Daily Register

Of the two pastors, Mr. Boltzius and Mr. Gronau

From January 1st to the end of the year 1739

JANUARY

Monday was the first day of the New Year. Our always generous and gentle Lord God has continued to help us and has bestowed much mercy on us during the past year in giving us strength not only of body and spirit but also in the conduct of our office for both old and young alike. For this we have right fully offered Him our thanks and praise in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ on several occasions. Last year our community saw the birth of ten children; and four persons, i.e. three children and one woman, have died and four couples have been given in matrimony.

Tuesday, the 2nd of January. This morning our carpenters and others who have volunteered their help have started to cut the wood for my house. I and my dear colleague visited them toward evening and, at their request, prayed with them at the conclusion of their day’s work. It is true that I still have no funds in hand for the completion of this house, which is destined to be the regular parsonage in our town; but, relying on God’s blessing (which is always safest in the Father’s hands), I have chosen to start this building which has become ever more indispensable because of the circumstances of my office, the health of myself and my family, and the poor state of our previous hut. The workmen have embarked upon this enterprise not only with much joy, but certainly also in the name of Jesus, as they were instructed yesterday in Colossians 3:17. I was strongly impressed by this in my prayer with them, when I reminded myself and them of the fact that, in yesterday’s gospel, the Lord Jesus offered us His first drops of blood, which speak on our behalf, and His previous name as a gift for the new year. Will He not be all the more ready to offer us the much lesser gift, i.e. the funds for this new house, and to strengthen the workmen in their effort, who are ready to do all they can to help me obtain proper lodgings, as my dear colleague has done.

Today it has again been my dearest resolution, if God grants me the joy of moving into this house, to seek to step before the throne of our dear Father together with our listeners and, by the strength of this blood of reconciliation and the most precious name of Jesus, to pray for them and all people and among them in particular those dear benefactors who will contribute something to this dwelling. Yesterday as an exordium we heard Esther 5:6, wherein we were told of the advantage we have over Esther: she came to a proud, lascivious heathen king, without being called, and was faced by a strict interdiction, nor did she have any friend to lead her to the king or present her word to him. We, on the other hand, are instructed in the gospels to come to a reconciled Father, to the Lord of all love and mercy; we are called by Him, urged by Him, prompted by Him, and have the most certain promises to us, as well as the Holy Ghost as an aid and Jesus as mediator of the New Testament, for our advocate. That can encourage us to prayer, etc.

Wednesday, the 3rd of January. Kieffer of Purysburg brought Mr. Falk to our town yesterday, of whom we spoke the other day in our diary.¹ This man will continue via Old Ebenezer and Palachocolas to Savannah-Town, where he wishes to act as a preacher to the crude people there, since he was told in Savannah that such a man was needed there. He feels he has been convinced by divine will to do so; and we will hear and see what he can accomplish there and whether this is in truth the only reason for his journey. He stayed with us till this morning and attended the evening prayer meeting with us last night, by which he claimed to be quite edified. I cannot make much of him, nor fully accept him. He claims to have been ordained and sent to this country without a specific destination. He has spent much time in Pennsylvania and himself acknowledges that evangelical preachers are very necessary there; but nonetheless he comes here without having been summoned, where he will probably be even less able to accomplish anything. Also, there are three Swedish communities there, where they surely need some help with the young people. In Purysburg they asked him to help instruct the children, for which they would take care of his subsistence; this, however, he did not wish to accept. On the other hand the Reformed people in Savannah, where he has offered to become the preacher, do not want him. He does not really master the German language and speaks more Dutch than German.² He asked to be shown our orphanage and showed himself to be both modest and orderly.

I learned today from several people in the community that our dear God has blessed the gospels of His Son in them so much that they are prepared even more seriously than ever before to embark on their salvation in this new year. A man who is almost always sickly called on me and recognized quite well the salutary purpose which God has in burdening him with such a lingering disease. Our heavenly Father has relieved him of the worry of how he and his family will support themselves, since he can barely work; and He had also given him a light heart and a good conscience through the prayerful recognition of His dear Son, the Conciliator and Savior of this world. Thus, he did not fear death. He had long tortured himself with his own thoughts and the legalistic attempt to force himself to repentance and sorrow for his sins. However, the Lord has given him a better insight than that. Since this man is poor and now incapable of working in the fields, I have assigned him to bringing in the boards for my house with cart and horse, so that he may earn some money. We have only one horse that is at all serviceable, and it is being used and fed by the whole community. However, I have been given hope that I may receive another serviceable horse for bringing in the wood for the building.

Thursday, the 4th of January. I visited the workmen at my house before quitting time so as to conclude their work with a prayer, which they much like. I was told that one of the workmen had been in danger of losing his life, in that a dead tree had been toppled by another and had fallen toward him. But God had saved him. I reminded the man of these words: “We have a God who helps, and a Lord, who saves us from death.”³ We praised the Lord for His help and admonished each other to commence, continue, and complete all our work in the name of Christ so that we may work and achieve a blessing not only as natural humans but as Christians, anointed and protected by divine providence. Today was a very cold day, such as we have not had this year. Last night the wind was strong and cold. The ice froze thicker than ever before.

Friday, the 5th of January. As it was too cold both yesterday and today, we have had to cancel school, since we still lack a good house in which to hold classes. The cold is most uncomfortable during the writing classes, and little can be accomplished in them during the winter months. For this reason we have seen fit to suspend writing classes for a while so that the children may help in the house and stables, both in the orphanage and at home. They are much needed everywhere. Since my dear colleague now has time during this hour, he will take charge of the larger children who cannot yet read sufficiently; and the schoolmaster will continue to help the little ones who must learn the alphabet and the fundamentals of reading. The Salzburgers also send those girls to school who have recently been taken into service from Savannah,⁴ and in this manner they will be brought to reading all the sooner so that, once they have learned the catechism too, they can do their work properly at home.

Saturday, the 6th of January. The dear Lord has again revived us today, both from the example of the Three Kings and from other fortifying verses that have been offered to us from His word, and encouraged us to seek His dear Son, our dearest Savior, as the most precious pearl. I have also learned from some people that they have now arrived at a new seriousness and wish to sell everything, as it were, so as to be able to obtain in truth this jewel, which surpasseth all things, especially since it is being offered to them for nothing and as a gift.⁵ By the grace of God, we hear and see in many of our dear souls that they are not content in seeking satisfaction in external exercises and practices, however well they may use them, but will fight their way to the Lord Christ, the Son in whom God is well pleased.

Sunday, the 7th of January. This afternoon we again started on the catechism, after my dear colleague had used a number of Christmas verses as the basis of catechization. In the repetition hour I conducted an examination of both children and adults as to the manner in which each had applied and used the holy days, during which the dear Lord had had His gospel preached in circumstances of external peace and good order. At the end we read the two verses from 2 Corinthians 8:9 and Malchi 4:2, wherein it is clearly stated how far each of us must and can go if the word of God’s grace in Christ shall achieve its purpose. The severe cold had already ceased yesterday; and we have thus been less inconvenienced during the public divine service. All this is a gift of the Lord and attests how well He means to treat us in His fatherly heart.

Monday, the 8th of January. God be praised there is no lack of people among us who provide us much comfort and joy when we witness how they walk in truth and seek nothing but to please the Lord Jesus both inwardly and outwardly. During the last days a few among them have truly penetrated into God’s mercy and have found Him who loves their souls, which grace they hold in higher esteem than all the world’s treasures, and for which they praise the Lord from their hearts. Others tell us how they have lost their previous joy and must bear a new tribulation, in that God has revealed to them their false heart, their arrogance, and self-righteousness; and therefore they must fight anew for the crown. May God give us the wisdom to accommodate ourselves to all circumstances and to deal with each according to the condition of his soul. May He make us ever more obedient to His word, and then He will richly fulfill in us that which He said to Joshua (Joshua 1), so that we may act prudently and succeed in everything we do.

Tuesday, the 9th of January. There are some very poor people in the community who lack both clothing and other necessities. Although our poorbox is empty, we must not fail to see what we can do in the greatest need. I will have some of the clothes distributed that God has presented to the orphanage. It is nothing for the Lord to grant us a new gift so that we can discharge the debts we have been forced by necessity to incur for the orphanage. We shall humbly praise Him for such munificence.

The sins of her youth arose in one woman and caused her much anxiety, and she believes she would gain greater peace if she were to confess her sins to the people whom she has insulted and thus atone for them. One single word that once penetrated her conscience causes her uncommon grief and many tears of fear. I sought to direct her to Christ, the eternal Peace of tired and burdened sinners, to which end I read her the passage from Luke 7 about the sinful woman and showed how Jesus has a heart for even the most grievous sinners: He has paid for the sins of all men and thus also the most grievous sinners fully by His death on the cross and cried out in witness thereof: “It is finished.” Now He asks nothing but that a fearful conscience come to him in humility and faith; and He wished to fulfill for all these sinners His words from Matthew 11:28, just as He fulfilled them for the sinning woman.

Wednesday, the 10th of January. During yesterday evening’s prayer meeting we read the last part of the first chapter of Joshua, which gave me an occasion to speak to the congregation of some things which I believed necessary in our present circumstances. There it is told how the people had agreed among themselves on a rule under which those should die who proved disobedient and recalcitrant to Joshua; and in this manner I reminded them how good it would be if we adopted a similar rule to pursue those disorderly people who resist the teaching and beneficial order of our Jesus and even cause annoyance among us, although we would not persecute such souls but treat them in a manner demanded by the Apostle Paul, 2 Thessalonians 3:6–15, whose words I read and explained.

Thursday, the 11th of January. Since yesterday we have had a steady rain, and the air has been warm and pleasant. Some people have again been attacked by the cold fever; and in our house, for instance, three persons were affected at once, although God soon showed us help. A good portion of our dear people have started some work on their new plantations on Abercorn Creek, although they are forced to suffer much inconvenience because of the inconstant weather. They first build small huts in which to sleep and be protected from the rain. However, since it is their main goal to prepare some land for planting, these huts are but very poor structures that will have to do until they can erect better ones. The women and children will stay in town and conduct their affairs and work here until the men have made better preparations for moving out there. The Salzburgers shy away from nothing and work quite hard to gain their bread according to divine order, and we trust in the goodness of the Lord that He may crown their work, which most of them undertake in true faith, with His blessing, strengthen their health, and slowly but surely permit them to earn their livelihood. At present they still need the support of their dear benefactors. For a long time we have received no help from the storehouse in Savannah, and there is now even less hope that Mr. Oglethorpe has changed the administration and conduct of the storehouse.⁶

Friday, the 12th of January. Zettler,⁷ who was brought to us by Michael Rieser with the third transport, will enter into shoemaker Adde’s service so as to learn his trade, an undertaking for which he has both the necessary strength and much desire. This trade will suit him better than work in the fields; and, since he has been quite orderly until now and has accepted instruction, for which reasons the Salzburgers love him well, he will be of much use to the community once he has finished his apprenticeship. One shoemaker is not enough for us, and as he has too much work, he will occasionally make bad shoes. On the other hand, where there are two shoemakers in the community, he will have the biggest business who best serves the people. He will have to learn for two years, and for his apprentice money, provisions, laundry, and mending he will only have to pay £2 10s sterling.

The Rheinlaender boy is going to Purysburg and will also learn the shoemaker’s trade;⁸ he is intending to return to us after he has learned the trade and establish himself here. I called him to my house today and told him that I had learned that his mother intended to let her house lot and plantation lie uncultivated and rent it out so that he might find it for his use on his return. However, I told him that, as this was against the intent of the Trustees as well as disadvantageous to the community if he were to let trees stand on her land that would cause shade for the neighbors and harbor harmful insects and vermin, I could not consent to this but would request Mr. Oglethorpe to free us from this obligation. He returned after a while and said that his mother would let go of the plantation on the condition that he might in the future be assigned another piece of land, such as had been promised to Zettler. However, I prefer to speak to the congregation and to Mr. Oglethorpe on this matter.

Saturday, the 13th of January. My dear colleague has again assumed the burden of preaching to the Germans in Savannah tomorrow, for which reason he departed today. I am somewhat weak because of the fever suffered a few days ago; but I hope that, since it has not returned for one day, I shall be strong enough to conduct the public service here tomorrow. We do not like to miss the fourth Sunday, inasmuch as that is the day when the people come to Savannah from the plantations to hear God’s word, and we do not wish to disappoint them and let them come in vain.

Monday, the 15th of January. After dinner we had a meeting in my dear colleague’s house, during which I advised the assembled men of a matter that shall not be mentioned here and asked for their opinion. May the Lord grant us wisdom in all things so that we may not err to the extreme right or left, but keep to the middle path in all things, however insignificant they may appear on the outside. We have had rain last night and all day today, which has caused some inconvenience to my dear colleague on his return from Savannah. Mr. Oglethorpe is still being expected there, and Mr. Jones will advise me of his arrival as soon as he can, as he well knows the urgent business that I have with him.

Tuesday, the 16th of January. As often as we have an opportunity to speak to N.N.’s wife, she praises our merciful and loving Lord for having had mercy upon her and having brought her to the recognition of her sinful misery. As she and her husband are preparing this week to take Holy Communion next Sunday, her most urgent concern seems to be to go there with a sincere heart and thus to the benefit of her soul. She is much pained by the fact that, in the years of her ignorance, she went to this Holy Table only from custom. She also is quite worried that she might fall back into her former ways, since her wicked heart is becoming ever more clearly recognized by her; and she cannot trust herself to do any good. But she does trust in the Lord that He shall continue in her the work He has started. She marvels at the divine goodness that protects her otherwise weak infant child, although she has very violent fever. Whenever she has had no food for the child, God has provided it and the child has lacked for nothing. She is well equipped to accept her protracted illness because she accepts everything that occurs from God’s hand and believes that all is happening for her good. Previously, she says, God could do nothing right by her.

Thursday, the 18th of January. N.N. visited me and told me something of the state of his soul, which gives me much hope that he will save his soul and participate in the mercy of the Lord in Jesus Christ. Afterwards, I visited him and his family in his hut; and our dear God gave me the strength to speak much that is good for their and other people’s edification and to pray with them. In particular I addressed the children, and the parents told me what each of them left to be desired. It seemed as if my admonitions had struck their heart, and the parents also admonished their children with many tears.

Friday, the 19th of January. N. asked me in the street to accompany him to his hut and give him a word of admonition. Our dear Lord is awakened in him strongly by His word and has lit a light by which he can recognize the state of his soul and how dangerous that state is, in that until now he has lived only in hypocrisy and has not experienced anything of the true conversion to the Lord. He finds much difficulty in taking upon himself the cross of Christ and truly renouncing the world by deserting old companionships, chastising evil in word and deed, and associating closely with converted people, of whom he knows several. I seriously admonished him to apply faithfully all that he has learned by way of convictions and the effects of the Lord’s word, and then prayed with him.

Because of her children, N. has again caused herself unnecessary grief, which delays her in her Christianity and weakens her body. Since she is of a frail constitution, as well as somewhat deficient in her mind and understanding of some external things that have happened to her, we have to yield to her, although it would alleviate her mind and lead her to greater calmness of spirit if she were to accept our advice in a particular matter.

N. and his wife will have things their way and have to bear the judgment of others, even from those of a kindly disposition; there is nothing that can be done, and it must be borne with patience. May the dear Lord grant them and us the spirit of wisdom, love, strength, and discipline so that we shall be all the more capable and sanctified to do His work.

Saturday, the 20th of January. The dear Lord in His mercy has made it possible for us to be more content with the N. woman after some troubles, since she has changed her mind in a number of matters that caused us grief and is trying to be closer to us than before. This morning she revealed a matter to me that means a lot to me because it leads me to recognize the divine wisdom and goodness that is governing us; and this strengthens and comforts me to perform my office without bothering about the judgment of others. Everything is finally becoming clear. She is quite poor, and we will gladly do all that is possible for her and her children, provided everything can be done in a proper way.

So far N. has lived in discord with his wife, and each blames the other. Before the prayer meeting I talked with them in moving terms and showed them the true foundation that must be laid in our hearts if a marital and Christian union is to be effected even in external matters. After this and renewed admonitions, I shall watch how they have made room for my words, and in the absence of true improvement I shall more seriously exercise my office toward them, so that this rough man, who is chiefly to blame for this sad state of affairs, may see that we insist on discipline among us and do not take such sins lightly.

Sunday, the 21st of January. On this day fifty persons came to Holy Communion.

Monday, the 22nd of January. Despite her poverty a woman has restored a portion of what she stole some years ago during her service, and she has promised to restore the rest at a later time. She told me with much emotion what the dear Lord had done to her soul from the mercy of His heart in the last and other prayer and repetition meetings by showing her much more clearly and strongly what she had heard in the morning service; and this I also heard from several others. May God be praised for such tangible encouragement in my work, which is so pleasant to my heart. She brought me her Bible so that I might underline for her the strength-giving verses that are particularly found in the exordia.

Tuesday, the 23rd of January. For some days now it has been as lovely as spring, and the blossoms have started to appear on the peach trees; this is much too early, however, because we will have to expect many and long frosts throughout February. There was an unusually violent storm in the evening, which lasted only for a few minutes but which blew down many of our fences. I was much surprised that in our large garden the thick oaken fence posts have already rotted through and been toppled by this wind, although they are less than two years old. The posts which support my hut have now been in the ground for three years and are quite rotten too. It is thus almost dangerous to stay in this dwelling much longer. The carpenters are still cutting wood for my house and will probably be finished this week. How I shall praise the dear Lord in heaven when I, like many other Salzburgers, finally have proper quarters wherein I can protect myself from the unpleasant and inconstant weather.

Wednesday, the 24th of January. Many of the people in this colony long for the return of Mr. Oglethorpe from Frederica, and our listeners much desire him to come to our town. I am aware of their desire to ask him for the removal of some of the disorderly among us. I believe that, when the measure of these is full and they are ready for God’s judgment, they will be taken care of by His intercession; I myself will not remove them unless their excesses are too offensive, for this might cause much offence and calumny among those not well acquainted with the true circumstances.

Thursday, the 25th of January. It has been a great service to the community that they have been provided with two families of German people who work here as herdsmen.⁹ They have to support them only with such provisions as they grow themselves, and the clothing is provided from the poor box and the orphanage. If these Germans remain as reliable as they have shown themselves until now, the community will do for them whatever is within their power, for they are much concerned that their cattle be well guarded. We hope that the Lord Trustees will leave these herdsmen not only for one year, but for the term of their indentured service.

Friday, the 26th of January. Those in the community who have a chance to earn something for their support in helping in the construction of my house are very glad of it and almost consider their well-earned wages as a gift, thanking God for the opportunity and the strength that He has given them for this service. There are many who need food and clothing and who are barely making out in this respect; these would be only too glad if they were needed for some weeks to help in the work. However, it is not possible to employ everyone, seeing that we have to be as parsimonious as possible so that the house will not cost too much. And I would never have thought that a simple house of one storey, with two living rooms and two small bedrooms, would cost as much as I now already realize that it will cost, when not even all the wood has been cut. However, the Salzburgers are rendering most loyal work and earn their money by the sweat of their brows, and such a house would easily cost three times as much if it were to be built by others. The wood is very tough and much more difficult to work than in Germany, as our carpenters have told us several times. All the more surprising is the fact that it rots much more quickly than in Germany.

I have long shied away from this construction and would not have started it now had not dire necessity dictated it. The best timber is being cut away month by month; and, if we had waited another year, we would have had to travel far in order to find good trees, and this would have increased the costs. Nor will our people be able to continue working forever for their present wage of eighteen pence and two shillings, since the carpenters in Savannah and elsewhere ask for four shillings. May the dear Lord look upon my and our listeners’ prayers with grace and grant as much as will be necessary for this construction, for I have nothing to this end. We will have to see what Mr. Oglethorpe will contribute.

Saturday, the 27th of January. My physical weakness and all sorts of business have prevented me from going into the Salzburgers’ huts as much as I would have liked to this week. Even if we talk to our listeners only about external matters, we are much edified by their honesty and serious and humble nature; and this is even more true when we take the occasion, or are asked by them, to talk of Christian matters. In the course of this week our dear Lord has richly edified my soul from that which has been treated in the prayer meetings from the word of the Lord, although I have not learned very much.¹⁰ I have been incommodated by the fever, which has prevented some of my work; but it has not been strong enough to confine me to bed.

Sunday, the 28th of January. The dear Lord has again given us much edification from his holy word, and we have had cause to praise His name in this regard. In the morning we treated the regular gospel for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany, namely, the imitation of Christ, what it is, and what good it brings us. In the afternoon, my colleague treated of the Third Commandment.¹¹ Several people in the community work on their plantations during the week but come here on Saturdays for the prayer meeting and stay over Sunday.

