Daily Reports Of the Year 1752

JANUARY 1752

The 1st of January. During the last evening prayer meeting of the old year I applied the main material of the gospel Luke 2: 33 ff. partly to our past lives and partly to an awakening in regard to the present and future times; and we concluded the year with praise of God and prayer. It is now unusually cold; and this prevented many from attending the last evening prayer hour. However, because of the spiritual blessing they received, those who were present at the preaching of the dear gospel will regret, as little as I, having suffered a brief discomfort for a great blessing. If, according to the said gospel, Mary and Joseph had been as casual about visiting divine services, they would have robbed themselves and other people who were then alive, who now live, or who will live of a very great blessing.

Our merciful God has granted us abundant aid for the preaching of the dear gospel of Christ and has made our congregations in both churches willing to hear it devoutly despite the great cold. The introit verse was taken from 1 Timothy 2:5-6, “There is one God, and one Mediator,” etc.; and the first sermon on the New Year’s gospel dealt with our redemption through Christ. This led us to the golden exegesis of the second article of our catechism.

I imparted to the pious, sick Bruckner some of the rich comfort that our loving God granted us today from the gospel, especially that our dear Savior shows the same merciful heart as Mediator to poor sinners in His state of elevation as He showed in His state of humiliation. We now call Him the Man Jesus Christ because we do not fear him slavishly but trustingly expect all good from Him, as Mediator between God and men. If we could see into heaven and into His heart, we would see to our joy and surprise that He is still the same: just and pious and eternally true, and that, on the Throne of Joy, He is still as kindly disposed to sinners and sick ones as He was in humiliation and suffering. After all, He reveals His entire heart in the gospel as the word of truth. It is much easier for Him to grant the salvation He has merited than to earn it through a whole life of deeds and suffering. If He did not wish to grant it, why would He have merited it?

During this time Bruckner told me with great humility, to the praise of his Savior, things that gave witness to his faith, to his inner tribulations, to his adherence to Christ with all his feeling of misery, to his contentment with God’s well-meant guidance, and to the superiority of the spiritual and physical blessings over his sufferings, etc. This caused me hearty joy; and I praised God with him and his family. U. E.¹ came into his house, where she does much good and where she receives much good especially for her soul. She brought with her a good basis and true fear of God; and she is as thirsty for the rational milk as is her newly born infant.

The 2nd of January. I baptized an Englishman’s child that had been brought from Mount Pleasant² to the Blue Bluff. It was already three months old. This man related that there is a German Anabaptist in his neighborhood whose children are of adult size but not yet baptized. He is also a Sabbatarian, who celebrates Saturday instead of Sunday. Once, when I was speaking with this Anabaptist about his great error, he referred to a certain man from whose writings he said he could prove that his Anabaptist dogma was the teaching of the first Christians. This otherwise skilful man has, to be sure, caused great harm to the church of Christ by writing so shallowly and groundlessly of infant baptism. I hope that, before his departure from this world, he regretted this error of dogma among others.

After returning from the baptismal ceremony on the Blue Bluff and having properly arranged with Mr. Mayer³ the things that must be presented in writing to the Council, I went to the sick Kalcher at the mill to speak with him for his edification about his Homeward Journey and to pray with him and to take leave from him until a joyful reunion in the Lord in heaven, since it is assumed from all circumstances that he will soon be taken from us by temporal death. He is now resting quietly, is bearing his suffering with great patience, and has a hearty desire to be released soon and to be with Jesus. He gave his dear wife the comfort that she will soon follow him: meanwhile the true Father will care abundantly for her and her children.

To be sure, the whole world belongs to the Lord, yet he wishes, if it is possible, to be buried in the town cemetery because he thinks she will move from the mill to her own house and die in it and consequently be buried near him. He said that in heaven he will be with God and all God’s children for all time. I made the following words profitable to him: “If any man sin, there is (God be praised that we have Him) one God and one Mediator between God (with whom He has reconciled us) and man, the man Christ Jesus, who is just (and awakens us for the sake of our justification) and is (even at this moment) the Reconciliation for our sins, not only for ours but for the whole world.”⁴ I recited these comforting words to him several times with the request that he wrap himself in them in faith, so to say, and to hold to them in all temptations, struggle, and death.

The 6th of January. This afternoon I returned hale and hearty and not at all tired from Savannah. I visited the dying Kalcher, who welcomed me with his hand in his feebleness. I told him that he was now on the boundary of his heavenly fatherland and that the whole entrance into the eternal glorious Kingdom of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would be opened. I told him that it was a glorious Kingdom not only of our Lord but also of our Savior Jesus Christ, which is very comforting for poor sinners. I prayed with him and his family and gave him the blessing in the name of the Triune God. He sighed constantly for a blessed release, which his Savior will soon grant him.

On Saturday in Savannah I preached in the preparation lesson about the verse: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men.”⁵ What is necessary concerning the great misuse and the correct use of our precious period of grace which we now have but soon will have no more I explained in such a manner as my listeners’ circumstances demanded. This I did with inculcation and explanation of the important verses: “Whoever does not get along with God during his period of grace will remain entirely excluded from God’s house of joy for ever, even though he were to weep a sea of tears.”⁶

On Sunday, the first Sunday of the new year, I laid the regular epistle 1 Peter 4 as the basis of the sermon; and in the forenoon I showed that we poor fallen sinners can and should achieve in divine order from Christ 1) Comfort, 2) Strength, to wit, for Christian life, for patient suffering, and for blessed death. In the afternoon I added to the instructive and comforting epistle also the gospel of the flight of Christ and his parents to Egypt; and I dealt with the blessed sufferings of Christians with Christ. Holy Communion was held with fourteen persons; and after the divine service I visited Mr. and Mrs. von Brahm and sang and prayed with them; and I spoke with some German families in their homes. In my absence two children were born and baptized in Ebenezer; and this morning in Zion Church and in the evening in Jerusalem Church my dear colleague held a sermon from the gospel of the Epiphany. May God let all this redound to the glory of His holy name and to true edification of souls!

The 8th of January. Today, for the first time in this new year, I was able to hold the very useful singing lesson, which, together with the final common prayer, brought me great blessing, comfort, and awakening. I would consider myself the most fortunate man in the New World if I could perform only my spiritual office and were not saddled with so much traveling and secular business, which I find to be no slight cross. Local and outside people, especially Germans, wish to use me for all sorts of purposes; and I cannot disengage myself from many things because they are included in the words of the Savior: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.”⁷

The 10th of January. Last night our dear and righteous Kalcher died like a quiet and patient lamb, full of faith in his dearest Savior. It was between Thursday and Friday, at which time our dearest Savior underwent His great suffering and mortal struggle with violent blood and sweat. He retained his understanding and the use of his external senses (excepting speech) until the last moment of his life and took moving leave of his wife and children; and he gave one of his girls such a remarkable admonition that I hope it made a wholesome impression on her. He has had a longlasting sickbed and suffered greatly. However, just as in the seventeen years that he has been an inhabitant of Ebenezer and an exemplary member of the congregation, so too in this last period of living and suffering he has shown himself so patient, quiet, and content with God’s ways and dispensation that he has revealed here, too, the good basis of his heart and has given everyone an example of faith, patience, and hope. God’s word and prayer were his food, medicine, and refreshment; and therefore his period of sickness did not seem long.

At the beginning of his sickness he still felt no real willingness to die, as he complained to me. He tenderly loved his dear, frail wife and his four unreared children, who would gladly have kept him longer as a very loving husband and father. He would have gladly recovered if it had been the will of his heavenly Father. From the very beginning of his sickness to its end he followed the advice of Mr. Thilo. For several weeks everything of the world, even the dearest, was absent from his heart, and his desire to be released from the world and to be with Jesus increased noticeably. In the night before his blessed release he laid his two hands on his breast, nodded to his grieving wife, and raised his two hands towards heaven. By this he doubtless wished to indicate that his heart was in heaven and that his spirit would now rise to heaven from the collapsed tabernacle of his wasted body.

As the father in the orphanage and as vestryman and leader of the congregation and manager of the mills he showed me and the community very great service. In him we have lost not only a great lover of the divine word and the holy sacraments, a man of prayer and an exemplary Christian, but also a very useful and profitable man, who served the entire community untiringly and impartially with his well-constructed wagon, with good advice, and in many other ways. Yea, in him we have lost a true jewel. He was my dear gossip⁸ and he was one to many honest people in the community, for whom his early departure will be very painful, as it is for me. However, God, according to His incomprehensible and always good counsel, made this gap.

Also, at the funeral, which was held in town on the death and burial day of our most meritorious Savior, God threatened us with lightning and thunder to punish our ingratitude and disloyalty if we will not let ourselves be led to repentance through His goodness and chastisements, among which we count this death, which is so disadvantageous to us. I was very much impressed that it lightened and thundered only a little during the funeral sermon but very violently at the cemetery and that it rained very severely during the hymn Nun lasst uns den Leib begraben, etc.⁹ Because of the cold weather, we had expected neither rain nor strong thunder. Unusually many people had assembled as pallbearers, which was a sign of their love and respect for the blessed man.

My dear colleague based the funeral sermon on Hebrews 10:36-39, “He that endureth to the end.”¹⁰ I also found it noteworthy that this Ruprecht Kalcher died only one day before my dear colleague, Mr. Gronau. To wit, Mr. Gronau died seven years ago on the eleventh of January and Kalcher on the tenth of January, the former on Friday evening before the first Sunday after the Epiphany of Christ and the latter during the night before Friday, likewise before the first Sunday after the Epiphany of Christ. They both loved each other greatly in this life, they had similarly righteous, simple, and humble dispositions. During Kalcher’s sickness and from his face, which was, to be sure, wasted yet steadfastly turned toward God, I was very often reminded of the worthy person, the longlasting sickness, and the edifying demeanor of my late colleague. Think what will happen when they are joined in the house of the Father! Dear Kalcher was looking forward to that fondly; and with that he comforted his dear helpmeet and true nurse. During my last two visits I made these words useful to him, which he greatly enjoyed: “Now I rest, oh my salvation, in Thy arms, Thou shalt be my eternal peace; I wrap myself in Thy mercy; let my element be only (and for ever) Thy mercy.”¹¹

The 11th of January. The violent and entirely unusual thunder weather, which was joined by lightning and rain, was followed by an unusual cold, which was as biting as in Germany for the new settlers on the Blue Bluff,¹² who have not yet built any warm dwellings and kitchens. In both churches I had to be brief in the sermons preparing for the confession so that the edification and devotion would not be hindered. In the Zion Church I spoke about the right nature, use, and purpose, also about the importance, of the practice of confession that we have introduced here. This does not consist merely of saying the confession and hearing the absolution: rather, everyone is examined before the countenance of the living God and with the witness of his own conscience from the word of God whether he is correct with regard to his recognition and feeling of original sin and what arises from it in the way of real sins in thoughts, desires, demeanor, words, and works, also with regard to his faith in Christ and to his resolution for a godly life. For God has promised to grant absolution and forgiveness only in this order and in no other way.

In Jerusalem Church I laid as a basis for the preparation sermon “The longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.”¹³ This I compared with the important words of Romans 2:4. The Lord has indeed shown me and my parishioners an abundance of such longsuffering that aims at salvation; for He fetched my first dear colleague home very early and has let me remain seven more years. Until now I have often read and heard that our marvelous God has let many ministers of my age and even younger die in Europe, Asia, and America; and He has borne with me without my having merited it. May He make me grateful from my heart and loyal, and may He free me from the many physical tasks for my congregation in order for me to perform my real office during the last part of my life. I reminded my parishioners that our miraculous God took from our congregation both children and adults last year, and our dear Kalcher yesterday, through temporal death. On the other hand, they are still living in their period of grace and with the means of grace through divine forbearance. This, I said, was a certain indication that they could all be saved but that they should not confuse the means of salvation with the order of salvation but rather use the means, to which prayer also belongs, in such a way that they can enter into and persist in the order of salvation, which is repentence, faith, and godliness.

The 12th of January. Today the cold was as severe as yesterday; yet it was quite bearable in our well-protected town church, which was entirely filled. We had eighty-eight communicants. Last night the honest and useful Joseph Schubdrein brought me sad news. His dear helpmeet, Gschwandl’s only daughter¹⁴ was afflicted a few days ago with a sore throat and fever and also seized by epilepsy, which quickly put an end to her life. Added to this was the sad occurrence that the fruit of her body, which she had hoped to bear a few days ago, died along with her. This was a new thunderbolt that penetrated ear and heart; and I admonished the congregation to take to heart the unusual thunder at the burial of our dear Kalcher as the voice of God for their warning and encouragement so that our holy God will not be required to do something among us that would resound in our ears.

The 14th of January. The cold is still increasing, and we have never seen such thick ice indoors and out in this land. Therefore we had to hold our weekly sermon and meeting on the plantations today in the schoolhouse, in which there is an iron stove. Thus our edification was not hindered by the cold. I repeated and inculcated in detail the words of the introit, Ephesians 6:1-4, which we had contemplated briefly on the first Sunday after Epiphany, and also the material which had been partly presented about the gospel: Concerning the godly intentions of the Parents and the Child Jesus as an edifying example for all parents and children.¹⁵

The 15th of January. N.N. has become dangerously sick. I visited him immediately on his plantation and found him in sighs, distress, and disquiet not only because he had sinned grievously as a soldier and in his entire previous life against God and his neighbor and also against the sixth commandment¹⁶ through grievous injustice, but also because he had, until now, rejected all divine admonitions and guidance to repentance. In his conscience he felt the bitterness of sin and the judgment of death. Also, without my admonition, he is ridding himself very willingly of the unjust wealth with a head of cattle of equal value. He is not seeking any merit through this, rather he considers it a duty according to the will of God.¹⁷ He left the cow to my disposition: however, at the same time he mentioned a poor sickly orphan child, who received a Bible yesterday at her request and today, without her request, this physical gift as a bonus for her striving for the Kingdom of God.

I was pleased that she was of one mind with this man and would rather suffer physical loss than see her soul in danger. He is sincerely concerned with his soul, for the Lord has already been working mightily on his soul. However, because some sins, especially his rashness in anger, had become almost second nature during long practice in his rough life as a soldier, he has often been overhasty and has not loyally applied the grace he has received. Now, thank God!, he seems to have come to a breakthrough;¹⁸ and from Ephesians 3:14-16 and Matthew 11:28 I held the gospel before him profitably for an awakening of his faith in Christ and sealed everything with a prayer. Both parents, who have usually vexed their little children through their wicked behavior, are using great diligence in raising them in the fear of the Lord. I was pleased with their pious recitation of the verses and prayers they had learned. Their poverty is still great; and, because of their frequent changing of their plantation, their dwelling is not protected against the great cold. Without secure rooms and stoves the people cannot get along in winter here any better than in Germany.

I also visited a new colonist in the neighborhood, who came here from Saxony with the last transport.¹⁹ The good people wished to honor me with food and drink, because they considered it something great and unusual for a minister to visit healthy people unsummoned.

The 16th of January. For a long time during his sad period as a widower, honest Ruprecht Steiner has had to suffer much harm to his health, childraising, and housekeeping. This week he engaged himself to Mr. Kraft’s maid, Ursula Eckert; and for her benefit he has made a very favorable arrangement in case he should die before her. The engagement took place in my house after careful consideration and hearty prayer. When I visited the dear Mrs. Kalcher this morning at the mill, I learned to my sad surprise that last night this dear godfearing man had suddenly contracted the dangerous throat ailment with a violent fever; and this required me to hurry to him and to notify the doctor, Mr. Thilo. He thought that he would hardly survive this. After our prayer he gave me his hand and said, “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.”²⁰ May He treat us with mercy and accomplish his salutary purpose in all of us by such means of chastisement! These visitations do not distress us as much as those when we have to learn that people among us are continuing in their unrepentence and revealing the wicked basis of their hearts through vexatious behavior.

The 18th of January. In this new year we are having a hard winter and great tribulations, dangerous sicknesses, and painful cases of death. Yesterday a cold rain fell, and we could hear thunder far away. The very cold rain continued intermittently all night, and today it snowed deeply. Fever with the dangerous sore throat and side stitches are very common; and my dear colleague, Mr. Lemke, and our only son have been graciously visited with them and must lie abed. The righteous Ruprecht Steiner, whose sickness was mentioned under the 16th of this month, was in great pain but very patient when I visited him yesterday morning. Toward noon he had side stitches and the swelling in his throat had increased, until finally at about 4 p.m. he commended his pardoned soul into the hands of his Savior and died. The last passage that his bride had read to him for his refreshment was, “I will even betroth thee unto me for ever.”

Steiner had requested me to publish the bans tomorrow on the second Sunday after the Epiphany of Christ for him and his earthly bride (who, like him, is an honest soul); and, already before that Sunday, namely on the death day of Christ, our heavenly Bridegroom has led his soul into the wedding house of our heavenly Father, where he will fare well for eternity. Like the late Kalcher, he was a true Israelite, in whom there was no guile.²¹ He would have liked to speak much, but he could not because of his almost closed throat; otherwise a great deal of edifying matter would have come out from the good treasure in his heart. He is leaving a plantation, a good house, a horse and some cattle, which must now be applied for the welfare of his three sons, of whom the oldest is about fourteen and the youngest seven years old.

The 19th of January. The public divine service had to be held again with the entire congregation in the town church because of the indisposition of my dear colleage, Mr. Lemke. It treated of the gospel for the second Sunday after Epiphany concerning the importance of Christian marriage, and before that I preached on the introit from Genesis 6:1-4 as a warning and examination. Mrs. /Barbara/ Mayer was churched with her little son; and for this service she, like us all, had temperate and dry weather. The congregation indicated that this afternoon, at the burial of our dear Steiner, they wished me to give the funeral sermon for the edification of the living in the Zion Church on the plantations. This was done, treating Isaiah 57:1-2, “The righteous perisheth, and no man . . .,” etc.; and I presented the meaning of the world and the judgment of God at the death of His children. A large congregation from town and from the plantations had assembled out of love for the word of God and love for the blessed man, and they were able to hear much for their edification from this important text.

In my study this dear man had been heartily pleased that the bans had been published for him and the honest Eva Eckert on this Sunday on which the gospel about the wedding feast at Cana falls and that they were to be married on the following Monday (which would have been tomorrow). But God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways. How very incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unfathomable His ways? We know, however, that those who love God are served for the best in all things, as this now very much humbled bride, Ursula Ecker, will experience on her part.²²

The 20th of January. Next to Mrs. Schweighoffer, N.N. is the oldest person at our place. She has married off all her children here well and has become the grandmother of a number of grandchildren. For several days she has been dangerously ill; and with the complete decrease in her strength she can expect nothing more than her approaching death. We have had a lot to suffer with her, yet we cannot deny that she has some good points, even though there could have been more in her heart and her behavior while she was diligently using the means of salvation and if she had practiced more loyalty in praying, watching, and conquering. I heard that she is becoming weaker; and this moved me, despite my own physical weakness, to go to her and to call a word of grace to her again and pray with her and impart God’s blessing to her.

I was also told that N., who has a disposition similar to that of the said N., was also dangerously sick. As soon as God strengthens me, I wish to go to her on her plantation: she greatly needs the word of repentance and faith. Her husband has built a new house, into which she has hardly moved, and from which she will, it appears, move soon again. “He knocks (we sing), and you must come out. There is nothing else you can do.”²³

The 21st of January. This morning the old widow N. died after having made a very proper division of her legacy, stating what each of her children and grandchildren was to have. She also named some orphans. The three children left by the late Steiner are well lodged with two Christian Salzburgers. Burgsteiner, as godfather of the oldest and youngest boy, will nourish and educate these two, while Gschwandl will take the middle one on as his child, since he has a good fortune but no children. The tanner Ulrich Neidlinger will take, for six years, the house, plantation, and some cattle and what is needed for the household and farm. He promises to keep them in good condition and will pay as interest two pounds annually, and the mulberry trees will stand him in good stead.

The late Steiner’s fiancée is provided for in such a way that she is content and grateful. She lives with Brueckner and his wife in town and will do good service for modest wages until God cares for her further.

The 22nd of January. I found the pious Mrs. Glaner, who was married first to the righteous Piltz, also sick in her childbed. God showed great help and mercy to her at the birth of her little son, who out of a Benoni became a Benjamin.²⁴ We edified ourselves, as far as my weakness allowed, with conversation about our Savior as the eternal High Priest in heaven; and we bent our knees before His throne of grace. She said that both yesterday and today N. had shown her the order of salvation most simply, through which she can still be saved.

The 24th of January. Yesterday evening on the horizon we had a gentle thunderstorm with rain, which continued gently this morning, too. This morning I received news that N. had died. During the last period of her life I once again presented her very simply the way to Life in the order of true repentance and faith from German Bible verses and well known hymns. I also showed her nurse what to read to her from Senior Urlsperger’s beautiful book Instruction for the Sick and Dying according to her spiritual condition. Despite the diligent use of good books, of which we have a superabundance at our place, many people lack a correct use of them because, although they hear and read them, they do not recognize the condition of their souls and therefore do not apply the contemplations and prayers correctly to themselves; and this distresses me greatly.

Many people have a good literal recognition, good natural gifts, love for edifying books, and many apparent virtues and good works. If, in addition, they have brought good recommendations from other pious people or even ministers, they so stiffen themselves in their self-love and false justification that they not only look down on other simple and true Christians, who have more strength than appearance, but also get angry with their ministers and even get bitter against them when they examine them according to God’s word and when, by virtue of their office, conscience, and love for such deceived souls, they reveal their dangerous condition to them both publicly and in private. However, the world, even the Christian one, wishes to be deceived, be it epicurean or pharisaic.

The 25th of January. The leaders of the community called on me today and helped me make a good arrangement for the benefit of the entire community. Another Salzburger has been recommended in the place of the deceased Kalcher; and two dependable men have been set over the colonists on the Blue Bluff, which they need because they live rather far apart and some of them do not keep good order, especially on Sundays. Also, in the future a better arrangement should be made for the orphans, for which purpose certain Christian guardians are to be appointed, since some of them no longer have any godparents or sponsors among us.

Because, with the increase in our community of both inhabitants and strangers, so much has to be ground that the two mill courses cannot handle it all, a third course will have to be built next summer, in fact in such a way²⁵ that we can grind even when the water is low. May God grant the means for it from His rich treasure!

Also, our only rice polishing and stamping mill is insufficient to handle all the raw rice that is brought to it from our community and from other places. And thus a new establishment will have to be made for it, too. Such entirely indispensable waterworks cost a great deal, and we would thank our dear Lord heartily if generous benefactors in Europe could continue to offer us their hands. I again made valuable suggestions for the improvement of our physical nourishment and for the advance of trade with all sorts of lumber and woodwork. However, there are still all kinds of obstacles. May God remove them through His wisdom, omnipotence, and goodness! In conclusion we called upon our merciful God in Christ for His blessing in these considerations and in the suggestions we have agreed upon. These dear men wished a contribution from me for paying their herdsmen, but this is no longer possible because of so many expenses. May God help us!

The 26th of January. Some seven years ago a young man, Conrad Rahn, who came to our place with the first transport from the territory of Ulm and married Paulitsch’s oldest daughter, journeyed to Pennsylvania to visit his parents. He had a very difficult trip to and from and was close to death several times on land and water. Now he has returned with his only brother and has brought back letters from our most worthy brothers Mr. Muhlenberg and Mr. Brunnholtz,²⁶ which are of important, even if largely sad, content. All these dear and worthy men, who are doing the Lord’s work loyally with willing sacrifice of their health, bodies, lives, honor, and wealth, are bearing unusual and unheard of suffering yet are unable to achieve their purpose with word, deed, and all good institutes in church and school. As a result they are becoming old, weakened, and already martyrs during their lifetime.

The worst is borne by the loyal and proven Mr. Muhlenberg. I am heartily sorry for him; and I have not been able to read the description of his uncommon internal and external tribulations without tears. Such a great burden rests on these three servants of Christ²⁷ and on their two assistants, Mr. Kurtz and Mr. Schaum, that they will have to succumb to it unless the Lord Shabaoth be their especial protector, aid, and helper. He is indeed their God, in whom they trust. He will not let them be defeated or be brought to shame by the enemies of His invincible Kingdom, which they so gladly wish to build. They deserve to be helped by counsel, comfort, and support from the friends of God and Christ, as, indeed, a beautiful beginning has been made, according to the brief printed reports. For this the name of the Lord our God should be heartily praised and the blessings of the Lord on High should be wished as a gracious compensation for their benefactors.

During the autumn two new pious co-workers arrived safely, and this will serve them and lighten their load through divine goodness. Alas! Until now we have recognized much too little what spiritual and physical advantages our merciful God has given us in Ebenezer. Therefore this letter from our worthy Mr. Muhlenberg serves us very well to shame us and to awaken us to gratitude toward God and our dear Fathers and benefactors and to a careful application of our period, and means, of grace and to a suppression of incipient vexations and to intercession for these our brothers.

At the end of this letter, which consisted of three folios, our worthy Mr. Muhlenberg called to us,

Oh dear Ebenezer, how many advantages you have above many other places! There is one religion there, one church, and one constitution! The shepherds and sheep there are close together! There one practices cura generalis, specialis, and specialissima!²⁸ There body and soul are cared for with spiritual and physical medications! Right and justice are meted out there, and evil is punished and good is rewarded! The youth there hears only what is good and sees examples worthy of emulation, etc., etc. There there is a Pniel,²⁹ a heavenly ladder where the angels journey up and down! Oh congregation, you little flock, fear not, yet think at this time what will serve your peace. Proceed while you still have light! The souls among us who know the Lord and call him “Father” from their hearts call to you, “Go forth, go forth, Zion go forth in light. Alas, let everything that heaven and earth contain be greeted by us ten thousand times.

Soon the voice will resound,

Arise, the Bridegroom is there!³⁰ Hold your lamps and vessels ready, and never let them be without oil. Let no one remain behind, and do not neglect everlasting rest. Behold, see that you fight the good fight, finish the race, and retain your faith. There is a crown of glory, of life, and of splendor! Also remember us in your faithful prayer, and let us call to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is God, with dogma and life. Amen.”

In addition, I wished to warn you that no one should stray away from the rich and green meadow of the divine word and out of blessed Ebenezer through willfulness and false purposes. Those who have gone away for such purpose have mostly perished unfortunately and have suffered shipwreck.

The 27th of January. N.N.’s wife had business in my house and called on me in my study. She has a sickly body but a healed and sound soul. Her constant physical weaknesses and her frequently very dangerous attacks have been very salutary disciplinary aids for her to seek and find her salvation in Christ. Oh, how she prays to God for His marvelous and blessed ways which He has gone with her since she was a child and for having chosen her from the world and having deemed her worthy of entering the Kingdom of God through much tribulation. Her heart was full of the great deeds of God, and her mouth flowed with witness of her nothingness and of God’s glory. We talked and prayed with blessing.

The 28th of January. The leader of the German people in Goshen informed me in a letter that the English and Germans in their district wish to recruit a teacher first through the English and German preacher in Savannah and through him even further, and for this I was asked for advice. A Christian schoolmaster who speaks both languages would be good and necessary; but it is difficult to get and to keep such a one.

For the past two years I have been planting mulberry trees on our glebe land by Goshen behind Abercorn; and I plan to continue in this until three or four hundred of these useful trees have been planted and have grown up. If sericulture in this colony is to be organized and conducted properly so that something steady will become of it, then a useful silk manufacture could be established on this unusually fertile glebe land for maintaining a schoolmaster and especially for the ministers’ and schoolmasters’ widows. Indeed, if a minister became an emeritus because his strength was worn out or used up, or if he could othewise not perform his office, he would have here a quiet retreat and could be useful to children and adults in this very fertile and well-situated district in his own house. When a worn out minister can no longer fill his office with riding back and forth and in other ways and another comes, then he loses his salary and his sustenance because the congregation is too poor to maintain a minister themselves. It would be even worse for the widows and orphans of the ministers.

In this poor land where one must ride a great deal and expose oneself to so many changes in the weather, an industrious minister soon becomes dulled and either works beyond his strength to his very end or else neglects his congregation. Or, if he leaves his office to another through love for his congregation, he would have to suffer hunger and hardship without a salary, if he were not aided by benefactions from Europe. However, if our dear Lord granted means to establish a good plantation on the glebe land, to plant many mulberry trees, and to build a spacious house and a few necessary outhouses, I do not doubt that on the said land such an establishment could be built for caring for the retired ministers and schoolmasters as well as for their widows and orphans.

Not only the Lutheran ministers of Ebenezer but also those of Pennsylvania, our dear brothers, could take part in this to the glory of God. With the help of the children of the neighborhood whom they are instructing they could, with divine blessing, make a good quantity of silk, which would greatly contribute to the maintenance of this institution. There is a most beautiful opportunity here for cattle raising; and, if God granted the means to purchase a few families of Negroes, a small Negro school could be begun here. Nothing is impossible for God; His providence spreads out to cashiered soldiers, who have their upkeep in special institutions. What might His servants expect?

The 29th of January. My frequent visits are like a balm on the head of the mortally sick Kieffer, indeed, for his heart so thirsty for grace. And it is the very same with Bruckner, who has lain sick for so long. It is very edifying to converse with them, and Jesus blesses His dear gospel and their prayer superabundantly in their thirsty souls. Our marvelous God is visiting many members of the congregation with poverty and sickness, yet they reveal themselves, as fits Christians, to be very patient and entirely resigned to God’s guidance. Indeed, they well recognize that He must go such ways with them if they are not to be harmed in their souls and Christianity. Good days would not be good for them, as they know from experience in themselves and other examples.

I find such Christian behavior very comforting in my spiritual distress, especially when such trials of suffering reveal what a great treasure of grace God has put in their hearts, how the dross falls off, and how splendidly the gospel of our dear Christ penetrates. To be sure, for our part we may overlook the fact that many are bad off with regard to health and nourishment. Yet I see better and better the Hand of the Lord, who does everything for the best of his children.

I sometimes think that God is love and therefore of unlimited power. Heaven and earth are His. Everything He wishes, He does in heaven and on earth. He does not willingly plague and vex mankind, rather His will is to do and to plant well with all His heart. Also, so many friends of God among all nations are our friends and intercessors: Christ as our eternal High Priest prays for us in heaven, and we pray with many servants and children of God in His name on earth. Therefore our suffering is a salutary suffering.

The 31st of January. Our dear Bruckner is becoming ever weaker in his body, but in his faith he holds firmly to his Lord and Savior and finds in Him life, comfort, and bliss. In his prayer early this morning he wished that he might often enjoy beneficent words of encouragement from his ministers; and, to the strengthening of his faith, he received a hearing, for my dear colleague came to him, and I called on him this afternoon. But neither of us knew anything about the contents of his prayer. He is like parched soil, and therefore a true Zion, in which the rain of the gospel lovingly penetrates to awaken him. His words come from much experience; they are very edifying and at the same time give witness that we have not worked in vain on him and other Salzburgers, even if the blessing of the preached word has long lain hidden in some of them. God be praised for the boundless mercy which He has shown to this dear man’s soul, especially in the last years of his life through His word and the Holy Sacraments. We could still use him well in the community. But the Lord’s will be done!

FEBRUARY 1752

The 1st of February. On this first day of the month Bruckner was in pain and debilitated, yet during it all he showed right Christian patience. I recited to him the sigh of faith that Jesus so much liked to hear and which He put into words for the good of us and all miserable people in the world, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon me,”¹ along with the dear words of Psalms 103, “Like as a father pitieth his children (even the most miserable who are in the greatest need), so the Lord pitieth them that fear him (in the present, for it happens all at once). For he knoweth our frames, etc., he remembereth that we are dust, etc.” To be sure, because of pain and weakness Bruckner could not speak much; yet he said that the above-mentioned sigh suited him well, for it had always lain in his mind. After the prayer he offered me his hand, thanked me, and wished God’s blessings for me and my family.

A few days ago N., a youth of twenty-five years, became sick with a dangerous colic; and, because he did not use good remedies soon, he died of it this morning. Yesterday before evening my dear colleague had spoken with him those things that could serve the salvation of his soul. He was raised in N. and was bad enough, since his parents were evilly inclined and vexatious people. Here he let himself be instructed and confirmed, adapted himself to good order, heard God’s word gladly, and sought to support himself honorably on his newly begun plantation. I hope that the Lord Jesus has received him in mercy and brought him to everlasting rest. He was bashful and did not come out with what God had wrought in him through His word. However, from his behavior we noticed that he disliked all the sinfulness of other young people.

