the holy celebration and for eternity and to the contrary, we may faithfully practice other necessary things which should advance us to our salvation. May He give us all faith and steadfastness! If we do what pertains to us and accommodate ourselves to divine order, God will do what pertains to Him and gladly keep His promise to us, for it is His desire to render good to us.

The 25-27th of December . . . was the holy celebration of Christmas, in which we felt powerfully the presence of the Holy Ghost while both preaching and hearing. Hence we feel all the more obliged to bring the most sincere praise and thanks to our gracious Father in heaven through Jesus Christ for all strength of soul and body, and for the manifold blessings which He has bestowed upon us and our parishioners through the preaching of His word. The pious amongst the new colonists deem the external calm of our place even on holidays within and without the church a great benefaction. May God further deign to grant and bestow it on us in His mercy!

Monday, the 28th of December. Last night our dear Lord stood graciously by the Lackner woman /Margaretha/ in her difficult delivery and gladdened her with the sight of two little children. Since one of them is fairly weak, I soon went out to guide both of them to the Lord Jesus through holy baptism, because my dear colleague, Mr. Boltzius, had traveled to Savannah this morning with Mr. Vigera. While I was returning, a Salzburger recounted to me joyfully that the Lord had again accepted his soul warmly. He said he had thought he would have to go from the celebration without blessing, but finally our dear Lord took pity on him and assured him anew of His grace. He spoke of it with me only a little and among other things he told me how he was faring, to wit, he was asking God for greater recognition of his sins. Even if our dear Lord should hear such prayer, He would not be satisfied, and if he were to feel no more grace, he would no longer know how he stood with God. However, yesterday our dear Lord had caused him to recognize how he should deport himself. I took leave of him with the words: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts,” and “without wavering (for he is faithful that promised”).

When I returned to town I married Jacob Schartner to the Rauner woman /Maria Magdelena/ and submitted not only to them but to the others present the words of our treasured Savior: “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” In the evening I read aloud in the prayer hour the last part of the very beautiful letter which the worthy Senior Riesch wrote to our congregation. Among other things it was especially noteworthy that he wrote that they wished not to forget us, rather always to place us into the heart of God our Lord in the Sunday evening prayer hours and elsewhere. Such communications are especially dear to us; it is as if some loyal servant of God were to come to us from Germany and hold a sermon for us. May the Lord reward His servants and compensate them always for the energy they apply in this for the sake of Christ our Savior!

Tuesday, the 29th of December. In the evening at the prayer meeting I read aloud a letter from a pious Salzburger to our congregation. In it this dear man bore beautiful witness to the great grace God has manifested in his soul; and this gladdened and encouraged me and the others greatly. Everything was written right simply and sincerely, hence, as already mentioned, it was read with much edification. The Lord be praised for it, and may the dear man be strengthened right abundantly in His grace.

Wednesday, the 30th of December. This morning after school one of the new colonists called on me and recounted how our dear Lord had manifested great mercy in his soul last Sunday. He had been unable to be present on both holidays because he had been ill. Nonetheless God strengthened him so much that the following Sunday, he was able to be there both morning and afternoon, and there God had laid a great treasure into his heart, which gladdened him greatly. He is very happy that God has led him to Ebenezer. He is quite comforted and content with everything.

Towards evening the great blessing our loving God granted us from Wurttemberg and Augsburg arrived at our place. We soon unpacked it and found that everything was still undamaged except that a few things got wet which we can dry again. With the things laid out we bent our knees and praised our dear Lord and begged for ourselves and our dear benefactors rich blessings, especially that our loving God would requite each and every one with thousandfold blessings. May He also help us have the distribution take place in such a way that His name may be glorified thereby, and our own and the congregation’s temporal and especially eternal salvation be advanced!¹⁵.

Thursday, the 31st of December. Kogler’s little three year old girl /Maria/ gave us right great pleasure by reciting very accurately a few little verses. From it I could tell that the parents take great pains with the child and are encouraging her to God’s word at the right time, as Lois and Eunice did with Timothy.

Things look very lamentable with the lately arrived Swiss. Almost every day some of them die. A few of the English have also become mortally ill from them. I have suggested to the authorities a few brave women who would undertake to care for these people for pay. Because two are not sufficient, I have charged some men to find a few; and I can recommend highly that the authorities pay them well.¹⁶ General Oglethorpe has sent a surgeon to the Swiss and has offered them good conditions under which he would have taken them into his care; but they are bullheaded, coarse, and obstinate.

Today I and my dear colleague and Mr. Vigera were busy with the division of the gifts from Augsburg and Wurttemberg in order to ready them for distribution as soon as possible. Now at the close of this 1741st year we glorify our eternally gracious God and Father in the name of Jesus Christ from the bottom of our hearts for all the mercy and paternal care He has shown till now to us ministers and parishioners, young and old, children and adults and widows and orphans! May it be His intent, for the sake of the merit and comforting intercession of Christ, to forgive us all errors and weaknesses which have crept in and to anoint us with His spirit anew and to place us in a position to effect much good for eternity in the new year that is soon to begin! Amen!