Regarding the cowherd who is guarding our cattle in the woods several miles from here,¹² we have made a good arrangement that every Saturday he is relieved by two men from the community, so that he and his family may come to church. However, he is not quite as industrious in this respect as others. After the repetition hour, a fairly large group of people of both sexes met in the orphanage for prayer. I had promised to repeat the other part of the sermon on this occasion, an exercise which is both necessary and most beneficial and edifying by God’s grace. However, I was so tired from prior talking that we only summarized what had been heard in our prayer, after having sung a hymn. We have had mild weather these days, and thus everything was very convenient.

FEBRUARY

Thursday, the 1st of February. At noon I returned in good health to Ebenezer from my voyage. Mr. Oglethorpe had not yet returned to Savannah. It had been assumed that he might come yesterday, but we received news that he might leave Frederica as late as next week. Since some of the English did not pay for their recently obtained male and female servants and cannot even support them with food and clothing, Captain Thomson says that Mr. Oglethorpe may be willing to send another few families to our town, since he knows the treatment that such poor people can expect here.¹ However, I did not wish to say much on this matter prior to talking to the congregation about it; for neither I nor my colleague are able to take any of them into our own service, although I would dearly have liked, out of compassion, to have accepted a family of four who had very good references and who movingly asked me to take them. Captain Thomson was in Savannah; and, since he will go back to England shortly via Charleston, I hurriedly wrote a brief letter to Court Preacher Ziegenhagen and enclosed the last part of the diary. I had left a fairly large packet of letters and our enclosed diary in Savannah as early as December, so that it might be given to the said Captain for delivery, he being in Frederica at the time. However, I learned that it had already been forwarded to Charleston, and I hope that it may be properly delivered.

In Savannah, I learned that a boat carrying people from Purysburg had capsized between Port Royal and Savannah and that all on board had perished in the water. The body of a maidservant was found, as well as a little box with papers from which the identity of those who died could be inferred, i.e. a French doctor from Purysburg and his wife and children, as well as some Frenchmen who had accompanied these people from Charleston to Purysburg.² We well knew the entire family, and those who knew their offensive, almost atheist views, must look upon their fate as a special judgment of the Lord.

Friday, the 2nd of February. A man told me that his conscience forced him to reveal to me that he had heard an ignorant man utter harsh words against his wife in anger; I shall reproach that man for his sinful conduct and shall examine him myself shortly. Some people become angry if they cannot have their way, and then they betray the wicked bottom of their heart. This, however, enables us to convince them all the more strongly of their unchanged heart and to admonish them seriously to earn their salvation.

Tuesday, the 6th of February. As a result of the recent and pleasant spring weather the trees have started to show buds, and some of them are in full bloom; however, there are signs of more rough weather to come, and in other years this month has brought us some harsh night frosts. Now that we have become accustomed to this land, the Salzburgers like it better than their former homeland. They can work all winter in their fields, and it is particularly convenient that they can use the river to transport their things by boat to and from our place, whereas in other countries, as for example in Pennsylvania, everything has to be transported by horse and cart from one place to the other. Also, the river is navigable both summer and winter.

Wednesday, the 7th of February. The potter from Savannah³ has been looking for lime and clay in our vicinity for his trade, but then he found a whole mound of stones⁴ of which he took as many as his boat would carry and transported them to Savannah. He hopes to fire lime from the white kind he found; and he promised to let me know as best he could through our people whether that is possible or not. I do not think that these stones are strong enough to withstand a hot fire, but they might well serve to line a cellar or well. This man could hardly find words enough to praise the opportunity that we have, in contrast to others in this colony, to fire bricks,⁵ and he has offered to show our people or those among them who are interested in this trade, how to fire them without kilns. I have made similar suggestions on several occasions, but no one among our people wants to engage in this, although there are some among the men who have worked in bricksheds in Germany.

In one woman, the sins of her youth relating to the Fourth Commandment⁶ have stirred her conscience so that she wishes she could spend only a few hours in Germany so as to speak to those whom she has offended. I told her that that was not what she needed, for it would give her as little peace as was true for the dove that flew back and forth over the earth and found its peace only in Noah’s ark. The well of grace is still flowing, and everyone may drink of it. Another complained that the struggle against the sins in her was so heavy on her heart that she felt she would not overcome; she cried much when telling me this. I comforted her with the words: “Therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,” etc., and showed her from this that true Christians as spiritual soldiers do not only do battle, but suffer much in such battles, and overcome through their suffering. For, if it is a bitter pain to them that they still feel their sin within them and they pray and fight against it, then this will please the Lord. God will also permit the enemies to become strong and thus make the soldier feel his incompetence and weakness, as if he could not succeed, was bound to remain in one place, and had to succumb. Such humiliation, however, is most beneficial to our souls, I said, so that they may despair more and more of themselves and their strength and thus be forced to raise their eyes all the more to the mountain from which cometh our help, etc.

It is essential, I said, to despair more and more of oneself, but not of the help of the Lord. We shall shortly have an illustration of this in the story of Joshua, chapter 7, concerning the Israelites, whom God permitted to be beaten by their enemies for their humiliation and the recognition of their worthlessness.

The same woman complained bitterly of her useless, feeble prayer. If she could find no pleasure in it, she asked, how then could the Lord? I told her that, once she began to find pleasure in her prayer, this would but start a new struggle in her. Such prayer as arises from the recognition of our misery and the poverty of the spirit and is said in the name of Christ pleases the Lord, however pitiful and skimpy it might sound. I pointed out to her the prayer of Joshua in the aforementioned chapter 7. Reason might find much fault with it, and Joshua himself might not have found it to be free of fault; yet he brought it to the Ark of the Covenant, and thus through the seat of grace to God, and He accepted it, and its faults were covered and overlooked.

Thursday, the 8th of February. A certain person is much annoyed with me for having cited, in a recent prayer meeting and in connection with Joshua 7, the 5th chapter of the Corinthians, as if I wished to arouse the congregation thereby to expel another person, although in fact I did not say a single word about that woman and her most recent misbehavior, nor was I in need of doing so, as she is still under church discipline because of her previous vexations. The implication of the chapter referred to is as follows:

We learned from Joshua 7 that the Children of Israel, having ordered only 3,000 men for the taking of the city of Ai because of the frivolous and overly confident advice of their spies, had been driven to flight and had lost 36 men, the causes for which were stated as follows: (1) It had happened for their humiliation, so that they might recognize that without the Lord they could do nothing; for, if they were to conquer the entire land, they should not attribute this to their own strength, etc. The application of this is that in Christianity, too, God often chooses such paths for His people for their humiliation.

(2) It had happened because there was an accursed thing among them and God had to arouse them through this rod of chastisement to seek out this accursed thing and remove it. Also, we see in the following passage that God did not name the evil-doer but commanded Joshua to seek him out himself. And thus He approves if those who are in positions of authority seek out malice and malicious persons and try to expose godless behavior; for, if they are slack and negligent and fail to expel the rotten members, to their own shame and as a warning to others, then they will be participating in the sins of others⁷ and God will charge them with the sins of one or several others, as in verses 1, 11, and 12. He has put each of us in charge of his neighbor.

In this connection I also compared the verse Hebrews 12:15, where it is clearly stated that they should look diligently, lest, etc. Moreover, when superiors and other honest members are careless, lackadaisical, and negligent in matters of offense, God must awake them by judgment and chastisement. We have not only the example in 1 Corinthians 5, where Paul was much dissatisfied with them because of their negligence and conceit, but I also, and expressly, cited 1 Corinthians 11:30 and 32, which was well suited as an illustration of my intent. It is not only this person who causes offense; there are several others in this class, and like Eli it would ill behoove us if we were to sit still in the presence of such occurrences and fail to use serious words openly and specifically. Thus I have clearly stated my mind as required on the occasion of this 7th chapter of Joshua.

I assume that N. has also resented what I had said last Sunday concerning the regular gospel Matthew 13:24 ff. I showed that it would be an ill use of the words of Christ, “Let both grow together,” if we were to conclude therefrom that we should let wickedness and wicked malicious people act as they wish and leave them to their judgment. Such an interpretation would be contrary to what Christ Himself said in Matthew 18 and to what Paul said through the Holy Ghost in 1 Corinthians 5:13, and to other verses. Rather, this should be our view: The true members of the church should not weed out those who are like a tare in their understanding and their way of living, that is to say, they should not use physical force, persecute, and expunge them because they are not good wheat but tares and do not want to be converted. For this I cited Matthew 26:51 and Luke 9:54. On the other hand, church discipline and exclusion from the community of the church and its privileges are not contrary to the will of Christ and His kingdom, but instead most necessary for the sake of such offensive people and others. In this respect, I showed them that every man in Christendom should be considered duplici respectu:⁸ (1) as a member of the Christian community, and (2) as a member of the polity and external human society, in which respect he is under the authority of the powers that be. If he sins against the order of Christ and His church by serious offenses, he will fall under the discipline of the church for his good and that of others; if he sins against the secular law and disturbs the external peace, he will fall into the hands of the authorities. Inasmuch as the wicked among us do not wish to see this distinction, they speak ill of the harshness and cruelty which is used when their godless ways are countered with serious measures.

In the repetition hour I talked again about the material presented in the morning concerning the children of the wicked one and showed them that they act like their father the evil one: he sows the seed of malice and false teachings, and then he leaves and will not acknowledge that he has committed evil. It is the manner of many wicked men that they commit evil as often as they have occasion to, but afterwards they act just as is written of a kind of godless people in Proverbs 30:10,⁹ “Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.”

I wished to state the relevance of my preachings in such detail so that, if N. should gather up all sorts of things and send them to London, our impartial friends and Fathers may recognize how the truth will always offend the wicked. The worthy Senior Preu in Augsburg once wrote us a most instructive and comforting letter; and, among other beneficial instructions on our office, he quoted this: “Above all, prevent all troubles as soon as they start; for, once these grow and become strong as a river, they will tear down much, if not all, in their path and then almost nothing will help.”

Friday, the 9th of February. Today the carpenters finished cutting the wood for my house, after having spent thirty-one days on this task. Because they had sent me news of the completion of this work, I went to visit them in the woods toward evening so as to praise the Lord with them for His assistance, His removal of all danger from their heads, and for all the good of which He has let them partake. We also implored Him for further blessing on the building and completion of our house. May He give us from His large inexhaustible treasure the means to defray our expenses! Nobody would have thought that the preparation of the wood would take so much time; instead, the estimate had been for 20 days. But our Father knows what we need.

Saturday, the 10th of February. My dear colleague travelled to Savannah this morning in order to preach the word of the Lord there to the German people, if God be willing. May He give him His merciful blessing and assistance for this task. The weather has changed and we have strong winds and rains.

Muggitzer is back again to collect the money for the things he has sold.¹⁰ He has engaged himself as a overseer of black slaves in Carolina, which is a very evil profession. Ordinarily, only such people are used for this task as can be quite merciless with these poor slaves. It may be assumed that Riedelsperger, who left our place some time ago by very crooked paths, has also taken on this type of work. In this manner both he and Muggitzer will fare very badly with respect to their souls. It is common knowledge that life on the plantations of the wealthy people in Carolina is both offensive and atheistic.

Sunday, the 11th of February. It has rained almost all day; and both last night and yesterday afternoon, especially toward evening, we had a penetrating rain. For this reason, yesterday’s prayer meeting had to be called off, and I therefore took over the conclusion of the story from the 7th chapter of Joshua this afternoon instead of the catechism, which my dear colleague wishes to take himself in the proper order. The morning sermon on Matthew 17 ff. was repeated in the evening at the orphanage for the assembled children and others. God blessed this in me; and may He also bless this in the community, the adults and the children.

Monday, the 12th of February. A woman of the congregation told me this morning that her conscience had been full of disquiet and fear on the occasion of the story we have read so far from the 7th chapter of Joshua, so that she could not find rest day or night. She carried an accursed thing on her conscience: in her homeland a man had passed by on horseback and his purse, which he had carried on his belt, had opened and he had lost much money from it. She had seen it and picked up a handful and kept a guilder for herself. When the man had noticed his loss and saw her behind him, he accepted the money she held in her hand and returned to him, but she denied keeping the guilder. Her own people had told her she had been foolish not to keep the other money she had found, and therefore she had believed she was right in keeping the one guilder. Now, however, she realized full well why she could not make headway in her struggle, could not overcome and reach the true spirit of Christianity, for that was the accursed thing on her from which she would like to free herself. She had no money, but she would like to restore the theft from the crop that God would grant her.

A Salzburger man told me with great joy that, during the repetition in the orphanage, God had given him a beautiful blessing from the introductory words of John 17:24, “Father, I will . . . ,” etc. This report from this man was all the more pleasant, since I knew that he had suffered much disquiet and worry on Saturday because of some external affairs; but he had not let this deter him from properly celebrating Sunday. Even among the good souls, there often occur outward circumstances that are quite unpleasant and upsetting; but our dear and faithful Lord helps in all these cases and also teaches us this: “For those who love God, all things will turn out for the best.”

I found a few men discussing external business together; and, in accordance with the example of Joshua, who was much concerned with removing the accursed thing from Israel and with reconciling the Israelites with God (cf. 7:16), I sought to awaken them to seriousness and industriousness in achieving their salvation (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:2–3). They urged me to come into their quarters so as to pray with them, and on this prayer the dear Lord bestowed His blessing in such a manner that one of the men later took me to his hut so that I could speak with him and his wife for their edification in accordance with their circumstances. They had run into some discord with each other, for which the wife was entirely at fault because of her carelessness. She pays too little attention to her household and its economy, and this causes much loss and places a double burden on the husband. I read to her in particular the 31st chapter of Proverbs, verses 10 ff., through which I could give her many good admonitions. May God bless all this for the sake of His Son.

Tuesday, the 13th of February. Yesterday afternoon my dear colleague returned home safely and brought the news that Mr. Oglethorpe had written to the storekeeper in Savannah with the order to send all those Germans for whom the English could not pay to our place, where they shall be employed as we see fit, on the same conditions and in the same manner as applied to those whom he had sent before. It is to be hoped that this means that the people who take in the new servants shall be obliged to pay a yearly interest to the orphanage, as was Mr. Oglethorpe’s instruction when he let us have the six young girls. It would indeed be of great benefit for the orphanage if the Salzburgers were in a position to pay such interest, which runs to 13 shillings sterling per year for each person. However, they would rather not accept anybody than to enter such an agreement, which it is not in their power to observe. The food and clothing which they must give to such servants are very expensive in this country, and they would have to work hard to accumulate such a sum. On the other hand, inasmuch as the poor and tormented Germans in Savannah would receive a great benefit by being accepted here, and since our people would also eventually have some profit and help from such servants, the latter shall be accepted here without obliging our people to pay anything to the orphanage for their services. If God will bless them and if they wish to be grateful, they will always find a way to show their gratitude to the orphanage.

Last night I talked to the men in the village regarding these new servants, and some soon declared their willingness to accept them. This time there will be about ten of them, for whom the boat has been sent this morning. One family, which is of good repute, will be kept by the manager of the orphanage and will be maintained by the orphanage.¹¹ He will place them on his own plantation, and the harvest from this land is for the benefit of the orphanage. In this manner, the orphanage will also be protected against any complaints which would be made if the trees were left standing on that plantation and if the manager were not willing or able to participate in the joint preparation of fences. I hope that the Lord, who knows of our shortages in regard to the orphanage, will soon let us see His blessing. The acceptance of these poor, well-meaning people is to be considered as a great charity on the part of our community, for which they will doubtless show their gratitude to the Lord and seek to avail themselves of this opportunity for their salvation.

N.N.¹² also has taken in his service two of these German people, a man and his wife, who will be rather poorly off in regard to food and clothing in this position; but they are prepared to suffer this provided that they may stay at our place and avail themselves of God’s word. The woman, whom I visited while she was ill with the fever, told me that she thanks God for being here; she is calling to Him and hopes that He will let them see better times with respect to their physical needs. It is her resolution, she said, to become a true Christian with His help. She had always liked to go to church, and preachers in her town had preached well; nonetheless, she had never understood so clearly what was necessary for her salvation as here.

A few men who have also shown themselves frivolous in other matters have caused some dispute because of a whetstone on their plantations, and the wicked N. was the prime mover in this affair. I learned of this; and, since I feared discord, anger, and further disturbance among these people, I went out after the morning classes so as to inform myself fully of the matter and prevent an even worse dispute. I also used the occasion to visit some other plantations, where I talked to some of the workers for the benefit of their souls; in two newly erected huts I prayed with several people who had gathered there and consecrated the huts, which much pleased everyone.

Wednesday, the 14th of February. A Salzburger woman was much pleased that I told her little six-month-old some good things about the Lord Jesus. She does the same and, in repeating to the child some edifying words or prayers, she feels that the Holy Ghost will do His work in the child’s heart, even if we cannot understand it. I also learned from the woman that keeping her daughter away from the last Communion had been of good effect, for she is now much better, more orderly, more obedient, and more industrious than before and prays with greater seriousness.

Thursday, the 15th of February. Since yesterday Mrs. Herrnberger has been in hard labor, and her condition is worse than that of any woman we have seen here before. Since nobody knew in what way to help her, the wife of a Frenchman who owns a plantation in Carolina not far away from here offered her services and God blessed her in this. As we have been told, the child had died several days before in the mother’s womb and therefore did not emerge in the right position. The circumstances of the woman’s delivery are said to have been extremely painful and traumatic. But God has let the mother escape with her life from this trial. Experienced women who assisted in the delivery much praised the French woman’s skill. This case has led many to prayer.

I have learned that the tailor, Metzscher of Purysburg, who some time ago had placed two of his children in our orphanage and school, has also been affected by the recent disaster in which a boat from Purysburg capsized near the sea, with all the people in it killed. He lost three children on this occasion, a grown son of about 19 years, one of 13, and a girl of 10. His wife had left him again during the harvest and had taken two of the children.¹³ When the man learned that she lived by begging in Charleston, he sent his grown son after her to bring back the children with the help of the authorities, and all three took passage on the boat that was destined for Purysburg. All three drowned together with eleven others. The man should not consider this judgment to have come for naught; for his house has been in great disorder at all times, and it is to be hoped that he may use these sad circumstances for his true conversion.

The German people who were brought here yesterday¹⁴ show themselves very glad to have been saved, as they say it, from barbarism and slavery and thus brought to freedom. They hardly can say enough to describe their previous treatment. The woman met me in the street this morning and searched for words to wish upon me all the blessing of the Lord for having contributed to her acceptance in our community.

Saturday, the 17th of February. An Englishman told me the contents of the petition which the citizens of Savannah, from the highest to the lowest, have addressed to the Lord Trustees and of which a copy was sent to Mr. Oglethorpe in Frederica.¹⁵ They ask: (1) For full power to dispose of their land as they wish, i.e. to sell it or to give it away to whomever they wish. (2) For free and full commerce with the West Indies, so that they may import from there not only a few restricted goods but all that can be bought, including rum, for their own trade here. For, unless they also buy rum from the merchants there, they are refused sugar, molasses or syrup, and other goods. If, however, such free trade were permitted, they hope that many ships will come from the West Indies to Savannah to deliver their cargo and load up with cut and sawed wood, boards, etc., of which there is said to be a great shortage down there, to the benefit of the inhabitants here, for otherwise no one can subsist in Savannah. (3) For a limited number of Negroes or Moorish slaves, without whom no Englishman here can exist. They cannot get anywhere with the whites, whom they cannot treat as they would the Negroes, the fault for which condition, however, is to be blamed more on the masters than on the servants.

It is said that many copies of this petition, which is a special document that is most obnoxious to Mr. Oglethorpe, have reached friends of high rank and members of Parliament in England and Scotland. It was drafted and sent, it is said, because the people in Savannah had learned that the citizens of Frederica had likewise drafted and sent a petition to the Trustees in London, wherein they requested the very opposite of the previous three articles, viz, to refuse permission for free disposition over the land, free commerce with the West Indies, and the introduction of Negro slaves. The original of the Savannah petition will be presented to the Lord Trustees themselves by a gentleman merchant from Savannah, a Captain Williams, who may well be the author of this document.¹⁶ He is intending to travel to England shortly on his vessel via St. Christopher. If he should not succeed with the Trustees, he is empowered to present it to the King’s Privy Council and to Parliament.

Monday, the 19th of February. This morning, after joint prayer, we started the workers on the construction of our house. Shortly before I had read the 3rd chapter of St. Luke with my family and had been much impressed with the words: “When Jesus prayed, the heavens were opened unto him.” Since we have been promised by our dear Savior, in Matthew 7:7-8, that to him who knocketh it shall be opened, the connection between these two passages so strengthened me that I shall trust in our almighty heavenly Father in Christ to open His heaven and His good treasure also in response to our poor prayer (Deuteronomy 28:12) and to provide as many physical gifts as shall be required for the payment of the workers.