My God is now chastising us greatly with sickness and death; may He again have mercy on us according to His great goodness! Both of us feel weaknesses, too; yet they do not keep us from performing our office. Despite the chest pains that I had last night, I was able to preach twice on this Sexagesima Sunday through the power of God and to hold the evening prayer meeting. When I arose, the chest pains were gone but a lassitude was still there. However, God strengthened me so much that in the evening I was healthy and in good spirits. And He is proceeding the same with my dear colleague. May he be praised!

We hear that all sorts of intense suffering is befalling our brothers in the world; and this, along with our own, is driving us to prayer. In particular, we have been very much concerned that our dear and blessed Wernigeroda,² in which we have very many true friends, has suffered a twenty-four hour fire, as we have recently seen from the Pennsylvania papers. In our Sunday public prayer hour we have also lamented this hardship to the Lord, from whom all help comes. I consider it an inestimable blessing that both on weekdays, and especially on Sundays in church, that we have such good opportunity to bend our knees with the members of the congregation and to bring to His throne of grace our and our neighbors’ hardship and to praise Him for His goodness.

The 3rd of February. Yesterday evening at seven o’clock a thunderstorm arose, which lasted a couple of hours with heavy rain. Between ten and eleven o’clock a right frightful stormwind arose, which lasted almost all night, although not always with the same violence. Since then it has become very cold. This year we have had an unusually cold winter, which is also much dryer than it usually is. Nevertheless, there are many serious sicknesses. It is the hand of the Lord.

Theobald Kieffer told me, to the praise of God, that he has felt a lessening of his sickness. We thanked God for the small beginning of an improvement; and we edified ourselves with the dear words, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”³ Our dear Bruckner is, to be sure, still very weak of body; yet the great pains have somewhat abated. We refreshed ourselves with the sweet words: “We have been given a physician who is life itself. Christ died for us and merited salvation for us.”⁴

God willing, tomorrow I must go to Savannah because of a written summons from the members of the Council; and therefore I took leave until a joyful reunion in eternity. I told him in a few words that the President and his Assistants wished to speak with me about the right arrangement of the silk business in the colony and at our place, and this pleased him. From his own experience he thought that this work would advance prosperity in Ebenezer; and this pleased him even though he would meanwhile go to his true home. What we read in the Halle newspapers about the great advantages of the mulberry groves and the silk manufacture of the institutions of the orphanage in Halle also serves to encourage us. Here the trees grow much more readily and more swiftly than there. Therefore their usefulness could be, and will be, much greater with time, when more people come to this land and workers’ wages become cheaper.

The 7th of February. Because of necessary business at the Council, I could not return from Savannah until this morning. Already in Abercorn I learned that the often mentioned Bruckner, who had been sick for a long time, as well as Burgsteiner, who, like the late Steiner had been sick for only a short time with fever and sore throat, had gone to their rest. Shortly before his dissolution Bruckner had called his death day a wedding day, to which he was looking with joy. Burgsteiner also showed himself as a Christian in his life, suffering, and death. Both were honest Salzburgers and useful in the community, and the one died only a few hours after the other. They are both leaving very Christian widows, and each is leaving only one child behind. It is amazing that in these two first months only adult men and women, and no children, have died.

The 8th of February. The two gentlemen Harris and Habersham are now showing themselves so kind toward the widow Bichler that, at my behest, they are cancelling her entire debt, which amounts to some twenty pounds. With this joyful news and with sufficient assurance of the same, I rejoiced her today and encouraged her to the praise of God. So far her widowhood has been a happy one, her marriage, on the other hand, an especial period of suffering and sorrow, through which God has purified her. His hand has no end of help, no matter how great the harm.

The 9th of February. Six years ago today on this same Esto mihi Sunday, my dear colleague /Hermann Lemke/ assumed his ministerial office in the community. Because I preached today on the gospel of Jesus our Savior and used in my introit the dear words of Sirach 17:28, “Oh, how great is the mercy of the Lord!,” I rightfully presented to the congregation as an especial proof of the great, marvelous, and still lasting mercy of God that He has not, to be sure, failed to send salutary tribulations to the community; yet He has kept us two in health, life, and unity of spirit and has granted rich edification and comfort to the true members of the congregation.

Our congregation is a congregation assembled by God. It should be a congregation in Christ Jesus and consequently a congregation of the cross, whose direction should not be judged according to reason but according to dogma and the life of Jesus, its head. Whoever wishes to do that must go into the sanctuary with the holy author of the 73rd Psalm. If everything went well according to the wish of the body in favor, health, and great wealth, then you would soon turn cool. That is the reason that God sends tribulations, etc. Our place is respected precisely because of the cross and the many trials that our congregation experiences in all sorts of ways, including sickness and death. This also serves to keep useless people away from us. Revelations 7:13 ff.

The 10th of February. Before my last journey to Savannah a native Spaniard, who now lives in our district with his English wife, brought me his two children, namely, a two-year-old boy and a one-year-old girl, to have them baptized here. He had to leave Spain, and he married in Carolina. He and his wife had the older child there and the second one here in this colony. I did not wish to perform the baptism until I had conferred about it with the English minister in Savannah, who preferred for me to baptize the children here rather than send them and their parents down to Savannah.

Today he fetched me in his boat to the Blue Bluff, where he is staying with a German planter. He had sponsors from the community who understand English, so I imparted holy baptism to the children in the English language in the presence of the parents and the sponsors. The sponsors had to assure me before God and their conscience 1) that the children were not yet baptized, 2) that they would not go over to the Spaniards, and 3) that they would raise the children in the Protestant religion. The man is now planting someone else’s soil; but he has the promise to receive his own land, which he has lacked elsewhere, if he and his wife conform to good order.

Yesterday a German man of the Lutheran religion from Congarees in Carolina came to me and asked for private Communion. He is named Johann Georg Ebner and hails from Strassburg. He lived with his wife and children for six years in Philadelphia and three years in Congarees. He is looking for land in this colony for himself and for several others of his confession, who would like to live near a church and school. Religious matters there are in great confusion, and the children are in especially great danger. He seemed to me to be an honest man, so I scheduled him for today. After I spoke with him from God’s word, I held the confessional and Holy Communion with him in my study, during which he was not without good emotions. I also gave him several books.

Another German man came to me here from Charleston and wished to attend divine services. He came to this land very poor, has a wife and children in Wurttemberg, and wishes to earn something in this colony so that he can return and fetch his family. He also seems to be an honest man.

The 11th of February. This morning Mr. Krafft journeyed by land to Charleston with a guide for the sake of his business because in this way one can get there most rapidly, namely in three days. Beforehand we prayed in his house and commended the travelers and ourselves to the eternal mercy of God in Christ. He took from me and from many members of the congregation two large and one small packet of letters, along with our diary from the middle of December up to yesterday for forwarding to Europe. May God rule with His fatherly providence over both the person and the business of this dear person, as well as over these packets, in which there is much important news.

The 12th of February. As long as daily wages, as well as flax, hemp, and wool spinners are so expensive, there is not much hope for spinning and weaving. What some housewives spin and weave is durable and is of great help to them. Because of the recent deaths and sicknesses a Salzburger’s conscience has been so awakened and has made him feel so heavily the sins of his youth and his apprentice years and his impurity in Ebenezer in his use of the means of salvation that he counts himself among the lost and thinks he would have fared badly if death had taken him like others. He purloined something from his master, which he would gladly replace if he had the opportunity, which I will give him. However, comfort would not stay with him.

Our merciful God has helped young /Theobald/ Kieffer out of a dangerous sickness and has thereby done his soul much good. In his violent temperatures it was written in his heart, “Burn away the evil that has hindered my soul so far and has lessened the feeling of love that I often have from Thee.”⁵ Also the dear words from Hebrews 12:7 were blessed in his heart. His wife said that she had well deserved for the Lord to take away her dear husband through a premature death; but He had spared the five small children and left them their father.

This brought us in our conversation to the high value of the children who still stand in the grace of baptism, about which several Biblical passages treat, such as: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones,” . . . “Suffer the little children to come unto me,” etc.,. . . “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child,” etc. . . . “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,” etc.⁶ From these one can recognize what an important factor the parents’ hand is. I made especially valuable both to them and to myself the lovely words: “I desire nothing, oh Lord, but Thy free grace.”⁷ After that we prayed and thanked the Lord for His blessings.

The 13th of February. Margaretha Huber, an orphan of twenty-three years, is visited by God with constant bodily weakness and is therefore quite incapable of work. She well recognizes that she is frivolous and dissolute by nature and that she would not have come to Christ her Savior if God had not afflicted her so sorely. She is content with God’s disposition and is making herself ready for the journey to blessed eternity. Today she told me to what persons she is leaving her few cattle out of gratitude for kindnesses she has received. She has all her family in heaven, namely father, mother, two sisters, and a brother, all of whom died blessedly already in Old Ebenezer; and this moved her to tears.

The 14th of February. We have had a long and cold winter, which brought with it, to be sure, much wind, but little rain. However, it must have rained much more in the mountains, because of which the Savannah River has kept its normal level and all of our mills have been able to function. This has been a great blessing both for our inhabitants and for strangers, which, however, is not recognized sufficiently by all of them. Yet the All-highest gives sunshine and rain to the ungrateful and wicked, too,⁸ also water and mills. By such common, and at the same time indispensable, blessings He wishes to lure them to repentance. The mills are an extraordinary blessing in this land, however numerous they may be in other lands, where rivers and high banks are found.

Through incaution or out of a desire for young grass for the cattle someone set fire to the dry grass in the forest at some distance, which the wind has driven very rapidly in all directions. This caused danger and loss to some people, and the fence of our cemetery outside of town was in danger. Towards the spring of every year the old dry grass in the piny woods is burned away; and the young sweet grass lures the wild and runaway cattle from the swampy regions that people here call canebrakes or bay swamps, where there are warm lairs and winter forage. Then good riders on strong horses drive the cattle home for slaughter or for domestication. The fire does the forest trees much damage.

The 16th of February. On this Invocation Sunday we were delighted by some letters from Europe which, through divine mercy, have served to awaken me again and to strengthen my faith and to comfort me in our tribulations, as well as to cause me to praise God and request intercession for these and other dear friends and benefactors of Ebenezer. We wish to present them, and their circumstances, in which there is much suffering, to our Lord in the name of Jesus Christ in our public prayer meeting this evening humbly and confidently and, through the assistance of the Holy Ghost, to do that which comes with the name of this Sunday with reference to the inestimable verse 15 of the 91st Psalm: “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.”

Here I cannot but mention what was especially comforting for me in our worthy Mr. Albinus’s friendly letter, “I remember the late Inspector Sarganeck’s serious and most impressive speech to me when, according to God’s will, I had resolved to go to the Paedagogium regium⁹ in Halle. He said, “Be welcome to us in our great hardship. But do not think that we have only great hardship: no, we also have a great God who helpeth. If you feel the hardship, then flee to God and say, ‘Dear God, thou hast led me here and laid this heavy burden on my weak shoulders, so trudge along with me. Help me so that I not succumb.’ Then he will always help, factum est.¹⁰ Halleluhah!” In view of our work, which has been increased by the arrival of the new transport, this very worthy friend sent the following confortatorium:¹¹ “Through the arrival of the new transport your work has been noticeably increased, yet at the same time also the aid and assistance of the Lord. No hardship is so great, no burden is so heavy but that the Lord is still greater and always has ways and means enough to help. The more the work, the more the assistance: the greater the suffering, the greater the comfort.” To that we add our trusting Amen!

The 17th of February. I visited the recently deceased Burgsteiner’s widow, who told me many edifying things about the blessed death of her husband. Among other things, she said he spent his last time with constant prayer and the word of God and wished to die rather than to live. After Steiner’s blessed death he had taken two of his children to rear, and at his deathbed he ordered that they should remain with his wife. For their raising we will willingly give something. She has only one little son. I spoke movingly to the three children and the hired hand from God’s word and added the promise that is so abundantly given to the obedient. This Mrs. Burgsteiner is industrious in spinning cotton, of which she had a good amount woven for shirts, and she still had some thread left. She said that on a little piece of land that bears about a bushel of corn she had raised at least fifty pounds of cotton, which still had its seeds. A bushel of corn costs at most two shillings; and, if one prices one pound of cotton at only twopence, then the profit is four times as great as with corn.

The 18th of February. Young N.’s wife has just been afflicted by the violent fever and sore throat of which the two honest Salzburgers, Steiner and Burgsteiner, recently died. Today she has somewhat improved, for which she, and also we, thanked God. She regrets with tears that she did not rightly apply the valuable period of grace to the recognition, love, and service of her Savior; and therefore it was necessary, she said, to arouse her through this sudden illness. I reminded her that she had already had several such awakenings to a true seriousness in her Christianity and that she did not know how soon it would be the last one. The encouragement was well received, and we said our prayer with bowed and confident hearts. She has her righteous and experienced mother as a nurse in her sickness, and this is profitable for her soul. From often hearing the lovely morning hymn Danck sey GOTT in der Höhe, etc., her four-year-old only son had learned the comforting words, “We are the tender grapes, Thou art the vinestock on which we grow and cling.”¹² He often said on his own, “I am a tender grape,” and this greatly pleased his grandmother.

The 19th of February. Only a few people now live in town; most of them have moved to the newly established plantations on the Blue Bluff. Consequently, they cannot attend the daily edification in the evening prayer meetings. In order that they may not lack a public opportunity to prepare for a worthy participation in the Holy Communion, I announced on Sunday that today, Wednesday, I would give a preparation sermon in Jerusalem Church, and this was done this morning from eight to ten o’clock. In it I gave them directions for a salutary contemplation and application of the story of all stories, that of the suffering and death of Christ.

One can now thank only oneself if one remains in spiritual blindness despite the bright light of the gospel and in hypocrisy and wickedness despite such abundantly offered grace. The people from town and from the plantations on both sides of it had assembled in large numbers to hear the word. May our merciful God bless His word, which He himself has granted and has first blessed in my own soul, in all listeners such that they may attain a living recognition of Christ and the enjoyment of salvation!

The 20th of February. At the order of the Lord Trustees a parliament is again to be held in Savannah on the 2nd of March, for which deputies from every district in the colony are to be elected per plurima voca.¹³ Yesterday afternoon we had an election of two deputies at our place; and today there will be one at Joseph’s Town between Abercorn and Savannah. My dear colleague and I were invited in a letter from Dr. Graham because we have some still undeveloped land in the district near the area of Goshen. My sickness and other circumstances kept me from this journey, and therefore Mr. Lemke undertook it. Unfortunately, there are in this country, as in England, two parties; and I am learning in a small way what a great effort it must cost in England to have a favorable parliament.

Dr. G. wrote me a few days ago that he and his neighbors were going to vote for a certain otherwise skillful and experienced captain and that he hoped the same from me and from Mr. Lemke and from some other Germans who have land around there. To be sure, in my absence my vote is not valid, yet for Mr. Lemke’s sake I wrote him a letter in which I did not exactly disapprove his grounds for electing the said captain but modestly showed him that we had equally important, if not more important, reasons to give our vote to another prominent planter, who fears God from his heart and has an honest interest in the colony. He would find these reasons well grounded, I wrote, when I revealed them to him at our next meeting.

At the end of the letter I announced that today, the 20th of February, had the beautiful name Concordia in the calendar, which reminded me of what stands on the Dutch ducat: Concordia res parvae crescunt, Discordia dilabuntur).¹⁴ Unity in these serious and dangerous times would advance our fortune, but disunity would advance our ruin. At the close of the letter I wished that holy unity might rule among us all. I gave the name Good Harmony to my 500 acre plantation that lies in the neighborhood but has not yet been developed because of lack of means. Every owner of such a piece of land must give it a name, which is recorded in the colony’s protocol.

The 21st of February. My dear colleague returned safely last evening from the previously mentioned election and said that everything had, to be sure, passed very amicably and peacefully but that all the English had elected the captain to the parliament per plurima vota.¹⁵ We think of the words: “Nothing can happen to us but what God has foreseen and what is good for us. I shall accept it as He gives it. What He pleases to do with me, I have already chosen.”¹⁶

The 22nd of February. A young man came to me today at the confessional and told me humbly that he had been in especial danger in N. of injuring his conscience but that the Lord had greatly strengthened him to overcome not only all temptations, which were almost stronger and more disgraceful than in the story of Joseph, but also to speak the truth from the word of God to the godless people. I told him that he had as much reason as Lot and the three men in the fiery furnace to praise God for His protecting and beneficent goodness and mercy and to guard himself all his life long from such people. “Flee from sin as from a serpent,” etc.¹⁷ I need this news, however distressing it is.

After this victory, which from the circumstances known to me seemed to me to be a great victory, God not only granted this chaste young Joseph a virtuous and skillful helpmeet but also crowned him with such spiritual and physical blessings, and especially since that same time, that he has changed from a poor day laborer into a man of means who is pleasing to God and men. Not all the circumstances can be related exactly, otherwise one would more clearly recognize this youth’s blessed obedience.

The 23rd of February. On this Reminiscere Sunday, Holy Communion was held for one hundred and twenty-four members of the congregation; and with it our kind God granted us His holy word from morning to evening with blessing and to the rich edification of our souls. Praised be His holy name for ever and ever!

After the cold and dry winter we are having a warm and dry spring. It has suddenly become warmer than is customary in May. In the last few days and today it has thundered and appeared ready to rain, but none fell. A fruitful rain is greatly needed by the plentifully planted young mulberry trees, the European grains, and the kitchen vegetables in the gardens. Plum and peach trees and some unknown wild trees and bushes are in full yellow, white, red, and brown blossoms,¹⁸ which delight the eye and rejoice the heart. If anyone had the means he could plant far more enjoyable and useful gardens here than is possible in Germany. Because of lack of workers and all-too-costly wages we must desist from much good.

The 27th of February. This evening we received a large quantity of silkworm seed to distribute among those who have none of their own or who wish to exchange theirs for some foreign seed. The mulberry leaves are beginning to sprout, and this would occur still more if God would grant us a fruitful rain.

Mr. Krafft has now returned from Charleston, indeed in good health and after successful conclusion of his business.

The 28th of February. It is well known that the godless and hypocrites in Christendom want only to draw God’s grace and, against God’s order, vainly appropriate for themselves the forgiveness of sins without repentance and faith and consequently to their frightful harm; and therefore we have made every effort in our power to protect our dear parishioners from self-deception, hypocritical confession, selfmade faith, imagined forgiveness of sins, and false comfort from God’s mercy and Christ’s merits. For that purpose we always show them from God’s word that the only means of justification and forgiveness of sins is the faith in Jesus Christ and His inestimable ransom, which he offered up through His perfect obedience, shedding of blood, and death for all sinners and sins for our fully valid reconciliation. This faith, I said, is wrought in a penitent, contrite, and crushed heart and it reveals itself in such souls partly through desire and partly through the reception of Christ.

Just as there is a power of justification in this faith that has been wrought in a penitent heart by the Holy Ghost through the gospel, this faith also reveals a saving power, purifies the heart, and unites with Christ. Step by step in such believing and pardoned sinners there occurs what stands in Ezekiel 36:26 ff.; and thus justification leads to sanctification; or the justification in life is exactly connected with the justification through faith. Where the former is lacking and the opposite is found, there is neither repentance nor faith nor justification nor the forgiveness of sins. Many are so blind that they desire nothing more from the gospel than just the forgiveness of sins so that they will come not into hell, but into heaven. This sometimes requires me to tell the parishioners what I once heard in this matter from the mouth of the late Abbot Breithaupt, who compared the forgiveness of sins with the removal of the window casement so that the sun might shine into the room. Thus, in a penitent and believing person the sins, as a separation between God and men, are taken away so that later the participation in the remaining treasures of salvation is connected with it in order that the pardoned sinner will achieve not a half, but a full, salvation. On the other hand it causes unutterable harm when blind and persistent sinners demand the forgiveness of sins yet do not wish to hear of true repentance or sanctification or renewal.

Our godfearing miller has suddenly contracted the genuine side stitches with a violent fever. He is a man highly respected by both inhabitants and strangers and is a jewel of our mills, who consecrates all business with God’s word and prayer. Therefore his premature departure from the world would be a great loss for Ebenezer. We hope that God will grant him to us again. His only little daughter has also been dangerously sick but has now become fully well through God’s goodness. Her mother admonished her to recite the Bible verse that she had enjoyed during her sickness. It reads: “I will be glad in the Lord, and my soul is joyful,” etc.¹⁹ She also recited the words “Return unto thy rest, O my soul: for the Lord hath dealt,” etc.²⁰

MARCH 1752

The 1st of March. On this first day of March, being Sunday Oculi, I preached to the German people in Savannah and held Holy Communion with some of them. In the preparation I gave them directions how to profit properly from the present period of fasting and the Passion story of our Savior. Eight days ago in the evening there was a severe thunderstorm in Savannah which suddenly struck a little Negro girl and burned the flesh on her whole body along with her clothes. Before receiving the deadly stroke she had placed a bowl full of milk on the ground; and, because of the rain, she had wished to put some of her clothing over the bowl. But then she was killed by the lightning and the milk was changed to pure hydrogen sulfide. A Frenchman who was bringing rice to Savannah with his brother suddenly became sick during the night and died. Thus our wise and good God wishes to awaken secure people¹ in all sorts of ways. These words impress me deeply: “What is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”²

The 4th of March. During my trip things have become worse rather than better with the sick Zimmerebner. He is certain of his state of grace, has no fear of death, and is willing to live or die according to the will of God. Our conversation concerned the beautiful words of Christ: “Because I live, ye shall live also.”³

The 5th of March. I visited some people on Ebenezer Creek, from whose Christian behavior and love for the good I had great joy. The children gave me pleasure through their merry and well behaved nature and through their diligence in learning, but my joy was greatly lessened by the sad memory that in previous years so many children born here had sickened and died. Whether or not a natural cause with respect to weather or the behavior of the parents and children can be adequately cited or whether it is only the hand of God that strikes us, of that I cannot judge.

The 6th of March. This week the schoolmaster on the plantations is letting the children sing the very beautiful song Mein Vater, du hast mich erwählt, etc.⁴ Because I arrived at the school promptly and could sing it with them, our merciful God granted me much edification and joy of heart from it. After I had concluded with the children the earlier instructive song: O heiliger Gott, wir alle beten an from our supply of grace for salvation, I plan during the next catechistic lesson to lead the children through the first mentioned song of thanksgiving for the gracious blessings we have received from God, which well suits this time when the celebration of our annual commemoration and thanksgiving feast is gradually approaching.

The 7th of March. Today on the glebe land by Goshen there was a child to baptize, at which opportunity I also visited old Mrs. Lackner, whom I found in great suffering, to be sure, but, to my edification, also in great faith and great patience. God has visited her with longlasting suffering, which has been blessed for the salvation of her soul by divine mercy. Grace has made a great change. The inhabitants of Goshen had assembled in a house to hear God’s word, which I preached to them from the Passion story in accordance with the nature of the times in which we live. It was an evangelical sermon on repentance and preparation for their pending use of Holy Communion, which is to be held with them on this coming Monday or the ninth of this month.

The 9th of March. In a paternal way God averted a great danger and misfortune from our pious Mrs. Bacher on her way home from work as midwife in Goshen. We rightfully praised Him for this and edified ourselves from the comforting verses: “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.”⁵ Our dear God has very clearly blessed her office in Goshen in very dangerous circumstances into which other people had brought a lying-in woman, as He has often graciously done before. For this reason we rightfully consider this pious and blessed woman to be a jewel among us. Through divine providence we have in our congregation several jewels in Christian and very useful persons and indispensable institutions and benefactions, which, however, are not recognized by all.

The 10th of March. Our dear God has visited the two Salzburgers Zimmerebner and Zittrauer with severe and dangerous sicknesses, but He has also begun to show His help so that we have good hope for their early recovery. On the other hand, yesterday evening Lackner sent us word from his plantation in Goshen that his wife is coming ever closer to her end and that she is showing a great desire to speak again with one of her ministers and to receive Holy Communion. My dear colleague journeyed to her this morning.

Today, for the seventeenth time, our merciful God showed us in Ebenezer the blessing of being able to conduct our annual commemoration and thanksgiving feast in good tranquility, order, and edification with the hearing of the divine word, with singing and praying both morning and afternoon, as well as in the regular repetition and prayer hours. The texts about which we preached were Psalms 116:12-14 and Isaiah 64:7-10. Because we have many new parishioners, they were instructed in the introit from Sirach 47:9-12 concerning the necessity and value of such a celebration.

Instead of reading a Biblical text between the two hymns preceding the sermon, the children recited the arousing hymn composed by Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen: Mein Vater, du hast mich erwählt, which especially suits such an occasion as we had today and which concurs with the materials that were preached. Because we have only a few copies of this beautiful hymn, we cannot sing it in the numerous congregation, but only in the repetition and prayer hour. The same is true of another song composed for Ebenezer: Auf Ebenezer, werde heut zu GOttes Lob erwecket, etc.⁶ I would gladly have sung it in church today (as I was requested to by someone); but it was not possible, because only a few people possess written copies and because reading it aloud in a large assembly is inconvenient and not very edifying. I mention this lack in such detail because I wish and hope that we will someday receive printed copies of these hymns from Europe.

For several weeks there has been a great drought that has badly hindered the growth of the European crops and has prevented the mulberry trees from sprouting the leaves for the silkworms’ fodder. This afternoon during the sermon our dear God granted us a penetrating rain and thus a new and very great blessing, for which we had first invoked Him and then praised him.

The 13th of March. After the rain we had cold wind and a frost, and people were worried that it might destroy the tender mulberry leaves; however, our dear God graciously averted this feared harm, for which we rightly praise Him. Today in school as an introduction to the contemplation of the edifying hymn Mein Vater, du hast mich erwaehlt, etc. I contemplated the two dear passages from Psalms 92: 5 ff. that were placed over them: “Thou lettest me sing joyfully of thy works, and I praise the works of thy hands”⁷ and Isaiah 12:5, “Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.” If only the inhabitants were in God’s favor or strove for His grace, all would turn out better.

The 14th of March. There are only a few Negroes or Moorish slaves here, yet they cause us no little trouble, for which, however, they are not to blame. It is too vexatious to tell of all the distressing things; and I greatly pity those who have caused the vexation. Here, too, it is true: Greed is the root of all evil.⁸ A Negro woman of this country said of her master that she knew of no difference between him and the Negroes except that he could read. Because she was accused of something against natural law and propriety and was compelled to do it, she said that she wished to accuse her master and mistress of it before God’s judgment. Oh, terrible things occur in this country among and with the Negroes; and therefore I fear the severe judgments of God. In this I do my office as well as I can; may God give my words and representations the proper emphasis.

The 16th of March. Old Schubdrein is always merry, works industriously as a carpenter with his sons, and is a needed and useful worker among us. I visited him and his sick wife, spoke to them from God’s word, and prayed with them; and this pleased them very much. His son /Johann Peter/ showed me his travel diary from here to his fatherland and from there back to Ebenezer, which I read not without edifying emotions and from which I recognized the difficulties and dangers of human life, God’s fatherly providence over his children, the righteous and godly intentions of this young man, and his and Ebenezer’s friends and benefactors. He is a humble and grateful man and has brought back from his journey a good treasure of grace; and we have noticed his increase in good. He shines as a light amongst us.

The 17th of March. Our pious, blessed, and universally beloved miller, Zimmerebner, has, to be sure, recovered from his dangerous attack of side stitches, yet he now has a serious illness in his chest and can therefore not manage the mill. He is afraid that his recovery will be slow in coming; and he wishes the community to appoint another miller in his place, but in this we will go slowly. We would rather try to lighten his load and to keep him even though sick. The mills are increasing as the community increases. The dams, millruns, and mill houses, and everything that remains in the weather have become very dilapidated; and already last summer they were in need of repair. Now we must plan not only for a hasty repair but also for the construction of a new millrun, for the only course that has water in the dry summer cannot provide for so many inhabitants and strangers.

Because pine wood rots quickly in the weather, we have had an adequate supply of cypress wood prepared by the Schubdreins and our servants in order to build right durably with it. Things have not yet been built this way among us or even in the whole country. The long millraces or canals to the waterwheels, likewise the lost water chute, consist of whole cypresses and are of unusual length. From the very beginning we have had little experience and just as few knowledgeable builders, and therefore, to our harm, much has been built on the mills with considerable loss of money. Indeed, every year we have had to patch the watercourse and the millruns at no small cost. Had God not provided it, we would have been long without a mill, our nourishment would have been much worse, and the inhabitants could hardly have subsisted here.⁹ We are again asking God to move the hearts and hands of our worthy Fathers, benefactors, and friends and set us in a position through their generous contributions to carry out this important construction, which we will have to begin with debts. Afterwards, through divine goodness, we will have all the more rest and be able to apply the income from the grist and sawmills for a good purpose.

The 21st of March. Shortly before my departure from Savannah the sad news was brought from the gardens and the plantations that during the night from the 18th to the 19th of this month a heavy frost had, as it were, scorched and spoiled the mulberry leaves. I heard this news, in a somewhat gentler form, while coming up past Dr. Graham’s. Because our Ebenezer district lies somewhat further toward the northwest than Savannah, I assumed that the cold frost must have caused much greater damage to our mulberry trees and their leaves than in Savannah. However, I heard to my joy, and not without amazement, that our dear God had graciously spared us everywhere this time. This is a new and very great blessing for our inhabitants (our families included).¹⁰ We have also had much more rain than in Savannah, yet there is still too little of it. The soil and air are cold; and therefore the leaves, the only proper food for the silkworms, will not grow rightly as they would do if it rained and if some days and nights were warm.

The 22nd of March. God has visited N.N. with a severe and dangerous sickness, which he himself considers a necessary and salutary kind of discipline, if he were not to fall further into perdition. In him I have an example of how harmful wealth and good days are for many people and that it takes strong legs to carry good days and how necessary is the prayer: “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me.”¹¹ In his profession, which he first learned here, he earned so much in a short time that he could establish his household better than others. With his wealth grew his pride, which was all the more repugnant because everyone knows how poor a man he had formerly been. He had me called to him and gave me an opportunity to discuss many necessary things and to pray with him.

The 24th of March. For several days we have had a fruitful rain, cool nights, and warm sunshine. It is beginning to be a fruitful year. The water in the river has risen rapidly, which comes either from rain (which we have not had here) or from snow.

The 25th of March. An old widow, a Dutch woman whose husband died in Carolina, has come to our place and is expressing a desire to spend the remainder of her life here if she can support herself here modestly. I would like to provide for her shelter, but for her work or a small service I directed her to the merchants Mr. Krafft and Mr. Mayer. We have had widows, orphans, and other needy people at our place before; and it gives me no little pain to be unable to contribute as much as I would like to their physical support. Nevertheless, to the best of my knowledge, no one has any lack of food, clothes, and shelter in healthy days and care in sick ones.

The two transports of Lutheran people from the Territory of Ulm, their provisioning and first installation on their plantations and in their trades, likewise the purchase of the cowpen in Old Ebenezer, the construction of the new sawmill, and the highly necessary repairs that have been begun on the gristmills, etc. have made us poorer than we have been in a long time. What we have advanced the people they cannot pay back. I shall not mention other tribulations by which we were prevented from receiving the hoped-for income through the help of the sawmills and by which, on the other hand, we had to incur all sorts of heavy expenses. Our merciful God will not withdraw His hand from us but rather show us His help in this distressing time also, as He has often done! It would have been of sad consequence in both spiritual and physical matters if we had not accepted the two said transports from Ulm but had merely provided them with some provisions and advanced them some money when they received nothing from the gentlemen of the Council in Savannah because of their and the Lord Trustees’ great lack of means.

The 27th of March. Yesterday my dear colleague Mr. Lemke was in Goshen to baptize a child, to preach, and to hold Holy Communion. Meanwhile, yesterday being Maunday Thursday, I preached in the morning in Zion Church and in the evening in Jerusalem Church about the dear and important dogma of Holy Communion according to the introduction of our catechism, which I find especially pleasant and edifying. Today in both churches we celebrated the blessed memory of the death and burial of Christ and we concluded the Passion sermons, which were held this time on the 27th and 28th chapters of Matthew. May our loyal Savior be praised for the rich edification which He has granted us today and in previous days from the most important story of His willing and innocent suffering and death. May He give us loyalty to apply the grace we have received to a Christian life, patient suffering, and blessed death!