Tuesday, the 20th of February. Yesterday afternoon we both visited N. N.¹⁷ on their plantation and prayed with them in their newly erected hut. Both are very industrious, but probably cannot obtain as much from their land for themselves as those who have been accustomed to field work from childhood on. They have cleaned about an acre and a half from trees and underbrush and hope to have three acres prepared by planting time, their health permitting. Their food and other means of sustenance are very poor, which does not leave them much strength for work; but they are patient and await the help of the Lord. They came to us in great poverty, and we have tried to help them get started, partly with money and some goods, and partly with intercessions on their behalf. However, since they have been quite abandoned by N. N.¹⁸ and do not receive the least support from home and, finally, since they have had about the worst harvest among all the people, they are truly very poorly off.

Wednesday, the 21st of February. As I talked today to the children in the orphanage, as is my habit on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the wife of the manager reminded me of the sad accident that killed the three children of the Purysburg tailor when their boat capsized. I remembered that all three had been for some time in our school and had heard much good for the salvation of their souls. The oldest, who had been prepared for the Lord’s table by us, had made a good start and gave us much hope for his conversion. However, he was said to have learned the bad and disorderly life again after he left us and even to have become a curser and a blasphemer of God’s name.¹⁹

Using this example, I impressed upon the children how necessary and blessed it is to accept the Lord’s mercy for our conversion and to learn to fear Him, early in life, yea, even from childhood on, as is written of Obadiah in 1 Kings 18:12, “I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth.” In last night’s prayer meeting we discussed the example of the Gibeonites who had been much concerned for the safety of their lives even in the times before they were made subject to the courts. Not only did they abstain from uniting with the other Canaanites against Joshua and Israel, but they did not leave it to chance whether or not they would stay alive, but earnestly sought to emerge with their lives as their booty.²⁰ In this prudent and careful manner they put to shame many Christians, who gamble with eternity and comfort themselves that they will fare as others have fared. They hope that God will not be too strict with them because he is merciful. All of this is a pitiful and dangerous delusion of safety, from which may our pious Savior protect us and our children!

Thursday, the 22nd of February. Because of his physical weakness, Eischberger is still incapable of working in the fields, as much as he needs to do so and as much as he is willing. His right arm seems to be withering, and he is suffering from pain and discomfort in almost all members. He would gladly and carefully follow our doctor’s cure, if he could but obtain one. Whenever I visit him, I find him in good spiritual state, and it is clear that he wishes to become certain of the state of his salvation and his soul. He knows how to retain and recite many good verses and evangelical truths, which serve him as a lesson, warning, and comfort so that we ourselves are edified and delighted. We should gladly do everything toward improving his health if it were within our power.

Friday, the 23rd of February. Until now we have experienced pleasant spring weather; it has been a warm day and night, and some rain has fallen now and then. Our people have started planting their potatoes²¹ as if no frost were to be expected. They do it with such industriousness at this stage for the sake of the greens from which the potatoes will grow, which are better if planted in the ground as early as possible. The tertian and quartan fevers will not cease among us, and there are still many among us who suffer from the attacks, although they are no longer as violent as in the first and second year. This year, the quartan fever is the more common; and some of the people drag themselves around with it for a long time yet keep doing some work. A new group of Indians has come to Savannah, and it is being said that they seek Mr. Oglethorpe’s friendship and will receive some gifts, for which reason Mr. Oglethorpe is being expected with certainty any day now. These Indians are said to have suffered much from the French and are therefore seeking the protection of the English.

Saturday, the 24th of February. N.’s wife is not only an industrious listener but also a doer of God’s word, and I am delighted at the mercy she has received for her earnest conduct in Christian ways and which she treasures with great poverty of the spirit. God is blessing her words and her example in others; she will not believe it, however, but considers herself the most useless and despicable creature. Her greatest complaint is about the sluggishness and weakness of her prayer, and she would not be surprised if God were to reject her because of her great unrighteousness. My council for her and her kind is mostly to the effect that such persons should not let themselves be kept away from the Lord Jesus by the recognition of their unworthiness and their lack of faith and righteousness, but rather they should let this feeling of their lack drive them to Him all the more, and all the more quickly and constantly, for He calls to Himself those who labor and are heavy laden and will strengthen them with righteousness and strength.

During last evening’s prayer meeting, we learned from Joshua 10 ff. that, when the Gibeonites were attacked and besieged by the Canaanite kings, they had implored Joshua for his help and had comforted themselves with his succor, (1) because they were his servants and (2) because they were suffering and persecuted for a good cause. They may well have remembered the canny and fraudulent means by which they had tried to insinuate themselves with Joshua, but this did not prevent them from seeking help and salvation earnestly, and they did in fact receive it.

Sunday, the 25th of February. The pleasant weather is continuing, and the dear Lord has also let the sun of His mercy shine on us from the gospel, so that on this day we have had much edification among ourselves from His blessing.

The old carpenter from Purysburg,²² who is helping to build my house, visited me; and I learned from his discourse on the inner nature of Christendom that he has not only a fine recognition, but also experience in matters spiritual. He leads a quiet Christian life among us and does his work faithfully according to his strength, although he is a bit slow. He attends our prayer meetings and services as regularly as anyone else in the community, and I hear from others that attending them gives him edification and pleasure.

Monday, the 26th of February. Since my dear colleague left for Savannah this morning, I conducted the prayer meeting tonight, beginning with the Sermon on the Mount of our dear Lord Christ, which came up in the sequence of the stories from the New Testament. It is noteworthy here, as it says in Luke, that Jesus lifted His eyes upon His disciples. True, He saw all the multitude around Him, but in particular He looked upon His disciples, who were the poor in spirit, whom He so praises as blessed and of whom it is said in Isaiah 66, “I shall look at the miserable,” etc. This should be a comfort for all those among us who are miserable. May the Lord let them recognize this through His spirit.

Tuesday, the 27th of February. Today a couple of women from the orphanage visited my helpmeet while I was in the school for the afternoon; and upon my return I found them in prayer. When the prayer ended, they joined me in my room where one of them in particular spoke to me about the condition of her soul; and finally we prayed together.

MARCH

Thursday, the 1st of March. Last night we had thunderstorms and much rain, which will be of great benefit for the land. For several weeks now we have had wonderful growing weather; and it now remains to be seen whether we shall have more frost, as has occurred at this time and even later in previous years.

I met a man in the street who complained of his offense against a neighboring woman, to whom he had uttered angry words about another man. He knows, he said, that anger is wicked, but that it is worse to remain angry; and he therefore wished to be reconciled with those whom he offended. It was also to this end that I admonished him and made some suggestions.

On the occasion of the previous prayer meetings and our recent examination of the Sixth Commandment,¹ a woman has experienced a renewed disquiet in her heart, and she feels that she cannot be content until she has unloaded everything from her heart and been disgraced before other people. She would gladly bear this, if she could only find mercy and forgiveness before the Lord and gain certainty of her state of grace. She therefore wished that my house would soon be finished, so that she could confess all the better. I told her that, although the confession of certain serious sins is both necessary and useful in some circumstances, she should seek rest for her grieving soul not in that course, but solely in Christ’s blood and wounds. Since God made her feel her sins so strongly and painfully, this was a move from the Father to the Son, whom He had sent into the world as the Savior of all sinners, and who wished to have all sinners close to Him so that He might save and deliver them. She should truly learn that the Savior had atoned in full for all her sins and paid for them; if she could take this in as part of her faith and make it her own (which is, of course, the Father’s will), she would gain her peace. I guided her to 1 Corinthians 6:11, and read her the song, Wenn dein hertzliebster Sohn, o Gott, nicht wär, etc., and left her another for her own use, namely, Kein grösser Trost kan seyn im Schmertz, als, etc.²

Recently, N.N. has sinned by cursing offensively while in anger; and for this reason he has been kept from Holy Communion until he repents and recognizes his sin and asks for forgiveness. He is now ready to accept the deserved discipline and thus remove the offense; but I shall give him more time so that we, his wife, and others may work on him for his true improvement. Apart from this, he is still quite stupid and ignorant.

Friday, the 2nd of March. I met N. while she was singing the song Mein Jesu, dem die Seraphinen, etc.; and, since she had just sung the words, “I know you cannot reject me, how could you be so merciless,” etc., I hoped the Holy Ghost would give her power to incorporate these dear final evangelical words into her faith so that she could hold them up to her faithful Savior even during her hours of temptation.³ She told me how things had gone with her a short while ago; she had fallen into the most oppressive spiritual condition, in which she had only been able to crawl from one corner to the other as an impotent worm before the face of the Lord, unable to pray a single word or even to present the misery of her soul in her own thought and heart by sighing. But when she had thus whimpered for some time, she said, it had become lighter in her heart and it appeared to her as if her spirit had heard the call: “Fear not, for I am with thee,” etc.; and from that time on things had gone better for her. She also said that she asked nothing more of the Lord than that He not reject her, although she well merited that; for all else, He should treat her as He wished. She was looking forward to our feast of remembrance and thanksgiving,⁴ and she was resolved to thank the Lord for all His mercy and charity which He had shown to her, her late husband, and her children, particularly for having brought her to the gospel and to the recognition of the right path of salvation. She trusts more and more that the dear Lord will finally draw her children to Himself, since He had shown her so much mercy and has brought her to this country.

Because we intend to celebrate our remembrance and thanksgiving feast tomorrow, tonight’s prayer meeting was largely directed to this end, as much as the Bible stories would permit, so as to prepare our minds for its proper celebration. In particular, in concluding the 11th chapter of Joshua, we learned, among other things, something about the constancy of the Israelites in the battles of the Lord; for, as it is believed, it took a full seven years until they had subdued the largest part of the Canaanites and rendered them incapable of taking back their land, and had themselves taken possession of their long promised heritage. During this time they had, it is true, experienced many trials and exercises in patience and in obedience to the Lord’s will; but they had also seen much proof of the Lord’s goodness, forbearance, and providence. I left it to the audience’s own reflections and consideration to judge how they would have felt in their hearts if they had been among the Israelites, had been led along similar paths, and had been forced to bide their time, all the while waiting to take possession of their land, in huts, without any proper means of housekeeping, and subject to such hardships as war brings with it. Each of us would know in his heart whether he had been content with God’s guidance when we incurred some delays in taking possession of our land and had to undergo much inconvenience.

Inasmuch as the Lord now had provided help and let us take possession of our land and provided other beneficial arrangements, it was our duty to thank Him all the more from the bottom of our hearts. I also asked my listeners to retain carefully in their hearts that which is noted in this chapter, both in regard to the meticulous fulfillment of the Lord’s promises which He had given through Moses to the children of Israel regarding the land Canaan, and also concerning the obedience of Joshua and the children of Israel to the Lord’s commandments. They would soon find, I said, that the Lord has richly fulfilled in us too all His promises, both spiritually and materially, for which we owe Him both praise and honor. But they would likewise soon realize that, in the matter of obedience to His commandments, much is still lacking, and that they should thus observe our day of thanksgiving also as a day of repentance.

Saturday, the 3rd of March. In grateful memory of God’s great mercy, which He has shown to us at sea and now for some years in this country, we have celebrated again today a day of thanksgiving and remembrance, and our dear listeners have assembled several times to hear the Lord’s word, to sing, and to pray; and I had heard from some among them even earlier this week that they had looked forward to this day with great joy. In the morning I spoke to the text of Acts 9:31, “Then had the churches rest,” etc. In the afternoon, my dear colleague spoke to 1 Corinthians 3 :6-7, “I have planted,” etc. As usual, the children had memorized two Psalms for this day, namely, the 121st and the 127th; and they recited them publicly.

The morning text gave us the opportunity not only to recall the present physical and spiritual blessings provided by the Lord, in that He has kept us in peace and lets us live in a place where we can assemble quietly and without persecution, so as to edify ourselves both publicly and privately. I also reminded my listeners of how much good He had accomplished by the persecutions in their homeland, in the souls of many thousands of their countrymen, toward the extension of His kingdom; for He had chased them and driven them ever more closely to the free exercise of their religion and to the true recognition of Christ and the path to salvation by using as His tools the successors to the high priests and leaders of the Jewish people, that is, the Pope and his followers. For, if they had not been thus driven from their lands, one or the other soul might well have acquiesced and contented themselves with this or that version of the truth. And, since many had not wished to emigrate, they would probably have entangled themselves again, and more deeply, if they had not been driven out by force as suspicious people who were infected with the Protestant belief. And, since God has now brought them to peace and rest and saved them from persecution by others, it is incumbent upon them to follow in the steps of the first faithful expelled from Jerusalem and to confess Christ with heart and mouth before everyone so as to awaken others. See Acts 8:4, and 1 Thessalonians 5:11.

Sunday, the 4th of March. Today we celebrated Holy Communion with forty-four communicants. N.N., an otherwise ignorant and frivolous man, assured me that God had begun to bless in him, for the benefit of his soul, an accident by which a large branch from a tree had almost killed him and seriously injured his arm.

Right after the afternoon service my dear colleague, Mr. Boltzius, received a letter by express messenger from Savannah requesting him to go down there. He himself will report the reason for this message when the dear Lord has returned him safely to us. Because the time when we deal especially with the story of the Lord’s passion is now beginning, my dear colleague had chosen to introduce the sermon on Luke 18:31 ff. with the words from John 1 : 29: “Behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” May the dear Lord fill our hearts with the beautiful matter that is contained in this verse, just as John’s heart was filled with it, and teach us the right way of seeing.

Monday, the 5th of March. A little while ago an honest woman, who, like her husband, cannot read, came to me and told me, among other things, that she had to tell me something in praise of the Lord. God had listened to her prayer and united her husband with her in the spirit so that, whereas formerly each had prayed alone, they now prayed jointly in the morning and at night and took great pleasure in talking about the Lord Jesus. She had directed her husband to the example of N. and his wife, where the wife prayed first and was followed by her husband; but now that he has learned the prayer, he prays first and his wife prays after him. They should do likewise at first, she said, and afterwards he, as his wife’s head, should lead the prayer, and she would follow him. The dear Lord would certainly assist them in this. She was much pleased by this; for, she said, she had heard that no one should take care of himself alone, but should also take care of others. Thus it was only proper for a married couple, who were joined in the flesh, to take care of each other’s soul and thus be bound to each other in spirit.

Tuesday, the 6th of March. Last night in the prayer meeting I treated that part of the Sermon on the Mount wherein the Lord Jesus explains particularly the Fifth, Sixth, and Second Commandments.⁵ When I visited a married couple today, they told me how much they cherished hearing this; and the husband said that he wished the entire congregation had been there and had heard it. This evening we will have the last part of Matthew 5, wherein again something is demanded that is quite impossible for merely natural people, but which is in fact possible for true Christians who are anointed with the Holy Ghost and full of the love of the Lord. May the Lord Jesus, who suffered for us and left us His example, fill us with the power of the Holy Ghost so that we may follow in His path and think as He, Jesus Christ, thought.

Wednesday, the 7th of March. A sudden death occurred in Savannah, for which reason Mr. Thilo and I were summoned in haste by letter to travel there and help investigate the matter.⁶ We therefore departed last Sunday toward evening, running into dangerous situations twice while on the river during the night, but being delivered from any serious injury by the Lord’s providence. It is dangerous to travel by water during the night because of the many floating tree stumps and other wood, particularly as the boat is carried with the greatest speed by the current.

The aforementioned death occurred as follows: A man from among the German indentured servants of the first transport⁷ had received orders from the authorities to yield his musket to the constable or officer sent after him so that he, like the others, might be prevented from further shooting. However, he resisted, whereupon the constable, overcome with anger, hit him several times on the head with a leather riding crop. Finally, the man was overpowered and put in jail for resisting arrest. Upon entering the jail, he complained of a serious ache in his head, on which he had suffered many blows; and, when the prisoners were visited on Friday morning, he was found dead, having vomited all hard food he had eaten on the previous day. On the same morning the authorities set about to inspect the body, for which, according to English custom, twelve jurors or sworn honest men have been elected; in addition, the most renowned surgeon in the city as well as the storekeeper, Mr. Jones, have been summoned. Inasmuch as they cannot find any whip marks or other signs of injury, they did not consider it necessary to conduct an autopsy on the body, in particular on the head, although the widow insisted that they do so and caused witnesses to be heard under oath who testified, although with some contradictions, that he had received many blows on his head.

After Mr. Thilo discussed the matter with the city surgeon, he agreed that it was unnecessary, and might even be dangerous, to open the body, in that it had been dead for too long and the interior vessels might well have started to be affected by decomposition. At about this time Mr. Oglethorpe arrived from Savannah; and, because the German people were not content with the judgment of the jurors and of the two physicians, but demanded retribution, the widow addressed Mr. Oglethorpe, who then called me so that I would speak on his behalf; when she did not appear satisfied with his judgment either, he promised that he would make further inquiry into the circumstances of the death. This he did after dinner, at night, and asked me to be present.

These poor people see only the tragic happening, but not the judgment and the heavy hand of the Lord. The deceased was a wild man, spiteful and obstreperous during his life, and once would rather have me refuse him Holy Communion than promise his masters to improve and to hold his wife to her work. And thus it is with most of the servants from the first transport—they are disobedient loiterers, violators of the Sabbath, and drunkards, and they live in all sorts of disorder; and the only thing that surprises me is that they have been forgiven so much and not been punished with anything more severe than the withholding of their provisions. As a result, they go out to hunt and fish and even, as is being said, to steal. Some of these who belong to our church stated their desire to partake of Holy Communion next Sunday, but I refused this request pending their true improvement. There was a child to be baptized, whom I had fetched from the plantation.

Mr. Oglethorpe again showed great kindness to me; and, when he learned that the Salzburgers were requesting a new transport of their countrymen, he promised to do all he could to help and to give them their allowance in money rather than in provisions, so that each could buy what he needed for his sustenance. He has also given me good reason to hope that he will lend me such money as I might require for my house.⁸ But first he will travel to Charleston, and after his return I shall take the matter up again through the offices of his storekeeper and administrator. Our poor people urgently need the wages that can be earned in building, and I do not wish to make them wait too long.

Mr. Oglethorpe was not at all pleased to learn that a warrant was recently brought to Ebenezer and that the authorities interfered in our business.⁹ He is prepared to swear with hand and seal that I and my dear colleague have the power to settle any differences of opinion here and to send the disobedient who refuse to obey the rules to Savannah.

Yesterday afternoon Mr. Oglethorpe had all sorts of presents distributed among the foreign Indians,¹⁰ of which there were about forty. For this purpose the citizens led them through the town in a procession to the town hall (which also serves as the church). They came accompanied by the music common among them, marching down the street in a rather confused fashion, and one of them had an iron pot with a hide stretched over it carried before him, on which he beat with a stick in an even rhythm, as if it were a drum. To this constant sound the Indians shouted some things with loud voices, but all on one beat and note, and they each carried a white staff bound with colored feathers in one hand, as a sign of peace, and in the other hand they carried a certain hollow dried fruit like a gourd, in which had been placed a few dried kernels, which made a rattling sound. All this, the drum as well as the chanting and the noise of the aforementioned kernels, was at one constant beat and was well coordinated: they all ceased at one time and recommenced at one time. With this music they arrived before Mr. Oglethorpe at the town hall and inclined their heads and their staffs of peace before him. Then eight of them, who are said to be their chiefs, stepped out before him, placed, one after the other, an animal skin at his feet as a gift, offered Mr. Oglethorpe their hand, and then talked to him one after the other through a French interpreter, who speaks their language.

In their speeches, they mainly sought presents from the English. Among other things they asked for horses, pistols, and money, with which they would seek to convince the French in their territory that they had not been made slaves by the English but had been treated as friends. However, nothing else was offered but the presents already prepared, in that each man received a new light musket, a piece of cloth for Indian leggings, a large white rug for a blanket and poncho, a mirror, knife, musket cleaner, shirt, and colored box, as well as powder and lead. The four women among them received such presents as befitted them.

The eight chiefs of the Indians wore old coats and had received old ugly wigs and hats, which they took off along with their hats. Some among them had long black hair into which had been braided old tobacco pipes and other strange things, and they carried whole dead birds tied to the tops of their heads. Most of the men were quite naked, apart from a small cloth in front and behind; but they were decorated in all sorts of ways from head to toe. They had painted themselves white all over with a thin paste of chalk or clay through which they had then made deep imprints or stripes with their four fingers so that their brown-black skin could be seen again. Their faces looked so terrible that one would have wished to run away upon seeing them: black, red, and white paint was painted on in a wild mixture, and with gun powder they had etched long thin stripes on their skin, both on their faces and their bodies. Most had partly dyed their hair red. Among the presents for each was also a little bag of vermillion which they use to paint and decorate themselves.