The 30th of March. Today we celebrated the Holy Eastertide in health and tranquility and with edification for our hearts, for which may the name of the Lord be heartily praised.

Since for a very short time I have been unable to find any Indian corn either here or in the neighborhood for the new people (and because I had no money to look around for it), I heard with sorrow that some of them have sinned no little with hard and impatient words, on the other hand others have offered various clothes and linen in Purysburg for corn. Yet we have enough rice (because two weeks ago I bought more than five thousand pounds of lovely rice), just as I bought the fresh meat of four oxen last week, which they themselves can salt down. Therefore they could have been patient about the corn. Corn is rather scarce, yet I have now unexpectedly obtained a hundred bushels from a captain, for which, however, I had to pay with a bill of exchange for L 10 Sterling, otherwise he would not have let me have it.

No other transport’s provisioning has been so difficult for me as the present one’s, because the setting up of the household at the mill, the repairs to the old mill, the construction of a new millcourse, and the payment for the cowpen bought from the Trustees caused a lot of expense all at one time. To be sure, the old sawmill brought in something, but it could have been a great deal more if the sawmiller had been more industrious and more regular. The new sawmill has not yet sawed as much as we hoped. This winter and spring have been unusually dry, and that has made the water in the little river flowing to the mill very slight and weak, etc. I greatly need letters from Europe in order to learn whether a physical blessing has flowed together for us in Germany and London through the heartsteering power of God, which would right specially rejoice me and encourage me to the praise of God, the Giver of all good and perfect gifts.

APRIL 1752

The 1st. On this first day of the month I was in Savannah because of some practical matters. I edified myself with some friends with regard to the words, “It is finished.”¹ I performed my business, discussed some useful things with some honest Englishmen, and prepared myself for the return trip, which followed on the 2nd at four o’clock in the morning.

The 3rd. So far the winds have been very strong, dry, and cold, as a result of which the soil is unusually parched and almost as hard as iron. The little bit of corn that has sprouted miserably is being eaten away by the black worms, of which there are a great multitude in the earth and in the grass. The seeds of the German crops like wheat and rye are suffering greatly because the earth is so cold and dry. The mulberry leaves, too, do not wish to sprout and grow properly.

The 4th. It redounds to my great joy and the strengthening of my faith that our almighty and merciful God has so shown Himself in several notable examples, as was recently presented to us from the hymn: Warum betruebst du dich, mein Hertz. Unexpectedly a boat arrived here full of corn, which Mr. Krafft bought cheaply for resale. Thus the last colonists’ shortage of corn was averted even before the hundred bushels arrived that I had bought from a captain. Quite contrary to my expectation, God has shown a good opportunity for procuring ten cows and so many calves for the new colonists without my being further burdened in our present lack of money. They may pay for them in two years without interest or return other cows and calves instead of payment. They were delivered to them on the Blue Bluff. Oh, if only they could kiss with faith and humility the hand which is so blessing them!

A certain friend has given our Jerusalem Church a beautiful pewter basin and a well-wrought pitcher for use at Holy Baptism. Because we have lacked such a beautiful vessel until now in the Zion Church, the pitcher and basin that have been used until now in Jerusalem Church will be given to Zion Church. Today two things impressed and comforted me: namely, in our morning prayer hour at home the verse: “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.”² In the evening, when I was visiting the sick Zettler and his sickly and pious helpmeet, our good and pious Savior blessed in us the dear words: “Thou art ever before mine eyes, thou liest in my bosom, like babes that still suckle, my love for thee is great. No time, no need, no peril or strife, indeed, Satan himself, will not part us. Remain true in all thy suffering.”³ When we prayed, the little four-year-old boy laid his little crust of bread down and prayed to the end with devout gestures along with us. This pleased me very much and reminded me of the words of God and of the great Friend of Children, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength,” etc.⁴

The 5th. Late in the afternoon yesterday God moistened our very much dried out soil with a rain, which was accompanied by a thunderstorm that soon passed on. Today, Quasimodogeneti Sunday,⁵ N.N. sent a young person from her plantation in the neighborhood of Purysburg to me and requested me to ask for Christian intercession for her at our meeting, which was done for her.⁶ She is dangerously ill; and she is old and destitute of her temporal wealth, of which she brought much into this country, because most of her Negroes have died, the high water spoiled her rice, and her husband fell into debt through two vain attempts to build mills.

The 6th. God has again visited N.N. with a dangerous illness, which is redounding to his spiritual health and life. God has already done great things to his soul during his recent illness; but now He has brought him completely to a certainty of the forgiveness of his sins and to a living hope for salvation. Some sins, which, unfortunately, are very common among so-called Christians, still lay on his conscience from his time in Germany; and he confessed them humbly. A few years ago he was blamed for a certain injustice here, about which I asked him on this occasion. However, he assured me that he was innocent of this. Therefore I shall talk his neighbor out of his suspicion, which is a sin against the 6th and 9th commandments.⁷

He also regrets the grievous sin of taking Holy Communion unworthily, and he has an ardent desire to receive it again before his death in faith and with wholesome effect. We prayed together, and I praised God with him and his wife for the great mercy shown to this formerly wild and malicious man. In Germany he was a true Belial and ne’er-do-well among the apprentices and soldiers, and also for several years at our place. However, at his own frequent request, God let him not only come to Ebenezer but also be reduced to poverty and sickness. This tamed him and brought him to a recognition and feeling of his sins and to a true recognition of Christ and an experience of His mercy. Dancing, which is so senseless and common, and the course and subtile impurity that accompanies it is lying on his conscience like a stone but also driving him to Christ the Savior of poor sinners, who accepts all who believe in Him. Oh, how great is His shepherd-like loyalty, how long He follows after the most miserable sinners with such zeal!

Mrs. Kronberger (a woman concerned with her salvation) has suddenly become sick and bedridden. I told her something for her awakening and the comforting of her soul, using the beautiful words of the Lord: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore and repent,”⁸ namely, that the chastening and chastising of believers has an excellent purpose, to wit, they come from the love of Christ and are aimed at the salutary purpose of encouraging us to diligent repentance and change of mind. She and her family have been spared from sickness for several years; but for some time God has visited her along with her children with all sorts of sickness. He is also proceeding just as marvelously and mercifully with her sister, Mrs. Zettler, and her brother, Kieffer, who are all honest people who love God and His word.⁹

The 7th. Because of their distance and the lack of a bridge across Ebenezer Creek, the new colonists who live on the Blue Bluff cannot visit the evening prayer hours. Also, because of their great work, it has not been suitable for us to preach a sermon to them each week. Now that some of them wish to attend Holy Communion next Sunday, I held a preparation sermon this Monday for their benefit and set the 5th article of Holy Communion as its basis. I wish that all of them had been present; because in it God showed me, and I hope the parishioners who were present, much good.

The 9th. Old Mrs. Schubdrein is sick with fever and old age, but at the same time patient. Her children show her all possible love. Her husband is also old, yet very vigorous, and does good service as a carpenter with his children and richly earns his keep. All the Schubdreins are right Christian, laborious, domestic, contented, and useful people, whom God blesses in their profession.

To be sure, we now have sufficient rain, but to our surprise the cold is continuing unusually long. At night there is still hoar frost, which, however, does no other harm than slowing the crops in their growth. The soil is very cold. This is also the cause that there are so few and such small mulberry leaves this spring, for which reason no more silk will be made this year than last year, even though there are more and larger trees. For some of them silkmaking is already coming to an end this week. Whoever can heat his rooms is soon finished, on the other hand other people’s worms are greatly delayed from spinning by the cold days and nights, in fact some are harmed by it. Christians accept even this from the hand of God and are content with His guidance and providence.

The 12th. On this Sunday of Mercy, or Misere Dominica, one hundred and seven members of our congregation attended Holy Communion. In preparation for this holy action we had contemplated something from the catechism of Holy Communion in our weekly sermons and prayer hours. It is necessary in this dangerous land for the parishioners, both adults and children, to be instructed carefully in the holy and salutary dogma of their church concerning baptism and Holy Communion of the Lord. For both sacraments of the New Testament have many enemies here, who scorn them in theory and practice or sometimes attribute false meaning to them. We must not only confirm the dogma of our church with clear and certain grounds from God’s words, but also when necessary present and contradict that which others, in keeping with the free thinking in the Old and New Worlds, are accustomed to use in overthrowing our dogma, which is well grounded in God’s infallible word, and in affirming their own. This requires no great detail, rather it can be done very briefly.

I have noticed that such people who own all kinds of incorrect writings appear to be able to prove their tenets. They are often so certain of their opinions that they seek to spread them directly and indirectly among other religious parties. Now, if our people are not thoroughly grounded, they are easily taken advantage of by false words and by the seemingly pious but really incorrect life of sectarian people, and also by their helpfulness.¹⁰ If a father and mother have gone over to a sect, then truth is dead for the latest generation. Indeed, generally such people later become the bitterest blasphemers of the church in which they were born and from which they have received much spiritual and physical good but which they have left.

The 13th. Yesterday Lackner’s helpmeet had something fetched from us for her physical refreshment and at the same time to request our intercession because she still appears to be approaching her end. This morning I traveled to her plantation behind Abercorn; and through my visit, Christian encouragement, and prayer I gave her much joy, which she otherwise no longer has in the world. I communicated to her something from yesterday’s comforting introit verses: “And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.”¹¹ At the same time I also made profitable to her the beautiful page in the Little Treasure Chest:¹² “O satisfy us early with thy mercy,” along with the edifying verses standing under it. She is very weak physically, her breathing is very difficult, she can swallow neither food nor drink. One must give her a little water or other liquid with a little spoon as to a weak child. Despite that, she is patient at heart and content with God’s guidance, considers herself unworthy of all gifts, and thanks God for the great mercy He has shown her in making her believe in and assuring her of His mercy in Christ.

Not long before my arrival she had to experience a difficult hour of temptation;¹³ however, the Lord granted her aid and victory. She composed herself for many things and was comforted in Christ. Finally, I read her the last verse of the hymn Zion klagt mit Angst una Schmerzen twice and Du bist mir stets vor den Augen, du liegst mir in meinem Schoos, etc. This pleased her so well that she asked her husband to write it down for her.

The gentlemen of the Council in Savannah have urgently insisted that our Salzburgers, who have lived close together in Ebenezer, should move from each other and to good land for their better nourishment. For that reason they have promised each of them 100 instead of 50 acres of land; and therefore a few of them have moved to Goshen or into the same region. Among these are this Lackner Lechner,¹⁴ Balthasar Bacher, Scheraus, and some new colonists. These good people now have, to be sure, much good land, but more hardship and inconvenience than previously. For they live far from the river, far from the church and school, far from the encouragement of their ministers in healthy and sick days, from the hearing of the Sunday and weekday sermons, and from participation in the holy sacraments; and they must bury their dead in quiet without song, music, and funeral oration. The sick ones feel the distance from Ebenezer most of all, for they cannot make use of the ministers and the doctors as much as if they were still at their old place. Today I learned that they will not be able to progress merely in farming on this good land, indeed, even less than in Ebenezer, because they cannot earn anything. Therefore they must resolve to prepare all sorts of lumber for the West Indies or they will be reduced to hardship and debts. If they had wished to perform such labor according to the advice so often given them, then they could have supported themselves better in Ebenezer than on better land at some other place. I hope that they will eventually perform such labor.

The 26th. From the older Lackner, who has moved to a new plantation behind Abercorn, I learned this morning that his wife had been freed last week from all her very severe sufferings through a blessed death. She had suffered a great deal on her long-lasting sickbed, yet she had boasted to the very end how well she was with her dear Savior, whose mercy had sweetened all her suffering. I was away at the time, and my dear colleague had double work and the Tuesday sermon; and therefore neither of us could attend the burial, which took place on his plantation. The good people who have moved to the good land in Goshen and behind Abercorn at the request of the authorities must do without much good that they formerly enjoyed among us, and this frightens them. They lack any opportunity to earn, and they especially lack the service of the ministers.

What was preached today, Sunday Dominica Cantate, concerning the beautiful gospel of the effect of grace of the Spirit on the soul of man is to be repeated in the coming evening prayer hours and in the Tuesday sermon in Zion Church with the help of the Holy Ghost. Today I repeated the principal elements of the comforting verse that we contemplated last week; and the last part of the hour was given to praying communally on our knees. We imploringly presented to our merciful God in the name of Jesus Christ especially the extraordinarily great drought, which both people and cattle must suffer; and we begged Him to forgive us, by virtue of the fully valid sacrifice of reconciliation merited by Christ, the sins we have committed knowingly and unknowingly while enjoying so many blessings. The poor nourishment in this colony up to the present time has been attributed to all kinds of things; but we know the true cause from Jeremiah and Ezekiel, which are now being read publicly.

The 27th. Before evening an Irishman came to me with a Scots woman and wished to be married, which, however, is not my duty, unless such people bring a license from the minister in Savannah. To be sure, they will continue their disorder without marriage, and it would be better for them to be given to each other according to church law. Nevertheless, I will not perform such things for strange people unless permission is sought and obtained from the place in question. There is no minister around there. The young English minister who was sent to Augusta by the Society for Propagating the Gospel has moved to South Carolina. Several German families live up there. It is said that many Quakers, Seventhday Adventists, and Anabaptists from Virginia will come to the region of Augusta and Savannah Town because there is very good land there.

A woman of the last transport from the Territory of Ulm, who still has a husband in Germany, moved to Palachocola with a single brickmaker who came here with her, and thus revealed her mind. She urgently tried both in London and here with me to get married to this person, who is a tiler and potter, but this was refused her. Her own brother, the saddler Happacher, gives such a bad testimony of her behavior in Germany that one can well see that she is chiefly to blame that her husband left her. May God guide all wickedness in this country!

The 28th. The young cartwright /Georg/ Mayer reported to me that his wife had borne a son, which he wished to have baptized at his plantation on the Blue Bluff. I traveled up there this morning with the sponsors and at the same time visited a couple of families of these new colonists at their new plantations, and this pleased them greatly. They are settling down very well and are contented with their initial difficulties. Since God is holding back the rain, their crops look bad in the fields. They are heartily grateful for an advance of provisions and some cattle. I wish it were in my means to do more for them; it would, I hope, be well applied. They have, God be praised, no lack of foodstuffs, they are lacking only money to be able to do something in their bodily debilities.

The 29th. Now that some order has been brought into the household of the new sawmill, we have begun to hold a sermon every Wednesday for the housefather, his family, and the servants, which is begun with a hymn and concluded with a prayer on our knees. Until now my dear colleague has held it, but today I had the pleasure for the first time to edify myself in the new house with the above-mentioned people. Here too I lay as a basis the examinations of the heart according to the Ten Commandments from the late Ambrosius Wirth’s Confession and Communion booklet,¹⁵ as we have been doing for some time in the prayer hours and weekly sermons. The intelligent readers of this booklet will know how important these are; and many of us know from experience how blessed they are. I would like to have more copies of this little book because our new parishioners express a great desire for them. They would gladly pay one or two shilling for them.

Our righteous Hans Flerl is our housefather and overseer here and has settled down here very nicely. A spacious and durable house of wood, clay, and lime has been built for him, in which it is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Such construction requires no great expense, yet it is neat and durable. He supervises the new sawmill, is in charge of expediting the boards, and directs the labor of the servants, who consist of seven single men, a maid, and a boy. He also raises cattle and plants, for which purpose we have here a plantation of one hundred acres. It is a laudable institution, in which the young and inexperienced people are instructed not only in the work of this country but also in godliness, and are kept in good order and also receive good food and good wages. Today I gave each of them the late Johann Arndt’s Informatorium biblicum¹⁶ and recommended its most important contents. In it the content of the dogma of our church from the dear word of God, which is also our dogma in Ebenezer, stands briefly and thoroughly. Anyone who becomes properly acquainted with it and accepts it as from God’s word and heartily approves it cannot say that we are too demanding or that we expect too much from people, that we give too little comfort, and other blather from the Old Adam. I found N.N. at the mill; and, because he was especially in my mind during the reading of this Informatorium biblicum because of his miserable objections and excuses against sanctification, and because I had a pocket full of such dear booklets, I gave him one. Oh, may God grant that he read it in such a way as one is instructed at the end of this new edition from the 119th Psalm. Then the scales will fall from his eyes.

The 30th. Because the dam and races at the old mill are decayed and we are in danger of even losing the mill in case of severe flooding, we have had to begin a new construction now that the water in the river is very low, even though we are quite out of money. Because of the continuing very dry weather in the winter and this spring, the new sawmill has not been able to cut as much as it could for lack of water. However, we hope for more use from it in the future, with divine blessing. May God let a new blessing fall to us in our present lack and our many expenses! For several days I have been greatly strengthened by the dear words “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth,” etc., etc.¹⁷ The Scheffler woman told me with much emotion that at the birth of her daughter she had been in mortal danger and without any human help; but in her greatest weakness she remembered the pithy verse that she had recently heard in the sermon: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”¹⁸ Then it seemed to her as if someone had given her a sturdy staff into her hand so that she could support and strengthen herself. And right after that God helped her out of her birth pains. God has entered their house with much tribulation, but also with much mercy and blessing.

MAY 1752

The 1st. From the beginning until now Kronberger’s family has been the healthiest at our place, but for some time God has visited here, too, with much sickness in both parents and children. A little boy of three and a half years died yesterday and was buried on this first day of the month. Not very long ago they sent a well behaved little girl on ahead into blessed eternity through temporal death; and, because both parents fear God, at the funeral sermon I cited from the comforting source of Holy Scripture some comforting arguments against an all-too-great sorrow at premature death of our loved ones, in which the following Bible verse appeared: Baruch 4:23, “I sent you out with sorrow and weeping; but God will give you back to me with joy and gladness for ever.” Mark 10, “Suffer the little children to come unto me (even through a temporal death). 2 Kings 22:20, cf. Isaiah 57:1 and Wisdom 3:1-4 and 4:7-14. They still have four children, all of whom, even the smallest, are sickly. Therefore they well need this comfort from God’s word, since it appears that some more of them will die prematurely. God goes the way of the cross with our children as with the adults.

The 3rd. My dear colleague Mr. Lemke had official duties today, Rogate Sunday, with the Germans in Savannah. They enjoy this blessing every second Sunday, which some recognize with gratitude.

The cobbler Zettler has been lying sick already for some seven weeks. To be sure, he has been using the prescribed remedies diligently, but he has not improved but has come rather close to death. He likes my visits and encouragement, listens to God’s word, follows the directions given him from it and prays zealously with me. Some time ago we received an edifying tractate by the late Mrs. Dr. Goetz,¹ which she presumably wrote not very long before her blessed death and in which she proved herself to be such a dear bride of the Lamb who managed her house well and looked trustingly and contemplatively toward her last sickness and her departure from the world. I read this lovely tractate to this patient and his believing wife. Among other things in it I was pleased that this cautious and godly person had marked those texts and hymns which she should remember diligently in her last struggle. She also prayed heartily to God that in her last hours He might grant her friends and attendants who are Christian an understanding and know-how to accept in Christian love and patience the weaknesses that appear in sick and dying people.

The 5th. The dry weather, with which there are also very cool and dry winds, does not wish to change; and this hinders the crops from growing. Barley, wheat, and rye have no rust or mildew this year and would turn out well if only our dear God wished to grant a penetrating rain.

This afternoon at the request of the gentlemen in Savannah our spinners and their assistants traveled down there to spin off the silk. They all have a great desire to perfect themselves in this art, for which purpose they have a good opportunity under the instruction of Mr. Robinson and also some pay. The large house that is being constructed in our town at the expense of the Lord Trustees for the advancement of the silk industry is almost ready; and it is being provided with all conveniences to achieve its intended purpose.

The 8th. Carl Ott from Memmingen² has built a new dwelling on his plantation, which he had consecrated today with God’s word, prayer, and song and with some neighbors in attendance. We contemplated the splendid comforting words of the Lord Jesus, which He left behind at His ascencion for all pious pilgrims and with which they can and should comfort themselves until the last day, “Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the world.”³

The 11th. Catharina Graef has been dangerously sick. God has done much good to her soul during the sickness and has also made her body well again, for which His goodness should be praised. She married a well-meaning, to be sure, but very ignorant⁴ husband, who was formerly a soldier at Frederica and for whose instruction and conversion she is a diligent and blessed tool. Today he received an A.B.C. book from me in order to learn German. This woman has three sisters at our place, all of whom are heartily concerned with the one necessary thing, namely, with saving their souls. Her only brother stuck with the Englishmen in great ignorance and prejudice against our community; but through the influence of his sisters he has let himself be moved to take instruction at our place. He now has his plantation in Goshen.

The 14th. For some time Peter Schubdrein’s helpmeet has had tertian fever; and she still has it, even if not so severely as at first. I visited her today in the late Mrs. Lemmenhofer’s house near the mill, where she is living this year with her husband. She is a knowledgeable and honest soul, who has devoted her heart to Christ and is pleased with His ways. To be sure, she has never been sick in her life, yet she knows how to resign herself to it. She considers such chastisements to be necessary and salutary and knows how to instruct and comfort herself with God’s word. She feels sorrow and sheds tears because until now sickness has prevented her from visiting the public divine service and hearing the sermons (which God has blessed in her). She is a true lover of the divine word, and in this she is edifying for her neighbors. She has read at times in Arndt’s True Christianity,⁵ and she has received a great respect for this book that has been so blessed by God; and therefore she wishes to have one for herself. Several people among us are yearning for one, but we have not received any such books for a long time. May God help us to get them!

The 15th. This afternoon God gave us a penetrating rain after our long waiting. It has not come too late, for the Indian corn on the plowed and well worked land is still green. The wheat has suffered no other harm from the long drought than that it is standing thin and has short stalks. However, the kernels are large and no rust can be seen on them. We must wait to see how the barley and rye will turn out. At present they have a good appearance. On the low rich land many people have not been able to plow and plant corn, for which there is still time. It has likewise been too dry for planting rice; and it is the same with the sweet potatoes that were planted: they were unable to grow. And therefore this penetrating rain has been a great blessing for our entire district and presumably for others, too. To be sure, there is no great lack of corn for some people here now, but there could be before the harvest, which is almost nine months away; and therefore God has ordained for a large boat with almost two hundred bushels to be brought here from Augusta for sale, and indeed at a tolerable price. He knows what we need.

The 17th. On this Holy Whitsuntide a Negro woman brought me her complaint, which I did not like to hear, because it brought no honor to Christendom. I was shocked at the discipline used with a thumbscrew as is done elsewhere in torture, also that a baptized Negro boy’s tongue was pressed into a long split reed, which he must carry on his mouth. I marveled at the good understanding of the Negress and how skilfully she could present her case. I expressed my sincerest sympathy for her not only because she was born a slave and can hope for little good in the world but also because, if she remains a heathen, she cannot enter heaven. I have already offered to instruct these poor people willingly if only they are made to learn the German language, which would also be useful to them in the sermons and catechization. May God have mercy on these and other poor heathens and let us recognize with hearty verbal and active thanks the great advantages that He has given us over them.

The 19th. Today, because of having celebrated Holy Whitsuntide, I had no weekday sermon and catechization of those being prepared for Holy Communion; and therefore I applied this day to visiting some of our people behind Abercorn. With God’s help I also held a Whitsuntide sermon for the inhabitants of Goshen, which I had also given yesterday in our Jerusalem Church about John 3:16 ff. concerning faith as the only means of salvation and unbelief as the only cause of damnation. The introductory words were taken from Hebrews 10, last verse, “We are not of them who draw back into perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” As soon as it was known that I would give a sermon, the people from all the plantations gathered and listened with hungry hearts. They consider it a great blessing that they occasionally have a minister of their confession to preach the divine word, to hold Holy Communion, and to baptize their children. Ebenezer is useful to many people in spiritual and material ways.

The 20th. From the very beginning I have noticed that in our people’s sicknesses, which consist mostly of fever, they overlook many things and are thereby brought into mortal danger. Then the country and climate, which are not to blame, must bear the guilt. Some neglect much through ignorance, others out of obstinacy and impatience, and still others through poverty. In addition there are unknowledgeable advisors with house cures, wine or other strong soups and foods, etc. With the formerly young and strong Zettler things are almost drawing to an end; and it would be a miracle if he should become well again. Everyone sighs for this because of his highly pregnant wife and his unreared children.

The 21st. Yesterday afternoon and after sunset we had very strong rain and thunderstorms. Today we received the sad news that unusually large hail stones had fallen in great quantity on some of the plantations of the new colonists on the Blue Bluff so that the Indian corn was beaten to the ground and the leaves were knocked off the trees. The hail stones lay more than a foot high on the ground and have not all melted yet today.⁶ If this dangerous storm (which we could see in the distance over the Blue Bluff) had struck our village and plantations, there would have been indescribable harm to the mulberry trees, fruit trees, wheat, rye, and barley that are still standing in the fields. On the other hand, up there it could not damage anything more than the fields planted in Indian corn, because they have neither domestic trees nor European grains. God be heartily praised for the moderation in our well deserved chastisement! What is spoiled in this month cannot be replanted, for which I would be glad to give them corn seed. Thus I hope that there will be no more loss than the previous work of planting and cultivating.

The 23rd. If God had allowed it, a great damage could have been inflicted on our boards that were sent down in several rafts to Savannah for a public construction. Because of the flood tide the three mill servants were unable to reach Savannah; and, because they wished to spend the night in Savannah, they tied the rafts four miles above Savannah and left them there. The next morning they found no sign of them but had to seek back and forth in the tributaries. When they finally found them, a couple of chains were missing; and from that we can clearly see that an unconscionable person in that region had loosened the rafts and let them float away through greed for these chains. The men will let this serve as a warning. We just lack right industrious and cautious sawmillers, otherwise the community’s sawmills would bring in much more than they do. Their boards are always sought after, and a good price is offered for them. In this country a clever and loyal worker is a great and rare thing.

The 24th. God be heartily and humbly praised for letting us complete the first half of this present church year in health and blessing on this Trinity Sunday and for letting us begin the second half in a similar manner! Today Holy Communion was held with one hundred and five persons.

The 27th. The cobbler Zettler is still always very sick; but, since God has shown mercy to his soul during the sickness, he thanks Him heartily for this severe but well-meant chastisement. He lets his Christian and knowledgeable wife read to him diligently from Senior Urlsperger’s beautiful book, Instructions for the Sick and Dying,⁷ and is edified abundantly from it. It is now very edifying to consort with him. Previously, this was not so. Here one could say, “How unsearchable are his judgments.”⁸

The 29th. A pious woman in the neighborhood complained to me with sorrow that the orphan girl that she has in her service and care has absorbed from her family many strange opinions and seductive teachings that are simply shocking. They were people who sullied their consciences in other places and here with many witting sins and have covered them with the appearance of religious practice but have never wished to convert themselves to God. Therefore they have not only remained in spiritual blindness but have even fallen more deeply into it.

JUNE 1752

The 1st. At the end of the month all the vestrymen of the congregation were with me to discuss some things that redound to good order and nourishment and also to the care of the sick. We would like to advance much good in the community if only our means were such, which, to be sure, our almighty and kind God can give in His time. Finally we thanked God on bended knees for all the good He has shown us and others in the past month and spring, and we poured forth to His bosom our and our neighbors’ needs.

N.N.’s wife is gaining noticeably in her Christianity, both as concerns recognition of truth and also true godliness; and at the same time she is showing true poverty of spirit. Today I had a pleasant and useful conversation with her; and I was especially pleased that she made simple and true use of the imperishable seed of the eternal word of God from the sermons. God is showing her husband more and more mercy; and he has become a different and useful man since he has had the useful work.¹

The 2nd. Today Christoph Kraemer was married to the widow Bruckner. Both are right fine Christian and useful people. The young man came miraculously to our place as an orphan, was instructed here, and quickly conformed to Christian order. He first learned the locksmith’s trade and afterwards boardsawing and has now done good service as locksmith and sawmill worker; and for that God has blessed him noticeably and granted him a righteous helpmeet, who has a blessing in her and the homestead she inherited from her pious husband.

The 3rd. With the boat that departed today I sent a little packet of letters to our worthy Fathers and benefactors in London, Augsburg, and Halle. We greatly desire letters and reports from them since we have received and heard nothing from them in a rather long while. May God hear our prayer for them for Jesus’ sake and preserve them for our and others’ benefit for many more years!

After her industrious and very understanding husband’s departure from this vale of tears, our good Mrs. Kalcher has had not only many physical weaknesses but also difficult housekeeping. In the house built for her by the mill she is continuing the drayage and the management of the inn. However, because we here in the country so greatly lack faithful servants, she suffers much loss and vexation. Her house in town is occupied by Mr. Kraft: when he evacuates it she would well like to move back into it. Perhaps in the meanwhile our dear God will grant some means for us to contribute substantially to her and her four childrens’ support, something that is now impossible for us. This week Mr. Kraft has workers in the forest who are preparing an unusual quantity of wood for his dwelling and storehouse. He is very serious about supporting himself in an honest and Christian way, and I do not doubt that he will be a very useful man for us.

The 5th. This morning as I was going to the weekday service at the Zion Church, I called on the young Mrs. Lackner, of whom I heard yesterday and today that she was sick. I spoke with her a bit about the fragility of human life and about the grace of the Lord, which lasts from eternity to eternity among those who fear him. She is honestly seeking her salvation in Christ and is profiting well, among other things, from the edifying life and believing death of the late Kalcher, her godfather. She has all sorts of heavy tribulations to bear, which I would gladly try to bear with her, or rather to lighten for her, if it were in my power. It is a part of my cross that I would gladly help our dear Ebenezer and find such great inability and so many obstacles.

This morning I had an edifying and blessed little conversation before the Lord with Mr. Kraft and his honest wife; and I was pleased with their Christian disposition, because of which they are conforming more and more to Ebenezer’s circumstances and are getting very well settled.

The 6th. Yesterday evening our loving God gave us the unexpected pleasure of receiving very pleasant and enjoyable letters from our worthy Fathers and friends. I find them all the more enjoyable and impressive because they are full of beautiful witness of God’s miraculous providence over our Salzburgers. From these letters I also recognize the loyalty of my God in rebuking my often offended heart and in convincing me anew that my handling of external matters is also a piece of the office entrusted to me, which I cannot very well neglect without harming my conscience, even if it is not customary elsewhere in Christendom to take on the physical needs of one’s parishioners as of one’s own children because other people are appointed for that.

I clearly recall the letters about this matter that were written to me several years ago by General Oglethorpe, then my civil authority, and by Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen. In them I was presented with various Argumenta a necessario & ab utili² to persuade me to take on the congregation in physical affairs as well as in spiritual ones. The paternal expressions in our dear Senior Urlsperger’s letters concurred with them so well that I could not have wished them better for they served the purpose perfectly. For example, it is written in his paternal letter of 10 February of last year, “Just compose yourself in God, and do not worry if you are looked at askance by this or that person. The servant is no greater than his master. It is written correctly in St. Paul, ‘to become something for everyone.’ The master was of the same mind. You are called to it. He who called you to it will protect, strengthen, bless, and comfort you. Just do not let yourself be driven out of your patience. God’s faithful servants must have people who confuse them. It is part of the antidote if other people perhaps praise you too much.”

I will not mention other fatherly and comforting expressions in this letter and others that we have now received from our worthy Court Chaplain Albinus and from other German friends. Something else has consoled me and my dear colleague no little bit and strengthened us in our faith during the present lack of money for the repair of the old milldam and the millraces and also for the construction of a second low course for the benefit of both inhabitants and strangers. Namely, it is written in the letter of 24 February from our dear father, Senior Urlsperger:

After I read the extract of Boltzius’ letter of 2 October of last year to Mr. Albinus as to what happened to the ruined dam of the one sawmill, it occurred to me that He hath delivered Ebenezer in six troubles,⁴ he will deliver her from this one, yea, from all. Have I not told you, have I not told you (it must be repeated) so that you would, should, and must believe, etc. These verses one learns best not when the dam is still remaining whole but when it suffers damage; not when there is money for repairs, but when there is none and yet it still gets repaired. God always remains greater than all great tribulations; otherwise one could not say, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”⁵

In the three letters we have just received from this dear Father there are other signs that our true God was present in his heart, mouth, and pen when he wrote them, partly to strengthen us in what is good and partly to shame us and rebuke us, but also to warn others in a friendly way if perhaps this true servant of Jesus Christ was not familiar with the special circumstances of the congregation. May our merciful and omniscient God be praised for everything He has done until now, both spiritually and physically, for this His dear servant, his worthy family, and our other beloved Fathers, friends, and benefactors. May He also be heartily praised for the footsteps of His fatherly providence over us ministers and our dear parishioners, and may He give us and everyone at our place grace to apply them to His glory, to the awakening and strengthening of our faith, and to zeal in true godliness so that we may give joy in this order to our God and to the holy angels in heaven and to our Fathers and friends in this world!