Their presentations to Mr. Oglethorpe, including the subsequent giving of presents, took from 12 noon to 4 in the afternoon, which was a great exercise in patience for him. During that time wine was poured for them and they smoked so much tobacco that the room was full of smoke. Before lighting their own pipes, they passed around one with a tin bowl filled with tobacco; it was lighted and each one inhaled a whole throat full of smoke and steam and exhaled that through both nose and mouth at once, which was a horrible sight to see. The ceremony was carried out by everyone in the room, and it is supposed to be a sign of familiarity and harmony. Finally, the citizens led them back to their quarters. For the duration of their stay in Savannah they have been maintained at the expense of the Trustees; and thus they were supplied daily with meat, fresh bread, beer, corn and other foods, which will be continued until they return to their own places. It is said that their customs are even worse than those of the Indians in our parts: they have subjected the white people to abominable things and secretly taken from their houses whatever they could lay hands on. Their drinking, shouting, and idleness they have in common with our Indians here.

Friday, the 9th of March. A married couple from among the German servants in Savannah was placed with somebody in our congregation; but, since they cannot get sufficient and properly prepared food in their place, they have asked me to take them in as servants in the orphanage.¹¹ They are both honest, if old, and not as suited for hard work as others; but they work faithfully with all their strength as if they were working for themselves. The man has a fine understanding and has held the prayer meeting for the people during their sea voyage. Since people are needed for the housekeeping, work in the fields, and for the children in the orphanage, and since Johann Christ has left, I have taken them in. They promised to be content with everything God may offer; and I have assured them that, if they are willing to suffer with us throughout the time of trial and beg God sincerely for His blessing, they shall participate in the blessing that will come to us in its time and praise the Lord with us. These people have left a grown son in Germany and asked me to write him in their name to join them here, as in Germany he is living among many worldly desires, as is true for most journeymen, and thus will lose the salvation of his soul. God is revealing to these people their perdition and the sins of their youth through His word; and therefore they have started to recognize those abominations, which have become almost accepted and a matter of custom in their home town, as the truly pernicious things they are, and to be horrified by them.

Saturday, the 10th of March. Today I talked to N. and N., each in his hut, and implored them to deliver themselves by means of a true conversion from the excommunication which is still binding and thus make it possible for the true purpose of this church discipline to be fulfilled in them. They promised much good, and N. requested me to include him in my prayers. These people can speak so kindly and give such good appearances that one would be tempted to think them better than they are if they had not revealed themselves by all sorts of serious outbreaks of sin.

The proverb Hebrews 2:18, “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted,” etc., which I plan to present as an exordium tomorrow, served me well today when I visited several who have borne their cross long and heavily. What could be more comforting to a grieving Christian who suffers both inwardly and outwardly than the knowledge that his Savior is a most merciful High Priest who has not only taken away both sin and its punishment through Himself but also takes into His heart the suffering of His members as if it were His own. His true help, which comes in His own time, will always reveal Him as a merciful High Priest.

A boy had sinned against his mother by disobedient and rude behavior, about which I talked to him before the others in a most serious manner, showing him that this sin was a violation of the Fourth Commandment.¹² Contrary to his usual custom, he cried bitterly on this occasion; and, when I asked him for the reason, he said that he was crying for his sin, etc.; and then he went like the prodigal son to his mother and asked her forgiveness. I thereupon asked him to come to me and admonished him to kneel together with his mother and implore our dear Savior for forgiveness for this and other sins.

Sunday, the 11th of March. Around midday an extremely strong wind rose, which blew down the fences and shook the huts to their foundations. As our church-hut is also quite decrepit, I could not hold the service there, but instead we met in the orphanage. In fact, part of that hut has been blown down by the wind. The wind continued all night so strongly that it was quite frightening to hear. I shall thank the dear Lord when I finally have a sturdier home. Not only were we much incommodated by all the dust that blew into our dwelling, but we feared that it might fall down on our heads. During this wind, the flames from a burning tree in the woods are said to have reached some of the fences outside the town and caused much damage. They would ordinarily have taken precautions; but, since the wind blew the flames about, the fire started in several places where they had not expected it.

Monday, the 12th of March. The wind has continued strongly throughout the day and has turned quite cold, so that we must fear a heavy frost tonight. A year ago we also had some very cold wind and a few night frosts, as a result of which the peaches as well as the oaks and walnuts were damaged. In our area, no acorns or nuts could be found anywhere, although they usually abound; but because of their thick shells and small kernels, there is not much to these nuts¹³ anyway.

At tonight’s prayer meeting, we took up the 13th chapter of Joshua, in which we find among other matters that (1) God initially gave His people only as much land as they needed for themselves and their families at that time, but promised them that He would enlarge their heritage when they had multiplied and thus required more land. At the same time we thought of the Lord’s promise that He would expel the enemy not all at once but one by one, so that the animals in the woods should not have a chance to multiply and harm them. We often experience how inconvenient it is that other areas in our neighborhood are uninhabited, because the wolves and bears and other vermin have caused much damage. Therefore it is a blessing from the Lord that the Lord Trustees have ordered for each family to be given not too much and not too little land: for else we would fare like the people in Purysburg, who do not live close together as neighbors but are spread far apart because of the wide tracts of land that each of them owns, particularly the so-called squires among them. If anyone here in this land is capable of cultivating more than 50 acres with his family, he is free to sell these and is given a grant or allocation of 500 acres.

(2) We also find in this chapter that God did not mean for the Israelites to live and work together permanently, as had been necessary at the beginning when occupying the land, but that He ordered Joshua to distribute the land among them by lot and clearly define the boundaries, so that each might have his own. How good it has been for us both spiritually and materially that we should have lived for close to five years now in a close community. Now, however, the Lord has ordained that each should have his own land, on which each family should work and await the Lord’s blessing. And, just as our wonderful and merciful Lord not only provided His world and divine service to the Israelites while they lived together but also took charge of their salvation and edification by means of scattered priests and levites, so too He has instilled in our minds even in advance how we can edify both the people in the town and the people on the plantations.

Tuesday, the 13th of March. Last night we had a severe frost which has completely spoiled some things that had progressed beautifully during the preceding temperate weather. Our vines had sprouted by more than a hand, and some had new grapes; these are now completely shrivelled and ruined. It is too early to say whether the peaches have suffered.

My dear colleague returned today from Savannah to where he had travelled on business to the German people there last Saturday morning. Mr. Oglethorpe gave him £10 sterling for me to pay for some of the work on my house; and he is giving me hope that he will lend me more, as I requested in a recent letter. He also intends to return to me the money that was advanced for the surveyor and his men when they surveyed our land, which money will be used for the benefit of the congregation, in particular their herdsmen.

Mr. Oglethorpe has now gone to Charleston, where he has long since been expected. He is willing to accept a new transport of Salzburgers and to provide them with food for the initial period. But, since the inhabitants of Savannah have ganged together and made a written presentation to the Trustees that it is impossible for white people or Europeans to work here during summer time, in particular in the planting of rice, and generally as far as all fieldwork for gaining their sustenance is concerned, unless they are given the liberty to acquire black slaves, it may be difficult for the Trustees to see their way to send additional white people here at great cost. However, this presentation is obviously wrong and our community has discredited the claim that they cannot accomplish anything with their work, and therefore it is my considered duty to furnish the Honorable Trustees with information as to how we have survived in this country for five years: i.e. that it is entirely possible for white men to work here in the summer and gain their daily bread with God’s help and blessing, and perhaps more so than in Germany, once the initial difficulties are overcome. And as the mischief and ill luck caused by the black slaves here is well known, which must be attributed partly to their natural wickedness and partly to the harsh, quite unChristian and barbaric treatment to which they are subjected here, I shall beg the Honorable Trustees in the name of our community not to suffer the importation of slaves into our area and neighborhood.

During the first days in Old Ebenezer we had such people among us for sawing boards, and we surely desire no more of them. In Carolina there is much unrest and fear, because sixty Negroes gathered together, killed some people, and have run off into the woods and possibly even to the Spaniards.¹⁴ What then can we expect in this colony, which is so close to the Spanish? And, furthermore, nobody will be able to keep his belongings with any safety and assurance in his hut or field, since the main attribute of the slaves is to steal whatever they can lay their hands on. The people in Savannah also petition for the liberty to sell their land when and to whomever they want; our Salzburgers dread this freedom, as they can well imagine what kind of neighbors they will acquire in the course of time, if strange people are permitted to buy their land. For this reason I am asking the Lord Trustees in their wisdom and out of their love for poor, honest people, to prevent this unfortunate development. The congregation itself is having a letter written, in German, to Mr. Oglethorpe, asking him both for the acceptance of a new transport and for their initial provision with food, cattle, tools, and good land, as well as for his kind resolution to spare our neighborhood from the importation of slaves and also to prohibit free trade with land and homesteads.

Wednesday, the 14th of March. It has been raining all day today, and our carpenters have therefore been prevented from continuing with the construction of my house. Since it is now planting time, they will have to stop this work for some time, a fact of which I am not altogether unhappy. I had again assembled a few of the men in order to read them the draft of the letter to Mr. Oglethorpe, which according to the will of the congregation will be written in the name of all. They agreed to everything and wished to have some points inserted which might indicate their spiritual contentment with the Lord’s guidance heretofore as well as their firm hope of further improvement in their circumstances.

The letter itself has now been set right and corrected, and it may not be unpleasant for our friends and benefactors if it were inserted into this diary:

P.P. “We, the undersigned Salzburgers and inhabitants of Ebenezer, request in our name and in that of our brothers, that Your Excellency show us the favor of petitioning the Lord Trustees to accept yet another transport of Salzburgers into this colony. We have jointly written to Senior Urlsperger and in that letter expressly named those Salzburgers and Austrians whom we should like to have here as our friends and acquaintances. We can state on their behalf that they fear the Lord, work willingly, and will fit into our community. We have let them know that we are much pleased with this country, and that we enjoy in it many spiritual and material benefits over and beyond any enjoyed by other people in Germany, as Your Excellency will be able to see from the enclosed copy. If the Lord Trustees should give them, like us, good land and, at the beginning, some support in provisions, tools, and cattle, and provided that the Lord bless their work, we do not doubt that they will find their sustenance here as we have done and shall be able to lead a quiet and contented life in the spirit of the Lord and in righteousness and honesty.

“True, it is hotter here than in our former country, but not as hot as we had been warned on our arrival; and now that we are accustomed to this land, it is entirely bearable, in that we use the morning and afternoon hours for work, while the hottest noon hours are spent in the shade for all sorts of housework. And, whereas the people in Germany cannot work the fields at all or only very little during the entire winter months, this season is almost the best for fieldwork in this country. We were told in the beginning that rice planting is an impossible or at least a very dangerous undertaking for white people, and a task to be left to Negro slaves but not to Europeans. However, we now laugh at this argument, having seen the contrary to be true. For last year several people among us harvested all the rice they needed for their own and their families’ food, and could even sell some. Should God grant us some funds so that we can be better equipped for rice-polishing, just as in Germany all sorts of mills are used for millet, barley-meal, etc., it will be easy and advantageous to produce rice. We take this opportunity to beg Your Excellency humbly to order several rice strainers of various sizes from Charleston for our joint use, as these cannot be obtained in Savannah. We will be in debt for these to the storehouse and pay them in due time.

“Corn, beans, potatoes, squash, cabbage, etc., have grown in such profusion that they have in part been sold by the bushel and partly fed to the cows, calves, and hogs. If the surveyor, as was his charge and duty, had assigned our plantations to us at an earlier time, instead of doing this only at the end of the last harvest; and if, furthermore, all the members of our congregation had not been sick for so long; and likewise, if we had not experienced such ill luck with the planting of yellow corn from Pennsylvania, we would have been able, with God’s blessing, to sell much more corn and use the proceeds to buy the meat and clothing that we now lack. True, two acres of land were surveyed for each family some time back. But there was little rice land among these, and some soil would not bear without manure, which we did not have in the beginning. Therefore, we have not yet had all the benefit of our work which we are sure of obtaining, with the Lord’s blessing, now that we have been assigned our plantations.

“We shall plant the best land first, and then will use the poorer soil in due time. Now we shall have the most difficult work, since the land has to be cleared of trees, brush and roots, and we shall have to take much care in fencing it. However, the more progress we make, the easier even this work will be, once we have established ourselves on our plantations. Furthermore, the building of houses and huts both in town and on the plantations has taken much time; also, some of us have earned some money for clothing and other necessaries by helping the construction of the orphanage and its subsidiary buildings, as well as of the house of Mr. Gronau, which was built in the heat of summer, and now of the house of our preacher, Mr. Boltzius. True, this took some of our time from field work, but it was a great blessing, inasmuch as it gave us an opportunity to earn some money right here close to our homes.

“Since, therefore, neither the heat of the summer nor any other obstacle can keep us from our work in the fields, and as we wish to live with each other in good order and peace, we humbly request that the Lord Trustees never allow Negroes to be brought to the vicinity of our town and be used as slaves for the white people here, as we know from experience that neither houses nor gardens will be safe from theft, and that our very lives will not be safe from these savage people. Also, we must humbly beg that nobody be given liberty to buy land near our town, which might lead to our having wicked or disruptive neighbors, and to the expropriation or molestation of the poor among us. Instead, we wish and request that our town and its neighborhood be settled with white people, and particularly with those whose good name and honest bearing are known to us or our benefactors. The Lord Trustees have always been the benefactors of the poor and oppressed, and therefore we beg you to care for us and our community in the future as in the past, so that our descendants may also benefit from the affection you have shown us. We are praying for the happiness of Your Excellency and of the Lord Trustees in return for all your benefactions to us and request your and their continued kindness and favor. We are,

Your Excellency’s and Our most Honored General’s

Faithful and obedient servants,

All the inhabitants of Ebenezer.”

Friday, the 16th of March. Last night we had another hard frost, which has probably spoiled the peaches and similar crops even more than the recent one. The frost was carried by the harsh winds that have been blowing for several days. I have again read to the congregation the letter addressed to Mr. Oglethorpe, which is written in the name of the entire community, and have asked them to sign their names to it, which they have done with great pleasure. This letter has been translated from German into English,¹⁵ and a copy of the letter written to Senior Urlsperger by the congregation in November has been enclosed; a translation of the latter has not been made due to the shortness of time and the urgency of other matters. We hope that this will be done in London, so that the Lord Trustees and the Honorable Society may realize that the members of our congregation are content with God’s guidance and use their time well for the benefit of their souls and for their material well-being. We have also sent a written report of the present circumstances of the congregation to both the Lord Trustees and the Honorable Society.

As we have no time at this point to write to London and Germany, we are sending our diary, so that you may be sufficiently acquainted with the circumstances of our community.

Sunday, the 18th of March. Last night I was informed that a renegade English servant from Savannah, or perhaps a soldier from Mr. Oglethorpe’s regiment, is in the vicinity of our town and is lurking among the trees and brush in the woods armed with a rifle, pistol, and sword.¹⁶ At the moment, the brothers Zuebli are quite alone on their plantation in this area; and, while they were in the town to grind their corn, someone went into their hut and stole several things, as well as upsetting all the things in their hut and in open boxes. The thief surely is this fellow who, for want of food, will probably do even more harm. Therefore, we have done all that is necessary as a matter of precaution by posting guards both throughout the night and during today’s service.

I consider it a most prudent arrangement by the Lord that He has miraculously provided for the Salzburgers’ plantations to be so close together that one family can call out to the other in case of an emergency and ask for help; others in the country are not so well provided for. We will take care to seek out this runaway, and for this purpose I have also sent the news to the Englishmen in Old Ebenezer, who like to earn some money. Five pounds sterling have been promised for every man who is caught and brought to Savannah.

After the afternoon service I had a most edifying conversation with two men who were edifying themselves by a hut in a simple conversation from the Lord’s word. Then I visited another family, but found only the wife at home, who told me how the merciful Lord had shown great blessing to her and her husband’s soul, but how busy the devil was in making them indolent and distracting them from the search for the one necessary thing. Her expressions were so strong and convincing that my heart rejoiced, and I received greater edification from her than she from me. May God be praised for continuing to let His word be preached with blessing.

Monday, the 19th of March. The day before yesterday we found enough time to write brief letters to Court Preacher Ziegenhagen, Senior Urlsperger, and Professor Francke. As soon as we have an opportunity, and especially when we have received the promised benefactions, we shall write more with the Lord’s help.

Saturday night we assembled those men who had come in from their plantations, and to these we also read the letter to Mr. Oglethorpe, which they, as did all the others, gladly signed and recognized as an expression of their wishes. We have calculated how much corn the dear Lord has bestowed on our community in the last harvest so as to inform the Lord Trustees of this in accordance with Mr. Oglethorpe’s wishes. Each housefather stated his share, rather as too little than too much, and nonetheless the grand total runs to 1104 bushels Indian corn, 429 of beans or Indian peas, 518 of potatoes or sweet tubers, and 398 of raw rice. This abundance shall serve witness that Europeans and white people as well are able to work with profit during the summer, and that it is a calumny on the part of those evil men who wish our congregation ill to assert that the Salzburgers do nothing but eat and pray. This had also been reported to Mr. Oglethorpe, who has, however, been fully convinced of the contrary. For, if it were true, according to this widely spread piece of slander which has also been carried to England, that our people do nothing but eat and pray, this beautiful harvest of crops must have been bestowed on our congregation by a special miracle of the Lord, and they should attribute it to nothing but their pious prayer. The letters are being carried to Savannah today, whence they will be forwarded to Mr. Oglethorpe in Charleston.

Tuesday, the 20th of March. The men in the community had agreed to plant all those fields that are close to the town at one time, and yesterday they started on this task. In this manner they have less trouble in watching the sprouting seed, which is often severely damaged by the big birds. During the prayer meeting, the 16th and 17th chapters of Joshua gave me an opportunity to show to the congregation the benefit of God’s provisions, in that we are not scattered here and there, as the people in Purysburg are, but live close to each other and thus can assist our neighbors both in the town and on the plantations. This is not the case in Savannah, where almost every one lives in his own part of the woods.

In this regard, the Lord Trustees, our dear benefactors, have acted most prudently in assigning to our people not too much but just enough land to make their living. This will put the discontented and ungrateful among us in the same position as Joseph’s children, Ephraim and Manasseh in the said 17th chapter of Joshua, who were dissatisfied with their lot and inheritance, which they called but a lot and a portion, and instead demanded of Joshua cleared and prepared land on which they could live according to the desires of the flesh and enjoy themselves without working in the sweat of their brows. However, they were directed to the woods assigned to them, which they were to clear and thus use for their benefit. The Lord Trustees have also provided that, if a family should not have enough with 50 acres, they should be at liberty to sell these to an honest man and be assigned 500 acres instead.

Wednesday, the 21st of March. When I instructed a woman to earnestly seek a blessing for her daughter from the Savior, according to the example of the woman from Canaan, she told me that last Sunday she had been with her little child outside of the church hut and, when the child was restless, a Salzburger woman had said to it with tears in her eyes: “If you, dear child, but knew what the preacher is just now saying of the woman from Canaan and her daughter, you would not be so restless.” She also told me of two other women behind whom she had walked on her way to church, and whom she had overheard praise the dear Lord with humble words for all the spiritual and material goods and in particular for so richly nourishing them with the Lord’s word. I was pleased to hear that she uses the example of the pious people among us so well.

This very person also asked me to take N.¹⁷ back into the orphanage, for he regretted with many tears that he had rejected, as if with both hands and feet, the good that the Lord had let him enjoy in the orphanage. I cannot take him back right away, for others may one day follow in his footsteps and cause a similar disorder. Also, he would only be confirmed in his hardheadedness, carelessness, and defiance if he were to be readmitted so quickly, as we have now done out of compassion on several occasions. She should admonish him to do penance. Once his impenitence, arrogance, and spite had been broken by the grace of Christ and he truly repented, before the entire congregation, his repeated wickedness and his contempt for the benefactions he had enjoyed in the orphanage, and once he had promised a serious improvement of his ways, then we might well consider taking him in again.

Thursday, the 22nd of March. In a place in the woods near to the town people found some hog hides and feet, which are a sign that the people who have absconded from Savannah or deserted from Oglethorpe’s regiment have killed the two fat hogs that were lost from our town and have taken the meat with them. Since Saturday, when a suspicious-looking stranger was sighted, the people have been on guard, but neither he nor anyone else has been seen again.

My dear colleague had journeyed to Savannah on Monday for the letters and returned home in good health yesterday. By a good coincidence, a child was to be baptized there; and therefore the parents have been saved the inconvenience of giving us the news, and we have been spared another trip down there. Time is precious now because of the work in the fields, and we gladly spare our people trips on the boat.