The 7th. This morning’s sermon on the Second Sunday after Trinity treated of the dear and entirely unmerited grace of God in Christ; in its introit I called to the ears and hearts of the numerous congregation assembled there from 2 Corinthians 6:1 “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.” With this I had a right good opportunity to remember our dear Mr. N.N. as a coworker of God and a chosen helper and to read aloud those powerful words that he wrote for the benefit of the last colonists in one of the letters that we have now received. They were these:

With letters from London we learned a few days ago that the transport had arrived safely before Savannah on the 20th of October old style. Oh God let all these little people achieve their salvation in America with childlike fear and trembling, Oh God, let them cling firmly to Thee, Thy word, and Thy mercy! Oh God, let them highly respect the means of grace, love Thy servants, and give no one vexation! Oh God, let them live in love, peace, and unity! Protect the hearts of the parishioners from all sinful self-love and selfishness. Oh, grant that they may work hand in hand, protect them all from spiritual and physical pestilence!

It was further written in this fatherly letter:

All those who were here last year and departed from here are reminded 1) what good God has done for them on the journey and already in America, 2) they are all admonished by the splendid mercy of God to be mindful of what they have been directed to do and of how dearly they have given their word.

In the lovely letters of this dear man of God, as well as in the letters of others of our worthy friends, there are very pithy and edifying ideas, warnings, admonitions, and comforts that I plan to put to my and my parishioners’ use simply in the next assemblies in Jerusalem and Zion Church. What the God of all grace is granting both near and far we like to apply to our listeners, too. Through His grace I love Ebenezer so much that, if I had a kingdom, I would gladly and joyfully apply it to Ebenezer’s spiritual and physical welfare. I told them today in the sermon that, if they would not reject the hundred-weight of grace that God has granted to them like those bidden to the wedding in the gospel⁶ but would apply them in faith they would receive the farthing of physical subsistence from the providence of our loving, omnipotent, omniscient, and veracious God. This we know from clear verses and noteworthy examples in scripture. However, if they reject the hundred-weight through disbelief and love of the world, then they are not worthy of the farthing. Indeed, even if they had oxen, fields, wives, and all other temporal advantages and yet, as scorners of grace, had the wrath of our holy God with them (as stands in the gospel), how would it help them?

I must think of a great benefaction that our merciful God has unexpectedly shown us with this packet of letters. Because our worthy Court Chaplain Albinus had seen from my letters how blessed the printed instructive and spiritual writings of our dear Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen are for us, he has now forwarded to us a recently printed booklet by this enlightened and experienced theologian, the title of which already shows its importance and usefulness: The Great and Severe Spiritual Passion which our Lord Jesus Suffered on the Mount of Olives as Mediator of the World.⁷ May God bless this most important bit of the meritorious Passion of Christ, indeed, the entire Christian dogma in my heart and in the hearts of all its readers. This time we received only the first sermon concerning this highly important material, but we are eagerly requesting the remaining also when they are published. They have been preached this year, as I have read with amazement and joy; and I have heartily praised God, who has brought back this so faithful and wise servant from the portals of death and strengthened his very vacilating health so that he might still serve his church with his office and useful writings. May He keep him and other worthy Fathers of ours for many more years in life and health!

The 9th. The new inhabitants on the Blue Bluff have requested me, through one of their vestrymen, to help them get a schoolmaster for their children and a bridge across Ebenezer Creek. Without a bridge we have no communication other than by water in boats or canoes, which is, of course, a blessing but not adequate; and it requires more time than if one could go back and forth on foot or on horseback. It would be very possible to build a bridge over the said very gently flowing river,⁸ but it would have to be very long because of the adjacent swamp or low land subject to flooding; besides, the whole community has neither the time nor the will, and we do not have the means.

Fifty pounds Sterling have been spent in construction, yet one hardly notices it because tradesmen and day laborers receive too high a wage. With communal labor without pay and only out of love for the community not so much can be done now as in previous years because many honest and willing Salzburgers have died and those who are still living are partly old and partly feeble and consequently invalid for heavy work.

The people who have gradually come to the Salzburger community have shared, to be sure, in the benefactions to the Salzburgers; but, as far as communal work is concerned, they show an entirely different mind. Yet there are still honest people among them. We would most gladly provide the people on the Blue Bluff with a Christian and skillful schoolmaster, if only the means were there. They cannot support one themselves. Indeed, in the first years they will not even be able to contribute anything to his support, rather it would all fall upon me. The diligent schoolmaster Wertsch on the plantations above and below the mill has no other salary than what we can give him from the blessings that we receive from Europe. As previously, God has now once again let a fine blessing flow from our dear German fatherland through the hands of his dear servant Mr. N. to the community in general and to several people in particular. From this, many needy people have been refreshed and some communal expenses have been covered, or rather, the debts incurred through necessity could be paid in part.

Our most worthy benefactors would be amazed at how many expenses are required throughout the year for the good of our community, if I were to specify them. So far our dear God has granted everything, even if there have sometimes been very hard and long tribulations. My heart was especially blessed by the edifying and comforting words of our dear Senior Urlsperger in his paternal letter which I made profitable to myself and to my salvation-hungry and mostly cross-laden parishioners today at the assembly on the plantations, “Amid the great suffering (when all human help failed) Job said, ‘I know that my redeemer liveth.’ And Paul, when he spoke of his sufferings, concluded with, ‘We must enter through much tribulation into the kingdom of God.’ God always remains greater than any tribulation.”⁹

The 10th. The inhabitants of Goshen have requested Holy Communion, which will soon be held for them. Because they are now in especially great need of instruction for a Christian preparation, I traveled to them today in the company of Mr. Kraft and held for them a sermon on the Sunday gospel of the invitation to the last supper, for which they all gladly and joyfully gathered. God gave me grace to preach to them simply the right evangelical way and also the necessity of preparation for the Supper of the Lord in time and eternity and to contradict from God’s word the false opinions of mouth-Christians and hypocrites.

The 15th. In the first half of this month we have again had very dry weather, yet not so much around the town as on the plantations below the mill. For some days it has been raining strongly enough with severe thunder and lightning, during which God has graciously ruled over us so that, as far as we know, the lightning did no harm.

Peter Hammer, who came to us with his family with the last transport from the area of Chemintz in Saxony, gave me much joy with his wife and children. They love and diligently practice the word of God and reveal themselves as good Christians and industrious workers. Our dear God has now afflicted him, her, and the oldest very well-intentioned daughter with sickness and other physical debilities, by which they are being greatly hindered in their field work, which they otherwise perform with joy. But in this they see the hand of God and are patient. Their field stands full of lovely crops and gives good hope for a good harvest. I wish that all the colonists of the last transport were so well established.

The 16th. N. has returned from N. and tells no good tales about N.N. But I do not believe that the one is any better than the other. It would be better for young people to remain in Europe under the supervision and preparation of true ministers and superiors than for them to come to such places in America that have little fear of God and just as little of God’s word and where there is only civil order. Ebenezer is too quiet for such people, and the good order that has been introduced here is for them a yoke. Also, one can not live here in leisure, one must eat his bread by the sweat of his brow. I have just recently experienced again how worried Christian people feel, and how yearningly they wish to return to our quietude, when they have to sojourn even a short while at another place where things are frivolous and restless.

I have again been impressed, edified, and comforted by the dear words, “My soul is quiet in God, who helpeth,”¹⁰ and the same is true of the funeral sermon by our worthy Master Burry, which he preached at the beginning of last year in Augsburg. I became familiar with his blessed ministerial gifts for the first time from this and from his inaugural sermon. God bless him.

The 17th. Since last week I have had a weak chest, therefore my dear colleague held the weekday sermon both yesterday in Zion Church and today in Jerusalem Church. The latter is held chiefly for the benefit of the inhabitants on Ebenezer Creek and on the Blue Bluff, who cannot visit the evening prayer hours. This afternoon I went to our mill establishment, where we have our overseer with the servants, and held for them the edification hour that is usual every Wednesday afternoon. Through divine goodness I returned healthier than when I departed.

Mrs. /Hans/ Floerl, who is in charge of this establishment along with her husband, told me that her well behaved little girl had died a year ago today and that she had been comforted again by the verse in the Little Treasure Chest¹¹ under today’s date, which had been comforting to her a year ago at the departure of her child, “Ye are come to the Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, etc.”¹² Everything is gradually becoming excellently arranged at this new and entirely indispensable mill establishment and household, and house services are held in them diligently.

Zimmerebner, our gristmiller, is somewhat sickly again, must stay at home, and so applies his tranquility and solitude in such a way that they are an unspeakably great blessing for him. He always leads a patriarchal life, walks with God, never loses his composure, and is pleasing to God and respected by men. His profession is entirely directed and blessed by his righteous Christianity. Because he is always more in heaven than on earth, he might well wish to take leave of us before we wished it. For he is almost indispensable for us.

The 18th. Our dear God has so blessed the charitable deeds of Christian friends in Augsburg and Lindau that the old Maria Eischberger, nee Riedelsperger, has received twenty-five florins as an inheritance or legacy, at which she heartily rejoices as a new witness of divine providence; and she gave humble thanks to our merciful God with me today in her dwelling. She told me of more examples of divine goodness. In addition to the lovely blessing from the silk, God has let the wheat and rye in her field turn out beautifully, and she showed me the snow white flour from them. The Indian crops such as corn, beans, rice, and squash also stand in our place so green and merry that one could ask for nothing better.

The 24th. The righteous widow Kalcher is always sickly in her widowhood. She has lost most of her strength, and the housekeeping, which is quite extensive, is too hard for her so that I fear she may die prematurely if she does not come into more bearable circumstances. I strengthened her from the word of God, and we poured forth our need into the bosom of our heavenly Father in prayer. I also gave her some of the physical blessing which our loving God recently granted. Her late husband remains with her in unforgettable and blessed memory. This time she told me in particular that he and she had promised each other that, if our merciful God would bring them together in heaven, they would both let the first thing be to kneel before the throne of Christ and thank Him that our marvelous, wise, and gracious God had brought them together and here to Ebenezer, where their souls had received much mercy.

I also had an edifying discussion with the sawmiller’s wife, Mrs. Kogler, to comfort her on the premature departure of her very well behaved youngest daughter, who was suddenly torn by a violent paroxism from the arms and eyes of her dear parents, and at the same time from all suffering and all danger. Her resignation in God’s will and her contentedness with His ways pleased me greatly. I plan to give both her and Mrs. Kalcher as a present the thorough, rousing, and comforting funeral oration of our worthy Master Burry concerning David’s beautiful words, “My soul is quiet in God, who helpeth me.”¹³ We received it in many copies so that we can serve many people with it. May God be a gracious compensator for it and also lay a rich blessing on us when we read it!

The 24th. With God’s blessing and help I preached in Goshen on this St. John’s Day and held Holy Communion with some thirty persons. He blessed His word and will continue to bless it. Toward evening I held the regular Wednesday edification hour at the new sawmill, to which some neighbors also came. My dear colleague held the recently begun Wednesday sermon for the people of the town and the planters around the town and on the Blue Bluff. Oh, if only all the people in and around Ebenezer gratefully and obediently recognize the great blessing of the good opportunity to save their souls! Each of them should be more concerned with this than with obtaining the whole world. In Goshen I received some very pleasant English letters from Mr. Martyn, the secretary of the Lord Trustees, from Mr. Lloyd,¹⁴ (a very special friend of our colony and community), and from Mr. Verelst. They advise me that from now on the Lords of Trade and Plantations will be our government at least for a time and will have much more zeal and means than the Lord Trustees to advance the good of the colony; it will all depend on the industry of the colonists.

Secretary Martyn is giving right emphatic reasons to incite our inhabitants to a new zeal in making and spinning off silk. He tells that the plentiful silk prepared in the colony last year has met with general approval and was sold to the highest bidders in London. A great number of merchants and silkweavers had gathered there and bought every pound of sixteen ounces for twenty shillings Sterling or more. Therefore, if the colonists would learn how to spin off the silk themselves, they could earn at least one shilling threepence for each ounce of silk. The total of that would amount to a large sum of money, since a person can spin off twenty ounces in one day. Under the new government the bounty will be continued for a time, since people in England, just as here, are convinced that this climate is more suitable for this useful work even than that in Italy.

Mr. Lloyd writes me that Mr. Martyn will remain secretary of the Lords of Trade and Plantations also and will thus continue his old correspondence for the benefit of this colony, which I am glad to hear. Among the boards that we sent to London for Mr. N.N. this Mr. Lloyd found a thick and broad board from a mulberry tree and therefore asked whether there were many such trees, and he advised that we leave them standing because the leaves from them are better than from the young mulberry trees. I am reporting to him that this was a wild mulberry tree, of which there are few at our place, whereas there are entire forests in the direction of the Indians around Augusta and Savannah Town. On the other hand, one finds enough such young trees on low good land, but they use the leaves, which are too rough, only in necessity. Even the domestic mulberry trees grow in twelve or fourteen years to such a thickness that one can cut ten inch wide boards from them. Mr. Martyn assures me that the Lords of Trade and Plantations are making arrangements that all German people who wish to come here will be supplied with all necessities and that the Carolinians will be brought to a better understanding with Georgia. They have more power than the Lord Trustees.

The 26th. Both Secretary Martyn and also our worthy Mr. Samuel Lloyd (as partially mentioned in the preceding pages) have written me several important points to announce to our inhabitants to encourage them to be industrious from now on in planting mulberry trees, in producing and spinning off the silk, and in preparing all sorts of woodwork. As gladly as I would like to delegate this worldly matter to others, there is no opportunity for that, unless I passed it on to my dear colleague, who is so zealous for the welfare of our inhabitants. Today I had most of the people on the plantations together in Zion Church; after we had sung the song Man lobt dich in der Stille, etc.¹⁵ and said our prayer, I told them that, according to the will of God and of our King and the kind provision of the Lord Trustees, we had received the Lords of Trade & Plantations as our regional authority. I said that this was a very eminent committee appointed by the king from prominent gentlemen in London, whose duty and purpose it is to advance the true good of the plantations in the East and West Indies and thereby the trade and navigation between the mother and her daughters, i.e., between England and the English colonies, of which England’s wealth and power consists.

If our inhabitants wish to enjoy the favor and help of these prominent governors and fathers, they must, according to the external purpose of their being sent here, not only farm and raise cattle for their own needs, but also devote themselves to those things that advance trade and navigation; and for this, silk and indigo cultivation and preparation of all sorts of woodwork are recommended, for which we have the best opportunities one could wish for. The old and weak inhabitants make all sorts of excuses regarding this point, which, however, cannot be made by the young adults and the servants and colonists who have come here in the past three years. I promise the industrious ones all possible assistance in silk manufacture and wood production, and I will gladly help bear and prevent the initial difficulties and advance the last colonists more provisions and beef only under this condition.

All in all I will contribute everything possible for the advancement of such things that are required of us for our and our country’s good (not outside, but only inside our community). This will avert much harm and a great defamation of the good of our community. They have before them the example of the people in Goshen, even of those in Augusta, who bring their barrel staves the long way to Savannah with great cost and loss. I will not mention the other points made known to them in the letters. During this I briefly showed from the gospel for next Sunday in the example of Peter and his co-workers that, to be sure, God crowns with blessing chiefly spiritual, but also physical, obedience (or obedience in material matters).

The 28th. On this Fifth Sunday after Trinity my dear colleague Mr. Lemke preached and held Holy Communion in Savannah. Here I showed our congregation from the regular gospel what they should do if they wish to have the Lord’s blessing in their work and external professional matters. In the fore- and afternoon I dealt with the order in which one should work and also with the blessing one should achieve in this order. In this first month of summer we have had temperate weather, but today it has become very hot.

The 30th. Yesterday my dear colleague returned safe and sound again from Savannah. Among the communicants there were also Mr. von Brahm and his wife, who showed great love for us.

Today in the assembly I again had an opportunity to recommend to our inhabitants, including those who were absent from the previous assembly, the cultivation of silk, the planting of Indigo, and the production of all sorts of wood products for export to the West Indies, as suggested in the letters of the Lord Trustees. The last was especially emphasized, through which trade and navigation are advanced, for our new regional governors, the Lords of Trade & Plantations, have the furtherance of this as their chief purpose in this and other colonies. Our obedience to their ordinances will, with God’s blessing, be to our interest. I asked them all cordially to do so much through their love to God and to the whole community that each householder might make every year at least four thousand cypress shingles (each 22 inches long and 4 to 6 inches wide, simply cut without knots) and a thousand red- or white oak barrel staves, all of which could be made in six months at most by a single man. Since we have almost a hundred householders, we would produce four hundred thousand roof shingles and a hundred thousand staves, which would bring at least five hundred pounds into the community. Our enemies and calumniators would be silenced by that and our new authorities would be pleased by such a considerable contribution toward advancing navigation; and we would win their favor to our own advantage. The hardest thing in this is that they lack a man who would receive and sell the wood products. Dominus providebit.¹⁶

JULY 1752

The 1st. On this first day of the month I made the present change in date useful to myself and my parishioners in the Wednesday sermon in town, to wit, by contemplating the divine kindness, our sins, and our duties to one another. At each point I laid a little memory verse as a basis, principally “Thy loving-kindness is better than life”, “I do remember my faults today”, “knowest thou not that God’s lovingkindness leadeth thee to repentance?”¹

The 2nd. This morning I had the pleasure for the first time of helping consecrate a new house on the Blue Bluff with God’s word, song, and prayer, for which many of the new colonists from the neighborhood had gathered with their children. For the sake of unknowing people I found it necessary to show them from the verse “Every creature of God is good,” etc. … It is sanctified by the word of God and prayer and from the practice of consecrating churches that this practice that we have introduced here (although entirely voluntary) is entirely Christian and useful even if it is not customary in all places, at least as far as private houses are concerned. Christians must distinguish themselves from non-believers by accepting all creatures and gifts of God with thanksgiving and sanctifying them with God’s word and prayer, just as is rightly done every day before and after meals.

Christians are spiritual priests and should offer their God and Savior a true New Testament service in spirit and in truth, for which reason they should rightly dedicate their dwellings to God as His temple and thus, through the omnipotent power of the Holy Ghost, lead such a life both day and night before His countenance as if they were in His temple and in a public house especially dedicated to His service. This contemplation can serve Christian people who enjoy the blessing of a house consecration for their awakening and comfort. One can well call this practice that we have introduced here “consecration,” or whatever one wishes; it is without question mete and right that a housefather, whom God has helped to acquire a new house and has kept all harm away from it and has given His blessing to its construction, should praise his dear God along with his minister and some pious or at least well-disposed neighbors in recognition of his great unworthiness and to ask Him for a new blessing on his Christianity and on his particular profession.

After these arguments I laid as a basis of our edification the ninth duty of life according to the First Commandment in B. Wirth’s Confession and Communion Booklet,² and this gave me an opportunity to speak of the mind of the children of the world and the mind of the children of God. The love of these dear people for the word of God and their devotion during it have awakened a new love for them in my heart so that I sincerely wish I had the means to assist them with adequate help until they can eat their own bread. They have a good, well-situated, healthy land, on which they will easily find their nourishment with God’s blessing if only they will accept good advice and let themselves be persuaded to take up, in addition to their agriculture, such work as was recommended to them again yesterday with important reasons according to the intentions of our dear authorities. For that they have the best opportunity one could wish for.

Now that various members of the last transport are sick with fever, a few of our servants are also afflicted with it. Already a week ago in the edification hour I called to their and other servants’ minds what a blessing the Lord has shown them above many others of their kind in that, along with their physical needs, they have such a good opportunity to save their souls under good direction and supervision. Even the sick enjoy this blessing, as an old widow who serves in the mill acknowledged today. I reminded these patients of much for their awakening in the examples of patients in the time of Christ; and I prayed with them and with all who were at home.

On the way home at the old sawmill I had something to attend to with the widow Kalcher, when I received the sad news that the honest Johann Peter Schubdrein had accidentally suffered a serious fall at the present mill construction so that he had been carried in as if dead. To be sure, he regained consciousness, but we fear that he has had an internal injury. May our merciful God graciously avert this! He is an honest, industrious, and rightliving man. His father, the very old /Daniel/ Schubdrein, is dangerously sick with fever and appears to be approaching his end. God has let his soul experience mercy for the sake of Christ’s merits, and therefore death will be his gain. His wife /Margaretha/³ has had violent fever for a long time and has, to my great amazement, improved again. I put into their hearts the beautiful words: “With God nothing shall be impossible.”⁴

The 3rd. This morning I visited the old, almost seventy-year old, Schubdrein for the last time. He could well understand everything that was spoken to him and prayed with him from God’s word; and he sealed his final consecration with a double “Amen.” I was afraid he would still have to suffer much before coming to his departure; and I was surprised later on when I heard that he had died an hour after our prayer. He was an honest man who heartily loved God’s word and prayer, worked gladly, and proved himself patient in all suffering. He preferred to die here with his children rather than in Germany. He lived with his old wife and his youngest son with the older son Joseph; and very appropriate here was the moving story of the old Jacob, who wished to go to Joseph before he died. He received much love and respect from his many children in Ebenezer: indeed, everyone had great respect for this honest old man. His wife is also very old and weak. To be sure, she is busy in the house but not entirely free of fever: it is not improbable that she will soon follow her old husband.

The 4th. We have been asked by the people on the Blue Bluff not to hold the confessional any more at noon on Saturday but between nine and eleven in the morning as is done at Zion Church on the plantations because they have much household business to do toward evening. Also, it is easy to hold it (as today for the first time) in this way because the congregation has two ministers. In Jerusalem church I laid as a basis of the preparation sermon the well known words of the Egyptian chief butler: “I do remember my faults this day,”⁵ and I showed them the great difference between the acknowledgment of sins by an Egyptian or heathen and by a Christian.

After the confessional a well known trader from Augusta was with me; and, in accordance with the letter I had received from Mr. Lloyd, one of the Trustees, I posed the question of whether many thick wild mulberry trees grew around Augusta. He said that these were the most common and thickest trees there, some of them measure three shoes in diameter and, if they have room, their branches spread out so far that a hundred men could enjoy the shade of a single tree at one time. On one acre of low land (which is the richest) there stand some thousand young and old mulberry trees; last spring he picked about ten bushels of black mulberries for eating from a single thick tree as previously described.

These trees are of two kinds: the common kind that is known in Europe (in English, white mulberry) with rough leaves and another not so common kind with smoother and softer leaves. I have written this report especially for Mr. Lloyd, and I hope our worthy Court Chaplain Albinus will advise him of this when the occasion arises. In answer to a letter another friend has sent me twice, I had to give answer today from my wife’s mouth: Two pounds of our kind of cocoons, or the worms found in them, give somewhat more than three and three quarter ounces of silkworm eggs or seeds. Every ounce of such good seed will produce worms for one hundred pounds of cocoons if one has understanding and practice in handling them. Two hundred such cocoons (or 180 or 190 if the worms are well cared for from the beginning to the end with enough domestic leaves and temperate warmth) amount to a pound of sixteen ounces; and twenty-five medium mulberry trees have enough leaves for a hundred pounds of cocoons, if care and frugality are practiced in gathering the leaves and feeding the worms. In his last letter Secretary Martyn informed me that the Italian silkworms are not as productive in producing seed and silk; and this indicates that the worms here are stronger, the mulberry leaves more nourishing, and our climate more convenient for silk culture.

The 5th. On this Sixth Sunday after Trinity, Holy Communion was held with ninety-nine persons. Three important points of the Christian religion were treated from the gospel, to wit, justification valid before the Lord, the right understanding of divine law, and of Christian reconciliation. In the afternoon I catechized concerning the dogma of Holy Baptism.

The 6th. With the last letters I received news that all our letters and reports of last year have arrived safely. Today I found Peter Schubdrein in a better condition after his hard and dangerous fall than I could have imagined. He was in a perilous way, but God blessed him right noticeably in the external bandages and the internal use of medicine; and for this we praised together our merciful God who chastises us, to be sure, but does not give us death, even if He does sometimes let us come very close to death. When I had almost reached home I saw to my amazement a flaming fire behind the town; and afterwards I heard that they had had a very strong wind with some hailstones and with stormwinds and thunderbolts, which had struck a thick, green, inwardly rotten cypress tree near Mr. Kraft’s house and near Mr. Mayer’s house, where Mr. Kraft has his store and trade goods, and had immediately set it in fire and flames. It burned with frightful racket until late in the evening. God be praised for sparing us!

The 8th. The good people on the Blue Bluff lack a bridge, enough boats, and time to come to the weekday sermons, as they would gladly do. Traveling up and down by boat in this hot weather is not only tiresome but also a great loss of time, and not all of them can leave home. At the last house consecration I noted much desire for and devotion to the word of God, and this moved me to offer them my services. I wished, namely, to hold the weekday sermon, which we had arranged for them every Wednesday morning, in whatever dwelling among them that they considered best located and most convenient for them.

Today, God be praised, the first sermon was preached with much blessing and enjoyment. As its basis I used the late Johann Arndt’s Informatorium biblicum,⁶ which our most dearly loved friend and patron, Master Hildebrand,⁷ has had reprinted in Augsburg and has sent to us in many copies. I gave each of them a copy, as far as they went, which will be useful to them for their preparation and repetition. Today we chiefly contemplated the two verses 1 Corinthians 11:16 and Ephesians 4:2, which the two editors had placed in front with good reason; and thus the new inhabitants of this beautiful, healthy, and well situated land received much wholesome instruction.

The young and very skillful N.N. and his wife are making room for grace in their conversation and are setting down well on their land. He now understands better and recognizes with thanks the admonitions given him by a pious apprentice cartwright in Nurnberg, whom he would like to have with him and to whom he wishes to write. All the new colonists are showing great industry on their plantations, and God is looking at their land especially with such fruitful weather that they can expect a good harvest. They also show themselves to be very contented. For such people the beginning is always difficult, and I cannot help but aid them even beyond my means with necessary provisions, even if I must incur debts thereby. The first year is always the most difficult for newcomers, also for the reason that they contract fever.

The 9th. All the mill buildings are now receiving not only a very beautiful, but also a very durable, appearance; and we will not have to repair as much as in past years, when much was built without experience. The construction costs run very high, and the members of the community cannot contribute anything to them. Oh God, Thou art so mighty today as Thou hast been for ever; our trust stands entirely in Thee.⁸ Let the fountains of Thy inexhaustible goodness flow to us to cover these costs to the praise of Thy glorious name, to our joy and the strengthening of our faith, and to the furtherance of our good nourishment. Amen.

The 10th. The crops look hopeful everywhere and awaken Christian hearts to the praise of the great Creator. This month the heat is greater and more burning than in several years. In such a hot time the fresh watermelons are a great refreshment. Our friends can hardly imagine their size, abundant juice, and good taste. Everyone who comes to this country and understands how to make a correct judgment about the crops must admit that it is a blessed country in which almost nothing fails if only the proper time for sowing and planting is kept in mind and the proper industry and intelligence are applied.

The 11th. Mr. Kraft and his wife have enjoyed good health ever since their arrival, but now they both have fever. Mr. Kraft has a tolerable case of tertian fever, but with his seven year old chest ailment he is greatly weakened by his daily fever; and I am in no little worry because of this honest and hardworking man, especially since he wishes to be his own doctor and has begun to use an anti-fever remedy that he brought with him, in which china de china is a major ingredient.⁹ One of the Lord Trustees, namely Mr. Samuel Lloyd, who got to know Mr. Kraft very well in London, sent the following serious observations in his recent letter: “If only God would restore Mr. Kraft’s health again!” With regard to that, I gladly admit that I am not without fearful worry that the all too hot climate here may gradually advance his premature death through excessive perspiration.¹⁰ He is well content with God and His dispensations and wishes to live and die according to His will.

The 12th. Today, the Seventh Sunday after Trinity, in the contemplation of the gospel we made especial use of the gracious commandment and the loving promise of the Lord our God, Exodus 23:24, “Ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.” In the public prayer hour we implored our Lord God to grant and strengthen our faith in His dear promises, whereby, in the fulfillment of the same, we will see His glory and be able to say to His praise, “He hath made all things well.”¹¹ We also thanked Him jointly for the new and entirely undeserved proof of His goodness in letting us complete, safely and as we wished, the construction of the house which has been established at the expense of the Lord Trustees for winding off the silk prepared here and in the neighborhood and also for learning and spreading the art of spinning off the silk.

I believe it will not displease our patrons and friends if I add a little description of the house that has been given to the Ebenezer congregation and dedicated to silk manufacture. It stands on a large market place across from the parsonage on the other side of the street. The entire lot belonging to this house is 196 feet long and 98 feet wide, it is entirely level, dry, and fertile. A rather large number of mulberry trees are already standing on it, which I planted a few years ago because I did not wish the beautiful public square to be left unused. The building site on which the silk manufactory now stands remained unplanted. Frankly, the idea never came into my mind that such a house was ever to be built here, but now that these many trees have been planted and have grown so well and the house has been built right there, I recognize from this a loving providence of our heavenly Father, which predicts still more good for us.

The house itself is 42 feet long, 22 feet wide, and 26 feet 3 inches high. It is built of durable pine wood and neatly covered on the walls with boards from our mill instead of with stones or clay (according to the building method of this country); and it is provided with an imposing and firm roof of cypress shingles. It has two floors and two stairs, which are built on a very convenient spot. The lower chamber is 9 feet high, has twelve windows (each 4 feet 6 inches high an 2 feet 6 inches wide) and two high and broad doors opposite each other right in the middle of the long walls of the house. In the walls on both sides of this lower chamber are embedded four kettles and two chimneys, and therefore all together eight kettles with eight machines that are built in such a way that the spinners have enough light and air from the doors and windows. Every window is provided with a window frame covered with canvas so that (if it is necessary) the too strong wind and sunlight can be held off.

The floor is made of boards; but where the kettles stand there is masonry from one wall to the other. The house itself stands on a stone foundation.¹³ Above this chamber there is another one of the same size, but one foot lower, which consists partly of a second floor and partly of an attic. The light and air enter through four large roof windows and two gable windows. On both sides of this lower chamber there are four cauldrons set in the walls and two chimneys; and therefore there are all together eight cauldrons with eight machines that are so built that the spinners receive enough light and air from the doors and windows. Every window is provided with a canvas-covered window frame so that (when necessary) the excessive breeze and sunlight can be prevented.

Along both the long walls and along one of the short walls in this room there have been built nothing but stands and containers from the floor almost to the ceiling for storing silkballs of all kinds and keeping them cool. For this purpose on the second story above the first floor and along both the short and the long walls and between some attached boards some hidden airholes have been left, through which neither rain nor moisture but only air can penetrate.

The chimneys have been built outside of the house; thus both floors can remain entire in order to contain more silkballs and other things, and it will be cooler both above and below. For every two cauldrons there is an ovenhole, which must be tended from within.¹⁴ All eight cauldrons and ovenholes are opposite each other. Through the second staircase, which stands along the left short wall above the first one, one goes to the uppermost floor under the roof, which is well protected by the good roof, is provided with two gabled windows, and is very useful.

Before the house, immediately opposite the door yet several feet from it, a well has been dug, which is twenty-one feet deep and six feet in diameter and has been lined and protected from the bottom to the top with thickly sawed and durable cypress wood like a large barrel. The builder has set a pretty little house over it, which is ten feet high and seven feet on each side and well protected by walls as high as a man’s chest; and a little vane of sheet metal that shows the direction of the wind has been set on it as a decoration. The bucket hangs on a thirty-three foot chain, which is firmly fastened to a windlass and easily descends into the well of its own accord. For drawing the water up easily, a wooden wheel like a little millwheel has been made, which can easily be jammed with a wooden peg when the bucket full of water is up. The water wells up abundantly from several holes, since the well was dug in the driest summer season and gave from nine to ten feet of water from the very beginning; and therefore it will give enough water all year for all the neighbors. This a blessing worthy of gratitude, especially in summer when some wells are without water.

In order that nothing necessary be lacking in this house, behind it a baking oven nine and a half feet long and nine feet wide has been set, under a good roof and side walls, in which the silk-balls, or rather the worms still living in them, must be killed if the balls cannot be spun off in time; and for this purpose certain little chests of thin boards with holes in them have been prepared. The house, with the well, ovens, trees, and the 196 by 98 foot lot belonging to it, are enclosed by a strong fence of cypress posts and narrow split cypress boards and provided with a front and back door. With God’s help more mulberry trees are to be planted in it, and every year young trees are to be raised from the seeds for other people in and outside of our community. For this the water-abundant well can be useful, without undue effort, in furthering their growth through diligent watering, as is necessary here. Actually, it is entirely indispensable because of the great amount of water required for spinning off the silk.

During the spinning off, the more often the cauldrons are filled with pure well and spring water, the purer and brighter the silk remains and the greater is its value. River water does not suit for this because it carries with it slime and other subtle impurities with it, and it is also too distant from the house. The entire construction cost has somewhat more than a hundred pounds Sterling, which large sum of money was earned by the inhabitants of our place, who have shown all possible industry and loyalty. May our merciful God repay the dear Lord Trustees for this and all other signs of their upright love and affection for our community in time and eternity for the sake of Christ!

The 14th. Today in both churches I treated of God’s great loyalty in granting us the means and opportunity for adults and children to grasp a true recognition of God and to grow in it and of the disloyalty of men, through which they either learn nothing or forget what they have learned. The former should encourage us to a heartfelt gratitude and true loyalty, while the latter should move us to a penitent humility and improvement. During this I could not leave unmentioned that those of us were to be pitied who, through their obstinacy and human purposes, kept better arrangements from being made for basic instruction of our youth at our and other places.

The suggestion was made some time ago in our entire congregation that, if the plantation owners would give up their unbuilt houselots and their two-acre gardens near the town, we hoped that more people could support themselves in town and thus develop the town if such townfolk were given instead of two acres just one for planting mulberry trees and for cultivating some crops.¹⁵ They would also have more time than the farmers on the plantations for busying themselves with the preparing of all sorts of woodwork. Therefore, if there were more people near town, it would be easier to lodge the children people would like to send here for instruction in Christianity and useful external matters. The house that was built for advancing silk culture, I said, was giving me new hope that God, who gave it, will also know how to arrange everything else so that our town be built up. We hope that silk culture will also be set in motion and that many people will learn how to spin off the silk.

The 15th. Some of the new people are causing me much joy with their Christian behavior; and some give us good hope that, with God’s blessing, they will be able to find their physical nourishment among us and especially to believe and save their souls. Mrs. Glaner’s children cause me much joy. To be sure, they are very young and tender; yet they show a zeal in reading, praying, and learning Bible verses. They also ask their pious and industrious mother such questions that we can recognize from them their well-disposed minds. The parents love Christ and the souls of their children and give themselves praiseworthy trouble in rearing them for the good; and God is graciously repaying them for this with His blessing and giving them much joy in their children. Out of love for her little brother, who is still lying in his cradle, the little eight-year-old girl has learned by heart the lullaby that is found at the end of the extract from Freylinghausen’s hymnal: Schlaf sanft una wohl, which she repeated to me almost without hesitation.

The 16th. On Monday the people on our plantations heard the cannons in Savannah firing every minute from early evening into the night, which indicated something extraordinary. Today I received the news that the President of the Council and highest judge of the land, Henry Parker, had died. His brother, who has been manager on Mr. Whitefield’s plantation, also died recently. This President was a man in his best years and has been a judge in this land since the beginning of the colony and, for somewhat more than a year, President. He had very good talents, a sharp understanding, and an exceptionally good memory; he was impartial and neither angry nor vengeful.

Yesterday evening three gentlemen from Carolina lodged in my house; and from them I learned that people are worried about an Indian war if the governor, Mr. Glen, cannot be persuaded to renounce his resolution. Two months ago the Creek Indians found some of their enemies, the Cherokees, in Charleston and were, to be sure, reconciled with them publicly through the efforts of the governor. However, afterwards on the way home they killed them not far from Charleston, while they themselves beat a hasty retreat, leaving their gifts behind them. The governor wished the militia to pursue them but met opposition from their colonel. Now he is violently insisting that the Creek Nation surrender the murderers so that they can be punished according to English law.

Because the royal soldiers did not wish to let themselves be used for that either, the governor appointed Mrs. Musgrove as an ambassadress to the Indians for this purpose and promised her a hundred pounds Sterling and, if she succeeds and can persuade the Creeks to make peace with the Cherokees and extradite the murderers, two hundred pounds. The Indians consider themselves free people and allies of the English and let no one prescribe how they should act among themselves and against their enemies. If one wished to force them to extradite the Indians who killed the others (as the governor is insisting), they would break with the English and desert to the French. This would be a very great loss because until now they have been the Englishmen’s most loyal allies and have had the greatest trade with them.

The shoemaker Zettler has promised our dear God to praise Him, along with me, for His mercy if He will free him from his painful, dangerous, and longlasting sickness. Yesterday he called for me, but I preferred to come to his house this afternoon so that all his housemates would have an opportunity to recognize and praise God’s goodness. After I had read the 103rd Psalm to them, we knelt down and thanked the Lord, who is very loving and whose goodness lasts forever.

The 18th. If our merciful God has resolved to help our town and its support with a certain tract of land, then no enemy will be able to prevent us from acquiring and possessing it. If He hasn’t, then we will also be content. In regard to this I remember some expressions of a prominent and learned patron in a letter to me:

God, who rules the world with His eye on its entirety, can, to be sure, not let everything happen as we wish and as would be useful for us. Even rulers who advance the common good cannot always advance the particular good of a private person to the detriment of the whole. It is enough that not having something is often as much proof of divine goodness as receiving it and advances our happiness more than receiving something at the wrong time.

In no summer have we ever experienced such great and lasting heat and drought as we have had in this month and seem to be having in the highest degree at this time. Grass, crops, and vegetables are becoming limp and dry; and it is beginning to appear that our holy and just God wishes to punish our land with a drought and an Indian war, which would be worse than the pestilence with which God visited David and his subjects. His titles of honor stand in the 103rd Psalm among other places, and we are humbly imploring Him not to treat us according to our sins and not to repay us for our misdeeds, but rather to let mercy go before justice.

The 20th. An official ordinance obliges our inhabitants to make new roads or repair the old ones this week from Monday to Saturday, which is a very necessary and useful work. Every male between the age of sixteen and sixty must lend a hand, be he servant or freeman, prominent or common, or he must pay two shillings Sterling as punishment for his absence. Only ministers and the sick are excepted. The commissioners of roads have resolved to build a bridge across Ebenezer Creek for walking or riding; and this will be a great and urgently desired benefaction for the colonists on the Blue Bluff as an aid to their divine services and their physical support. For that purpose they have found a very convenient spot near the town that we did not know of previously, for which reason we had imagined the building of a bridge to be almost impossible. The land on both sides of the creeks is mostly very low and is flooded when the water is high; and this would have made the bridge useless, unless they had found a convenient spot for it.

This afternoon our merciful God has begun to grant us rain and cool weather, for which we rightfully bring Him our humble and grateful praise and thanks. To be sure, the rain has not entirely softened the earth and has also fallen very scantily on the plantations, yet despite that it is a blessing worthy of thanks. I often remember that last spring, because of the longlasting drought, one expected neither wheat nor rye harvest; yet our marvelous God let both of them turn out very well to our great amazement. Thus our almighty Lord can also do the same with our Indian corn, rice, squash, and sweet potatoes, which still have a poor appearance. It is a great comfort for the children of God that it is written in God’s word: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”¹⁶

The 21st. Because all the grown men are working on the roads and the bridge that is to be built, I had at the weekday sermon on the plantations mostly women and children as an audience. The content of my sermon stands in the important and serious words of our blessed Luther in his catechism: “Let each one learn his lesson, then all will be well in the home.” The recently preached material from the often-mentioned Heart Examinations¹⁷ gave me an opportunity for that. If all the men and women also learned in their domestic state the lessons belonging to their Christianity and external professions, there would not be so many very poor and totally impecunious people in Christendom (even to the harm of the kingdom of God). With this I again told my listeners much for their examination, caution, and Christian behavior towards themselves and their children; for it is apparent that things go badly in the homes of many of our inhabitants because they have not learned the assigned lessons. It would be a sin to attribute the blame to our dear God, the country, or secondary causes, as many are ready to do. “Oh, Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself”, “Sin is a reproach to any people,” and “Israel, upon my ways,” etc.¹⁸

The 22nd. News has come from Savannah that letters from London have arrived there for the Council, the content of which is not yet known. An English merchant vessel was stranded on the coast of Florida; and the crew aboard it had the misfortune to fall into the cruel hands of the Florida Indians, who devoured them all according to their inhumane practice.¹⁹ All together there are only about five hundred such cruel Indians left, who lurk in ambush for booty on the islands of the seacoast and are encouraged by wicked Europeans to capture the heretics and to eat them.

In Savannah everything is so dry and parched that they have almost no spring or well water left. The crops also look very bad. The price of rice has also risen from five to ten shillings and can not be had; and it is the same with Indian corn. May God have mercy on his people, the poor, for Christ’s sake and send them help.

The Commissioners for Roads asked me to preach a sermon to the working men at noon from God’s word, which I gladly did, and, indeed, to our mutual edification, concerning the words of our blessed Luther at the end of his Table Talk:²⁰ “Let each learn his lesson, and all will be well in the home.” A couple of hours later I had the opportunity to travel to Savannah to bring order to some necessary, even if only external, things. God granted us bearable weather, even if the journey went rather slowly.

The 25th. After I had departed from Savannah yesterday afternoon, a strong thunderstorm and a very strong and lasting rain began, which was equally strong in our and in the Purysburg region. We hope that many crops will be resuscitated by it. God be praised for this great blessing. In Savannah I had an opportunity to preach a sermon to the assembled German people about the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount and to present briefly the right nature of Christianity. Many avoid our place and congregation, which the Lord has visited until now with many tribulations, but also with much grace and mercy.

The 26th. After church in the afternoon our dear Mr. Kraft requested private Communion on his sickbed. Beforehand I tried to awaken his heart and strengthen him toward the good by singing the hymn Die Seele Christi heilige mich, etc., through a short contemplation of the 23rd Psalm, and through Christian conversation; and with it our chief business was a devout prayer that was repeated several times. He is contented at heart with God’s providence and with whatever He does with him; and through his faith he lies on his dear Savior quiet and resigned like a pious child on its mother’s lap. At his request Mr. Thilo told him today that he saw no grounds for his physical recovery but that he would serve him to his end with his best knowledge and means.

Mr. Kraft’s condition seemed dangerous to me not only now but also at the beginning of his sickness. We have aimed our poor prayer in the name of Christ at restoring his health if it is pleasing to God and useful, physically and spiritually, to this man. There is no doubt but what in time we and the congregation would have had a very useful man in him. He has a good Christian foundation and he has gotten to know himself better with his diligent use of the means of salvation and he has laid aside many of the frailties that still clung to him. He and she enjoyed our encouragement and help in prayer, and we have been not without blessing at their house.

The 30th. God is now giving us abundant rain and is graciously averting all damage from the great thunderstorm and severe lightning. The air is becoming cooler, and this serves to refresh both the well and the sick.

Mr. Kraft is becoming weaker and weaker, and he is yearning in his heart for a speedy death. Of him it could be said. “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?”²¹ At daybreak I was called to Mr. Kraft because it appeared that he was about to die. When I came to him, I reminded him of the words I had left behind yesterday: “Come thou beautiful crown of joy, stay not long; I am awaiting thee with yearning,”²² and he answered me with a weak voice, :”Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,” etc.²³ He spoke with a friendly mouth and an almost angelic countenance, for he had already been permitted to have a peek into heaven and to see Jesus in His glory. I read to him the 21st chapter of Revelations as the city of his eternal, sojourn to which he was now hurrying. Likewise, I read what stands in the 19th chapter about the bride of the lamb, that she is clad in pure and beautiful silk, i.e., with the justification of the saints. There it is written, “Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.”²⁴ Thereupon we knelt around his bed and commended the circumstances of his soul and body to the Lord his Savior and Redeemer.

After my departure, Mr. Thilo came to him and prepared something for his refreshment, which, however, he no longer needed in this life. When I came to him between eight and nine o’clock, he stretched out his weak hand to me again and also said, “Christ’s blood and justice are my adorning,”²⁵ etc. Then we knelt down and laid this little sheep into the arms, into the bosom, and into the wounds of our good and great Shepherd; and this prayer was concluded with the blessing of the Lord which God had commanded to be laid on his people. After the prayer I asked Mr. Thilo not to let himself be hindered by my presence, speaking, praying, etc. from doing what he wished to do with the patient; and I asked Mr. Kraft whether I might sing him a lovely song. With his consent I sang Alle Menschen müssen sterben, etc. with the words of the fourth stanza; and he unexpectedly gave up the ghost during the words of the fourth stanza: “Holy, holy, holy, is God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”²⁶

Like me, Mrs. Kraft had not expected this departure so soon and could hardly be comforted. They loved each other tenderly, and it is no wonder that this separation drew from her sighs, pains, and tears. Already yesterday I had made profitable to her the words “If only I have thee, then I shall ask nothing for the comfort of my heart.”²⁷ At this painful parting I again reminded her, and assured her, that I would look after her in both spiritual and physical matters to the best of my ability in accordance with the desire of her husband. In his spirit he had freed himself from all temporal things since his sickness became more serious; and he complained to me several times that people often disquieted him with things for which others could give them no answer. He prayed gladly and heartily, commended himself often to our intercession; and he complained bitterly that he was so weak in his praying. His own good works and virtuous ways were nothing in his eyes; on the other hand it is said “The works of the Lord Jesus alone cause me to be saved, to whom I cling in faith.”²⁸

God spared him from all violent bodily pains and serious doubts,²⁹ even though he well assumed that they would not be lacking. During the entire sickness I did not hear a single word of complaint except that he sometimes could not catch his breath because of his serious seven-year-old chest affliction. There are probably few who, with all the advantages of this life and in the prime of life, have revealed such a great desire to die as did this Mr. Kraft. This was always true of him: “I have a desire to depart, and to be with Christ.” Likewise, “Behold, I come quickly. Come Lord Jesus,”³⁰ also Psalms 42:3. He let himself be led astray from his desire for blessed eternity as little by the laments and tears of his dearly beloved wife as by other temporal things; indeed, he was entirely indifferent in these matters.

While he lay there last night as a dying man, Mrs. Kraft rubbed him down with vinegar to bring him back to himself; but he was not at all pleased by this and said, “Now I have wished to depart in peace, and you wake me up again. My eyes, like Simeon, have seen my Savior.” Both my dear colleague and I visited him daily during his last sickness, spoke with him from God’s word, and prayed, which he did kneeling as long as it was possible. Even in the greatest weakness he showed a great zeal in praying; and he regretted greatly that he was sometimes overtaken by exhaustion. For his constitution was so debilitated that he almost always slumbered and became all the weaker while doing so. He sincerely loved his ministers, God’s word, and the Holy Sacraments; and he visited God’s house diligently both on Sundays and on weekdays, as often as divine services were held. Despite his fever he participated in Holy Communion publicly with the congregation on Sunday three weeks ago (it was July 12); and he enjoyed this love-feast last Sunday, therefore three weeks later, again with heartfelt desire.

In his external business he was, as merchant, as skillful as he was diligent; and he spared himself too little during the first two weeks of his last sickness because he had no merchant helper. He observed that he would not live long in this pilgrimage, and therefore he yearned for the quiet rural life on his plantation, where, to the advantage of his soul, he would have less distraction. For this purpose he had already begun to purchase some Negroes. In the hope that his brother would still come, he would have continued with the intended house construction and in his well-begun trade until his actual arrival according to the Lord’s will, or else he would have devoted himself to silk culture with his servants. He had revealed a great interest in this; and his wife had already made a good start in this last spring with bought leaves.

The construction of his house was especially aimed at silk manufacture. After his arrival in Georgia and Ebenezer he remained in all labors as healthy and lively as in Europe; but some five weeks ago he contracted a hectic fever, which, against my advice, he wished to cure with a certain powder he had brought with him from Ravensburg, of which the chief ingredient was the well-known China de China. A week ago, at my advice, he engaged our medico, Mr. Thilo, who did not fail to show diligence and care. However, for several days he has had Diarrhea Colliquativa³¹ and became feebler and weaker every day and finally (as already reported) at 10 o’clock in the morning today he gave up his spirit, which had been adorned with Christ’s blood and the gifts of the Holy Ghost; and, indeed, so softly and quietly that he hardly moved a limb and felt little of a death-struggle. This our merciful God surely did for the benefit of the dear and greatly distressed Mrs. Kraft to lighten this departure and the pain caused by it. This blessed man can now sing in a higher throne what we sing in our weakness: “So now I rest in thy arms, oh Savior; Thou Thyself shalt be my eternal peace; I shall wrap me up in Thy grace, my element shall be Thy mercy alone. And because Thou art my One and All, it is enough that my soul enjoy Thee.”³²

The 31st day of July (This was the death and burial day of our dearest Savior) was already chosen for the burial because of the great summer heat, and many people from town and from the plantations gathered for it at 10 o’clock in the morning. The corpse was set in a black coffin in Jerusalem Church between the pulpit and the parishioners’ pews; and after the congregation had sung the hymn Welt, ade, ich bin dein muede, ich will nach dem Himmel zu, etc., I held the funeral oration about the following words, which were so comforting for the blessed man: “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace … for mine eyes have seen thy Savior.”²⁹ This gave me the desired opportunity to present the blessed end of the servants of God for our general edification and as a well-grounded comfort for our distressed widow. After I had read the largest part of the present sermon instead of the personal data and we had all said the final prayer on our knees, the children and adults, ministers, schoolmasters, and congregation went in a regular procession to the cemetery and buried the bones of the dear Mr. Kraft into the restful chamber chosen for him by God, while singing the hymn Alle Menschen müssen sterben, etc.

AUGUST 1752

The 1st. In the appendix to last month’s diary I reported briefly that on the day before yesterday our marvelous God had taken from us our righteous and industrious Mr. Kraft through a, to be sure premature, yet blessed death and that we interred his bones in the earth yesterday in town with Christian ceremonies after holding a funeral oration. In him we have lost a useful man; and by this a deep wound has been struck in his dear wife, which may our Lord and Physician bind up and heal!

Most of the people of the last transport have fever (which all new colonists are accustomed to get in the first year); yet I believe that scarcely one of them will die of it if only they will take medicine and keep the necessary diet. However, very few of them will, rather later on they will contract worse sicknesses than the fever. I am not surprised that many die in this country, rather I am surprised that most of them recover and remain alive, even though their behavior is so bad. Not a few will appear before Christ’s seat of judgment, who will be convicted as sinners against the sixth commandment¹ or as murderers of themselves and of others; and I loyally warn them against this.

On this first day of August we surely have had the greatest heat of this already exceptionally hot summer, in which we can feel almost no breeze. The rains we have had so far (excepting a single one a week ago) have not hit all our plantations, and therefore many will have a bad harvest and can expect 20 instead of 100 bushels of corn. The new people on the Blue Bluff and the few plantation owners on Ebenezer Creek have had the most rain, and therefore their crops are growing best. Some of them have just planted too little because they came to the country too late and were occupied for a long time with building their dwellings and making their fences.

The 5th. It is no small joy for me that most of the people on the Blue Bluff love God’s word, gladly fetch me in their boat to preach the weekday sermon, and show proper attention during the sermon. I go to them with much joy despite the great heat, and our merciful God grants me much grace and strength to proclaim His word to them in the blessed Arndt’s Informatorium biblicum² simply and with blessing. Some, to be sure, are industrious workers but not diligent listeners; and through such behavior and through their lives in general they make themselves incapable of divine blessing and physical support.

In the afternoon I visited our sick servants in the institution at the new sawmill: the manager and his family assembled with the healthy servants in the patients’ chamber; and we edified ourselves with the words of James 1, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation,” etc.³ and prayed together for ourselves and others. Manager Flerl told me that he hoped that God will bless this sermon in his often distressed and bowed-down helpmeet, at whose condition it had been aimed without my intention. Mrs. Kalcher related to me a new proof of God’s fatherly care for her household and support, which awakened me, too, to joy and praise of God. The repair of the mill has advanced so far that we will be able to use the one course in a few days, for which both our inhabitants and strangers are painfully waiting. Our construction is going slowly through a lack of industrious carpenters.

Last week a strong young Englishman came to our place and began cutting boards by hand, for which we gladly advanced him everything because we would like to see such activity introduced here. The price of five shillings for one hundred feet is too low for him, especially because he is used to a higher price in Carolina, and therefore his sawing will cease.

The 7th. Mr. Mayer brought the news from Savannah that the price of Indian corn and rice have risen unusually high because all crops in South and North Carolina have been burned up by the lasting drought. Since our merciful God has begun to give us rain, our corn and rice have somewhat recovered. The plantations on Ebenezer Creek and on the Blue Bluff have hardly felt the drought at all and have the best crops. If the Lord Sabaoth had not let a little bit remain for us, then we would be like Sodom and Gomorrha.

The 8th. In her sickness N.N. shows a great desire for the word of God and for prayer, and therefore she is very pleased when we visit her. From her words and demeanor I conclude that she recognizes and feels her sins and hungers and thirsts for grace in Christ. Her husband is still far from the kingdom of God yet hopes to be saved in this condition.

The pious N.N. gave her maid a right good testimony in that she abhors the sins in which young people are accustomed to live according to the course of the world. She likes to pray, she learns and repeats, edifies the children, tends loyally and industriously to her calling, and accepts advice. N.N. is going to marry her, and he receives in her a virtuous housewife and loyal mother for his three children. N. said that if N. will observe the duties of a Christian husband, then she believes that this N., as his future wife, will become a righteous Christian.

The 10th. We hear from Savannah that, since the Lord Trustees gave up the government, many people from Carolina and other colonies are coming into our Georgia and wish to settle here. They are bringing many Negroes with them. No one can settle in our neighborhood because of a lack of good land.

The 14th. I visited some of our parishioners behind Abercorn⁴ and traveled at the same time to Goshen, where the inhabitants assembled at the signal of a horn to hear the word of God, which I preached to them concerning the last gospel for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity; and I treated the God-pleasing prayer of a penitent Sinner. Formerly I have had to settle all sorts of quarrels at this place; but this time I was spared from such distressing work. Concerning a young married couple, I knew that they did not live according to God’s word; I spoke with them privately and prayed with them. I particularly instilled in them the well known and at the same time important words of Sirach, “There are three beautiful things that please both God and men. When brothers are one, when neighbors love each other, and when man and wife live in harmony.”

The 15th. Sebastian Fetzer (one of the new colonists) had me called to him. God has visited him with fever and other bad luck, also his wife and children. However, they are all beginning to recover, even though they have not taken any medicine. In addition to their sickness, they have also had another severe tribulation in their rather well established plantation in that lack of rain has spoiled the rice completely and the Indian corn partly, also the beans and the squash have been eaten away by the deer in the night. Despite that, one finds in both marriage partners, especially in the husband, a complete resignation in the will of God and Christian contentment with His guidance; and they are grateful for the least thing. They strengthen their faith from God’s promises and from the beautiful examples in Holy Scripture.

The deceased Bichler left a pious and righteous widow /Maria/, a well-gifted daughter of the pious Thomas Bacher of about twenty-seven years of age, who so far has shown herself blameless and edifying in her widowhood, as is fitting for Christian widows. Now our Lord is providing her with a young, industrious, and well mannered carpenter, Balthasar Rieser. They reported to me their plans to publish their bans and gave me the opportunity (as all of them among us do in such cases) to present them from God’s word what can be useful and blessed for them all their life long. We also prayed with each other. These two persons are among the first children of our congregation who have been prepared for Holy Communion through my and my late colleague’s service and who have also given us much joy so far through their Christian behavior and industry in their callings. I hope they will become blessed marriage partners in spiritual and physical matters.

The 16th. On this Twelfth Sunday after Trinity there were ninety-four persons at our Holy Communion, of whom two were from Purysburg. With good weather our merciful God granted us his blessing abundantly for the edification of our souls. May He give us grace to keep it in a fine and good heart and to bring forth fruit in patience!

A few months ago N.N. was mortally sick; and afterwards he became contract⁵ through the use of unsuitable medicines, which someone gave him with good intentions. The sickness drove him to God, and we visited him diligently, spoke and prayed with him from God’s word, which our dear God graciously heard; and to our great amazement He let him recover gradually and regain his strength so that today he could go to the Lord’s table again with the congregation. God has a lot to do in correcting him. So far He has done great things in him.

The 18th. God is now giving us rain more abundantly than in the whole summer. There is said to have been a great lack of water for men and cattle because the springs and all little streams are dried out except for the main rivers. We have had no lack of river and well water. Yet the Savannah River is smaller than it has ever been before. None of our so very useful mills has had water for milling, and this was all the more advantageous for repairing them. We have reason to thank God, who has helped us so far with this new, important, expensive, and very useful construction.

The 20th. Praise be to God, who has let our inhabitants come so far that they are now beginning to enjoy the fruit of the labor in the fields. On some plantations where they planted right early or very late the Indian corn has turned out rather well; but it rained most on the Blue Bluff, and there the crops are best. There are not many sweet potatoes; on the other hand rice, beans, and squash look very good with the present very fruitful weather. Some rice that was planted too early and not in low and watery areas is ruined, but this misfortune has not struck many at our place. We have more cause to praise God than to complain. He has done everything well.⁶ If only all the crops have turned out so well as with us, we need fear no shortage, unless God were to spoil them with all-too-much rain or in some other way.

The 21st. Some children who were born in Old Ebenezer have advanced so far in their Christian instruction that we plan to confirm them in five or six weeks and to let them go to the table of the Lord for the first time if we find in them the signs of believing and worthy communicants. N. is the only one who causes me distress with his frivolity and misbehavior;⁷ and to please him I have postponed the confirmation of the other children until now in order to give him thereby more time for his preparation. Our marvelous God has tried, in love and seriousness, through benefactions and severe chastisements, to set him right spiritually. However, through his own fault nothing good has come of him. A short time ago God dragged him right out of death, which made a great impression on him for some time; but he has again been corrupted by young people of Purysburg, whom he likes.

The 24th. Our dear God has graciously spared us old inhabitants of Ebenezer from disease during this now almost ended summer; but among the last colonists there will be few who have not had the quartan or tertian fever or still have it, but many through their own fault.

From my and other people’s experience, also according to the testimony of Mr. Thilo, our climate is one of the healthiest in the world. I have now received a printed description of the tarwater that has been famous for some years, of which it has been confirmed, not only in the Charleston newspapers but also through oral reports of honest people, that it is a highly safe and proved remedy against all fevers, side stitches, and inflamatory sicknesses; indeed, one which has been used in many other sicknesses with great profit. The extract which I received was taken from Mr. Prior’s Narratives, or news of the fortunate cures with tarwater, which book I had never seen.

To one quart of tar, four quarts of cold water are poured into a glazed earthen vessel, and they are stirred with one another briskly for five or six minutes and afterwards thoroughly mixed. One leaves it standing quietly for three days; afterwards it is skimmed (without stirring it or making it cloudy) and preserved for use in well sealed bottles. The more one makes in one vessel, the more tar and water one must take in proportion and the more one must stir it and mix it together. The patient in bed takes it warm every half hour in certain small portions until the fever subsides, which will happen if not on the next day, then on the fifth or sixth day, to wit, in such a way that, caeteris paribus,⁸ one need fear few more attacks of the fever. This is the first remedy that finds approval; therefore it should be prepared, the sooner the better. I shall also copy the extract and enclose it here as a report for our worthy friends and patrons. Our inhabitants would rather take drops or decota⁹ than powder, and therefore the usual cure is not agreeable to them.

The 26th. Among the last transport a man named Peter Hammer came to our congregation from Saxony with his wife and three children, who is an honest man concerned with his salvation. His like-minded wife (a very good housewife) has been visited by God until now with very painful and dangerous sickness and has sometimes come very close to death. She is patient and content with God’s guidance and also conforms to every order prescribed by the medico in physical matters. Her husband, children, and we ministers beg God for her recovery because she is almost indispensable for her unreared children in this strange land.

The 27th. Justiciary /Ludwig/ Mayer’s only little son, Christian Lebrecht, whom God gave him on December 7 of last year through his dear helpmeet, has been very sick for several weeks with fever, rash, and diarrhea and has finally become a truly piteous sight so that the dear parents themselves have sighed for its blessed release. It departed this morning, but at the same time Mrs. /Barbara/ Mayer (apparently from distress and worry) bore a stillborn child of about five months, which crushed the two dear married people all the more. In our prayer we made the following three verses useful to us in a simple way: “We know that for all those who love God all things . . .”, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away,” etc., “God has never erred in His regime, no, what He does and lets be done, that will end well.”¹⁰

The 28th. Despite the extraordinary heat and drought, the likes of which the old inhabitants cannot remember, the thunderstorms have been unbearable this summer; this afternoon it thundered, lightninged, rained, and stormed all together. From the treatise of a knowledgeable man who lives up in the area of Savannah Town,¹¹ I have seen that up there they have had the same kind of weather as we and therefore very few crops, especially further on in Carolina. The Savannah River is so small that a person can cross on foot. The wolves and bears around there have greatly harmed the horses, cattle, and corn.

The 30th. On Friday my dear colleague, Mr. Lemke, traveled to Savannah to preach to the German people on this Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity and to give Holy Communion to some of them. May the Lord strengthen him to preach His word with blessing as He has strengthened me here among our parishioners, to whom I preached two sermons about the sick and their Physician from the gospel about the ten lepers. In the exordium we contemplated the beautiful words from Jeremiah 17:14, “Heal me, oh Lord, and I shall be healed, save me, and . . .”; and from it we recognized our spiritual misery and our Physician and Helper. May He be praised for having graciously and powerfully helped us through this month, indeed, through this entire summer season. I and my family, like many others in the congregation, can again call to one another to the praise of God and to the strengthening of our faith: “Praised be the Lord daily. God lays a burden on us, but he helpeth us also, Selah! We have a God who helpeth, and a Lord, who saveth from death!”¹²

Several men and women have been gravely sick, but it came to pass through God’s mercy what we read two weeks ago in the introit verse from James 5:15, “The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up,” etc. Many keep such a bad diet in their sickness that their recovery strikes me almost as a miracle; yet unknowing Christians say that nowadays God performs no more miracles. The old inhabitants have enjoyed good health during the past summer; and I wish for all of them the heart of the believing, obedient, humble, and grateful Samaritan in the gospel Luke 17.¹³ Among the most recent blessings of God is the fact that He has granted us sufficient crops for our needs, a new and very durable and usefully constructed mill course, and, after a long and unusual drought, enough rain and water for milling. In the next thanksgiving and consecration sermon I hold, I shall call out to the workers and other people who consider the new and thoroughly repaired mill to be a great blessing of God, “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”¹⁴ He gives us grace to have childlike trust in His wisdom, goodness, omnipotence, and truth and to believe that He will generously grant us the construction costs in His time, and we are comfortable in this confidence.

The 31st. If we had the means, we would have the newly begun bridge over Ebenezer Creek completed not only to facilitate the new colonists’ going back and forth but also to prevent all possible harm. A vestryman of the inhabitants of the Blue Bluff wished to swim the horse he had brought from Carolina across Ebenezer Creek, but he lost it in doing so. Elsewhere in this country, in which there are no bridges except at our place, it is very usual for travelers to swim their horses across the Savannah and other rivers from one high bank to the other, and for this purpose they use a canoe in which a man sits and holds the horse with the bridle. Thus much is risked here with people and beasts, especially in searching for the horses, cows, and oxen that have become wild; yet one seldom hears of misfortune. God shows himself as a lover of life even in the case of wild and daring men and gives them time for penitence. Oh, if only everyone among us and in other places would let themselves be led to it before He steps in and tears them away, and there is no longer any Savior there!

SEPTEMBER 1752

The 1st. My dear colleague, who came home safely yesterday, brought me some letters: one of them was from our worthy Pastor Brunnholtz from Philadelphia, who gave me some reports about the receipt of the letters we had written to him and to Pastor Muhlenberg, of his official business in New York, and of their health and much work; and he reported that, after Mr. Vigera’s departure,¹ Mr. Heinzelmann has been his collaborator. He concludes with these words: “Shortly I shall write some more; now I must travel and preach for four weeks.”