In Savannah we heard the news that late last week a pirogue¹⁸ went aground in the sea between Port Royal and Savannah, which had carried a captain and sixteen soldiers of Mr. Oglethorpe’s regiment who were to be sent to the garrison at Fort Augusta above Savannah-Town. Six men threw off their clothes and saved themselves by swimming; a boat was sent from Savannah last Monday to fetch them. The boat also carried casks of meat for the storehouse and for a merchant in Savannah, all of which has been lost. The soldiers are said to have been Scotsmen who are accustomed to celebrate a bachus feast on Saint Patrick’s day;¹⁹ and, as this fell last Saturday, the 17th of March, it is assumed that they made merry on this voyage, ran onto a sandbank, and capsized. There are many Scots in this country, and the preacher in Savannah recently told me the reason for this, namely, that there was little to live on in Scotland, and therefore one is likely to meet Scotsmen seeking a living all over the world, although they pass as Englishmen because of their English tongue.²⁰ In Darien, a newly built town toward the Spanish border fortification of St. Augustine, close to Frederica, there are said to be nothing but Scotsmen, who also have a Presbyterian minister, by the name of MackCloud.²¹

Today, one of the German servants in our town expressed his great pleasure with this land and used this expression in particular: he would wish not to have a finger left in Germany. This was a country well suited for industrious people, he said, and it is evident that some among our Salzburgers have already reaped more rewards from their labor than many in Germany who have lived there for 40 or 50 years. All his life he had toiled hard, yet had not earned enough to buy as much as a calf. There are many lords in Germany, he said, who all wish to live off their subjects. When he had worked hard all day, he had been forced to cross several high mountains before reaching home, but here all land was flat and well situated.

Now that they have received their own land and thus been able to arrange their housekeeping and farming more suitably, our Salzburgers have only too well recognized the benefits they have received by being accepted into this colony. Since they had not suffered from want of food in their home country but had been well and sufficiently fed and had also been very well cared for in Germany, they found it quite strange at first that they should suffer want and trials in this country. Those among us who stood fast, however, are enjoying the fruits of patience and waiting even now; and they shall enjoy them in even greater measure if they but fear the Lord. Here, too, it is true: “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.” In previous times we have often recalled the beautiful expression in that extraordinarily beautiful song: Solt ich meinem Gott nicht singen, etc. etc., where it is said: “Thus he shall rejoice after the pain, if (NB) he can wait so long.”

It is quite possible that, once it becomes known in Germany that German people can earn their bread here in this colony and enjoy it in peace and pleasure, just as many people will travel to this country as went in past years to Pennsylvania, where there is now no land to be had. As I was told by a man born and raised in Philadelphia, the farmers there do not enjoy the same conveniences on land and on water and with respect to climate, etc., as in this colony. However, we shall not advise anybody who is poor and has to travel at his own expense to come here at this time, since there is not enough provision and food for strangers in this country, and therefore there will be few who could redeem such poor people from the captains and provide for them. It is quite another matter with the Salzburgers, who were accepted and given free passage here by the Lord Trustees or the Honorable Society and also helped in the beginning with provisions, tools, and cattle.

Somebody told me a few weeks ago that Mr. N. had announced in a letter that last fall several boats with German people had been brought to Philadelphia; but, since nobody wanted to buy them and there was an infectious disease rampant among them, they could not even be brought ashore and many of them had died on board. Almost all of them would have died a miserable death had it not been for the fact that good people in the town had sent them some supplies as a gift from the abundant crops which had been harvested at that time. I could not learn what the ship captains had finally done to dispose of these poor people. Also, they prefer black slaves to white people there, as is true for the English in this country.

Friday, the 23rd of March. A Salzburger woman, who with her husband are almost the poorest couple among us, has told me of several special traces of the fatherly providence of the Lord which she has felt both here and in Germany; and this experience strengthened her in the hope that in His time God would arrange everything for the best in their spiritual and material circumstances. He had listened to her prayers on several occasions, she said, and she did not doubt His mercy; but she was well content if He did not accede to all her wishes, for His will alone should be done. It serves to her own good that the dear Lord made her suffer much want in previous times; and in particular it makes her be grateful for and recognize as a gift of the Lord all things that He might let her come by here and there, which she might well not do if she had everything in plenty. On the occasion of the story of the miraculous provisioning of the Israelites in the desert, she remembered that God had kept her alive without food all day during both hard and light tasks, whereas in her home country she would not have been able to bear going to work without having eaten. Thus “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Now that God is giving her, one by one, the things of the flesh, she has hope that He will do so also in spiritual matters and save for another time those things that He is now hiding from her. A year ago she had remembered from a sermon that an untested faith is no faith at all, and thus God wished to test her faith also. The saying in Sirach 35:21, which we had as an exordium last Sunday, was very dear to her mind. Her entire speech, also with regard to her marriage and household matters, impressed me strongly both as to her great acquiescence to the Lord’s will and as to her careful attention to the paths on which God has led her and will lead her in the future.

Saturday, the 24th of March. Mrs. N.²² was much dejected by the willfulness of her son, and she almost dissolved in tears because all the work that is being done on her three children in school, in church, and in the orphanage still bears so little fruit. She claimed that her prayers for her children must not please the Lord. Several weeks ago she had good hopes for her son; for he had cried and promised much good when she had instructed him, and when he had fallen ill, her admonishments had been even more persuasive, etc. I tried to comfort her and urged her to continue in her prayers for the children, for they please the Lord, even if He does not yet let her see that He has heard her. We now have quite a number of people in the orphanage, whom the dear Lord provides with daily food and care. Many of them pray to the Father in spirit and in the truth, and He will surely let the time come when He will again throw us some material blessings to maintain the poor children and adults and continue this work, which has been started in His name from necessity and from our Christian compassion for the poor and miserable.

A fire broke out in a shed where a Salzburger kept much rice, straw, and fodder; but the neighboring women (the men were working in the field) quickly quenched it. A little child had played with fire and carried a smoldering stick into the shed, and this caused the blaze. In Purysburg whole huts have burned down on several occasions because few people or none could come to help, since they all live so far apart.

Sunday, the 25th of March. Zant is again suffering from a severe affliction on his eyes; he is suffering much pain and cannot see. He is very sensitive to daylight and therefore is forced to sit in the dark with his eyes covered by bandages. He loves to attend the preaching of God’s word, and he is very worried because he cannot read anything now or be at the prayer meetings or sermons. Recently I found a pious Salzburger family planting corn on the sick man’s field so that he might not miss the planting season.²³

Today the dear Lord has let us hear much that is necessary from the story of Christ’s passion and from the gospel for the 3rd Sunday in Lent,²⁴ in particular on the preparation of God’s kingdom in our souls; may He bless all this in us with His great goodness. The repetition hour was too short to repeat everything the audience wanted, and therefore most was repeated in the orphanage before the children and others who frequently assemble there.

Monday, the 26th of March. In yesterday’s repetition hour I saw a woman cry and show signs of great fear, and today I inquired from her the reasons for this. She told me that the cause was her frivolity and negligence. God had done so much for her with His word and forgiven her with such enormous patience; yet He had achieved so little with her that she felt that she was not living in the order to which all must conform if they wish to be saved. He would surely become wearied of her. And another thing hurt her very much too. Namely, that, while she fully felt the power of the divine word which always stirred her heart so much that others could see it in her behavior, she could not in the same measure prove it in her life. This was bound to create great annoyance in others, who might wonder why this woman acts such and such in church and seems to be so deeply moved, yet cannot prove it by her life, etc.

I told her that she need care little for the annoyance that others might feel at her behavior in church, but that her worry should be to find peace for her grieving soul in Christ’s wounds. I again explained to her the words heard yesterday: “Do penance and believe,” etc.; and I showed that doing penance meant receiving a different spirit from the Lord so that one might hate evil through His grace and love the good which He orders and which pleases Him. Since she was still of a feeble spirit in this respect, it would much pain and grieve her; and that, indeed, was penance. But she should not lose courage thereby or give up everything for lost and flee from Christ even further; but instead she should do as the Israelites did in the desert, who, when feeling pain of the snake bite, looked, upon God’s order and promise, at the serpent of brass and thus became well. The Lord Jesus meant her, too, I added, when He said: “Look unto me, and be saved, all ends of the earth.”

I also reminded her of what we had said on Saturday in the prayer meeting concerning the sanctuaries. Those poor souls who had incurred blood-guilt accidentally or unwittingly ran as well as they could, in all their fear and terror, up the hills to reach the nearest sanctuary; and there they found peace and safety. She knew of the example in Philippians 3 of Paul, who turned his back on all things in order to seek Christ so that he might be found in Him as in his sanctuary; and he tried with all his might to grasp this treasure ever more strongly. She should do this too, for otherwise she would waste her strength and her spirit in legalistic anxiety,²⁵ but nothing would come of it until she came to Christ as a miserable soul. “Oh,” she said, “I well know how my strength is sapped by such fears; food does not taste right in my mouth, nor can work please; I am becoming ever more incapable in all things,” and she urgently requested my prayer on her behalf.

In last Saturday’s prayer meeting on the occasion of the ordained sanctuaries, I reminded our listeners what a great blessing it was that the Lord so far has held His hand over us so that none among us has been inadvertently slain or has become even an unwitting or accidental slayer or destroyer of one of His fellow members, although this could easily have occurred in the course of joint construction and other work. We encouraged each other to praise the Lord for having turned such danger from us. I also enjoined my listeners, now that they are again engaging in new, hard, and often dangerous work on their plantations, such as building, joint fence making, etc., to seek the true sanctuary in accordance with the example of St. Paul, Philippians 3, so that, if death should suddenly strike one or the other among them, death would find him in the right place, for else his blood would be on his own head. They well knew that three such sudden deaths had occurred in Savannah. I was much taken by the fact that God ordained these sanctuaries at a time when the Israelites must have needed them most; that is to say, at the time when they were settling in their country, when such an accident could easily have happened while they were jointly building their cities, etc.; and therefore we should all the more carefully benefit from this typical provision made by the Lord in similar circumstances.

Tuesday, the 27th of March. We are now having the most pleasant weather, both sun and warm rains, which make the newly planted corn sprout in a few days’ time. This year much land will be planted with corn, beans, rice, and all types of native crops. If the Lord gives His blessing, many a family will emerge from their previous want, which honest souls suffer patiently in faith and hope.

Wednesday, the 28th of March. On our house visits, we now mostly find only the women at home, particularly those with small children who cannot join their husbands in the fields. One Salzburger woman accused herself harshly for her lack of faith and her ungratefulness. She recalled that God had worked on her strongly from the days of her childhood, had led her with her family and countrymen from Popery, and had always granted her a good opportunity to become a true Christian. Also, He had saved her from temptation through her long voyage to America and through her marriage to a godfearing man; and yet things were not well with her Christianity. Her heart was full of sin, etc. Occasionally her heart so oppressed her that, while she might kneel, she could not utter a word, and therefore to relieve her spirit she would have to rise from her knees without prayer and do some work. When again she attempted to pray, she might find it easier; but then she was saddened that she had to succumb at first and that the devil would have won.

I dissuaded her from this wrong worry with the judgment of our blessed Luther, who considered a faithful and patient execution of one’s work to be a prayer and God-pleasing service; and I showed her that a Christian would have to use all his advantages in order to fight his way through and defeat the devil. I also told her that it was part of the drive from the Father to the Son if the great misery of her sins was revealed to her, for by this very revelation the Father wished to drive her to the Son as the Physician and Helper, whose sole office it is to save sinners. She was not the first, I told her, whose conversion was a painful thing; all those fared this way in whose souls God wished to lay a deep foundation for true Christianity in the recognition of their sins and lead them into true poverty of the spirit so that Christ might be their One and All. There are people, it is true, who appear to get ahead more quickly and to advance in their salvation, or so it seems; but they lack a true foundation. I said a few more things according to her circumstances, such as to arm herself by prayer and watchfulness against all contrary thoughts and impressions that are in conflict with God’s fatherly love and His unspeakable compassion for repentant sinners, also in her feeling of sinfulness, not to be held back by the law and legalistic complaints, from which she would not derive any strength, etc.

Thursday, the 29th of March. In tonight’s prayer meeting I was overcome by a seemingly dangerous attack which forced me to interrupt the meeting and send the congregation home. However, the dear Lord heard our prayers and blessed some of the means we had used, so that it all ended better than could have been expected. May He alone be praised and adored therefore! May He teach me to count my days so that I may spend their remainder as days of preparation for a blessed death. By His mercy I have renewed my resolution to penetrate ever more eagerly through prayer and faith into the wounds of Christ as the true sanctuary. May His help be with me!

Friday, the 30th of March. I have been told that wild cats and animals called raccoons have again damaged the newly planted corn in the ground by night as much as the crows and ravens damage it by day, the latter of which can at least be driven away. Here in the woods there seem to be no wild boars, which otherwise would do much damage in the fields.²⁶ But there are plenty of vermin, which, however, are very shy and run from anyone who makes a hue and cry. Therefore, we have no instances of anyone being hurt by a wolf or bear unless these have been made wild by a misaimed shot. When the Indians hunt for bear, they bring along many hounds, which chase the bear up a tree, so that several of the Indians may shoot at once.

Saturday, the 31st of March. I have heard from the people whose plantations are on Abercorn Creek that they feel their health to be better there than here in the town, despite the fact that they are much inconvenienced by the lack of well-built huts and other circumstances. There are many healthy springs out there and beautiful little wells flowing from the hills, although here, too, we have enough spring water for our needs. We had been worried that the people might be attacked by some new, violent disease once they moved into a new part of the woods; but as necessity and the Lord’s providence required it, they did move nonetheless, and they seem to be successful in their endeavor. Thus, our Lord can do more than we ask for or understand. For we shall ascribe such benefits to Him and His fatherly providence, rather than to natural causes.

I talked to the sick Zant according to his spiritual and physical circumstances from John 9:4, whose beautiful words I intend to use in the exordium tomorrow, if it pleases the Lord to relieve me of my hoarseness and strong headcold. He was all the more impressed by these words of our dear Savior, since they were spoken on the occasion of the cure of a man who had been born blind. The good man has much work during this time of planting, but he must suffer the will of the Lord and be patient and obedient, as were the blind man and others whom Jesus helped; and the hour of help shall come for him too.

APRIL

Sunday, the 1st of April. My dear colleague has taken my place in preaching the Lord’s word both during last night’s prayer meeting and this morning, as my sore throat and heavy cold make it difficult for me to speak. He dealt with the story of the passion both in the morning and in the afternoon; and, although the repetition hour was cancelled, he held the prayer meeting in the orphanage with everyone assembled there and read some passages for their edification. If the Lord had given me the strength and ability, I would have used today’s text for the Fourth Sunday in Lent¹ to make everyone aware of the precious time remaining before Easter and to impress on our listeners the work of the Lord Jesus and our duties before Easter. His task was not only to feed the hungry, but above all He was pained by their miserable spiritual circumstances; and He proved to be their Physician and Shepherd (cf. Mark 6:34). Likewise, he was testing the people and His disciples, and finally He granted them their material share, etc.

Monday, the 2nd of April. A Salzburger told me of a young man on his plantation and said that he is responding well to instruction and has become quite regular both in prayer and in his tasks; yet he has noticed that, once together with frivolous young men, he returns to his previous frivolity. There is much blessing if one works on the other in the spirit; and this can well take place during their fieldwork, since their plantations are close by.

By now, all in the community are provided with quite good land, and there are still some plantations left over which, although not as large as the others, are not to be despised and, with the help of the other inhabitants of our town, can well be turned into useful land by industrious people who may eventually join us. We two are the last; and, in order to avoid all semblance of suspicion or offense, we hesitated to make our choice until all our listeners, who must sustain themselves by the work of their hands and the product of their fields, had been provided for according to their wishes and desires. But, as we have the right to acquire a piece of land for ourselves, we shall not ignore this benefaction but intend to take the two plantations closest to the town, which, to be sure, are useless now, but may well become useful later, when enough manure has become available. Nevertheless, some tracts are convenient for planting rice and corn, but we shall not undertake anything with these until our families consider it advisable, without our involvement.

There is much grass here, and it would become even more abundant if the ground were worked properly; and therefore we have been advised to use these two plantations, which lie right next to each other, for raising cattle. But we shall not become involved in matters of raising food; on the other hand, since we cannot do entirely without servants, we shall let these do what they can and may. Because they are honest and faithful, we have no worry. For several months now, I have benefited from the services of an honest and faithful fieldhand² who, although he is already fifty years old, has much experience and makes as much effort with the land as he is able.

Tuesday, the 3rd of April. It is said that Mr. Oglethorpe intends to travel by land from Charleston to Savannah and will inspect the sawmill and the Trustees’ cattle in Old Ebenezer; and, presumably, he will pass through our town afterwards. He has not been here since we settled at this place. Our people would much like me to ask him for his help in erecting a flour mill, and I shall see if an opportunity for this arises during his visit. True, a mill has been constructed and is driven by two strong men, but it does not permit making more than 1 bushel a day of clean flour, and therefore they lose much time with grinding. Others who cannot spend their time on grinding must eat coarse-ground corn, which does not agree with them too well. If we had a good flour mill, our people could use the Indian corn to much better advantage than is now possible and would have to use much less wheat flour, which costs much money.

A barrel of wheat flour, which is not much whiter than good rye flour in Germany, usually costs about 24 shillings sterling, or more than 10 florins in German money; and such a barrel contains no more than 3 bushels or English measures, each bushel being counted as 32 quarts. The rice, too, yields good flour, and the people here often mix this with Indian corn-meal for baking. Near our town there is not only Abercorn Creek, but also other constantly running small streams on which it should be quite feasible to build a good flour mill, at least with a millrun. Two of the carpenters who are building my house are well-versed in mill-building, and we have a Salzburger in the orphanage who is devoted to its service, and he is a trained miller who well understands milling.³ If the dear Lord wished to provide some funds for the orphanage, we could have a flour mill constructed at the expense of that institution, which would then also be responsible for its maintenance. Everyone would be prepared, as is only fair, to contribute mill fees either in kind or in money; and thus we could slowly repay the initial costs.

It would seem that neither in Savannah nor at any other location in the vicinity are the circumstances so favorable for the construction of such a flour mill as in our area, inasmuch as the tides do not run up here. Also, since the carpenters would have industrious and faithful helpers in their task from our Salzburger group, the costs would not be very high. If we had but the tenth part of the money spent on the sawmill in Old Ebenezer, we would be able to construct both a flour and a sawmill; and, hopefully, it would last longer and be of greater usefulness than is to be hoped for the mill there. At the present time, however, there is probably little hope of getting any funds for this from Mr. Oglethorpe, as money is scarce. Who knows how the dear Lord will provide help in this matter.

Wednesday, the 4th of April. We now have only a few children in the school, as they are needed all day in the fields to guard against the ravens and crows that scratch up the newly planted corn. However, they are being sent to the prayer meetings most of the time, so that they do hear something every day for their edification.

Thursday, the 5th of April. A woman complained of her lack of real and deep sadness regarding her sins. She wished to experience such sadness in the measure of the plentiful sins she committed in childhood and youth, when her church-going, singing, and all other spiritual exercises had been nothing but sin, as God now has made her realize. He is revealing ever more sins to her conscience, particularly during prayer, which she then confesses to the Lord with tears; and she would much desire at these times, when all is being revealed and made alive to her, to have one of her teachers by her side so she could confess to him too. She often remembered her wickedness and the persons with whom she had sinned, and she now fears that they may well testify against her on that great judgment day that she gave them opportunity to sin but not to repent.

I admonished her to pray for those fellow sinners whom she remembered and assured her she need not fear their accusations. Instead, if she truly converted, she would shame them all the more with her example, and they would have no excuse for frivolously rejecting the mercy which God had so often offered to them as well as to her, whereas she would be raised before angels and men by the unspeakable compassion of the Lord, which had so strongly worked on her. I also showed her the right manner of penitence or conversion to the Lord and showed that legalistic fear and sadness for her sins is not the salutary remorse and sorrow that leads to salvation. If God gains so much in us that we recognize our sins as sins, feel them, and tear away from them by the strength of God’s mercy and turn to Christ and His dear reconciliation with a yearning, longing, and confident heart, and ask for Him as the highest treasure of all, then our conversion and rebirth will have occurred in truth. Then the true struggle will really begin: for the more a Christian grows in the recognition of the glorious and blessed Savior (for which we should pray fervently in accordance with Ephesians 1:16), the more hostile he becomes toward his previous life of sin and against the nature that still lives and rages within him. This is confirmed by the example of the Samaritan woman in John 4.

Friday, the 6th of April. In yesterday’s prayer meeting we considered the resolution of the 21st chapter of Joshua and learned that the servant of the Lord, Joshua, renders glorious testimony of the Lord’s faithfulness in fulfilling His promises, which He had made to the fathers and their descendants, the Children of Israel, concerning the land of Canaan. As we have noted in the course of the story, there were many initial trials because of which faithless and materially inclined Israelites grumbled and complained and said, much in the manner of other wicked people in our time, that God had promised us much, and in particular a land where there floweth milk and honey, but none of these promises has been kept, not even their tenth part is true, oh, if only we were in another place, etc. Those, however, who withstood the trials and waited for the fulfillment of God’s promise in faith and patience, such as Joshua, Caleb, and others, could now pronounce and repeat this testimony in honor of the faithful Lord and for strengthening the faith in others. That which could not be said of the settlement or establishment of the Israelites in the first, second, or third year (for God does everything in His own time), that could well be said in praise of the Lord and His providence in the seventh and subsequent years, as long as they feared the Lord. We sang in conclusion, with hearts and mouths, Gott hat alles wohl bedacht, und alles, alles recht gemacht, gebt unserm Gott die Ehre.