The 2nd. In the assembly on the Blue Bluff I had few parishioners today because it rained this morning and still more rain appeared to be coming. Meanwhile God granted us much edification from the often mentioned Informatorium biblicum² of the blessed Arndt. Most of the people are very poor and need more aid in physical matters. This should be done for them, but only if they devote themselves to the timber business for trade with the West Indies, for which reason we will give them suggestions and offer them all sorts of advantages that other Germans at other places do not have.³ There will be few who will not be convinced that this is a good land for poor people, in which they can easily come to a position to support themselves with complete freedom and with God’s blessing, if only they will make use of the wealth of the land.

The 14th. Last night it rained a great deal, and from it the water in the streams rose so swiftly that the sawmill can operate after having had to stand idle almost all summer because of the extraordinarily dry weather. This new sawmill is a beautiful and well built work, which also stands on a very good spot. All around here, far and wide, there are not only the most beautiful pine trees but also stately cypress trees, even in the low areas right in the middle of the pine forests. God has already tested our faith, obedience, and patience in many ways, but He has also always helped marvelously and thus showed Himself toward this work as toward all His works. I hope we have overcome the most and the hardest trials; and we do not doubt that our loyal God will give much physical blessing to our congregation through this means, and we also hope for this from our first mill.

Yesterday was the 2nd and today is already the 14th of September because, at the command of Parliament, the new and improved Gregorian calendar has been accepted in all England.⁴ This is very convenient and pleasing for us that we now agree with our German fatherland in this matter, too, and can celebrate Sundays and holy days at the same time with them. May our merciful God let us soon experience the blessed time when there will be only one flock with one Shepherd and all harmful divisions will cease in matters of church and policy! Isaiah 2:4.

The 15th. Last night and today we have not only had much rain but also very strong storm winds that have not only torn down many fences and uprooted many young and strong trees in the gardens and in the woods, or at least has torn off some limbs. Who knows what other damage this extraordinarily strong wind has done. Here with us it was still bearable. The new colonists, and some of the earlier ones, still live in poor huts and must suffer much discomfort in such weather. They have enough building wood everywhere on their plantations and in the woods to warm themselves and build firm dwellings. The high daily wages make everything very expensive.

The 16th. Yesterday’s strong wind (as I hear) has done great damage on the Blue Bluff. It has torn down the recently built house of the tailor Weinkauf, yet it did no harm to his sick wife and children, who were lying in bed. It damaged other huts and beat the still standing corn to the ground or broke it off. This is a great tribulation for those who planted late and whose corn is now ripening. Our old inhabitants planted earlier, and their corn was not bent over; and therefore the wind could not do them so much damage

The 17th. Now that the new calendar has been introduced in the entire English territory, on this Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity I fondly remember that we will contemplate the same texts from the gospels and the epistles as in our worthy Mother Church in our dear Augsburg,⁵ indeed, as in all Evangelical Lutheran churches and congregations and will stand in harmony in this regard. God has a quite indescribable love for unity and unification, as one can recognize from the high-priestly prayer in John 17. For the sake of this meritorious intercession may He unite the hearts of all Christian of all estates in all Christendom through His spirit so that they will honor the dogma of Christ in all regards even to the winning of disbelievers!

The 18th. This morning our parishioners, especially from the plantations by the mill, assembled to attend the consecration of the new mill with God’s word and prayer. My text was, “Taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”⁶ If we have previously had reason to praise our almighty God for the kindness He has shown us in the mills and to encourage each other to a spiritual joy and a strengthening of our faith, then this time we have especially strong reasons, because, through His gracious government, the mills have been put into better, more useful, and more durable condition than ever before. Here too one could say plus ultra.⁷

Now on one spot we have three mills for grinding, one for shelling and stamping rice, and one for sawing, in addition to the sawmill at the extreme end of our plantations. All my worries as to where we will find the construction costs have been taken away by the last words of our consecration verse: “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord.”⁸ It is just written, “Be not afraid, only believe”;⁹ and then you will taste and see how friendly the Lord is. On this occasion I again remembered with joy the words of trust and comfort of our dear Father, Senior Urlsperger, in his fatherly letter to us of the 24th of February of this year: “He hath delivered Ebenezer in six troubles, He will deliver her also from this (because of the ruined new sawmill dam), yea, from all troubles. Have I not told you that, if you believe, you would, should, and must see the glory of God.”¹⁰ These verses one learns best not when the dam remains intact, but when it suffers damage, not when there is enough money there for repairs but when there is none, and when it is nevertheless repaired. God remains greater than any great trouble: otherwise one could not say, “In all these things we are more than conquerors,” etc.¹¹

The 19th. Mrs. Zittrauer (a pious woman to the depth of her heart) has miscarried and come into mortal danger. She had me called to her so she could hear a word of comfort and to enjoy the blessing of prayer. God blessed them both in her. She is certain of her salvation in Christ. With Mary she has chosen or selected the better part, and that shall not be taken away from her. In her humble and grace-hungry nature I can imagine to some extent the Maria who was loved and respected by God.

The 22nd. Because, in addition to the Salzburgers, all sorts of people have come to our congregation from the Empire¹² since the very beginning, they have brought with them all sorts of books that are scattered around by all sorts of sects without the names of the authors, publishers, or place of publication. Our time is so short and precious that we cannot advise anyone to apply it to the reading of such meager and partly erroneous writings, since we have so many splendid and holy evangelical books and tractates, which, however, cannot all be read because of the shortness of time and life. From the beginning divine providence has presented us with so many large and small writings, in which we find an entirely healthy pasture and therefore do not need others to teach us, especially if they do not like the Evangelical Church. We not only warn our parishioners against all suspicious or unedifying books but also, with their permission or at their request, peruse their supply of books, as we did yesterday for one of the families.

Through our dear Dr. Spener¹³ and others of his dear servants God has now blessed the famous city of Frankfurt on the Main; and it can only be pitied that in the same area, and to be sure also in others, so many sects and sectarian writings have unfortunately appeared. May our merciful God protect our land and place from such seductions in the name of God, and may He keep us first of all from disloyalty to the dear jewel of the gospel, and may He allow us, through the right use of the same, to achieve senses exercised to discern both good and evil! Hebrews 5:14.

The 29th. Two weeks ago (as I learned yesterday evening) the extraordinary stormwind in Charleston, the capital of South Carolina, caused almost unspeakable damage to houses, trade-goods, ships, and people. It came from the southwest¹⁴ and drove the sea with the greatest violence six feet over the wall and battery, put a great part of the city, not only the cellars but also the merchant stores, under water, and filled them with water almost up to the attics and ruined almost the entire first row of large and high rise brick houses. It partially destroyed the many merchant vessels and some warships and drove some onto the battery and the sand and drowned more than a hundred people.

Corn and rice are said to have been greatly damaged because the high-growing crops were bent to the ground partly by the wind and partly by the heavy rain that came with the storm. In the low-lying areas (which is the actual rice land) they were covered by sand from the nearby hills and the earth that was washed down on them.

The 30th. Yesterday and last night it rained heavily, and at the same time there was a very violent south and southeast wind. The Savannah River is beginning to rise, and we are afraid that it will rise so high this time that the rice on our and other places will be flooded, thrown over, and spoiled. The crops that were not spoiled by the summer heat have been beaten to the ground by the recent strong wind; and what is left or what has later somewhat recovered seems now to be spoiled by the water. May God not treat us according to our sins, and may He not repay us according to our misdeeds!

OCTOBER 1752

The 1st. We spent this Sunday, the first one of this month, with much edification and praise of God, especially because we consecrated our Jerusalem Church eleven years ago today and because God has graciously preserved this and the church on the plantations so far and has shown our souls much mercy through the regular means of salvation. The violent stormwind and rain continued without interruption from Friday morning until last night but subsided towards morning. Today in the realm of nature we had a very pleasant and enlightened day, and in the realm of grace we fared the same; “After the storm thou lettest the sun shine again, and after our weeping and wailing thou show-rest us with joy.”¹ That has always been God’s way with the people of His covenant; also in Tobit, just before the cited words, “I know for sure, if any man serve God, he will be comforted after temptation and released from trouble, and after his chastisement he will find grace.” How necessary this comforting lesson is in our present tribulations!

The 2nd. Mr. Mayer traveled to Savannah; and with him I sent to a friend, for forwarding to Port Royal or Charleston, a little packet with the diary, the account of Ebenezer’s receipts and expenditures, and some letters to our worthy Fathers and friends in Europe. It is uncertain whether ships will be able to leave from Charleston very soon, since the storm or extraordinary hurricane (as the English call it) of the 22nd of last month destroyed some of the ships there, damaged some, and hurled some onto the land and caused lamentable destruction in the city. Yesterday’s news reported that over three hundred people were drowned. The storm on the 30th of September was almost as violent as the one just mentioned; and, since it broke loose at midday directly on Charleston, it is more than presumable that great damage has again been caused. The day before yesterday the water in our Savannah River rose five feet high in twenty-four hours; and it is continuing such that we fear an entirely unusual flood. Psalms 46.

The 4th. A pious mother complained to me with tears that she is not seeing such earnestness in her oldest daughter’s prayer and Christianity as she saw a few years ago in the children in the orphanage, who were found both praying and weeping at night in their bedrooms and in the day on their knees. This gave me the opportunity to speak with the little girl from God’s word and to pray for her heartily in the presence of her mother, which, God be praised, made a good impression on her. May our merciful Savior, who has promised as a good and great Shepherd to reach out His hand toward little children, have mercy on this and other children in our congregation and let it come to what is said of them in Sirach 39:17, “Hearken to me, ye holy children, and grow like the roses planted on the brooks, and give forth sweet odor like incense; blossom like the lilies, and smell sweet.”

The 6th. When we have a lot of rain and wind as we had last month, then thick and thin trees fall into the Mill River and afterwards cause no little work and expense. On both sides of the river stand almost innumerable trees of all kinds, which cannot be chopped away until the owners of the plantations extend their plantations to the island in the Mill River. Because our inhabitants as well as strangers often travel to the mill in boats and because the rafts of boards are sent to Savannah on this river, the passage must be kept open. Our inhabitants have less and less desire to lay out fields on the island for corn and rice not only because it was flooded a year ago very early in the fall, thereby greatly harming the rice and entirely destroying some, but also because the same thing is expected now. The Savannah River needs to rise only a foot more, then the whole island and all the surrounding land will be under water. Some rice is now being cut, but the remainder is not yet ripe. If the water comes in, the standing rice falls down, and what remains standing is eaten by the ricebirds, which are a kind of small sparrow. This low land is incomparably fertile; but, since poor people cannot bear the cost of protecting it from inundation, they can hardly risk planting crops but have to use it for cattle pasture and the beautiful wood for trade.

The 7th. Mr. Mayer brought the news from Savannah that two ships full of German people had arrived in Charleston and that a ship with people from the Duchy of Wurttemberg had come to Savannah. Only a few in the last ship are said to have come over at their own expense, most of them will have to earn their pasage.

More than a year ago our inhabitants wrote to one of our most prominent benefactors for some able-bodied and loyal servants, who are to be used chiefly in the lumber business, which earns ten times as much as agriculture and which is healthier. There is scarcely any place more convenient than the said island for processing barrel staves, shingles, boards, and panels for export. Already for several months an old Carolina planter named Hugh or Hugo Bryan, a very experienced and Godfearing man, has been using his many Negroes on his low-lying land along the Savannah River in Carolina opposite this island for no other work than preparing roof-shingles and boards, which can be brought to Savannah for sale just as easily as from our island; and from that he earns a lot of money. In previous years he had incurred heavy debts as a planter on his very fertile land, which is some distance from the river; and it seems that he found no better means to get out of debt than with this very profitable business.

His brother Jonathan once told me that, if he did not have to plant rice and corn for his many Negroes and white people and also for his cattle, he would rather use all his Negroes (of which he has at least a hundred) for making shingles, which would bring him much more than planting. I do not know whether anyone in the colony has such a good opportunity for such work as the inhabitants of Ebenezer; and for that the said island serves them especially well. Therefore, they should not be disgusted even though the water sometimes spoils the rice. This year it would have been cut and harvested before the inundation if the great summer heat had not hindered its growth.

The 8th. On this 18th Sunday after Trinity one hundred and sixteen members of the congregation were at the Table of the Lord, among them one boy and five girls, who had been examined yesterday in front of the congregation at the confessional concerning the two important articles of Christ and the order of salvation and had then been confirmed. Their names are 1) Johann Martin Rheinlaender, who was born and baptized in Old Ebenezer. His parents and siblings have died, some here and some in other places.

2) Ursula Kalcher, the oldest daughter of the late Ruprecht Kalcher. She was also born in Old Ebenezer in 1735. Her pious mother, a widow, shines as a lamp among us.

3) Maria Brandner, the daughter of a pious Salzburger of this place, who was also born in Old Ebenezer in 1736. Both of her parents are still alive.

4) Susanna Catharina Ernst, an orphan, was born about the end of March in a place near Regensburg, the name of which she does not know. The baptismal certificate was burnt some years ago along with other documents.

5) Catharina Grimmiger, an orphan, was born in Frankfurt on the Main in 1735. Her mother died here and her father moved to Pennsylvania.

6) Maria Dorothea Haefner, 20 years old, the oldest daughter of a deceased inhabitant of Vernonburg, whose mother moved to our place some years ago with her second husband.² This girl has a weak mind but is honest at heart, dearly loves her Savior and His word, and is therefore well suited for Holy Communion.

The remaining children, who have well understood Christian dogma, give me reason and cause to hope that, since they have again dedicated themselves to the Lord and His service through a renewal of their baptismal covenant, they will also remain the property of their Lord Jesus. May He seal them to it more and more through the Holy Ghost! In the exordium of the sermon I called to them and to all others of todays’ communicants and parishioners from Sirach 1, “See to it that thy fear of the Lord be not hypocrisy, and serve him not with a false heart.” God be praised for all the good that He has shown us today.

My correspondent in Charleston confirmed the sad reports about the badly devastated Charleston; and he announced that in the memory of man Charleston had never experienced such a drought and such a storm. I hope I will receive in a newspaper some details of this great misfortune, which I would like to impart. In the last stormwind nine days ago a French carpenter in Savannah was struck dead with his Negroes by a felled tree. He was a skillful, useful, and orderly man.

The 9th. Mr. Habersham sent me a packet of letters that he had received for us from Europe. They were from our dear Senior Urlsperger and another prominent benefactor and contained nothing but important and mostly pleasant reports, which I shall mention at some other opportunity.

The last unusual storm did great damage in the pine forests but especially in the oak forests; and as I rode by the thickest trees that had been torn from the earth I regretted that they would have to rot. In this land wood is still in excess; and therefore, unfortunately, people pay no attention when the trees spoil by the hundreds, especially if they are at some distance. Some time ago a new colonist told me what he wanted to write to a carpenter acquaintance who was afraid that there might not be much wood here, namely, that he had seen more thick and long trees lying on the ground here in Georgia than standing in Germany. The lack of faithful servants, inadequate experience in good economy, and the excessively great daily wages cause unspeakable loss in this beautiful land that is so blessed by nature.

I learned in Goshen with certainty that the German people in the ship (who were recently mentioned) are mostly indentured servants and that very few are free. The ship’s captain has orders from a merchant in Rotterdam to deliver these servants and maids to Charleston; but, because he learned that two other ships full of German servants had come to Charleston before him, he was afraid he might not be able to dispose of them and recoup his money. For this reason he sailed into the Savannah River until he would receive orders as to whether he should leave them in Savannah or take them there. In Georgia he would be able to sell few of them for five or six pounds Sterling (which is the usual price for a servant or maid with four years to serve). I have previously mentioned the reasons for this.

The 10th. In the weekday sermon I informed our inhabitants from the letters we have received that, 1) we must thank God that He has not only kept his dear servants, our worthy Fathers and benefactors in Europe such as Mr. N., Mr. N., and Mr. N (This time we have heard nothing from Pastor Francke), in health and life but also kept us and our congregation in their fatherly affection, even though they experience little joy and absolutely no profit from us, but rather trouble, annoyance, and ingratitude on our part.

The 13th. A pious planter in Carolina named Mr. Hugh Bryan, who was mentioned recently in this diary, sent me the following sad news from Charleston in his boat, which had brought some barrels of wheat to the mill:

This year the hand of God seems to be very heavy over our land with floods and storms, in that nearly all the provisions in the fields lying near the city have been destroyed. As a result, there is great shortage in the city; the bridges and ramparts of the city are lying entirely under water, and a great number of houses, especially in the suburbs and in the country, are lying on the ground. Indeed, the rice-fields themselves are spoiled, even though they lie in the midst of the land.

May God bless these great misfortunes in us by letting them teach us about His justice.

The 14th. Riedelsperger’s oldest little boy, a child of six years, has become dangerously sick. His mother told me that in his fever he often recited from his Christian faith the beautiful words: “I believe in the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, Amen.” “Help me watch, pray, and sing until I stand before Thy throne.”³ When she asked him what he was doing, he answered that he was praying; and he continued with the quoted words. This pious couple already have several pious children in heaven, which means more to them than if they possessed empires and kingdoms.

The 15th. Our pious schoolmaster, Caspar Wirtsch, is almost at the end of his term of service.⁴ When he was at my house today I asked him whether he would remain here and continue holding school, as I and others wished. He said that his heart always tells him that he should remain here; otherwise he might again lose the good that our dear God grants him from His word. He could not trust himself to resist the temptations and enticements of the world from outside and from inside; thereupon he wept and said nothing more. I hear that he also deplores his sinful condition in the presence of his master.

The 17th. I met a woman of the last transport with a load of corn and sweet potatoes, who asked me to come into her house and see the blessing that God had granted her in the field. During her fever in the summer she had, she said, prayed on her knees for Him to give her a healthy body and the necessities of life, and He had done both. Now she often remembers the little verse I had inculcated: “Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay . . .,” etc.⁵ She is as diligent in spiritual matters as in physical ones and receives the blessings of the Lord for her soul and body; and she is also very useful both spiritually and physically to her husband, who was formerly very dissolute. Such people are suitable for this country; but she is too pious for some of her countrymen, such as N. and N. I also came to the plantation of our righteous and industrious Hans Schmid and found him and his family at the harvest. Here, too, I found in the field and the dwelling nothing but blessing in corn, beans, squash, the likes of which I had not expected this year. We thanked our merciful and almighty God for it.

The water in the rivers has not risen this time as high as we feared, and therefore the rice at our place has not suffered any damage. Even if not everything has turned out so well this year as at other times, still, our dear God has granted us enough so that no one at our place will suffer any lack. He will also care for our new colonists when He brings them safely to land, if they will fear Him in their hearts.

The 18th. For some time a Spaniard has sojourned here, who has gradually caused much harm. The last thing he did was to take a canoe from a poor man from the new transport and make his way to Frederica in it. From there he brought back a horse, clothes, and musket to our place; and, because people did nothing more to him than to hold back his presumably stolen horse as a pledge that he would pay back the boat and other debts, he came last night to honest Hans Schmid’s plantation and took away his best horse. Mr. Mayer, as judge, did, to be sure, send the constable and Schmid’s servant after him, but he was not found.

For the sake of good order, good subsistence, and security I would like to see the following useful things introduced into our colony: 1) that the good restrictions that have been made regarding the Negroes, which are surely still known to our worthy Fathers and friends, be changed into a parliamentary act and the law of the land; 2) that vagabonds and tramps not be allowed to pass, and that passes be issued; and that any stranger on foot or horseback who cannot show a pass be carefully examined or put under arrest. It can hardly be told how many vagabonds are found here and there, some of whom, if they commit some evil in Carolina or here, desert to the Spaniards in St. Augustine. These are very dangerous for this colony. 3) in all the colonies there are jails and workhouses, only there are none in ours, where such punishment is almost the most necessary. 4) both colonies should unite to extradite runaway redemptioners; however, this has not yet taken place on the side of the Carolinians; and much harm has arisen as a result of this. 5) that one should find means to prevent the Indians from shooting any more cattle in the woods, from taking away the horses, and robbing the planters of their crops and fruit, which disorder does not happen often but from time to time. 6) that serious efforts should be made to instruct and convert the Indians, of which we still hear and see nothing. The godless life of many traders among them does unspeakable harm to their souls. May God awaken all His children to a trusting prayer and intercession to postpone our well-deserved divine judgments!

The 20th. Yesterday I had business in Goshen, where I also took the opportunity, using Isaiah 55:6-7, to preach to the inhabitants the gospel of the mercy of God in Christ and of the forgiveness of sins in the order of true conversion. Upon reaching home I found in my study a very pleasant letter written to me by Mr. Whitefield, which was dated in London on the 3rd of July of this year; and in it I read an especially beautiful testimony of our dear Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen. May our merciful God repay this His faithful servant, our Father whom we honor in Christ, for this and many other testimonies of his fatherly love and affection; and may He hear our poor sighs for him and for his faithful Timothy, the worthy court Chaplain Albinus! I immediately answered Mr. Whitefield’s very friendly and edifying letter with joy, since I am now planning to send my answers to the last letters received from Germany to Charleston with the first opportunity. I am most anxious for a prominent benefactor to receive an answer soon to his last important letters.

The 21st. Last night the news came to our place from Old Ebenezer that the recently mentioned Spaniard, who had stolen a boat and horse here, had taken a saddle and horse from a traveling man and at the same time beat him nearly to death and forced him to an oath not to betray him. Some men who know the woods set out at once on horseback and pursued this harmful man, but they returned without any success. He and his kind who are in this country can not go to St. Augustine or other Spanish plantations because they have forfeited their lives there. However, it may be presumed that he is going to North Carolina or Virginia. He had to leave his pistols and a horse behind, which are, however, just stolen property. Today men from the area of Frederica came in pursuit of him because he robbed a planter there. They will follow him on horseback to Carolina, for which the men have full power and warrants from the authorities in Savannah.

The 24th. The young Mrs. Eischberger is applying praiseworthy diligence in rearing her tender children well. She is not only keeping them in an orderly way in external matters but is also teaching them Bible verses, prayers, and the catechism. They recited to me in an orderly way what they had learned; and they caused me much joy in doing so. Their father is very ignorant⁶ and does not take the time to have himself instructed. He is learning the catechism and the Bible verses through his children. Both parents attend the public divine services but the man is not very diligent. Their farming and occupations hinder them in this like those invited souls in Matthew 22.

For their later devout reading I found them Book I, Chapter 18 in Arndt’s Christianity,⁷ which tells how highly angry God becomes when one prefers the temporal to the eternal and how, and why, we should not cling to the world with our hearts. Because of his ruined health he does not expect to live much longer, and yet he is not concerned with his immortal soul. Worldly minds are a snare for many, yet it is so difficult to convince them of it. Both of these people have enough wealth and therefore cannot make poverty the cause of their often neglected divine service.

The 26th. Before evening a young man came to my study; and the first thing he did was to fall on his knees and to pray to God very heartily and with tears. He then complained of the preoccupation he was having in his married state. He recognizes and also believes that through all this our wise God is seeking what is best for him. A good friend in Savannah sent me a little tractate of twenty-two folios that a learned Englishman, Dr. George Berkley, Bishop of Cloyne, had written about tar water as a safe and healthy medication.

This complete description is somewhat different from the extract that I communicated a short time ago to our friends in this diary, yet it agrees in general.⁸ I am pleased that the author does not demand, like the extract by a manufacturer, that one drink six or eight quarts one after the other, or every half hour a half pint, or three teacups full. To be sure, in the case of well-rooted illnesses, he, too, demands a steady use during several weeks or months, but only a half pint every morning and the same amount when going to bed. This dose can also be divided into four parts. He has written so thoroughly and convincingly of the usefulness of this inexpensive and safe method and has adduced so many examples of a blessed cure from his own experience that I might well wish that our medico and our surgeon, both of whom are practicing, might use it with their patients. It may well be God’s hand that has let this news come to us.

The 28th. Very unpleasant things were told me about the behavior of some young men of the last transport, which still can not be punished by a secular judge because of their annoyance. They were accustomed to such misbehavior already in Germany; and it is hard to convince them that it is completely against the teaching of Christ and therefore sins that cannot escape the judgment of God if they show no repentance or change of mind. Most of the young lads whom we accepted some years ago as servants have caused us more vexation than joy and more disquiet than relief; and they have, against my and Mr. Mayer’s advice, been set free by their masters although their years of service were not yet at an end. Their masters have had more distress than use from their compulsory and grumbling service.

From the last transport we have accepted some voluntary servants for the mill; we are giving them good wages and good food and drink, yet it is not going much better with them than with those who had to work three years for their passage. Before others they enjoy the blessing of communal prayer and hearing the divine word in the mill establishment, but they are ungrateful and unhelpful. Rather, they cause us much distress through their eye-service and secret wicked tricks and through their ingratitude and discontent. It is the fault of disloyal people that our beautiful mills do not earn as much as they could. Such disloyal white servants can make a beggar out of a man who cannot always be with them. I have always been very prejudiced against the use of Moorish slaves and would have contributed everything possible to have this frontier colony occupied by only industrious Protestants without Negroes; yet I have well discovered that that is impossible because of the lack of loyal white servants. I also find that one can keep the Negroes of both sexes in better order than the white servants and maids, who often ask after neither divine nor human laws and can often take more liberties in this land than the Negroes are allowed to. The masters and householders could demand good order from the Negroes if they wished.

The 31st. Our honest Hans Schmid (like the late Sanftleben formerly) has made many changes in his plantation and economy, through which he has come into loss, debts, and worries. He was in great danger of suffering danger not only to his health but also to his Christianity and righteous nature; and this moved us, at his request, to accept, for thirty-six pounds Sterling, his share of the cowpen in Old Ebenezer that we bought from the Lord Trustees. This has put him in a position to pay all his debts in Savannah and here in an honorable way. He is heartily happy at that and thanks God for this disposition. Our mill establishment already had some head of cattle in Old Ebenezer, and now those just bought are being added; and thus we are acquiring a fine herd for breeding, which in time can be useful for the entire community if God grants His blessing to it. We will not lose anything by it; and, even if it did happen, the loss would be slight compared to the loss of a soul. What will we not risk for righteous parishioners?

NOVEMBER 1752

The 1st. Yesterday, the last of October, was a day of sorrow and humiliation for us. Young Mrs. Fetzer, whose husband serves at the mill, was in most extreme mortal danger and finally bore a dead little daughter. Martin Lackner, who married Elisabeth Pricker from Langenau ten weeks ago,¹ lost her again unexpectedly yesterday morning through temporal death; and therefore he has again become a widower and his three little children have become orphans. On the 28th of last month I visited her and her family on their new plantation behind Abercorn, prayed with the whole family, and let the children cite for me some Bible verses that they had learned through the diligence of this godfearing and industrious mother. She had readied herself on the same Saturday afternoon to ride to Ebenezer in order to attend divine services there. During the night she was taken ill and prevented from going to church: soon yellow jaundice² revealed itself and a great vomiting began, from which she soon lost her understanding and her physical life. Previously she had served the righteous Mrs. Hans Maurer and had collected a good treasure; and now the wisdom of God has so ordained that in her last hours she was able to enjoy this pious sufferer’s intercession, encouragement, and care.

At my request Mr. Mayer examined this young deceased woman and brought me the report that her entire body was wax yellow and that she had constantly vomitted nothing but gall and black s.h.³ matter, from which a linen cloth had become entirely yellow. Through her urine passed nothing but blood s.v..⁴ I was afraid that it was a type of the dangerous yellow fever; but Mr. Mayer assured me that it was yellow jaundice in the highest degree. At the burial today I regretted that I had perceived in but very few of our former servants the Christian attitude that I had perceived in this pious person during her life. Their disloyalty in their work, their discontent, and other (at least secret) disorder sufficiently attest that our office has served them in vain. They do not like our sighs. Now that they have received their freedom after three years of service, they are working for other people much more industriously and faithfully for wages than they worked in the so bearable service of the Salzburgers. The householders would rather have seen them leave rather even than have them work just for their board; for with their disloyalty were discontent, grumbling, and loose words. Our Salzburgers cannot use severity. Yet some of the servants are of a better nature.

Good Mrs. Granewetter, who married a stingy old widower /Caspar Waldhauer/ some years ago, suffered from him greatly for some time on her own plantation and finally let him persuade her to move to his own undeveloped property in Goshen. She suffered there for over a year; but she can not stand it any longer with such a tyrant and has therefore taken refuge again in Ebenezer. However, she has come with nothing but her little girl; and she would like me to find a way to help her back to her clothes, household goods, and cattle, but this is not in my or Mr. Mayer’s power. We have great sympathy for her and direct her to a humble and continuous prayer to God, from whom all help in this world comes. Our remonstrances accomplish nothing with this unscrupulous man. Nor can we give her safe shelter in Ebenezer because the man could cause us trouble from Savannah.

The 2nd. I have received from Mr. von Brahm in Charleston a letter of 12 October in which he requests me to help him obtain a correct map of our Ebenezer district from Abercorn to Mount Pleasant. He is collecting plans of all cities and villages established in Carolina and Georgia in order to have a complete map of both provinces engraved in Germany, which he will dedicate to the Lords of Trade & Plantations.

From a friend in Charleston I have received a printed report of the great damage that was caused by the unusual storm on the 15th of September, old style, in the city and in the country, which I will attach to this diary so that our dear friends in Europe can recognize how glorious, holy, just, powerful, and merciful our God reveals Himself in our region. Oh, if only all sinners would recognize the hand of God and humble themselves under it! Otherwise, He will punish seven times more. Leviticus 26.

A year ago one of the first worn-out Salzburgers bought a Negro man, and now he has bought a Negro woman from Mrs. Kraft because little can be accomplished with white servants because of great vexation. I told him what I have hoped for up until now, namely, that the Christian householders into whose power these black heathens are gradually coming through the providence of God will give them every possible opportunity for Christian instruction and for that reason will teach them the German language by consorting with them at work, at meals, and at daily divine service, which duty God will someday demand of them. After they have learned the language it should be our greatest joy to instruct them privately on Sundays and Holy days.

Most of our servants have not only had complete freedom on Sundays and holy days to do nothing but what God demands publicly and privately in the 4th commandment, rather their work has not kept them from the morning or evening prayer meetings or from visiting the two weekday sermons. The midday pause and the long evenings (which can be called long all year in comparison with Germany) are also left free for them.

If this time were granted, if not entirely then at least in part, to the Negroes for their instruction and if their masters would give them some desire and inclination to learning and to the Christian religion with this or that gift and with limited freedom, e.g., to visit their countrymen on other plantations at certain times, then I would hope that they would grasp the Christian teachings literally in a few months through the diligence of the ministers, their masters, and through their own industry. If they were held to diligent prayer and the word of God, and also to good order and behavior, then many of them would resemble many in Christendom in the external appearance of Christianity, indeed, they would surpass many white servants of this country.

It is surely a great disgrace for many nominal Christians to have advanced no further in recognition and Christian living in many years than an intelligent Negro could be brought to in a few months with divine aid if he were treated according to the method mentioned above. Conversion and change of heart are for God: men must just do what they can do and work on their neighbors according to their calling and, by word and deed, keep to good order and a virtuous life those who are commended to their care and supervision, be they white or black servants. A man can also achieve this through natural power.

If the Negroes once came so far that they considered shameful and praiseworthy what is actually so, then reason and innate decorum would keep them from many vices and bring them to an externally respectable life. This would already be a fine step towards advancing Christianity and would put to shame not a few so-called Christians among all sorts of nations in this country. I am convinced that wicked Christians are mostly to blame that the gate to Christianity is shut to Negroes and Indians, and that this will bring great judgments. To be sure, there are very few Negroes at our place, but more will probably be bought gradually through necessity; and for this I wish a Christian heart for all masters.

The 5th. We are now having a very pleasant and healthy autumn; and, because we have not yet felt any frost, the rice that was spoiled by the extraordinarily long heat and then grew back, has had time to grow and ripen. In the evening the commandant from Augusta called on me at my house on his way to Charleston. He said that everything was very calm among the Indians and that he regretted that Augusta and the entire region around it was without a minister. The young man who was sent to them from London some time ago has taken up another profession in Carolina. The Presbyterian ministers in this country are unusually zealous and orderly in their official duties. The ministerial office is very badly filled in most places in America; and things would look even much more miserable if the two praiseworthy societies de propagando Evangelio and de promovenda Christi cognitione⁵ did not send as many ministers into the colonies and support them.

We serve all the Germans in this colony with our office, if they have any desire for it. They wish to have it entirely free and without effort or else not at all, and this surely indicates a bad attitude. The German people in and around Savannah should contribute something toward our travel costs in serving them every two months or else fetch one of us in a small boat, but even that is too much. If they were to contribute anything for maintaining a minister or schoolmaster, they still would not respect the office fully and would rather go to another church as the degenerate Germans in Charleston do. Our Fathers and friends should scarcely believe the Germans who are emigrating to America or are already living here when they promise to support their ministers soon or after some time. For the sake of the slightest contribution they would cause them a lot of nuisance.

The 7th. The honest and industrious Christian Riedelsperger can no longer maintain himself in town since he has lost the trade between here and Savannah; therefore he has begun to cultivate his well situated land and is now moving out there. His heartily pious wife took leave from me with sorrow and tears and asked me to visit her and her family from time to time. Their plantation lies between Ebenezer and Abercorn, about two hours from our place. Even though she will not be able to hear the word of God daily, it is still not too far for her to go to the divine services in Zion Church on Sundays and occasionally during the week. Her old seventy-year-old mother is remaining in town in Riedelsperger’s house and therefore near to the word of God, which is a great joy for her. One can rightly say of this Riedelsperger family (to which the old widow Schweighoffer also belongs) “It is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.”⁶

The 9th. Because I had some necessary business on our glebe land, I traveled at the same time to Goshen and held a sermon for the inhabitants, who gathered promptly at a given signal, about the nature and use of prayer from the beautiful words Luke 1, “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard.” These people are lovers of God’s word and show respect to the ministerial office, and our efforts among them are not in vain. God has ordained that they have received their land not far from Ebenezer; and therefore they also enjoy the good that our dear God has let our congregation experience first in spiritual and then also in material ways.

The 10th. One of the larger schoolboys had behaved disobediently and impudently to the plantation schoolmaster. Because he was afraid that his pious mother would learn about it and be distressed by it, he came to me and asked me to punish him in school as he deserved and not let his mother know anything about it. He wept bitterly and spoke so movingly that I could do nothing other than to change the intended punishment into an apology to the schoolmaster before the children. God’s mercy in Christ toward the sinner who regrets his sin and apologizes for it became quite alive for me. A stranger from Augusta offered us a boat full of Indian corn, which we would have gladly bought partly for some old inhabitants and our mills and partly for the next transport, if the man had been willing to take a just price for it. But, when he heard that in Savannah a bushel is sold for three shillings Sterling, he went down there.

After Mr. Boltzius wrote here in detail about the trouble he is having with many, if not most, among the Swabian transports, he finally writes.

It is, to be sure, very difficult to tell such unedifying things about my neighbors, but I must do it for the following reasons. 1) It will serve to keep our worthy Fathers and friends in Europe from so easily lending an ear to the requests and the running back and forth and the writings of such people asking them to recommend them to the Lord Trustees or other governors of Georgia. 2) All people should now be advised not to move to Ebenezer because no more good land can be found here, because all is occupied. 3) All people who wish to come anyway should be told that they cannot support themselves with farming and cattle-raising alone. If they do not wish to occupy themselves with processing all sorts of timber products for trade with the West Indies, they will hardly earn their keep, especially if they receive poor land and if they do not thoroughly understand agriculture and other economic matters. 4) They cannot rely on hired hands and maids even if they bring the best ones with them, for they change here for the worse. For buying Negroes they must pay more than thirty pounds, i.e. three hundred florins, per head. 5) Those who can, indeed, pay for their passage but have little or nothing in their hands afterwards are almost worse off than those who come as indentured servants and maids. During their period of service they will become accustomed to the country and their work without loss and will gain experience. If they have a bit of money after their period of service for beginning, then they will fare better than those who came as free passengers.

The 12th. It has seemed to some of our inhabitants as if they heard the cannons in Savannah being fired a few days ago; and from this we have concluded that it might be the ship with the German colonists from the Territory of Ulm. However, the supposed cannon firing as well as the arrival of our countrymen were entirely unfounded. We are praying for them publicly and privately that God will bring them safely and lead them to all good through His spirit by means of His word. If they love tranquility and solitude, and if they are more concerned with saving their souls than with physical advantages, they will doubtless be pleased in Georgia. However, if they come here to seek their fortune and win good days according to the flesh (like most of them), then they will grumble and scold other people, as the recently mentioned N.N. and others of his kind do. Pious Christians and industrious workers who know how to adjust themselves to the country live contentedly with complete spiritual and physical freedom; indeed, some who had nothing become rich or at least achieve sufficient wealth. God divides and distributes everything marvelously.

The recently mentioned thieving Spaniard is said to have been at our place again during the night of the twelfth and thirteenth of this month to carry off two Negro girls with whom he had previously conducted himself in a filthy manner. To be sure, people were on guard, but he did not let himself be seen. He is a harmful creature. May God keep him away and prevent him from doing us any harm. Our inhabitants give their few Negroes too much liberty on Sundays and allow them to gather in a vexatious way (as is customary everywhere in Georgia and Carolina), which entirely corrupts their dispositions and is harmful to the advancement of their Christianity.

I advise the owners of these slaves that God will demand their souls from them if they do not apply every possible means to bring them to a recognition of Christ and the way of life. Every housefather and housemother should make a beginning of a reformation of their manners, an observation of decorum, and the learning of the German language, a restriction of harmful liberty on Sundays, and including them in divine services at home, with admonitions, and with encouraging them, etc. They should not wait for them until they desire it themselves.

Last evening I received another unpleasant report. An Indian trader, rather an English merchant who trades with the Indians at and above Augusta, told me that he was traveling to Savannah and Charleston to announce everywhere that nothing is more certain than an Indian war and that we should therefore take measures. I cannot comprehend this report because the commandant of Augusta, Mr. George Cadogan, who traveled past here ten days ago on his way to Charleston, assured me that we had neither war nor other danger to fear from the Indians. God is our refuge, etc.

The 16th. This week the harvest and thanksgiving sermon will be held in both churches, as well as on the Blue Bluff, as is customary every year at our place. In all three sermons I have the same text, namely, 1 Timothy 4:7-9, which treats of the glorious profit of godliness, and during them I recommended Arndt’s Christianity L. I., chapter 40⁷ for later reading. Today this sermon was held on the Blue Bluff and today in town, for which the parishioners gathered in large numbers. Tomorrow, God willing, it will be held on the plantations in Zion Church. May God lay much blessing on the singing, prayer, and contemplation of His word! Even though some of the inhabitants have had a bad harvest this year, still they will not suffer want and lack, if only they will remain godly and practice godliness. For, to be sure, godliness has the promise especially of future life, but also of this present life. Godliness and contentedness are a great profit.

During this entire autumn we have had desirable weather for growing and harvesting, and we have not had a single freeze; and by this our wise and all-loving God has shown the inhabitants of this land some new blessings. The late planted rice, as well as that which was retarded by the drought, have had enough time to ripen. The squash, sweet potatoes, and Indian beans were able to begin late yet ripen fully. For fattening and for giving milk the cattle have had much fresh pasturage, not only in the forests but especially in the fenced-in fields, much longer than in other years; and this has been of noticeable profit to the households. Also, time was left for cultivating the wheat fields. Only the corn harvest turned out badly.

The 17th. With his helpmeet our good N.N. has a rather great domestic cross, which he suffers with patience but of which he complains to me in private. Almost since her arrival I have noticed her discontent and also heard of it from others. Therefore, when I visited her, I have striven to tell her from the word of God, which is the only rule of our faith and life, that which I have recognized as necessary for her and applicable to her state of mind. So far she has been plagued so much by worldly attitudes, anger, and desires for the flesh pots of Egypt that she has suffered harm to her body, of which I cannot give details. She has a good understanding, loves the public divine service, and also feels the power of the divine word; and therefore I do not doubt that she will gradually let herself be won through grace, as I have told her dear, righteous, and industrious husband for his comfort. After her true change, his joy will be all the greater. He too, like many other men in similar circumstances, will say, “The Lord has made all things well.”⁸

The 18th of November. This afternoon two boats with corn and wheat came to our place from Savannah Town⁹ and sold it all to our mills and for our own use at a fair price, which we had not expected. God be thanked for this His gracious providence! Some time ago I requested two friends from New Windsor near Savannah Town to buy up on my account two or three hundred bushels of Indian corn (or Welschkorn¹⁰ as it is called in German) for the now expected colonists. They are willing to do this; but they advise me that the export of some grains from Carolina is prohibited under punishment of confiscation and that therefore they will not be able to risk buying the said corn for us. Now we do not need it because the said transport is to be settled on the Newport River by the council in Savannah and provided with provisions from Savannah.

The last flood water ruined much crops and cattle in Congarees and other places in Carolina; at our place, God be praised, we have known nothing of this. The rice on the lowland on the mill island was not even damaged. Oh, how good it would be if our people wished to plant their crops on this rich and very fertile island! A single acre would bring them some hundred bushels. To be sure, the water sometimes comes at an inopportune time, but it is not always so. In and around Savannah Town they also have to risk it, and they do it every year. Knowledgeable planters are accustomed to say that, if one succeeded with the crop on such low land just every three years, it would be advantageous to plant it. A man from New Windsor writes me that he received a thousand bushels of Indian corn from about seventeen acres, and he would have received five hundred bushels more if the great drought and strong winds had not ruined a great deal. The low land there is no better than the low land on the island, on which rice (the most expensive crop) can be planted, something that is not possible so high up.

The 19th. Yesterday evening I caught a cold fever, from which I was so weak on this 24th Sunday after Trinity that I could neither preach nor hold Holy Communion. My dear colleague performed both and had a hundred and six communicants. Yesterday I was well all day and could hold the preparation sermon and confessions with good strength in Jerusalem Church in the morning and in the Zion Church in the afternoon and also dispose of the strangers who had brought corn and wheat here. Soon thereafter I was seized by a violent chill such as I cannot remember ever having had. Also, in many years I have not been kept by sickness away from holding public divine services. But by this God is seeking what is best for me, and the congregation did not miss out on edification because I have a loyal and diligent colleague.

The 22nd. The son of a Jew from Savannah¹¹ brought me a letter from the schoolmaster of the Negroes, by the name of Joseph Ottolenghe,¹² that in church last Sunday he took the place of the English minister,¹³ who had traveled away, and that he had preached about spiritual rebirth. In this he used expressions that give witness to a humble spirit. He is a born Jew, and was perhaps even a rabbi in Italy; but at the present time I do not know when or how he came to the Christian church, indeed to the Episcopal Church, in England and to an intimate acquaintance with the secretary of the Society, Mr. Broughton. The latter recommended him to me in very emphatic terms, and I can truly number him among my good friends in Georgia. He is an upright, skilled, well-read and well-spoken man, who could well fill the minister’s position in Savannah. He has a fine gift of convincing the Jews of their errors and absurdities in religious matters. There are only two families of Jews in Savannah: one maintains a tavern, and the other supports himself with a small retail store. Both of them are German. Even though there are only two families, they still disagree among themselves in some details of their religion. The Jews here enjoy the same privileges as the Christians.

The 24th. There is no basis to what the Englishman from Augusta claimed some time ago about the Indian wars which were to be feared, as we have learned from some people who have come from there. Despite the export of grain from Carolina under the penalty of confiscation and a fine of a hundred pounds of their money, we had an opportunity today to buy a boat full of Indian corn, which was planted up there on our Georgia side. We are still getting it for a tolerable price.

The 25th. Johann Groll, a shoemaker with the last transport, has moved to Savannah because he could not subsist here with wife and child. We have many shoemakers, whereas in Savannah there is only a single young German man, so that this Groll (a well behaved industrious man) will surely be able to find his livelihood there. He was sick for a long time with his wife and had settled on bad land because of his friends, in whose neighborhood he wished to be; and he received almost no harvest. To be sure, I had advanced him all necessities and a cow and calf in the first year; but, because I can no longer continue such advances, he sees no means to develop the plantation he has begun or a better one that has been assigned to him. Also, he does not understand agriculture or cattle raising (as is also true of many German people) and he has neither desire nor strength for the lumber business. Therefore it is best for him to continue his trade.

The righteous widow Schweighoffer was dangerously sick, but our dear God has raised her up again for the good of our congregation. She prays diligently and greatly loves His word, as the aged Hannah once did in Jerusalem. Today she was again in the public prayer meeting, from which she lets neither weakness nor weather keep her. The widow Kalcher, who is of the same mind, has now become sick; I visited her by the mill and had much blessing from her company and prayer. Her four orphans are children of a pious father and a pious mother, which is something rare and dear. This evening I was called to Mrs. Krämer, formerly Bruckner, who had been afflicted by a severe chest ailment. She is also honest, and is content with the will and ways of her Savior.

The 26th. Yesterday by means of our little boat I received a letter from Mr. Habersham in which he gave me news of the arrival of the transport and asked me to come down soon. I was still sickly from the last fever and feared a relapse during the night journey because of the freeze that had come. Also, on this last Sunday of the church year I wished to hold my sermon, which was aimed at the circumstances of my congregation. Therefore I requested our agent, Mr. Mayer, to travel down quickly in a comfortable boat and to help make arrangements for the transport until my arrival next Monday, God willing. Accordingly I wrote to Mr. Habersham what was necessary and promised to be in Savannah as early as possible on Monday. The transport is still on the ship off Tybee, and their minister /Rabenhorst/ is with them. On the other hand, another minister and his wife from Wurttemberg, who are being sent to New York or Pennsylvania, and the commissary of the transport, whom they call Mr. Krauss, are already in Savannah; but none of them has written to me.

The captain of the ship, Mr. Braun, sent me a letter from his merchant in Rotterdam, Mr. Johann Dick, which was written on the 4th of September and in which I was charged with a monetary commission and other things and which also complained that the people of this transport had caused him no slight trouble through their obstinacy and much expense through their hesitation. He is sending me a little chest of books, which a Christian official in Leipzig has sent us as a gift. The little chest is still in the ship, but I have received the friendly and edifying letter from the benefactor. Otherwise at this time I have received no other letters from Europe. May God give me much wisdom to be able to adjust myself correctly to the affairs of this transport and to give good advice. So far as I have learned from the report, the commissary, or the man who has been charged with the care of the transport on the way, is a knowledgeable and upright man, with whom we will be able to accomplish something.

The 27th. Even before sundown I arrived safe in Savannah with some experienced Salzburgers and some people from the last transport from the Territory of Ulm. Dr. Graham, now president of the Council, accompanied me from his plantation to Savannah, and on the way I had an opportunity to talk with him about many necessary things concerning the new transport; and he assured me he would contribute everything in his power for their good. 1) The colonists were still on the ship off Tybee, for which no other reason was given but that they did not wish to do anything with them without me, as if I had called these people here and was to be their provider. 2) Immediately after my arrival I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the minister with this transport, Mr. Rabenhorst, and another dear friend from Augsburg. From their own words I soon received a convincing impression of their honest attitude, which was also attested by their pity for their traveling companions, who were still shut up in the ship and whom they wished to see brought ashore as soon as possible.

3) I received both from them and from Mr. Habersham several packets of letters from our most worthy friends and benefactors in England and Germany. The gentlemen of the local Council expected to receive some news and instructions about these colonists from my packets or letters; but to my and their amazement there was nothing in them. The one heavy packet had been in Mr. Habersham’s and Mr. Harris’ ship, /the Success/, two days ago, and therefore two days after this transport, with which ship there were sent some charitable gifts of worn clothes, medical books, and two iron stoves.¹⁴ On the other hand, with the transport were sent many things for Mrs. Kraft; and from Leipzig and Augsburg our congregation received useful books for our library and for distribution, as well as medicines for Mr. Thilo and Mr. Mayer. God be praised for this new evidence of His fatherly dispensation! To be sure, no money has come, but our dear God knows our need and embarrassment, especially because of the last crop failure and the serious repairs to the mill; and He can easily grant us something. 5) With this transport a minister by the name of Master Gerack arrived here with his wife and little girl, who has been called to replace our dear Pastor Handschuh at Lancaster in Pennsylvania, to which he will soon travel. He was ordained in Wurttemberg.

The 30th. A few days ago I reported that I had traveled to Savannah at the request of the authorities for the sake of the new transport and how I found things there. And now I must report what has been done for the good of these German people. 1) Mr. Krauss is not (as I thought) the commissary of this transport, but just a passenger on his own. However, he went with me and the four leaders of these people to the gentlemen of the Council to get for them the respective plantations on the good land they desire on Briar Creek. The President and his Assistants are themselves convinced that the land on Newport River is not for poor German people but for such gentlemen as can cultivate it with the help of their Negroes. It is mostly good rice land and unsuitable for the European crops that the Germans are accustomed to plant, and it has little pasturage. Therefore they and everyone else have advised that the people of this transport be settled at Beaver Creek and Briar Creek (which two regions lie close together); and they are inclined to this.

The good land lying nearby has been wholly taken up by the Englishmen of this colony for themselves and partly for their absent kinsmen; and now everyone who wishes to have good land must go further up to the said Briar Creek.¹⁵ Several English miles above Mount Pleasant lies a beautiful district of about a thousand acres with the desired opportunity for building a mill, which is only a day’s journey distant from us. It, too, would have already been taken away long ago if it had not been reserved at our request for a certain gentleman. The President and Assistants of the Council have shown themselves very kind to this transport by giving them good, fertile, and well situated land, one hundred acres for every couple and for every single man who wishes to start his own household soon, and fifty for every child of the male sex. This is to be surveyed soon at the expense of each of them; and the people seem satisfied with this.

2) Because the ship could come only as far as Tybee, the people were expected to bring themselves ashore from the ship at their own expense; but in a kind fashion it was arranged that the landing of the people and their very extensive baggage would occur at the cost of the ship’s captain. They themselves must see to it how they will come to Ebenezer and from here to Briar Creek (which, according to the desire of the gentlemen of the Council will be named Halifax in Georgia).¹⁶ No one in Savannah is accepting them, rather these people look to me for all these things as if I had the vocation and duty to settle this colony with people. Out of Christian love and pity for them I did everything I could from Monday to Thursday and also gave them good advice as to how they should arrange their matters further if things were to go well with them.

During the night between the 28th and the 29th of this year¹⁷ Mr. Mayer came down for Mrs. Kraft in matters of her store, and I gave him a pro memoria for providing some necessary things for these new colonists. I had talked myself entirely hoarse and had also exhausted my spirits, and this required me to tear myself away from everything and to travel home last night in my boat. 3) When I told them from our experience how they should conduct their travel, hut-construction, and farming, they complained that they had spent their money and did not now know from where they could get provisions on their new land until the harvest. I told them that last year’s transport had put me in debt and that I was therefore in no position to advance any one of them money or its equivalent. Whoever had nothing in his hands for buying necessary provisions and could not borrow anything from his traveling companions should not move to the land he had received but try to earn something in Savannah. Some of these people have already gone begging in Savannah, which is a disgrace and causes me not to get more involved with them. If they have no more money, at least they have chests and trunks full of things of money value.

There are many young fellows and girls among them who serve well and can thereby be serviceable and useful to their neighbor; but there seems to be a lack of inclination to that. There are enough householders here without servants, but unfortunately only to the hindrance of their livelihood and to the ruin of many families. 4) Mr. Rabenhorst will remain with these people as long as they are in Savannah, will serve them with the word of God, and will also preach to the Germans in and around Savannah the day after tomorrow, which will be the First Sunday of Advent.

On the last day of my sojourn in Savannah two men of means, father-in-law and son-in-law, came to me after receiving a friendly writing from Court Chaplain Albinus and asked where they could settle most advantageously in Georgia. They also wish to go to Briar Creek but wish to see the region first. They seem to be fine, orderly, and industrious people and have brought a large fortune for buying Negroes. The young man is a very skillful and experienced surgeon as his documents attest; and, because he also understands internal cures, he has brought along many medications and can also prepare them himself. Thus he could serve himself and the new transport if it pleased him to settle among them.¹⁸ This surgeon came here with his wife, child, and parents-in-law from Rotterdam not with the new transport but in Mr. Habersham’s and Mr. Harris’ ship. Oh, if only everyone could not only know, but also practice in truth the known blessed rules of the Lord Jesus: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God,” etc.¹⁹ But one does this, the other that, but he forgot his poor soul completely.²⁰ Shortly before writing his fatherly letter that has just arrived, our dearest Father, Senior Urlsperger, and his family collected the 146 L and applied them to us. The Lord commanded him to do this, for instruction and comfort flowed not only to me but also several to others among us and especially to our dear and again depressed Mrs. Kraft, to whom I made the content of this fatherly letter useful today after my return.

It is entirely enough for us that we have as friends God and many of his loyal servants and children in Europe who, as we now read to the praise of God and to our joy in the many letters we have received, who are still alive and are inclined to us with-unchanged love and affection. Among them are a couple of famous physicians in Augsburg and Memmingen, also some famous apothecaries, who have endowed our doctor and surgeon with costly and very useful medications and simples. We have also received many kinds of beautiful books for distribution and for the library, also two iron ovens and some very needed iron work for the sawmill, also some beautifully made clothes for men and women and children. May God be a rich rewarder for everything in time and eternity!

DECEMBER 1752

The 1st. Among the physical blessings that our dear God has shown to us and many other people in this land belongs the pleasant and healthy weather that we have had this entire autumn. We have had nothing but lovely, warm spring days; and we have had a little frost only twice. Both people and animals have much profit from this weather; and it is especially good for the people of the recently arrived transport, whereas other new arrivals had to suffer much cold already at the end of October and in November.

N. N. has a pious, patient, industrious wife, with whom, however, he is sometimes quite severe, as she complained to me today with tears. I prayed with her for him and asked that God might change his heart and free him from the slavery of his unbridled emotions. We must take our time if we do not wish to cause harm with our friendly admonitions. He has been dangerously sick several times and regretted and acknowledged his sins with many tears and humbly asked pardon for them. Yet his repentance lasted no longer than his sickness.

On this first Sunday of the new church year we have had much cause for joy in the Lord and for the praise of His glorious name. He has not only let us live this blessed time in health and good peace and given us rich edification through the preaching of His holy word; but yesterday evening, while we were unpacking the chests we had received from London, He let us see with our eyes, in humble and devout amazement, how fatherly and abundantly He has cared for our spiritual and physical well-being. Our dear Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen has given us many copies of his recently held and edifying passion sermons¹ and some printed hymns that he had prepared. Indeed, they were of such a number that we will be able to sing them in our public assemblies, whereas previously the copies were insufficient.

From our blessed Wernigerode² we have received more than a hundred copies of a beautifully bound hymnal with 818 new spiritual songs, along with several edifying books, some in prose and some Ligata. Among them in our library all parts of Dr. Walch’s Religious Struggles inside and outside of the Lutheran Church,³ which are indispensable books for us in these regions that are so filled with all sorts of sects. God be praised for these dear and most pleasing gifts, and may He be a rich Rewarder for them!

In the previous part of the Diary I have already mentioned the worthy gift of two double stoves of decorative cast iron, which also came with them.⁴ For our patients who are afflicted with fever, diarrhea, dysentery, and other sicknesses and physical ailments or who may contract them, the Lord our Physician has also provided richly through Christian people, unknown to us, in Germany, especially in Holstein. He did this by inclining their hearts, presumably through their reading our Ebenezer reports, to send us through Court Chaplain Albinus a lovely quantity of safe and already prepared medications with clear directions for their safe use. God’s providence has ruled so abundantly over these and other charitable gifts that not a single one was broken or damaged.

Also through our dear Court Chaplain Albinus a beneficent and presumably prominent family has had packed and sent to us a chest full of used men’s and women’s clothes and other articles pertaining to clothing. This has caused a great joy for our families and for widows, orphans, and other needy people, as well as much joy and praise of God. May the Lord remember and bless these most worthy benefactors, who are known to Him. A large sheet-metal box with costly tea has been given separately for me and my colleague, presumably from the same benefactor. This should and will awaken us to the praise of God and to hearty intercession as often as we drink it. Give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever.⁵

Among these just-mentioned benefactions there were also two long and broad brand-new saws of pure steel for our sawmill, which are likewise very necessary and useful. Oh, how the almighty Creator of heaven and earth, our dear Father in Christ, cares for us unworthy creatures! I shall have to report much more about it when the remaining charitable gifts have been brought up.

The 3rd. Against my admonitions our householders are giving too much freedom to the few Negroes who are at our place. As a result they roam about and cause vexation and disquiet on Sundays, when they have too much liberty. Yesterday they intoxicated themselves with so much strong liquor that a pregnant Negress was beaten bloody. She was kept under arrest until today, during which time she was entirely uncontrollable. They have been used to such disorderly behavior and abuse of the Sabbath under other masters in Carolina, and therefore it is difficult to bring them from such disorder and into better order through love and seriousness. In this the owners of these slaves should be of one mind and use the same means, otherwise the instruction of these heathens and their conversion to Christianity will become not only more and more difficult but even impossible.

In Savannah I visited the Negro school, which is held in the evening from six to seven o’clock three times a week by a skilful and industrious man.⁶ Through the fault of the masters of these Negroes, the good man is not achieving his purpose. They are often absent or come very late, and most of them are not sent to instruction at all. However skilful and industrious the schoolmaster is, it seems to me that he is lacking the correct method to teach these heathens the recognition of the Christian religion.

In the meanwhile I was amazed at the good understanding and native intelligence of the Negroes gathered in the school; and I was again convinced that they have as much good reason and ability as the Europeans to be led to the good and made capable.⁶ To be sure, the Christians are mainly to blame that yellow and black heathens in this land, I mean Indians and Negroes, cannot be brought to the Christian religion. The Roman Catholics, and perhaps even others who do not belong to any Christian religion, may have more desire to propagate their dogma and false tenets than most of the so-called Protestants in the English colonies are to augment the Christian church with new proselytes in a manner proper to the gospel, for which they would have the means and opportunity. Indeed, many rather hinder such useful work both through the godless and vexatious life they lead before and with these heathens and through atheistic and annoying talk. They also hate and persecute (at least indirectly) those who bemoan the misery⁷ of these and would like to lend a hand to save their souls. May God look graciously into this!

The 4th. At my request a pious widow, who has been tried and proved under the cross, fetched for herself and for an orphan some of the clothes we have received; and she received them with great humility and gratitude. On our knees we thanked our merciful God for this gift of clothes and begged Him in the name of our faithful, great, and gracious High Priest to clothe the benefactors, who are unknown to us but well-known to Him, in the pure white silk that is the justification of the saints and to set them more and more in a condition to praise with all believers: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, etc; for he hath clothed me . . .”⁸ This dear widow brought me the following little verses from her daughter’s two tender children: “Yea, he loved the people,” “O taste and see that the Lord is good,” likewise “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed.”⁹ I sent them and their Christian parents the little books that had just been sent from Wernigerode concerning God’s human love for us and our human love for God,¹⁰ which had been distributed to the young people in the Orphanage schools already in 1705.¹¹

To the parents I sent the late Court Chaplain Lau’s gospel sermons concerning the power of Christ’s blood;¹² and I gave this widow the Coethen Hymnal, which is so pleasing to her and was also found among the large supply of books.¹³ To another pious old widow, who lives here in town, I brought a gift from these clothes and praised with her the Lord, who is providing for her so abundantly from near and far. She considered herself entirely unworthy of these gifts; in her circumstances she comforts herself with the poverty of Christ and said she was not worried about her poverty but about her sins and that, after being so long with God’s word, she is still so blind and sinful. Her daughter, who is an orphan, also received a gift.

This afternoon I had the pleasure of receiving in my house with love a worthy friend, Artillery Captain Krauss, and to praise the Lord with him for all the spiritual and physical benefactions shown to him and to us. He is a right honest man and is practiced and experienced in many things; and he will be useful to me in many ways. He traveled with Pastor Rabenhorst from Augsburg to Georgia by land and sea and recommends him highly.

The clothes we received have now been distributed as far as they would reach, and they were received with many thanks. An old widow told me that this week had been a blessed one for her, for she had received not only some clothing but also some meal and rice from the miller and something for her refreshment in health and sickness from Mrs. Krafft. She bewailed her unworthiness and asked me to help her praise God, the Giver of all good and perfect gifts.

The 6th. This afternoon I visited Kraemer’s sick wife, for whom I applied some edifying passages from our dear Senior Urlsperger’s book for the sick.¹⁴ Some time ago the man who has been our sawmiller so far at our new sawmill promised to move with wife and children from his house in town to our mills so that he would always be on hand and tend to the sawing as often as there is water there. Today he announced that his and his family’s condition would not allow him to undertake such a change. But in a few hours our dear God showed that He had provided for us in this matter, too. For soon after noon a knowledgeable carpenter came up from Savannah with his wife and reported to Captain Krauss to begin his work in accordance with a contract made already in Augsburg, and he promised to fulfil loyally all the conditions found in it. The contract, which the said Mr. Krauss showed me, is very fair, Christian, and wisely arranged not only to the advantage of the master but also to that of this young couple, provided they follow it faithfully. Accordingly, I quickly agreed with my colleague to receive them in the mills and to use him there as carpenter and sawmiller. In this way God has provided not only for our mills but also for this young couple, which, to be sure, they do not yet recognize but will recognize, we hope, with time.

The 7th. This afternoon came the chests from Augsburg, which were filled with edifying books for the ministers and parishioners, with medicines for Mr. Thilo and Mr. Mayer, and with Schauer’s Balm¹⁵ and with copper engravings, and thus with a very great spiritual blessing for our congregation. They arrived in such good condition that nothing was ruined or broken. Likewise, we received in another chest many old and new very useful books, some of them rare, from a worthy benefactor in Leipzig, from where we would not have expected such an imposing gift. Thus our wise and almighty God knows how to awaken benefactors in all regions of His realm to contribute their own so willing for the building of the kingdom of God at Ebenezer. May He be praised heartily for His gracious care over us, and may He reward a thousandfold for these and all other spiritual and physical gifts we have received!

The 8th. Today the first boat arrived here with some families of the new transport with their baggage, and they were soon given shelter. They wish to leave their wives and children, along with their heavy baggage, here and travel by land to the land assigned to them at Briar Creek in order to begin building their huts and cultivating their land. Mr. Rabenhorst is still remaining with the transport in Savannah to serve them with his office. They show great love for him. Today I wrote to him and gave him my advice in certain matters and also asked him to come up here as soon as his situation would allow. Mr. Krauss found it necessary to travel down today, and he may bring him up. Things are already prepared for him here.

In the weekday sermon today in the Zion Church I began to advise our dear parishioners of the good that our all-kind God and Father has caused to fall to us so richly through His pure and unmerited love, partly with the new transport of German people and partly in Mr. Habersham’s ship,¹⁶ from beneficent hearts and hands in London, Augsburg, Leipzig, Wernigerode, and Altona through His miraculous governance. I am planning to continue with this edifying account in the next prayer meetings and weekday sermons in both churches with God’s help. For one should praise God’s work gloriously and publicly.

Among all the dear benefactions that have been reported in regard to our congregation, one of the most prominent is that our dear God has kept His true servants, our dear Fathers in Augsburg, London, and Halle, in health and life and has kept us in their affection and intercession. They are not lacking in suffering and trials, surely for the sake of Ebenezer, too; and the suffering of Ebenezer’s inhabitants is very slight in comparison, which is not recognized by many of them. The worldly and carnal mind, the discontent and impatience with the tribulations sent by God, is for many people like a dense fog because of which they do not recognize the many spiritual and physical blessings that our dear God has shown us in this quiet wilderness and thus they are becoming like the old and disbelieving Israelites in the wilderness. Yet many also recognize with humble gratitude what the Lord God has done for them and their families.

2)¹⁷ I specified the gifts we had received from the said areas of Europe and announced how each and every gift was to be applied. At the same time I warned against another bad habit, namely, looking askance when one’s needy neighbor receives something while others do not or being indifferent to the gift of books for our library and of ironware for our mills, etc., as if this did not concern them. The good that is done to the entire community or to the mills is for the good of the whole, and every member will profit from it and should praise our dear God for it just as much as if it were given to him himself. There are many books there which are to be given to those who love them; the remainder, which will come to the library, will be gladly lent to those who wish to read them for their own and their families’ edification.

The two very beautiful double iron stoves are destined for my dear colleague and for the mill establishment, which will be very pleasing for the community. Such costly stoves are not suitable for simple people’s houses. The medicines from Augsburg and Altona are coming now, as always, for the benefit of the whole congregation, and they, too, are a gift worthy of gratitude.