It deeply impresses us to find our circumstances and previous experience as good as replicated and confirmed in the Lord’s word. On the occasion of our house calls we often hear that such details go to the hearts of these eager souls as especial evidence of the divine providence over us, which others have also experienced; and they also remind us of our duty and encourage them in their trials and strengthen them in their patience.

In tonight’s prayer meeting we again learned from chapter 22 several points which may serve much good among us. The children of Israel in the land of Canaan were much concerned that the altar to be erected by the three and a half tribes might cause apostasy, a schism in the true religion, or idolatry. This should show us that we too should take great care in our new arrangements in this country that all objectionable conduct be controlled right off before it can grow into a strong stream. And as they were prepared, for the love of the Lord and the salvation of their brothers, to relinquish to them part of the inheritance already allotted to them and be content with smaller shares rather than acquiesce to such disorder in their religious affairs, our listeners will receive a good example of how they, too, should practice self-denial with regard to their plantations and such temporal goods as the Lord may have granted them, for the glory of God and the benefit of their brothers who may follow after them and who may wish to live with us close to our church and school.

Who knows how well this beautiful example may serve us when another transport arrives? Because the three and a half tribes, who had to leave the holy services with a heavy heart to move into their new land, so carefully provided for a share in the true service for their children and children’s children so that these might remain within the true church, this example not only shames many hundreds of so-called Christians in this country and in this region, who care little for church and school and seem to value their plantations and cattle more highly than their children, but also reminds our listeners of what is necessary, namely, that their foremost concern should be that the purity of the Lord’s word and the Holy Sacraments be preserved until the end of their days and for their most distant descendants.

If parents and adults are careless in providing for the salvation of souls and the maintenance of holy services, their children will follow soon; and then there will be the judgments whereby the Lord will remove the candlestick from its place.⁴ This, too, may well serve to remind our listeners, who are gradually moving to their plantations to set up their households there, of their duty, since we have heard how Joshua admonished the three and a half tribes who departed for their inheritance to be industrious not only in material things, such as in their field work, in fortifying their towns, etc., but above all in their fear of the Lord and in their honest love for Him, which necessary admonition he repeated solemnly several times before his end (see chapters 23 and 24) and above all warned them faithfully and in a fatherly way of all things that were in conflict with the practice of God-fearing men.

Saturday, the 7th of April. In the last few weeks it has been quite cold, and last night we even feared a frost. This has been averted by the dear Lord, however; for otherwise much would have perished in both the fields and the gardens. May He be praised for this and all His other help. It is most astonishing that the recent frost killed off all the shoots of the cultivated vines, whereas it left the native or wild vines unharmed, and even the smallest and lowest among them bear a large number of grapes. In the garden near the storehouse, which was given to Mr. Thilo last year, we found a young vine whose branches, even the thinnest, were so full of small grapes that even the people who had grown grapes in Germany could not remember ever having seen anything like it. Since the native vines grow so well here and bear so richly, we shall plant many of them in our gardens next fall with God’s help in order to see if they can be trained and domesticated.

This morning before dawn my dear colleague travelled to Savannah in order to preach God’s word to the German people there, if it pleases the Lord. May God give him strength in body and soul to do much good in His name and for the salvation of the souls there. The hearts of most of them are as hard as a rock, and they have so many prejudices that the strength of the word cannot enter. We also hear how God is after them with many physical judgments and harsh chastisements, but they will not feel this and consider themselves innocent and their afflictions as a cross.

Sunday, the 8th of April. By the grace of the Lord, the beautiful words of Jesus from today’s gospel: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death,” etc. have been so blessed in my heart as well as in the hearts of my avid listeners that we could make up for what we had neglected in previous times in our earnest search for salvation, in which endeavor the dear Savior Himself is offering us His divine strength and assistance. It is a great comfort to us that it is not too late yet; for it is written that, if someone, be he the greatest sinner, shall keep My word, even if it has not been done before, etc. As an exordium I took the words from Hosea 13, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help,” etc., which have always much impressed me.

In the afternoon I dealt with the portion of the passion story from Matthew 27:11-26, which was next in order; and I have much reason to praise our faithful Savior for His kindness and gentleness, for He not only gave me strength for my sermon but also awakened all our hearts through these words of His suffering and through the means to our salvation so dearly merited for us, to give praise with words, heart, and truthfulness.

A woman told me that after the sermon on the 20th chapter of the Revelations of St. John, from which the 6th verse had been quoted, she had re-read the text by herself and had been much dejected by the last verse, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life,” etc. She had been thrown into a great sorrow because this had stirred something in her conscience that had always caused her the greatest grief. But God had placed such a blessing in her heart from the story of the passion that her heart had grown lighter and she had been encouraged in her struggle. Lighthearted men and women think little of the consequences of yielding to lust in one’s youth and of sinning against God and their consciences, and of how painful it will be afterwards when they wish to atone in order to gain mercy and an assurance of the forgiveness of the horrors they have committed. Oh, but that all would let themselves be warned! Psalms 50:21-22. In the conduct of their Christian lives, such people fare as do those who once broke an arm or a leg and who always feel the pain anew when the weather changes, although the broken bone may have been mended. There you must learn the grief and pain that come from leaving the Lord your God.

Monday, the 9th of April. Last night my dear colleague returned well and sound from Savannah. To be sure, he again had many listeners to whom he preached the word of the Lord twice; but he brought few good tales of these miserable and wayward creatures. The word seems to them as a burden that is too heavy, and they use many excuses to rest undisturbed on the bed of their sins. Disregarding their poverty, they continue in their old German customs on the occasion of weddings and baptisms, where they get together to drink, eat, and engage in all sorts of godless ways to their heart’s content and to excess, living all the while in all kinds of vices. Since they have not shown any improvement after partaking of Holy Communion, we much fear giving it to them again, and therefore this service has not been held for some time.

In Savannah most foodstuffs, in particular meat, have become quite scarce and dear; and hence it will be good if the people in our town take up cattle-raising, in which enterprise they should eventually become more successful than heretofore, now that we have more fodder for the cattle and more corn and beans for the hogs and the poultry.

The people in Savannah do not know of any reason why no ships have landed in Charleston for the last three months, for at this time they usually come there for rice. The long delay in getting letters and news from Europe may well be due to the lack of an opportunity to forward things. As great as is our present longing for news, as great will be our pleasure and edification once we again see a few lines from our Fathers and friends.

Wednesday, the 11th of April. A woman who can read but little and desires a true benefit for her soul from the Bible verses is having those verses that are taken up in the congregation on Sundays underlined in red ink. I was much pleased that she had committed many to memory from repeated hearing and reading, and I had to underline these for her, together with others which she found edifying. I heard that her neighbor occasionally comes to her hut and inquires as to how much she has retained from the sermon.

A woman here has had a lame foot for a year; and, since nothing seems to work, she has shown the foot to an Indian who showed by his gestures that he wished to help her. He asked for a glass bottle, which he broke, and then sharpened a shard to a point as for a lance. He then punctured the skin around both swollen ankles, as is done for bleeding; but, when no blood flowed, he sucked it out by mouth, and this caused her some relief.

Thursday, the 12th of April. Yesterday toward evening Mrs. Schweiger gave birth to a young daughter, who was baptized before the prayer meeting. The woman has had many epileptic seizures; and, since God has helped her with all this, He deserves praise for it. The French woman is said to have again rendered very good services on this occasion.

Our servant showed me a vine which he had pruned this year and cared for with much attention, so that he hopes for a good harvest of grapes this fall. The vine was old and thick and had borne many shoots even last year, which the man had put in the ground during the winter and thus preserved. In the spring, each of the plantings had greened and started to bear grapes, which even now are beginning to blossom; the man is much surprised by this, as he had seen nothing like this in Germany. These vines are planted in a very inconvenient spot, and we fear that thoughtless children may damage them and tear off the green grapes. If not, these grapes may become quite large and give proof of what knowledgeable people can do in this country in matters of wine-growing. We shall replant the vines in the fall in a better place.

Friday, the 13th of April. This week most of the men in the community are busy on Abercorn Creek in erecting a common fence around their new fields, which some of them intend to plant this year. In this country every plot must be well fenced, since the English let their cattle and horses run free in the woods. The hogs in particular would do great damage, because they cannot be kept here as in Germany for lack of proper arrangements and the money to pay swineherds. If there were only a beaten path, we would much like to visit the men in the fields. But everything is gradually coming to better order.

My dear colleague is often visited in his house by many of our listeners, in particular the truly honest N.,⁵ whom he himself visited today in her hut, finding much edification there. (1) He was particularly impressed with her serious concern for her own soul; she takes her prayers, vigils, and struggles very seriously and tries to become ever more similar to her Savior, yea, to crawl quite unto him. (2) He was also impressed with her honest concern for the souls of her children, for whom she prays incessantly, admonishing them and turning everything to their use. She employs well the saying: “What I do now, you do not know,” etc., which she has heard on several occasions in the prayer hour, for the purpose of learning how all the dark pathways on which the Lord has walked with her have truly been for the best of her soul, and thus He will continue to act for her and hers. She considers it a precious benefaction that our glorious Lord has brought her here to this country, to a quiet lonely place, and to the abundant preaching of His word.

Saturday, the 14th of April. I learned from two Englishmen that Mr. Oglethorpe has returned from Charleston to Savannah this week; therefore, the rumor that he would travel by land to Old Ebenezer and thence to our town was not founded. Tonight we read, God be praised, the conclusion of the 24th chapter of Joshua and thus have finished the whole book. May the dear Lord be humbly praised for all His assistance and blessing which He bestowed on us during the contemplation of the beautiful Bible stories and other glorious truths. May He leave us His grace from this until our blessed eternity. When Joshua recollected the many benefactions received by the Israelites and their ancestors, we remembered the abundant good which our faithful God has shown us in previous and present times according to the three main articles and which resemble in the main those received by the Israelites. Just as they were led to join each other in an upright fear and in the service of the Lord, we too, in considering the rich enjoyment of God’s beneficence, have ample cause to gratefully remember our duty to return the love of our good God, who loved us first when we too wished to hear the comforting words from the mouth of the Lord which Joshua, Moses, Eleasar, and all the saints who profited from the talent entrusted to them have heard: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” etc.

Sunday, the 15th of April. I have been quite feeble physically for the last few days; but, when I attempted the sermon in the name of the Lord, He strengthened me so much that I could also hold the repetition hour later in the evening. We have truly learned that, if we attend to the ways of the Lord, He can generously do more than what we beg for or understand. I have also noticed that the kind Savior has placed His blessing on the preaching of His word.

Two men from Old Ebenezer who work on the sawmill in the service of the Trustees complained to me that their master, one of the two millers there, had pressed them to go to Savannah this week, thus making them miss celebrating Holy Communion and Easter. I told them how I would act through God’s grace, namely, I would hold my duty to God higher than that to men, which befits all Christians, and thus rather suffer in the flesh than sin against God and conscience. Mr. Oglethorpe much likes our holding a service for the German servants in Savannah every four weeks, and therefore he will hardly like to see those prevented from attending services who live close by in Old Ebenezer. A pious man from the congregation had been called to Old Ebenezer yesterday for important reasons and had to spend half of the day there today; he could hardly find words to complain about the great disorder in which both men and women live there. He took this opportunity to thank the Lord for his salvation from all temptations to sin, which had been his recognition of the good that God bestows on us in our solitude.

Monday, the 16th of April. N.N. notified me that he wished to go to the Lord’s Supper this coming Friday, and on this occasion asked me from his simple heart to devise such a prayer for him as would fully express the state of his heart, which he has revealed to me so far and will reveal further. True, he said, there were beautiful prayers in Johann Arndt’s Garden of Paradise⁶ and in Haberman’s prayer book as well,⁷ but none was fully applicable to the state of his soul. He wished to follow the advice he had recently heard publicly and again a few days ago from my dear colleague, and to present the state of his heart in a simple manner and in his own words to the dear Lord; but in praying he would tend to forget some things which he had wanted to request or for which he had wanted to thank the Lord, etc. At another time, he asked me for a prayer for his ministers; and, as he found one he considered suitable in his prayer book, he had marked it carefully. He also told me that he was using the Treasure Chest,⁸ which he had borrowed from me, to good purpose. Whenever he had no time to read, or was about to leave for or return from work, or whenever there was an inner or outer disturbance, he would take along one of its sayings.

Tuesday, the 17th of April. In recent weeks, N. has repeatedly indicated that he wished to go to Holy Communion next Friday; and therefore he came to see me again today. However, I begged him to consider his condition and said he would find that he was not truly prepared for such a holy and important matter. We were now almost upon the holiday on which God would give him opportunity to hear much good; and the dear Lord had surely kept a blessing in store for him, which he should above all not reject, as on previous occasions. I explained to him why we could not let such people as him simply run to the Lord’s Table, and that this was not with any intend to hurt them but rather to do them good and restrain them from the heavy sin of an unworthy enjoyment of the Holy Supper. Instead, we wished to bring them to reflection and true improvement in regard to the dangerous state of their soul. He well understood our admonishment and accepted the advice to pray with greater industry than before, and to pray as well for the right thing for him: that is, to pray for a repentant heart, to free himself from frivolous companions and profligate living and, instead, to seek the friendship of one or the other pious member of our community, and to take some pains with such prayer.

Wednesday, the 18th of April. More than a year ago Riedelsperger lost a large ox, which returned to our herd yesterday. The beast was not branded, and therefore he could easily have lost him. It is to be butchered today, and the meat will be sold partly to the orphanage and partly to others in our community; and this is a true blessing in view of the high price and scarcity of meat these days.

This year almost everyone is complaining that, during their work in the fields and even in their huts, the people are plagued by large and small gnats. This pest is much more abundant this year than formerly, and those living on their plantations on Abercorn Creek find little rest from them even during the night in their huts.

Together with some of the carpenters, a few men from our community are busily engaged, despite their plentiful fieldwork, with finishing the living room in my new house, as they are well aware of the inconvenience that I suffer from pests and other causes in my present hut. Once the fieldwork is over, the carpenters will surely get together to lay the floors, make shutters, doors, stairs, and the kitchen, all of which are still lacking. In the beginning no one could have imagined that this house of one story could have required so much work and time, even though it is quite spacious, comfortable as a dwelling, and durable. Had I realized all this in advance, I would probably not have resolved to undertake this construction, although it is dictated by dire necessity.

Toward evening we had a thunderstorm and a fine, fruitful rain which is much needed for the crops, which have wilted in many places because of the recent, long drought. When there is no rain for long periods, the wells dug by our people tend to run dry; in the orphanage, however, the well has, with God’s help, been so well constructed that they have enough water all year around. That well is quite deep, and therefore its water is quite fresh, clear, and of good taste; it also agrees with the people who drink it (since we lack the capacity to brew thin beer). The water level is only about three feet, and it neither rises nor falls, regardless of whether there is rain or drought. Even when the Savannah River is at its height, the water in the well does not rise; and likewise, when the river is low, the water in the well does not fall. We do not know the reason for this.

Good Friday, the 20th of April. As is our custom every year, we have spent this day as a high holy day in singing, praying, and a threefold preaching of the Lord’s word. Also, we have held Holy Communion, at which we had fifty-six communicants. The story of the cross, which is a folly to those who will be lost, but God’s strength for those who will be blessed, has been the most prominent, indeed the only, topic presented today; and may the Lord bless it in all our listeners for their true salvation. In previous days during the evening prayer hour we have suspended the reading of the Old Testament in its proper order and accommodated our sermon to the present time. In two prayer meetings I have tried to present the humiliated and exalted states of David, the man according to God’s heart, as a fitting prefiguration⁹ of the two states of our King of Mercy and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and to present the image of the heart of David, which was so inclined to forgiveness, as a parallel to the Heart of Christ, which gives forth nothing but reconciliation and mercy. I also presented 2 Samuel 19, as was our duty. May the Lord transfigure Himself in His Jesus love in all our souls!

One of the German servants among us who had also gone to Holy Communion had cursed while herding the cattle, as I was informed before last night. When I had him summoned early yesterday morning, before we went to church, and presented him with this abomination, he did not deny it but with tears accused himself of this and other gross sins; and he promised to see me at some other time so as to relieve his heart. Yesterday after the sermon he met me and said that the Lord had touched his heart; he would much like to confess to me if only we could find an opportunity as is available in Germany in churches and vestries. The expression he used in this regard well showed me that he has an almost idolatrous belief in such external means as simply going to confession and absolution. As we are lacking a good house for congregating, my house will prove a good spot for our listeners to come forth more freely with an open and repentant recognition of their sins. This is also quite necessary for those souls who take their salvation seriously and are driven to it by their conscience. There will be no way of finishing my room this week after all, as the workers have been prevented by some other matters. I shall not press them, but gladly stay in my hut, as I do not in any event approve of the people taking on too much work during this week, particularly as we get closer to Holy Easter.

Saturday, the 21st of April. We again held our preparation for Holy Easter in the orphanage, where we have a beautiful opportunity to pray on our knees to our God and Father, reconciled to us in Christ, once we have dealt with the divine word and have refreshed our hearts from it. We used for our purpose the beautiful examples from John 12 such as the divinely simple Mary, her brother Lazarus, so dearly beloved by Christ, and the entire multitude who led Jesus, the King of Mercy, into Jerusalem with shouts of faith, love, and joy. However, our talks dealt particularly with the heartfelt desire of some Greek men who dearly wished to see Jesus on the day of Easter. We thereby learned for our instruction, edification, and imitation, that even then our merciful God had extended His hands beyond the Jewish people, as His heart longed for the salvation of all men; and just as the devil and his tools were vexed that everyone followed the Savior, just as great was God’s joy at this example of His work.

The Greeks had come to Jerusalem to adore the Lord and receive more instruction and guidance for the true recognition of Israel’s God; and, since they had learned much that was strange and noteworthy of the Lord Jesus on this occasion, they longed as poor heathens for His closer aquaintance, company, and instruction. Thus they give us a beautiful example to which we should direct our spirits at Easter in particular. They were not content with good thoughts, wishes, and resolutions, but used the means to see Christ: for they addressed Philip, etc. And, as this apostle united with Andrew to present the desire of these Greeks jointly to our Lord Jesus, we revived ourselves with the words in Matthew 18:19, “If two of you shall agree on earth, etc.,” to appeal to the Lord Jesus together during our prayer meeting, so that we might see Him and come to His living understanding; and to this end we admonished both parents and children and all neighbors. We wished to rejoice in the light of this example of the two apostles and thank the Lord for any opportunity to lead souls to Jesus in these days and to bring them to recognize Him. May He be transfigured in all of us; for He Himself says that the hour has arrived that the Son of man should be transfigured among Jews and heathen alike, having laid the ground for this by His death and resurrection and merited all the goods of the Kingdom of the Lord.

Monday, the 23rd of April. One of the German servants who works as a herdsman among us drank some stagnant water in the woods yesterday and had some terrible pains in his abdomen last night, so that it was feared that he would not survive the night with these pains and the distension of his belly. However, the Lord blessed a few enemas in him, so that the pain subsided around midnight and he is well on the way to recovery. I asked him today what he thought of his chances of salvation had he died yesterday. He said that he believed he would have gone to Heaven, for he had truly reconciled himself with God and man in Friday’s Lord’s Supper. If he only did not have to herd cattle, but could live in the town like other people, close to God’s word and by the work of his hands, he would live as piously as he has seen others live here, whose example edified him, etc.

I asked him nonetheless if he had in fact read the two chapters from Arndt’s book on True Christianity, namely book I, chapters 2 and 41, which I had recently instructed him to do. And, when I learned that he had read only a part of them, I read the aforesaid second chapter to him and his wife myself, showing him how salvation presupposes true faith and true faith presupposes a true conversion. And it was the first part of conversion to fully recognize our original sin, faithlessness, and other abominations that are found in our hearts; those who do not become Christians by this route, I said, are not true Christians, all outward appearances and exercises notwithstanding. I admonished him and his wife to think along these important lines after I had left and to beg the Lord to place them before the mirror of His word and thus make them see the rotten state of sinfulness in which they lived. When I return, I shall see whether he and she have accepted my advice. We always insist with our listeners that they should each, in accordance with the guidance of the divine word, recognize the true state in which he finds himself, and whether he has in fact converted or not. For otherwise they cannot hear the word with true seriousness; rather some are so blind that they will find comfort in Christ and hope for eternal life without, and against, God’s order.

May God be praised for giving us the strength to pronounce the comforting gospel of the resurrection of our Savior and its harvest for us during these two days. Our listeners have attended our sermons diligently and attentively and have let nothing distract them. In the orphanage, my dear colleague read the late Prof. Francke’s open letter regarding Christ¹⁰ to our listeners in the evening so that the salvation-hungry souls among us would use this means as well to further their recognition of their Savior and be constantly strengthened and reinforced in the true faith. May the Lord bless this undertaking! In today’s repetition hour I found it necessary to recall publicly the old leaven in which some of our listeners are mired and to warn the congregation against participating in their offensive conduct. In conclusion, we had just read the 17th chapter of Jeremiah, as it came in the order, wherein the defilement of the Sabbath is harshly punished; I made reference to this and warned the congregation not to be frivolous in such matters, as the defilement of the Sabbath belongs among those vices which bring God’s curse on town and country.

Tuesday, the 24th of April. A captain whom I do not know informed me in a letter that he had jailed an indentured servant who had escaped from Savannah to Charleston;¹¹ and, as he learned that the man had spent some time in our district and woods, he assumed that he had probably caused damage by theft here as in other places. This is all too true, in that he broke into the Zueblis’ hut on their plantation, and stole food as well as tools and clothing. In addition, a hog was shot dead and another wounded, for which the said servant is probably also responsible. I shall report all this to Savannah on the first possible occasion. The heads of the community came to me to discuss some of the offenses committed before and during the holidays and to inform me of their own and the congregation’s opinion in this respect. It is considered preferable to remove N.N.N. from our place rather than have them punished here or in Savannah. We have tried everything for them; but no improvement has resulted, and it is getting worse and worse with them.

Thursday, the 26th of April. The pleasant weather continues and is so fruitful that we have much reason to thank the Lord. The crops are growing beautifully in both the gardens and the fields, and thus the dear Lord gives us green and pleasant hopes of a good harvest. The squirrels are a great danger to the sprouting corn, in addition to both crows and raccoons; and they do much damage. Last year there were no acorns, and therefore they are forced to seek their food in the fields. My dear colleague told me that he had occasion to talk to some of our listeners and ask them for the Easter blessing that God had offered them through His word; these told him to the praise of the Lord that He had done much good in them through the gospel and had taken pity on them. In view of the grief which the disorder and constant impenitence of some people causes us, this has much strengthened us. We notice here, too, how Satan causes much rascality before and during the Holy Days in order to cause harm among us, as he well knows that the Lord, the Lover of all these dearly bought souls, is abroad on these days to extend His kingdom and to attract the souls to Himself.

Due to my present feeble condition, which requires me to take walks,¹² I cannot visit much among the people, which normally affords me much pleasure.

Friday, the 27th of April. Mr. Oglethorpe and many other impartial people in Savannah well recognize the damage that wicked and disorderly people cause by both word and example and what a benefit it is for a young colony if it is cleansed in time of such offensive, seductive, and malicious people; therefore people in Savannah are happy if such people leave.

Sunday, the 29th of April. Praise be to God, who is still providing the means for maintaining the children and other needy people in the orphanage, even if there has been no lack of trials in this respect. By God’s grace, the manager of the orphanage and his wife are of such a disposition that they gladly accept everything that comes across their way in their task, and both pray and work indefatigably.

Monday, the 30th of April. The blossoms are falling off the vines from which we expected some fruit this year as a proof of their hardiness: these vines were planted only last fall and they are now faring as do the young peach trees, whose blossoms also tend to be shed during the first year. On the other hand, there is a peculiar thing to be observed in this country, in that the wooden part of the vines grows fast and strong during the first year; what takes twelve months here requires three years or more in Germany. It is most pleasant to observe the sight on both sides of the river from the boat, because vines have grown right high on the trees and are covered with little grapes. It should be quite possible here to grow, in a short time, the most beautiful arcades made of vines, and in this manner, as Mr. Oglethorpe recounted recently, they would bear best, for in this hot country they must be trained to grow high off the ground and they must not be pruned too much so as to protect the grapes from the heat of the sun.

In our vicinity, there grows a fruit resembling the red cherry in Germany which has a sourish taste and has already ripened.¹³ These contain three or four little seeds similar to those in grapes. They are quite abundant, although they are quickly picked off by the birds. They grow only in wet ground and swamps, which are called marshes here. We would also get a lot of a kind of black cherries, that is, black mulberries, if these were not picked off by the birds before they ripen. We have not seen any fruit on the white mulberry trees, although we planted a number of them in our gardens. This year a late frost withered the first leaves and therefore probably prevented their blooming.

Last week we started the book of Judges in our evening prayer meetings; and we have used the events recounted in the first chapter according to our circumstances, in all simplicity. In particular, we have seen the beautiful fruits that faith and obedience to God’s orders will bear, and in contrast the evil caused in the land by disbelief and disobedience. Today we treated, from the first part of chapter 2, the noteworthy penetential sermon which the angel of the Lord, the prince over the Lord’s army, the true savior and good shepherd, addressed to the Israelites assembled at Silo and which, although causing a strong emotion among the people, went unheard afterwards and did not bear any true and lasting fruit of remorse and penitence.

The contents of this sermon reminded us of the many blessings the Lord has shown us in Germany, on our voyage at sea, and in this country, yea, even sooner, by His acceptance of our souls into His merciful covenant in Holy Baptism, and how He promised us many valuable goods in His word. Therefore it is a mean and irresponsible ingratitude to insult the Lord, who is essential and original Goodness, and who has never treated us ill but only well.¹⁴ Among such insults are not only the sins of commission but also those of omission, as can be seen in the case of the Israelites; and, as it is not said in the Bible that any among the Israelites had become embittered at this sharp sermon of penitence and at the revelation of their sins, it is to be hoped and desired that none among us should become embittered thereby, although this is only too obviously the case with N. and his wife, to their own harm.

MAY

Tuesday, the 1st of May. Now that one of the rooms in my house is ready so that we can live there, I have moved in today. May the dear Lord make this dwelling serve for His praise and my spiritual and physical well-being, for which He shall be earnestly implored by me and other honest souls who shall join me here in prayer. May He support mine and our good intentions with His mercy. The carpenters and other laborers are now in the midst of their field work and will hardly be able to finish the house for several weeks.

In tonight’s prayer meeting we discussed the second part of the second chapter of Judges, which describes the circumstances of the Israelites in matters of religion and their external affairs under the government of the Judges. We have again learned much for our instruction and warning, in particular as we were shown how it happened that the children of Israel gradually degenerated and turned into a generation entirely different from that of their pious forebears. Much damage is caused by traffic and communion with those whose minds are directed at the world and the flesh. They occupied their plantations in peace and with much pleasure as long as they served the Lord and kept unsullied by the world.

Wednesday, the 2nd of May. Yesterday, a German man from Old Ebenezer asked me to baptize his child; and he chose a few honest people from the community to serve as witnesses of the baptism. As it is too difficult and also dangerous to bring such a small babe here to our place, we travelled there with the witnesses.

Thursday, the 3rd of May. A man who was walking to his plantation this morning, carrying a heavy burden on his back, told me that before departing he had recalled to his mind the 139th Psalm, which edified him much. We often remind our dear listeners to arm themselves against all exterior and interior temptation with the word of the Lord, so that they may not become slothful and lazy when they are unable to attend our prayer meetings for some days or even weeks at a time, but must be content with that which they hear on Sundays; otherwise, they may well be harmed in their souls and their Christianity, all outward signs of industriousness notwithstanding. I had to talk to another man this morning in his hut; and he was most eagerly waiting for me to pray with him and his wife, which he clearly preferred to all his work, although this brooks no delay at this time.

I intend to travel to Savannah early tomorrow morning, although I am still feeble physically. It is an easy matter for the Lord to strengthen me in body and soul during my journey and my ministrations in Savannah, as He has done on several occasions. Several of the German people there wish to go to Holy Communion this coming Sunday, and therefore I must take time to talk to each of them separately. I know most of them better now than previously; and, since for most of them the use of the Lord’s Supper has led to no external, let alone internal improvement, we shall, with the aid of the Lord, work on them in love and seriousness through God’s mercy and keep back those among them who are obviously grievous sinners and show no desire and seriousness in their true improvement. Those poor people do not wish to be convinced that they are rotten through and through and far from being Christians. They are full of prejudice.

Friday, the 4th of May. During my visits, I spoke in particular with one person who loves the Lord Jesus from the bottom of her heart. She is among those of whom the Lord Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” She said that someone had visited her yesterday and had said that she could not pray at home for she was too miserable and so she wanted to pray with her. But she herself had thought she too was worthless, and thus two miserable souls would be together. But the dear Lord had not let their simple conversation and their poor prayer go without blessing.

Even now when I visited her I met another person there in whose heart the Lord Jesus has started His work. It is most pleasant to speak to such simple people, for one can conduct oneself with them in a simple and open manner since we know of their honesty and are assured that in truth they are concerned only with the edification of their souls. I read to this woman what is written on page 33 of the Treasure Chest,¹ which the dear Lord had just blessed in my soul. I also spoke to another woman who would like to be saved but does not know how to go about it; she thinks the reason is that she cannot read. I therefore showed her what the dear Lord Jesus wants of her, namely her heart; and, if she were to give that to Him at His request, He would do with her as He wishes and that would settle it. If she would proceed thus in all simplicity, she would surely be able to tell me something of the Lord Jesus, to his praise, on my return.

Saturday, the 5th of May. Recently, at the end of the prayer meeting, I saw a couple of honest women walk together engaged in conversation. And, as the path they were taking was not on the regular way home for one of them, I asked her why was she walking on this path at this time? She replied that she was discussing with the other woman how she could well apply that time which is left for her to spend in this world by God’s will, for they had been so especially awakened in the prayer meeting. Since they had little opportunity to talk with each other because of their many tasks, she was making a little detour on her way home so as to talk more with the other one in this regard.

Today the dear Lord ordained my coming to one of the Salzburgers, whose soul is in a sad state. I asked him how things went with him, and he replied, “Quite badly,” for he kept thinking that he had missed God’s grace. I showed him, however, that this was a deceit of the devil, who thus wished to deter him from seeking the Lord in all seriousness. The dear Lord gave me further grace to show him, by the example of the prodigal son, that, if he were to start out with the latter in all truth and go to the Father, confess everything to Him, and seek His mercy with a repentant heart, He would not reject him and treat him harshly, but instead accept him with a thousand joys, forgive everything, and make him into a blessed man. This seemed to please him, and he promised to accept this good advice. May the Lord help him in this and bless him so that he may render unto Him his whole heart in order that He may make it the way He thinks right.

Sunday, the 6th of May. May the Lord be praised for having granted us on this day the grace and the strength to preach His dear word. May He become ever more known among us as the good shepherd who gave His life for us, and may He bless His word for this purpose so that finally all those in Ebenezer may say, in the praise of their Savior and for the edification and encouragement of others, the words of Psalm 100, verse 3: “Know ye that the Lord he is good: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.” Amen, may it be thus, Amen. In the prayer meeting at the orphanage we considered, as we often do, the mission work in the East Indies² and addressed the Lord jointly, begging Him for further blessing of this work, as well as reminding the Lord Jesus, as our good shepherd, of His dear promises which He made in today’s text, John 10:16, begging Him that He might soon grant their complete fulfillment.

Monday, the 7th of May. An honest Salzburger woman recalled what the Lord had done for the Salzburgers by leading them from Popery. “Oh,” she said, “there we found such hirelings as we were told about in yesterday’s text; but nothing was told us then about the Lord Jesus as the good shepherd. But now we are on His green pasture.” She did not know how to belittle her own merits enough and did not trust herself at all. She could not deny, however, that the Lord had accepted her and had to admit that the Lord Jesus had taken hold of her entire heart and that, through His mercy, she had nothing to care for but to know Him ever more closely and be entirely His own. She said that things progress gradually and that He is leading her ever further. My dear colleague recently said that, if one cannot examine one’s own condition, one should ask one’s minister or another Christian to do this. She recalled these words and said that to this end she would come and have herself examined, so that she might remain undeceived and arrange her prayer accordingly. I replied briefly to this according to her circumstances, as she was just then called to meet the returning cattle.

Tuesday, the 8th of May. The dear Savior helped me not only to be in good health in Savannah but also, with His assistance, to be able to work for the good of the German people there in several matters. The storehouse keeper, Mr. Jones, has had a separate little room built wherein I could talk alone with these people and work on their souls, which on this occasion I did especially for those who wished to take Holy Communion. With divine assistance, I hope much from such private exhortations and discussion with these people, who are grievously lacking in the recognition of their souls and of the path of salvation.

I learned here with certainty that a man left his wife in Germany, lived with his maid servant in open sin during the voyage, and has now been married to her in Savannah. Neither of them denied this but sought to offer excuses for their acts, in particular the man, who argued that his wife in Germany was a wicked woman, had dissipated his entire temporal property with her family, and then had refused to join him in going to America. Both the authorities and his minister had advised him to leave, etc. I presented their abomination to them with the words: “Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” I also declared the marriage which they had obtained here under false pretenses for null and void and admonished them not to cohabit or remain with each other any longer, for this would constitute further adultery and sinful fornication and thus bring manifold judgments of the Lord on their heads, such as they now had to endure in their bodies with their present very strict masters.

As I had not discussed this very grievous matter with the authorities, I refrained from dealing with it publicly. This will be done shortly, however; and it is all the more necessary since I have been informed that the civil authorities do not deal with such matters as belong to the bishop and his court. I have also been advised to persuade the man in all kindness to relinquish the present woman, all this apart from the fact that the question whether their masters would consent to such a separation is still open and depends on the latters’ good will.

There was another unpleasant occurrence: A maid servant, of Popish beliefs, who also belongs to these German people, has committed fornication with a Jew;³ after she had borne a child whom she had baptized by the English preacher, she had then run away, probably to join her Catholic co-religionists in St. Augustine, and had left the child in the Jew’s house. The Jew does not wish to acknowledge the child, although he is without doubt its father, and for that reason has let it almost die of starvation. He was called before the authorities on this account and instructed to care for the child. He is to get some help in this regard from the storehouse.

From Charleston, I received a package of letters, which have come from our Fathers, benefactors, and friends in Europe. There is again much that is edifying in these letters; may the dear Lord bless it in us and our congregation. We are also advised that presents from Augsburg and Halle, of which we had already been informed in previous letters, will be sent from London to our congregation with the first available ships. We wish to thank the Lord for these gifts in advance. The dear Lord has also blessed the intercession by Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen on behalf of the German people in Savannah, in that some benefactors have given help toward the purchase of some necessary books for them, which we will receive among our other presents.⁴ Some time ago we gave them some Bibles, New Testaments, psalm books, catechisms, and reading primers, so that they are all more or less supplied. Also, some of them have received old hymnals and copies of Arndt’s True Christianity, as much as our supplies permitted.

We are often asked for sermon books so that they might read to each other from them in their small meetings on Sundays. The small Sunday sermons by the late Prof. Francke⁵ were lent to Purysburg some years ago; and we cannot ask for their return, as some of the people there use them for their edification. True, we have a few edifying postils, but we need them for our own edification and reflection. However, I intend to bring or send them, every four weeks or so, a few separately printed sermons by the late Prof. Francke or Pastor Freylinghausen, which should give them ample opportunity for edification, if they are serious about this. Perhaps we shall also have a sermon book one of these days so that we can serve them in this respect also.

The German children in Savannah are made to work, and they are not given enough time to go to school.⁶ Maybe one day the dear Lord will bless our intercessions in this respect with Mr. Oglethorpe. Many of the German families implore me to help them to come to our place or at least to Old Ebenezer, where the Trustees also require servants, so that they and their children may be closer to church and school. Some among them are of good intent, and the word of the Lord is taking its effect among them slowly but surely; but we are not in a position to help them. The herdsmen whom we took in, as well as some little girls and elderly people who have been taken into the orphanage out of Christian compassion, require considerable expense for food and clothing, for which the Lord Himself will eventually provide.

Some of the people are quite severely treated in Savannah at their place of service and do not receive the wages promised them. We spoke to the authorities on their behalf this time and have been able to obtain some advantages for them. The English and Jewish people in whose service these Germans are do not have many means to provide for their servants, yet they are nonetheless made to do hard and heavy work. Some have fared better, but their work and conduct is quite bad.

Wednesday, the 9th of May. This evening in the prayer meeting we began reading the edifying letters that have come to us from Europe this time and using them for our joint instruction. Our faithful Lord, who in previous times has let our and our listeners’ hearts be blessed by such heartfelt letters, will again cause some good to come of this for His praise and our furtherance in Christian belief, so that our dear benefactors, who so kindly care for our true well-being, may also find therefrom a good fruit in blessed eternity. May the good Lord bless and reward them for their love, which they have proved to us and the congregation by writing such dear and sincere letters, of which I can in truth, as before the face of the Lord, assure that our faithful God has amply blessed them in our souls and caused our mouths, eyes, and hearts to bring forth many sighs and tears, and many prayers and praises of the Lord and requests for His succor.

Our listeners heard that some of the contents of the letters received would be read; and therefore nobody seems to have valued his housework and other business more highly than attending our meeting. It must in any event be said that our regular evening prayer meetings are diligently and regularly attended by those keen on their salvation, however heavy their daily tasks. The Israelites were forced to rise early for the sake of their material manna, and our dear listeners willingly go to bed a little later for the sake of their spiritual manna, the sweet word of the Lord. As an exordium, the words of David in Psalm 23, “the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,” much impressed me, and I wish sincerely that every one could speak the first words from our dear David in truth, so that he might repeat the next following words, i.e. “I shall not want,” without inner contradiction, and in the praise of the Lord. Even the cross, physical want, and trials, are benefits bestowed by the Lord, by which we should be made to resemble Christ, and which the lambs of Christ should not lack any more than other benefits.

At this time I awakened our listeners to reflect on what the Lord has done for them all unto this day, and bade them consider whether the Lord had not shown Himself as a good shepherd in His threefold office of High Priest, Prophet, and King. It was a very special blessing that He had inclined to them the affection and love of so many honest Christians in Europe, and particularly the care of some of His faithful servant-shepherds. It is now quite obvious how honestly and affectionately they pray, care, and speak for us, and it will be made abundantly clear only in blessed eternity how much good has flowed to us from their dear and eager intercession.

We are so often inclined to single out men and external causes for the many happenings of our lives; but this brings about much sin, for we should attribute all to the Lord and His all-governing power and wisdom. For our watchword shall be: “The Lord is my shepherd, etc.” “This is Immanuel,” of which we were reminded by the words of our dear Prof. Francke,⁷ who wrote that the news from our place, although still giving rise to some misgivings because of the war, did not leave him in any doubt that the Lord, who had brought us here with our dear listeners, would protect us here also and show us His faithfulness and bounty, of which He is capable beyond man’s imagination. God has done it, all glory to Him!

We were most pleased to hear that the labor of the Lord is being continued in the institutions of the Halle Orphanage;⁸ and I took this occasion to recount again all the good that the dear pious Lord effected through the said Orphanage, both in internal and external matters throughout the world, and that we too partake in these blessings, in that not only many physical blessings, which are again detailed in these letters, have been collected for us there, but also many prayers are said on our behalf. In particular, I told the children before the entire congregation that I believed that many pious children of their own ages who had heard of Ebenezer were including them and us in their prayers and that this should make them reflect seriously. I awakened the entire congregation to pray ever more assiduously for the University and Orphanage at Halle as being most useful and dear works of the Lord. This we will continue to do with the honest souls among us in my new house, which shall soon be ready; and we again invited them to this endeavor with God’s grace.

We were much pleased by the news of the physical and spiritual circumstances of the Salzburgers in Prussia,⁹ and it is a pity that the excerpt of a letter from pastor Breuer mentioned by our dear Professor was not included. In this connection I reminded the Salzburgers that they were obligated to be grateful to God, faithful, and eager in their use of the light of the gospel which they had received; for God had performed a true miracle in leading them and their compatriots from their country, as would be fully recognized only by future generations. And, as the Salzburgers in Prussia are so serious in seeking their salvation, this should encourage them all to a faithful imitation so that none of us might be missed at the place of the perfectly just. All the saints in heaven and earth call out to us as if with one voice: “Those who wish to be saved must be most serious about it and not refuse to resist even unto their blood,” etc., for they shall be rewarded one day.

We are also rejoicing that Sanftleben has retained, and proven by his deeds, the grace that the Lord has given him through His word; we shall use this news for the good of the congregation. We are all much pleased that he wishes to return here, even though he does not yet know that the dear Lord has so clearly improved our physical circumstances. Our dear Mr. Berein, in his edifying and most pleasing letter, gave us more detailed news about Sanftleben, his voyage, and his circumstances. He also let us know that the Honorable Trustees will contribute £100 sterling for the transport of several Salzburger artisans and unmarried women, who are to be recommended by Mr. N.¹⁰ This, too, causes us to praise the Lord; and we trust that He, who possesses the key to the hearts of all men, and even more to their chests and money-boxes, shall easily find ways to help if a whole new transport of honest people is to come here.