3) I also announced that a righteous man, Mr. Rabenhorst, has come with the German people to be the third minister in Ebenezer through the care of our dear Father, Senior Urlsperger, who called him from Halle. He is still in Savannah with the transport. If circumstances permitted, he would very much like to move to Briar Creek with the new colonists, especially if they all went there. However, Ebenezer always has and keeps the first right to him, as Senior Urlsperger has written us in detail. This is another special blessing of the Lord.

In the letters received from Halle and Augsburg I find right desirable testimonials about him. I myself got to know him in Savannah as a pious, skilful, humble, and cautious man; and everyone who was in the ship with him and consorted with him in Savannah gives him a good character. Praise be to God!

The 9th. A certain worthy benefactor in a prominent mercantile city in Germany attested in his friendly letter to me his sincere joy at the zeal of the Evangelical missionaries in the East Indies to plant the Christian religion in the hearts of the heathens there;¹⁸ and he took pleasure in their praiseworthy method of buying poor children from the heathens with the charities from their European benefactors like the pious matrons at the time of St. Augustine and baptizing and rearing them in a Christian way to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbors. He wished to know whether such a thing is done in our community; to that I willingly answered him and announced that, to be sure, this could not yet be done by us because of a lack of physical means but that we had an opportunity to do so because many Negroes or Moors out of Africa are brought into these English colonies and are sold at various prices according to the slave’s nature, his size, strength, and age.

The introduction and use of Negroes has been allowed by the Lord Trustees; and we know from much experience that white people, no matter how poor they are, do not wish to serve or are unfaithful and serve to the harm of their masters; and therefore we have resolved in God’s name, as soon as He sends the means, to buy some Negroes for operating the mill business and for farming for the mill establishment and for our own needs. We will do this with the intention of leading their souls to the Lord Jesus through Christian instruction and through holy baptism. If Christian benefactors of means wished through their charities to put us in a position to buy little Negro children with their mothers (for it would not be Christian to separate them, even though it is common here and there), then they would be a seminary of young branches from heathendom, who would grow up as baptized Christians and afterwards serve as a stimulating example for their mothers and other Negroes for accepting the Christian religion. Ipse faciet¹⁹

The 10th. On this Second Sunday of Advent in the introit of the sermon we heard the dear words of Christ that He left behind at the very end in his farewell sermon²⁰ in John 16: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”²¹ From that we could learn clearly and convincingly that Christ’s congregation, too, is a congregation of the cross and that His wisdom and goodness are showing us the right old ways upon which He, the Lord Himself, has trod with His whole family from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant. Those are blind people who stumble on the cross of our community and for that reason flee it and at the same time flee from the spiritually comforting advantages over many other people in America. In the sermon itself on the gospel we treated the wellfounded comfort of believers in their manifold suffering.

After the morning sermon our parishioners from the Blue Bluff, and after the afternoon sermon those who live in town or on the nearby plantations, gathered at my invitation in my house; and I distributed to them the edifying and well-edited new collection of hymns that have come as a right precious gift from our dear Wernigerode. Both times, with people of both sexes, I praised our Father of Mercy on bended knees for these and other recently arrived benefactions and prayed for the worthy benefactors. I was not able to give this hymnal to the people who are accustomed to attend divine services in Zion Church on the plantations because they would not suffice this time.

From now on, for the praise of God and for our common edification, we will sing these very instructive and comforting hymns in the weekly meetings on the Blue Bluff across Ebenezer Creek; however, in the Jerusalem Church we will sing them only in the evening prayer meetings and every two weeks in the Sunday service if services are also being held in the Zion Church. We made a start in this this evening in the Sunday prayer meeting with the comforting song: Zu Gott, wo Rath, ja Rath und That, etc.; and in our common prayer we praised the Lord God for this blessing and prayed publicly for all our worthy benefactors in Europe. To be sure, it has been right cold for some days, but it has not hindered our edification in our well protected little church. It was a lovely and pleasant day in the realms of nature and grace.

In the 17th continuation of the Ebenezer Reports,²² which we have just received, I saw among other things, with pleasure and praise of God, that our wise and fatherly-minded editor /Urlsperger/ had noted, in his own hand with a nota bene on the margin of the continuation, our desire for some necessary things, such as hymnals, Bibles, Dr. Walch’s Introduction to the Religious Controversies, the late Arndt’s Books of True Christianity, and the late Ambrosius Wirth’s Confession and Communion Booklet.²³ To our great amazement and joy our dear God has obviously blessed this, in that all the said books (excepting only the True Christianity) were sent to us most generously by willing and joyful donors, whom God loves, partly from Wernigerode and partly from Augsburg, immediately after the publication of this continuation. God be praised! May He remember them all for it and bless them a thousandfold for Jesus’ sake. Our worthy Court Chaplain Albinus has sent us the joyful news that chests from Halle are underway via Hamburg, in which we can hope to receive several extracts of Freylinghausen’s lovely hymnal, Canstein’s small and large Bibles, Arnd’s books of True Christianity, and Luther’s Small Catechism, and also ABC books.²⁴ May God take all this under His protection!

The 11th. On this Monday not only Mr. Krauss with the remaining things from his baggage in the ship but also two large boats full of colonists have come up with their many crates and have moved into the spacious and very convenient silk-manufactory until they have built something for themselves at Halifax, i.e., at Briar Creek and Beaver Dam. Here they will have the comfort they wish and will not be a burden to anyone. Those who came last night were the richest among them, and they have rented Riedelsperger’s house for a time. May God let them gather much good here from which they may draw in the future on their new land! Mr. Rabenhorst sent a friendly answer to the letter I sent him; and he asked my advice in several matters, which I wrote him without delay. He is well cared for in Savannah, and he applies his time well in edifying the new colonists and other German people. It has now become very cold here at night, but the travelers find high bluffs and much wood everywhere for making good fires. At times they can find shelter if there are any inhabitants.

For fear that some obstacle could occur on Wednesday, I held the meeting at the Blue Bluff today. The dear people had waited for me for some hours, but this was not my fault. I spare them their precious time as much as possible and do not spare myself. I also announced to these people how much good the Lord has granted to the congregation, and therefore to them also, from Europe this time and how they should apply it all in a Christian way.

The 12th. Some time ago Mrs. Krafft bought from the local shoemaker, Zettler, an almost two-year-old Negro child, whom I had baptized, It has been sick for some time and has now come close to death. The said woman has a great love for this Christian child of a heathen mother and has not failed with motherly care and adequate medications. The child’s heathen mother, a Negress, is serving the Salzburger Leimberger, who bought her for thirty-six pounds Sterling. Not only is she strong and capable of all work, but she also has a very good understanding and a glib tongue so that one would think her a Christian if one heard her speak of God, the soul, virtue and vice, and heaven and hell. She can also distinguish well between nominal and real Christians. With all that, she is a cunning and vicious person, who can reveal her tricks and wickedness; and, to be sure, in this she has, unfortunately, her likes among nominal Christians.

I found her in Mrs. Krafft’s chamber with the child; and I presented to her with seriousness and love her godless nature, in which she has been found only recently, also the heaven-wide difference between her and her child’s condition. I asked her to turn about and become like this child, otherwise she would not come to the blessed place where the fruit of her body will come after a short suffering. She should remember how dreadful that must be when she, as a mother, will be separated from the little child, whom she especially loves, not only in time but also in eternity and at the same time be thrust into hell’s fire. To escape that I offered her as minister all Christian help, as I have done before. She wept much but said nothing. We knelt down before God together (the medico was also there), praised Him for the mercy the child had experienced, prayed for its merciful dissolution and, at the same time, for the illumination and conversion of the heathen mother. She knelt before the child’s crib; and, when I finally wished to bless it, she hastily lifted it up high.

I saw that the carpenters had erected Mrs. Krafft’s new house; and I learned that she wished to praise the Lord with me or my dear colleague on the building lot next to Jerusalem Church for His aid and protection. However, because it was shortly before the prayer meeting, we postponed this Christian practice until then. And thus we thanked our merciful God with Mrs. Kraft, with the builders, and with other old and new parishioners for everything He has done for us, for the workers, for this pious widow, and for everyone. It will become a beautiful and useful house, the likes of which has not yet been built in Ebenezer. We and our parishioners can often say, “Ebenezer, the Lord hath helped so far.”²⁵

Today I read in the Charleston newspaper from South Carolina for 27 November the following remarkable report, which leads us to the signs of our time:

The last four months may well be called remarkable because they have brought forth more storm winds and hurricanes than otherwise in a whole year, and all of them were accompanied by extreme damage, especially to ships and mariners. In Europe, especially on the coast of Great Britain on the 25th and 26th of August a storm was felt that was stronger than in the year 1739.²⁶ On the 15th and 30th of September there were two dreadful storms and hurricanes in South Carolina. On the 1st and 8th of October there were two great storms on the coast of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, New York, New England, and Nova Scotia. From the 30th of October to the 3rd of November on the coasts of Florida between the Balama [sic] Islands, etc. two ships of German people from Rotterdam and Hamburg are missed and presumably drowned. Already this autumn seventeen ships full of German people have come to Philadelphia, and more of them are expected.²⁷

Because I have learned from certain reports from a prominent European benefactor that all sorts of information about our regions are useful and pleasing for some patrons and friends, I will add from the newspaper the prices of some local products:

The 13th. This morning Mrs. Kraft’s Negro child, named Sulamith, died. The heathen mother was very distressed; and, because she wished to get the child again and would have hope of doing so through the Christian religion, she promised me to let herself be instructed and to accept the instruction.

This morning was a sour day for me and greatly impaired my powers of mind and body. The more I try to flee and avoid the secular tasks that do not really belong to me (which is the advice of my dearest Father, Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen and which is demanded by my office and my state of health), the more they fall upon me and follow me as a shadow follows a body. “O that I had wings like a dove! for then I would fly away, and be at rest.”²⁹ But I love Ebenezer greatly; and there, and no where else, I wish to end my life according to God’s gracious will and pleasure.

The 15th. N.N. thinks himself very clever in all matters, will not accept advice; and he is a severe disciplinarian toward his own children. In sicknesses he uses medicines brought with him or gathered in the forest, and with them he has done irreparable harm to his merry little girl. A fever cure he effected has caused a most violent dysentery, and who knows what medicines he used in it. He finally came to me and wished to have advice and help in his extreme plight. He received something from Mr. Thilo but brought it back in a short time with the news that she had died. I am afraid that it is going to turn out very badly. So far God’s word has profited him but little.

The 16th. On this Third Sunday before Advent Pastor Rabenhorst came up safely to Ebenezer from Savannah with Mr. Mayer and was received by us in cordial love, as was right. The first thing we did was to bend our knees before the Lord in the little heated room that is planned as his museum and to praise Him for His old and new mercy and to implore Him for His divine blessing for the present and the future. May God bless this worthy brother and let him effect much good for blessed eternity through his spiritual work, prayer, and example.

Several families have remained in Savannah and have wandered around the country there; but most of them are coming up to Ebenezer where, to all appearances, they will spend the winter and plant crops here in the spring because the time will be too short for them to go out on their own land. I would have preferred for them to have cultivated their very fertile land right away; but, as they claim, there are too many obstacles.

On this Third Sunday before Advent our dear God has granted us a good and blessed day. The weather was fair and the assembly of the entire congregation in Jerusalem Church was blessed. Now that many of the new transport have come up from Savannah and joined the old inhabitants in divine worship, the town church is becoming too small so that we will well need a spacious church. The present Jerusalem Church was built with the intention that it could be used for holding school and as the residence for the teacher if God should increase our congregation. A spacious and durable church was to be built according to the will of God and from the blessings given before Him.

Now our miraculous God has granted us a third minister, a skilful, righteous, and vigorous man; and we trust in His goodness and wisdom that He will also grant us the means to build a spacious and durable house of God. I remembered what the wise and cautious benefactors said to the men from Pennsylvania who sought collections in Germany six years ago for building an Evangelical-Lutheran church and let them take home with them, namely, that they should first see to getting righteous ministers, then God would surely provide a church. And this is just what happened. After Pastor Muehlenberg, and after him Pastor Brunholtz, were called there, God gathered so many imposing charities through Christian friends and benefactors that they could erect not just one but three churches and could easily establish public worship.

We do not begrudge them this great benefaction and we help them praise our gracious God for it; yet I must also acknowledge that the members of our Salzburger congregation are in much greater need of such beneficent help than the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, as is not unknown to our dear benefactors in Europe from our reports up to now. So far their beneficence toward us has been untiring; indeed, many have wished to know how they could best place their charities in Ebenezer so that they will be useful to the present and future inhabitants of Ebenezer. Therefore it will not be unpleasant for them if I mention here our lack of a durable church. The Lord knows what we need, and He has said, “Be careful for nothing (The Lord is near), but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be known unto God.”³⁰ Once again I have remarkable faith-strengthening proofs that our dear God has blessed our announcement of our lack to the readers of our diaries so that they have been moved by love and pity to relieve our need both through intercession to God and man and with their own contributions.

This almighty and merciful God is still alive, and our worthy Fathers and benefactors are still alive, too, through His goodness; and they are still as ardent and zealous in their love and affection for the ministers and parishioners in Ebenezer as they were at first nineteen years ago. I have seen this joyful fact, with pleasure and praise of God, not only through the many undeniable writings and through factual evidence, but also through the accounts of our dear Pastor Rabenhorst. Indeed, this faithful God has awakened many new benefactors here and there, who have begun to further the spiritual and physical well-being of our congregation with word and deed. May his glorious name be praised for that!

In our present great lack of money we have been especially impressed and comforted by what our dear Father in God, the dear Samuel of our Evangelical Church, wrote in his fatherly letter of 11 July of this year to me and Mr. Lemke.

Nothing further has arrived since the time the announcement was made concerning the fund for a salary for a future minister in Ebenezer. Yet the world belongs to the Lord, and all silver and gold are also his. Just as He gives daily bread, so He gives silver and gold when it is necessary.

The 18th. This afternoon the surveyor came up here and told me that he had orders from the Council in Savannah to survey the plantations, both for the gentlemen³¹ and for the simple people of the last transport, around Beaver Dam and Briar Creek or (as this area is now called, at Halifax); and in this he was to follow my orders exactly. The less I wish to deal with such things, the more falls unexpectedly on me; and afterwards, if anything does not turn out to the pleasure of the people, I must bear the blame, just as happened to me with the transport last year. I have no calling for the physical welfare of this transport, I also lack time and means. However, because the surveyor is already there, I must do what I can to further a good cause. May God hear my sighs and free me from such matters that take my time and strength yet do not really belong to my office.

The 19th. The surveyor had not wished to leave here for his work before discussing everything with me, for he has to do everything according to my instructions. This could not be other than burdensome for me, since this matter entails either great delay and loss to the new colonists or with and, finally, evil judgments. Yesterday I took all possible measures so that the surveyor could depart this morning with some men to survey the land; but this afternoon, when I returned home from the weekday sermon on the plantations, I found him waiting for me because of the said matter. Thereupon, with my weak chest and much talking, I helped arrange everything so that I hope that this skilful and honest man’s work will redound to everyone’s satisfaction.

As scarce as my money is, I cannot avoid this secular work or expenses for the well-being of these poor people who are here. Some have traveled to the new land in a large boat, others on horseback, to investigate it carefully. The surveyor assured me that, to the best of his ability, he would try not to give the people, be they gentlemen or simple people, a single foot of bad soil. He is not only a skilful and industrious surveyor, but also an experienced planter; and therefore he can advise the people from experience.

The 20th. In the South Carolina newspaper I read that the following strange matter is reported from Cork in Ireland:

In this city there is a boy of 15 years and 11 months by the name of Cornelius Magrath, who is of gigantic size, i.e. 7 ft 9¾ inches tall, at the same time plump and awkward, who speaks childishly and simply. He came here from Poughal, where he bathed in sea water for a year because of the pain in his limbs that made him almost a cripple. The doctors considered these pains in his limbs to be painful movements of nature as are accustomed to be found in young people who are growing up, especially since this boy grew to such monstrous size in one year. His hand is as thick as a man’s thigh; and his shoe last, which he always carries with him, is 15 inches long. He was born in the country near Tipperary 5 miles from the silver mines. The Bishop of Cloyne had him with him for a month and showed him much care.

In this same paper I saw that they are beginning to brew barley beer in Carolina and that a 30 gallon barrel (a gallon is calculated as four English quarts) is offered for 1 £ 2 sh 10½ d Sterling and a better kind 1 £ 14 sh 3 d Sterling, and a quart of brewer’s yeast at sh 8½ d. I must marvel at the great quantity of European wares that have been brought from England to Charleston for sale in just the month of November. The things consist of many kinds of linen garments for men and women, for necessity and status, for rich and poor, also in fine and coarse cloth, in silk stuffs, stockings, shoes, household goods, medicines, simples, and in all sorts of things that are demanded by necessity or for elegance. Both the ship captains, and especially the merchants, make these imported wares known to the customers in the newspapers.

I consider it my duty from now on to mention in my diary such physical things that belong in the realm of nature and in the economy and civil life because I have been requested both orally and in writing to do so. My benefactors and friends will be patient with my imperfection and accept the will for the deed.

The 21st. This afternoon a great fire broke out quickly, which, however, God be praised, did not spread far because the fence on both sides was torn down swiftly. It was an empty hut that had been assigned temporarily to a single man of the second Swabian transport by the name of Zweckbrunner. The fire began in his absence and burned everything he had to ashes. I admonished him to make good use of this fire of wrath in a Christian manner. He is, to be sure, an industrious man, but no lover of God’s word and divine services. His desire to gain much physical wealth has misled him even to violate the Sabbath and to care even less for the holy days. I have, to be sure, warned him, but he did not hearken to it, as I learned after the fire from one of his neighbors. May he convert at this severe warning of God and show real repentance. After this judgment may God grant us a blessing. An Englishman offered me 200 bushels of corn for the new colonists, and I gladly bought it.

A worthy friend in Augsburg has sent us a song of eight stanzas that thoroughly presents the highly comforting teaching: “Jesus accepts sinners”!³² It is one of the most edifying hymns that I have ever read or sung and which I have always regarded highly and from which I promise myself much blessing in the congregation through the grace of the Holy Ghost. It has been given to us in a large number so that every family has received a copy. In yesterday’s evening prayer meeting we profited from the comforting content of the first song, or section: “Jesus accepts sinners.” That is an eternal truth. It serves us excellently as a blessed preparation for Holy Christmas and for the impending participation in Holy Communion, which, God willing, is to be held on the second day of Christmas.

May God bless the dear and to us unknown but to God well known author of this incomparable hymn and also our worthy friend who donated it and many other printed booklets to us some years ago for our common edification, and may He let them garner much blessed fruit in eternity from this seed that has been sown on the field of the Ebenezer church.³³ All the verses begin with the confident words “Yes, Jesus accepts sinners;” and all the verses end with the same (sometimes a little altered) except for the last, which has a good salt.

The 22nd. Today I began, in God’s name, to instruct the Negress who was mentioned recently in this diary. For this she arrived willingly and appeared orderly and as eager as could be hoped for. She cannot yet speak German correctly, and therefore I must speak with her mostly in English, which language she speaks almost as well as a native English woman. She was born and reared in Carolina. I gave the master and his wife some admonitions concerning my good plans for this their weak maid, and they consented to them. The mistress told me that the Negress wished to know the meaning of the German word “Gottlos,” which she had heard often among Christians. I will tell her in the next lesson that such godless people are not only the heathen Moors but also very many in Christendom, who are not helped by their baptism and sham conversion; rather their advantages over the heathens and other non-believers will cause them all the more responsibility.

The 23rd. I was called to the house of a woman on a plantation on Ebenezer Creek, and I was much pleased by her and her husband’s joy at the goodness and providence of the Lord. God has let their household³⁴ develop very well, and therefore they think with pity of their near relations whom they have left behind and wish they could share the good they are enjoying here. They also tell the new colonists that they had suffered many tribulations in the first years but that God had helped them through everything and so blessed the work of their hands that they could now enjoy not only complete freedom but also a well arranged household.

We generally have trouble with the new colonists. They not only find it strange, but they consider it almost impossible to overcome the first difficulties. In general they cannot trust God and would rather help themselves or be helped by other people. However, if this fails or is insufficient, then they despair and do no better than the heathens in Matthew 6:31, indeed, even worse, for they slander innocent people whose spoken or written words they either did not understand or did not wish to understand.

If people among us come to conversion and become children of God through the divine word and achieve a good subsistence through their industry and through the influence of divine blessing, then they will well understand what our dear Senior Urlsperger called to us in his last fatherly letter:

Oh dear Ebenezer, do not forget what good the Lord has done unto you and is still doing especially through the word, nothing else excluded. I who am a hundred, yea a thousand, hours distant from you, see it better than many of your people, yet I do not see it nearly as well as I should.

There are many souls here who thank God and men that they are here.

The 24th. On this Fourth Sunday of Advent our old and new parishioners have again had the word of God abundantly in both churches through divine mercy for their blessed preparation for coming holy celebration, for the worthy partaking of Holy Communion, and for blessed eternity. My two worthy colleagues preached in the Zion Church, which served to lighten the load of our now frail Brother Lemke. However, the Lord strengthened me to hold the preparation sermon in the Jerusalem Church on Psalms 24:7-10 and on the regular gospel.

At this time we made use of the instructive and comforting hymns from the new Wernigerode hymnal, as is always done in the evening prayer meetings and on Sundays and holy days when half of the congregation has divine services in the Zion Church. I still had nineteen copies left over from the last distribution of the new Wernigerode hymn collections, which I lent this morning to the new colonists, who are to use them as long as they are here but are to leave them behind them when they go out on their land. We do not let them take them out of the community. With other good souls in the community I would like for our dear God to make it possible for us to have an adequate number of this very edifying hymnal for all members of our congregation, which would greatly advance our edification, our recognition of Jesus and His treasures of salvation, and our praise of God.

Our miraculous God blessed the hand that is printed on the margin of our diary³⁵ so quickly that our desire for hymnals was fulfilled more promptly and more abundantly than we could request, understand, or hope. His hand has not been shortened,³⁶ rather it is always stretched out and busy, especially in His church. He can easily awaken worthy friends and benefactors who can also fulfil our desire in this matter and further our edification. This morning after the morning and afternoon church I had the pleasure in God during the distribution of the recently mentioned gospel song “Yea, Jesus accepts sinners,” which I could give to all the families, yet in such a way that some of them received only one.

I could not give any to the new people, but instead of that they received a certain Order of Salvation,³⁸ which was printed in Leipzig and consists of seven folios. A certain worthy benefactor in Leipzig donated these to me in a large number for the congregation and recommended it as a very useful little book, but I have not yet read it because of lack of time. At the distribution this morning and afternoon I and the dear congregation thanked our dear God on our knees for this and other spiritual blessings that He has granted us so abundantly in this solitude, and we implored Him to reward our worthy known and unknown benefactors abundantly with His grace. The man who was burned out is finding many sympathetic benefactors among us.

The 26th. Yesterday and today we celebrated our dear Yuletide in good weather and great peace, and we held Holy Communion with 163 persons. God be praised for all the spiritual blessing that He has graciously granted us from the gospel and from Holy Communion. On this last holy day we had a burial and funeral oration after the afternoon service. On Christmas eve the wainwright Georg Meyer died of a violent fever, and his death touched me and all the righteous members of the congregation. He was a true Christian, loved God’s word, and was very useful to the community because of his dexterity and hard work. He is leaving a pious young widow and a small child behind in this pilgrimage. God strengthened me, for my and this widow’s comfort, to hold the funeral sermon, at which there were many hearers.

Among other things I also read the following from Senior Urlsperger’s last letter:

However little I begrudged the temporal death of those souls whom you named in your letter of 28 January of this year (Kalcher, Ruprecht Steiner, Burgsteiner, Gschwandel’s daughter) and even rejoiced in it, I was just as affected on the other hand because of Ebenezer and because of those who were nearest to them. May the Lord heal the gaps, and may He put in their place other good and proven examples, especially of the kind who work as honestly for the Church of God and for Ebenezer as these did. God can create what he wishes, and therefore He can also raise up those who are cast down, according to the 14th Psalm, which I have just read with my family at our morning prayers.

I have read through with pleasure the Order of Salvation which was written by a minister in Freyberg, Master Sebastian Schutze, and printed at Leipzig in 1745. This was because in it the counsel of God concerning human salvation is presented clearly, thoroughly, and edifyingly pro captu discentium³⁹ and because it greatly facilitates catechisation for the teacher. I am sincerely happy that the truth is shining so brightly in my fatherland, Saxony. May our dear God let His light continue to rise on all the world, and may He send many righteous workers into His harvest!

The 27th. The young and sincerely pious widow of the wainwright Georg Meyer, whom we all greatly respected, called on me at my house, and I spoke with her to her comfort from God’s word and with prayer. She said she could feel the comfort of God in her soul; and she marveled that she could compose herself so well in this great tribulation and that this surely came from the Lord. Among other things she told me that in his fantasy her dear husband had spoken a great deal about me and acted as if he could see and hear me. Doubtless, he had yearned for me in his last hours, for as long as he has been here he has made use of my office with great loyalty, with joy, and with blessing for his soul.

I often regret that we still have no bridge across Ebenezer Creek in order to go and come by foot or by horse. It is slow and difficult to go up against the strongly running current. Our sawmiller, Kogler, was especially distressed by this incident of death and spoke of it with tears. At the same time I heard from him that, as long as God prolongs his life, he wishes to remain as carpenter and sawmiller at our mills. For some time he has begun to love it as a great work, through which our dear God has most gloriously revealed His wisdom, goodness, and power; and we hope that, if we keep faith, we will continue to experience His care over this important work, which is so indispensable for our congregation. If, along with my dear colleague, I could lay aside all other external business, we would still have to keep the supervision of the mills, which does not keep us from performing our spiritual office and which is useful for our congregation in many ways.

The 28th. Since the arrival of the last books from London, Augsburg, and Leipzig our loving God has granted me much blessing from reading some of them and also, during the past holy days, from meditation, preaching, and hearing His word. The greatest and most glorious blessing, however, He reserved for me until the quiet eventide yesterday. He reminded me in my heart, on an apparently unimportant occasion, of the recently arrived Passion sermon⁴⁰ by our dear Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen concerning the cause of great and heavy spiritual suffering of Jesus Christ as the Mediator of the world; and I became disquieted that I had not yet read it and anxious to read it at once, especially since I had found the first Passion sermon concerning this all-important matter of Christ’s great and heavy spiritual suffering very impressive and edifying. Our merciful God so blessed this incomparable second sermon in my heart that I shall have cause all my life to thank Him for it.

It seemed to me that I had never so deeply fathomed the incomprehensible perdition of the human heart, and also of my own heart, the abhorrence of spiritual sin, the holiness and divine judgment of God and at the same time His ineffably merciful Love in Christ for lost and damned mankind as our loving God has let me comprehend through this excellent sermon, indeed for an awakening of a new seriousness in my Christianity and office.⁴¹ Oh, how necessary it is for ministers, too, between their official duties to read devoutly and thoroughly evangelical books, and especially those that have been written in our and our fathers’ times by anointed servants of God and not to let themselves be prevented from doing so.

Commentaries and explications of Bible texts will not do it alone; we need fiery awakenings every day if we wish to win salvation for ourselves and for those who listen to us. During and after the reading of this sermon, which impressed me so deeply, I wished from my heart that it might be made known in Christendom because I would not begrudge to all ministers and parishioners in all places the blessing that God granted me from it for seriously achieving my salvation. I have, indeed, such a good hope of a blessing from it also in other people that, if I were a perfect master of the English language, my dearest labor would be to translate it for the use of Englishmen in Europe and America.

This sermon was conceived, preached, and printed in German in the English capital London; and therefore I would heartily wish that the inhabitants of that city and of all the country might also participate in the blessing that has been granted to many Germans. May God arouse a skilled man for it, but a bungler should not undertake it, for it is much more difficult to translate an edifying writing from German into English than from English into German. Just as the late Mr. Boehm, our dear Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen’s predecessor,⁴² was best suited for the translation of the late Arnd’s beautiful Book of True Christianity, I heartily wished that our dear God would graciously grant our dear Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen strength and time to translate these sermons he composed. May God strengthen him and incline him to do it! May He also be praised for granting a German printing-press to this His dear servant in the last years of his life and office, by which splendid means this man’s glorious gifts of grace in his well-composed writings can be made known to the Germans in England and other places for their awakening and their advance in the good.

Our dear and miraculous God has formerly blessed many reports in the Diary in its readers, for which I humbly praise His goodness and wisdom. Perhaps through His unforgettable wisdom and grace He will bring it about that all who read these reports about our dear Court Chaplain here will take the trouble to read them. I am sure they would not regret this effort but sincerely praise the Lord with me for the grace that He has shown through the service of this His experienced servant of the Evangelical Church.

In our book collection we also have the following worthy writings of this worthy author, namely:

1. The Explication of the Lord’s Prayer, which has been reprinted at the expense of good friends in Germany and is esteemed, as is right, by true experts in divine truth.

2. A word of Admonition and Comfort on New Year’s Day 1750.

3. A Word of Instruction concerning the Right, Genuine Way, Approved by Jesus Christ, to Seek Grace in Him on the 24th Sunday after Trinity.

4. An Earnest Admonition of the Lord Jesus to Ask the Father for the Holy Ghost on the First Day of Pentecost.⁴³

5. At the beginning of the new year 1751 we find two very thorough and edifying hymns composed by him and published by a Christian friend in London, from which God has already granted us much edification and joy and will continue to grant us, since we have now received a large number of them. They begin, O heilger Gott, wir alle beten an, etc. and Mein Vater, du hast mich erwählt, noch vor dem Anfang meiner Tage, etc., which last song is also printed in the seventeenth continuation of the Ebenezer reports with the melody that is customary among us and corresponds with the conclusion. Once any grace-hungry Christian heart has read one of the Court Chaplain’s printed writings he will wish to know of others and to read them, and in all simplicity I wish to serve them with this short and well-intentioned report.

The 29th. Today in school our loving God granted me much pleasure with the children and thus richly and graciously repaid me for the slight discomfort of riding out in somewhat cold rainy weather. Our worthy Pastor Sommer of Schortewitz, a friend of children, has sent us all sorts of printed edifying things, among them several hundred rhymed and numbered little verses, each consisting of only two lines, as a very pleasant proof and reminder of the fatherly love he bears for us. I distributed these to the children on the plantations with blessing and pleasure and made them useful in this way: after a hearty prayer to God I read such a verse aloud and let all the children repeat it out loud as if with one voice; and, after having said a little bit to their awakening, I asked who could say it from memory. Whichever of the children could say it without stumbling received it as a gift. I aided the weak and not very capable children along so that every one of them received a little verse.

Afterwards I laid the remaining supply on the table and treated it like an innocent lottery in which each child had to take a little verse out of the pile, read me the number and the verse out loud, and then return quietly to his place. And thus every child received two such instructive, understandable, and devout little verses with instructions to learn them and to note their numbers because later, when I asked, they would have to recite them according to the number. They should also exchange them with one another in my presence so that each child could learn the other children’s verses. They enjoyed this a lot. Another worthy friend has sent our children all sorts of innocent pictures to put in place of the signs⁴⁴ in their schoolbooks and hymnals which I had also distributed to them. My dear colleague, Mr. Lemke, is also carrying out a similar simple and edifying distribution with the children in the town school. Before the weekday sermon I again had the recently mentioned Negress for instruction, and it appears that she is serious in accepting the instruction. May God grant His blessing to my weak efforts, which are a great joy for me. If the owners of the Negroes (as I do not doubt) undertake this properly, I hope that much good will be accomplished with God’s assistance.

Even though we have had much annoyance and difficulty with the servants who came here somewhat more than three years ago,⁴⁵ there are some among them who have become obedient to the law of our Lord Jesus and serve as a good example for others. Among them is a young girl of fourteen years who has been able to go to school only twice during the week and to attend the weekday sermon at the same time yet has given me much pleasure through her good behavior. She will be a salt for her family.

The 31st. Since we are concluding this year on this day, I praise our merciful God in the deepest humility of my heart for all the spiritual and physical benefactions He has shown from near and far to us assistant shepherds and to our dear sheep and lambs, both adults and children. Among such dear benefactions we consider also the fact that He has not only kept these worthy old benefactors in life and health and has kept us in their affection and intercession but has also awakened some new ones for us, who have resolved in a Christian way to come to our help in our pilgrimage with intercession, counsel, and deeds. May the Lord Sabaoth graciously reward them for Christ’s sake both here and there! He will help, Amen!