Thursday, the 10th of May. We have much pleasant and fruitful weather this spring, and the crops in the fields look well. It is not hot, and therefore the people can work well in their fields throughout the entire day. However, there is great damage caused by the fact that formerly, due to the delay in surveying, our people were forced to clear and plant various plots here and there and therefore cannot guard every place where there has been planting. As a result, the seeds are dug up by a kind of wild cat¹¹ at night and by crows and other birds during the day. This could be prevented if their plots were all together, as they will be in the future. Some people have already planted some part of their plantations; but, since they have much work here and cannot stand guard out there, not much will come of these crops. Some even live out there, and have either given away their land close to town or are now suffering losses on those plots that are planted here. Where they cannot continue with the corn, they will be able to plant all the more in beans and pumpkins, as these are not damaged by the aforesaid vermin, at least in the early stages. However, when the beans are high, they are the target of the deer and turkeys. Once most of the wood has been cleared on the plantations, the crops will be harmed less.

The wild cats, or, as they are called here, the raccoons, do not live only in the forest but also in holes and in hollowed-out trees on the ground. They only attack the new corn when it is still in the ground. True, the squirrels too dig it up and cause much damage, but mainly by tearing out the stalks. The rice is picked from the ground by small birds resembling sparrows; and, once it is ripe, a larger kind of black birds, called starlings, come in large flocks and rip off whole heads of rice with their beaks.¹² Once they can use a plow, the people will likely plant German seeds such as wheat, rye, and barley; these grow so well in the gardens, where they have been planted in abundance this year, that the people are amazed. For this kind of cereal to grow, however, the land must be well worked, which cannot be done with a hoe, this manner of working taking too much time. In contrast, planting Indian corn and beans requires only the digging of large holes in the ground, although care must be taken later to chop down the grass, which grows up afterward, or the plants will be choked. A plow could also be used for planting rice, as there are no logs or heavy roots in the swamps used for this crop. However, a plow is quite expensive in this country,¹³ and horses and oxen are in scarce supply. We plan on supplying the orphanage with these things by and by, provided that the Lord will give us help in this respect; and this may then serve as an example to others.

One of the German servants among us, who had not often been ill in Germany, is suffering much from quotidian fever. However, he considers it a blessing of the Lord. As a result of His word, he has become aware of the terrible sins in which he had been mired since his youth; and, now that he is suffering in his body, he has had time to reflect and to become deeply repentant of his sins, not only of the more gross ones but also of those which he used to consider small and insignificant. I told him today that it was the mercy of the Lord if He opened his eyes and let him recognize himself in his full misery; by this, He prepared the rotten souls so that they might come to His Son as miserable and bent sinners and be refreshed by Him. However, he should be on guard against all consolation coming from himself, but rely instead on begging and crying and praying, so that his natural perdition and the terrible abomination of his heart might be ever more clearly revealed to him. Thus he would come to true repentance, and comfort would be forthcoming. For Christ has ordered us to preach penitence and the forgiveness of sins; therefore penitence would have to come first. It was comforting not only that the dear Savior had ordered that both be preached, but also that it is written in Acts 5 that “Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” This means, surely: “Look ye, I (the Prince and Savior) am among you every day,” etc., that is, to give the people that grace which the teachers of the New Covenant announce.

Friday, the 11th of May. Last night in the prayer meeting we edified ourselves from the very kind letter of our dear Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen. In it we again found many signs of his fatherly love and his untiring care and intercessions on our behalf. He also mentioned how affectionately the dear Mr. N. and Prof. Francke are inclined toward us and our dear congregation, and how Mr. N. likewise sought to work on our behalf. This again awoke us to praise the Lord, and we strengthened each other in our confidence of His divine goodness. As He so kindly inclines the hearts of His servants and children to us so that they care for us as for their children, His fatherly heart itself must surely be full of love and pity for us; and this should move even the most impenitent sinners among us to do battle with the prodigal son in their souls and to return to seek the mercy and favor of such a pious Father as this one. Oh what a blessing not only to be called a child of the living God but to be in truth His child! The letter which our dear Court Chaplain Butjenter addressed to me also provided us with many a thing that we can apply to the common good in future circumstances. May the Lord in His mercy give His “yea” and His “Amen” to all the good wishes uttered on our behalf, and may He amply repay our dear Fathers and benefactors in this life and in eternity for all their love and kindness shown to us.

A German man from Old Ebenezer has placed his daughter in our school, as she cannot be used for field work because of her physical weakness; for else both children and adults are bound to serve the Lord Trustees. These people are quite poor, and it would have been well if we could have accepted the child in the orphanage and cared for its needs there; but this is not within our ability and therefore others as well as we must wait for the help of the Lord. The establishment is conducted as economically as possible, but to care for the needs of a crowd of children and adults such as we now have in our care, much is needed. May the Lord grant us this according to His kindness and wisdom!

Saturday, the 12th of May. Some in the congregation have tried to bring in the bees which are found in the woods in high trees and to place them in barrels resembling beehives or baskets; and several times this has proven successful. They cut down the trees; and, if they fall in the right direction so that the bees are not killed or drowned (for they usually have their hives in trees close to the river or in the swamps), the people try by all sorts of tricks to make the bees go into a barrel smeared with honey and flour, which they carry home during the night. I have been assured that the bees here swarm three times a year, since they bring in honey almost throughout the entire winter, and therefore it would be most profitable if they were to remain in the aforesaid barrels.

One of our herdsmen seems loath of his work and offers himself and his wife for all other kinds of work, if only he can be relieved of herding the cows. He had sent his wife to me for this purpose; but I sent for him in person, as I wanted to hear the reasons for which he wished to give up his profession. As an excuse he spoke above all of his great fear of the many snakes, for he encounters them constantly and can hardly take enough precautions. I reminded him of the 91st Psalm and urged him to constant prayer, in which he should give himself up to the Lord and His wisdom. If he felt that this would help, we were prepared to have leather leggings made for him instead of his woolen ones, for these would surely protect him against snake bite.

This man had offered his services to us in Savannah with his wife and begged me with many words to take him in as a herdsman and said he would serve the community faithfully. He had also herded cattle in Europe, he said. As he is employed in his profession, and offered himself to herd the cattle, we can hardly relieve him from his work and start him on something else. The community would suffer much loss as a result of this, I said. Once he had served his time faithfully, I reassured him, he would find the benefit waiting for him at the end of his term of servitude. He sees even now how the people in the community are kind and generous to both him and his wife, provided that he carries out his duties faithfully. We have heard no complaints of the other herdsman,¹⁴ his wife, and his son, who guard the other herd in the woods; the cattle are said to be in good shape.

Sunday, the 13th of May. Two mothers brought their children to church today for churching, Mrs. Schweiger in the morning and a woman from Old Ebenezer in the afternoon. The German people also like us to remind the churching mothers of their duty, as is our custom, and to pray with them publicly and to thank the Lord for His kindness to mother and child.

It was announced in the congregation that we intend to hold Holy Communion again in a fortnight’s time for those who show an honest desire for it and will worthily prepare themselves. We are now in the pleasant period between Easter and Whitsun, where we not only see the Lord’s blessing in the green promises sprouting in our gardens and fields, but also receive beautiful opportunity to prepare ourselves in an evangelical manner for the holy feast of Whitsun and for the Lord’s Supper from the beautiful Sunday sermons, which are mainly based on the notable and highly edifying last words of our dear Lord Jesus.

Today I took as a text the very beautiful and deeply moving and fortifying words of our motherlyminded Savior: “And ye shall be sorrowful, but I will, etc.” In the afternoon, my dear colleague started on the first article; may the Lord bless this discussion as well as all other presentations. I heard yesterday from someone in the congregation that the Lord had indeed blessed our recent contemplation of the Ten Commandments, and in particular of the 9th and 10th,¹⁵ for a better recognition of our innate misery and of the sinful lusts which frivolous people consider as trifling matters. We also know from manifold experience that the industrious application of the truths of the catechism has created much edification and strengthening in our Christianity. Therefore I cannot accept how some people, who have started a school in N., can be so presumptuous as to ban the entire catechism from their school.¹⁶ They will not suffer the catechism to be either read or learned by heart, as I was recently told by children and parents in N. And a little girl added, “They never pray ‘Our Father who art in heaven.’” Instead of the catechism, they give the children a little hymnal printed in N., in which there are some songs which the children must learn by heart at home, etc.

The conduct of these self-assured people reminds me of a letter which an honest preacher, experienced and skilled in the struggle of Christ, i.e. the dear Rev. Sommer, wrote about Luther’s Small Catechism in the two years of his confinement. An extract of this letter is reprinted in the Fifth Contribution to the Building of the Kingdom of God, page 564.¹⁷ The whole letter is beautiful and well worth reading; but I shall quote only these words: “In particular, the lectiones¹⁸ from his Small Catechism have never tasted as I taste them now, and I have never before found as much in them as I now find daily, whenever in my loneliness I find occasion to meditate on them. Likewise, only now have I truly recognized how good it is to sit in the last row, and also what our dear Savior wishes to say with the words, ‘if the old people would only turn back and become as children,’ etc. If we should become children again in our old age and return into the catechism, we will not be rid of it,” etc.

Today for the first time I had the school children with me in my new house to sing with them and pray concerning the words heard in the sermon. I told them how much I yearned to lead them to pasture as the lambs of Christ and to lead them to the good shepherd who loves children so much. I warned them against frivolity and the mere outward practice of singing and praying; and I assured them that, if only they would undertake seriously, in this house, to serve their Savior with an honest heart together with me, He would serve them in turn by distributing His spiritual and even material blessing. He knows, I said, their want and poverty; and it is easy for Him to lay a gift in my hands that I might distribute among them in this house for His praise and for their joy and for the alleviation of their want.

Monday, the 14th of May.¹⁹ Last night, at the time when we customarily hold our repetition hour, I consecrated my house, which is almost entirely finished, with God’s word and prayer. On this occasion, all our dear listeners were present. Since the beginning of the year, when the carpenters started on this work, these words, of which I reminded them on several occasions during their work, have been uppermost in my mind: Colossians 3:17, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed,” etc. These beautiful words, and the preceding verse 16, I chose for my text so as to edify myself and our assembled listeners with some appropriate thoughts. They also were most fitting on this Jubilate Sunday, and we had much edification from them by God’s grace. My main theme was what ministers and listeners would have to do if they wished to be furthered in the good works they have begun and properly prepared for blessed eternity: They must (1) properly use the means of salvation and in particular the dear word of the Lord, and (2) fit their entire conduct in accordance with it.

In the application I told my audience of the resolution made before the Lord, namely, to serve the Lord in this house with all my heart and, through His grace, to be most useful to our dear congregation. It would please me and accord with the main purpose for which this house was built, if they would treat the Lord’s word with me in accordance with Paul’s prescription here in this house too, so that we might further each other in the good and be properly prepared for blessed eternity. I reminded them that it has at all times been most useful and blessed if listeners are in communion with their ministers and use their houses, as far as circumstances permit and suffer it, for their edification. At the same time I cited some words of our dear Apostle Paul, from Acts 28:30-31, 2 Corinthians 11:28, and Acts 20:30-31.

I also told them of the blessed effects of the private conversations with Prof. Francke in Halle on all those who were being prepared for the ministry and who came to see him in his study weekly on prearranged days to talk with him about the state of their souls. I also told of what I had observed in Tommendorf in the case of the late Pastor Mäderjan, in that the people there did not only come from near and far to attend church regularly, but were edified in his house, several talking to him privately in his study concerning the state of their faith, and that this had brought about much blessing and a furtherance of the good. Finally, we fell on our knees and praised God for all His previous blessings; and I prayed for a special blessing on those among our listeners who had done some work on this house for no other recompense but their love for me. My listeners in turn helped me to pray for a blessing on my office and house, and also for the payment of the costs for it; and the entire occasion was concluded with praise for the Lord, to my great refreshment and fortification.

These words of our prayer impressed me particularly: “He has arranged everything well, and done everything right. Give glory to our Lord.” And we must all repeat this if we only think of His guidance in this country. He has arranged everything well so far, and will continue to arrange everything well. May His holy name be blessed from eternity to eternity. Halleluiah. Ebenezer, the Lord has helped this far.²⁰ I only wish that the carpenters were finished with the kitchen, the doors, and the windows and that I could use my study for my own purpose. However, I do not doubt that, once this is possible, the dear Lord will grant me some blessed hours with my dear listeners in private conversation. In previous times, many have been too shy to come into my hut and reveal their hearts and what oppressed and pained them; ratio is in promptu.²¹ Here, everything is well guarded; and my study will serve in place of a confessional, lectern, punishment, and comfort chair.

A firewall of brick will have to be built between kitchen and study so that the fire in the kitchen cannot damage the house and so that I can have a small stove built in my study, which is yet some time away.

Kieffer’s son in Purysburg is asking for a primer so that he might by and by be able to teach his father’s two Negroes how to read.²² He said that he was eager, both during work and on other occasions, to give them some instruction in the recognition of the Lord, and that one of them in particular was most eager. However, they did not know much German and so not much could be taught to them at this stage.

Tuesday, the 15th of May. Today, the disorderly shoemaker N.,²³ who had been admitted to our community together with other servants from Captain Thomson’s ship for Christian reasons, was ordered to return to Savannah to the service of the Lord Trustees together with his wife. We had advanced him, for leather and provisions, as much money as he demanded; and he has slowly worked off this loan. However, his work did not well serve our people, who must earn their money in the sweat of their brows. And, since he is a most offensive man and we have tried all means to improve him, whereas he gets worse every day, we recently asked Mr. Jones,²⁴ who is in charge of Mr. Oglethorpe’s affairs in Savannah, to remove this wicked and offensive and harmful man. He tried his best to forestall this and would gladly have forced himself on our community if they had but suffered him. I bought the leather from him for the orphanage so that he might have no excuse; and I also paid for the shoes of those few in the community who were not now able to pay for them. To be sure, this procedure may seem rough, but it is in accordance with his contract and in the interest of good order, which must be preserved in the community, and the honest members have themselves asked to be rid of him. We do not doubt that this seriousness will impress other disorderly people, at least for a while.

Zettler had wished to learn shoemaking from him; and to this end he had bound himself as an apprentice to him for two years; although he has not finished his apprenticeship, he has learned enough so that he can do the cobbling for us and also make coarse shoes, of which we have greater need than of anything else. He lacks tools and hemp, but help will come in this respect also. His conduct is satisfactory, and the community will be better served by him than by his master. We have hopes that Sanftleben will bring us a good and conscientious shoemaker and that Zettler may finish learning the trade from him.

Wednesday, the 16th of May. We have now finished writing some letters to Europe, which are to be forwarded to Savannah next week together with our diary. We have been given permission to borrow our salary for this semester on a note, as well as another sum for our orphanage and congregation, which is to arrive through the intercession of our esteemed Prof. Francke. On this occasion, our letters will surely be sent off. We have written to Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen, Prof. Francke, Senior Urlsperger, Court Chaplain Butjenter, Counsellor Walbaum, the praiseworthy Society, and Mr. Berein. May God bless it all.

This morning I had wished to visit some of the people during the field work; but I was delayed with a sick little girl and a young man, and meanwhile the people had gone home for dinner. I met three men who were coming from the widow Arnsdorf’s land, where they had helped her plant rice; this is truly a work of love. She is living well and honestly and is much esteemed and loved by the Salzburgers. Sanftleben, too, has done much good by her; and he will be surprised at his return how much the dear Lord has blessed her in the management of her house and land. She is much better off in all respects than when her husband was still alive, and she suffers want in nothing. Pious people who practice their profession in Christian orderliness will surely find their sustenance among us, but there is nothing to be gained for disorderly ones.

N.N. accompanied me to his field; and, since his work causes him so much trouble and still brings little result (as shown by the state of his corn, which is far behind that of the others), I told him and his wife that the blessing of the Lord was not on their house. Should they convert to Him, and should this all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth become their Father, all would be better; without Him, however, and as long as they remained His enemies, all would retrogress for them. They said nothing to this. In their poverty and contrary circumstances these poor people blame others. They would have us provide them with money, food, and clothing; but this is not within our power, nor would it be well applied in their case.

Thursday, the 17th of May. A little girl had been suspected of theft, and everyone was after her; for many circumstances indicated that she was the culprit. When another girl, who had in truth become guilty of theft, saw how the first girl was to suffer despite her innocence, she admitted that she herself was guilty, but the other innocent. She could no longer see another child suffer on account of her misdeeds, she said. She had once seen a little piece lying on the ground and had picked it up; and, since nobody had asked for it for several weeks, she had kept it. True, in the beginning she had wished to say she had found money in the bedroom; but, because she had delayed too long, she had been afraid to make a clean breast of it.

At noontime we had the men assemble to discuss some material matters. The English boy²⁵ is of little use as a herdsman, since he has no liking for this work and would rather do other, even the most difficult tasks. Therefore, Schartner should again be appointed herdsman. However, since only very few in the community are able to support him, and since the cattle, which are the greatest asset of our people, must be cared for, we might be willing, in reliance on God’s plenty, to take him into the orphanage and there provide him with food and clothing, on the understanding that he will voluntarily agree to accept everything without complaint and faithfully attend to his profession. He has already kept the cattle in Old and New Ebenezer, and he is unfit for fieldwork. He has also planted little this time, and everybody is agreed that his spiritual and physical well-being would be furthered in this way. May the dear Lord Himself indicate what is to be done. We gladly do what we can for the love of the congregation, and we have hope that the Lord will also provide the means for us to do something. The English boy has promised to work faithfully in the orphanage, and he has much strength and skill.

We have had a penetrating rain, which has much refreshed our fields again. Since the wild cats²⁶ will not let the corn come up in some locations, our people take out the grown stalks from those places where the corn is too thick and transplant them to empty spots, just as cabbage and greens are transplanted. We have already noticed for several years that this is a practicable method and that the corn shows no difference at harvest time. For, once it is several inches high, the animals no longer attack it. The squirrels, which do damage only during the day, are easier to scare away. Necessity is the mother of many good inventions.

Friday, the 18th of May. I found a woman doing a small but important task; and I encouraged her to do all her work, even the smallest things, in the name of our Lord Jesus and for His glory. She wished she could do that, she said, and she strove mightily; but she still found herself quite corrupted. Whenever she would attend a sermon or prayer meeting, her unusually great perdition was revealed to her: she had been full of sin since her youth and had so insulted the Lord that she now had to marvel at His great patience and forbearance. He could have long since cast her into hell, had He but wished it; but instead He had always waited for her penitence. Now she was much chagrined that she was still living so little for the glory of the Lord, and still sinned so much, although against her knowledge and will. She was often much depressed by this and wished soon to be where God could be praised without sin. She cried over these words. I gave her a little verse: “The Lord hath pleasure in life,” likewise, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” (i.e. those who keep nothing before their eyes but perdition and consider themselves unworthy of all mercy and gifts). It is also said, “Blessed are they that mourn,” for it is one thing to be poor in spirit and to mourn, and whoever is found in this state is not lacking blessing but is blessed. If it were said, “Blessed are the happy, the comforted, and courageous souls,” this would deprive her of courage, but not otherwise. But she should not only look upon her perdition, but also upon the Savior who has come for the good of the sinners, for Paul also had held onto Him when he sighed, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?” and had praised God for His helper’s blessing.

I reminded her of what we are now discussing in the Bible story, where we have seen that, in response to their loud complaints, the Lord gave these wicked people saviors, although they were not worthy of it, and had proven Himself gloriously to them. We, however, had a greater Savior, whom God had given to us and who is surely not without strength. She also told me that she often loses the feeling of God’s grace when faced with her perdition and that this drives her into prayer. She will not stop praying, she said, until she again feels some of the grace of the Lord, etc. This woman proves her seriousness in Christianity and approaches her goal and treasure ever more closely.

This afternoon we had a heavy thunderstorm and a long, lasting rain. Once the lightning and thunder were so strong that it seems a tree close to our town was struck. Praise be to God, who until now has turned all harm from us. So far we have not heard of any occasion in this country where a house or a hut was struck by lightning or somebody was harmed.

Sunday, the 20th of May. In considering the prophetess Deborah’s song of triumph and praise in the 5th chapter of Judges, which was sung at their thanksgiving feast for the glory of the great Lord and the edification of the Israelites and which describes the pitiful condition of the Israelites, a condition improved by the grace and miraculous power of the Lord, we reminded ourselves in yesterday’s prayer meeting of the physical and spiritual blessings we have received during our sea voyage and here in this country above all other people and without our deserving them. This should give us cause to hold a thanksgiving and memorial feast, not only publicly once a year, but often in our hearts.

In verse 2, the prophetess praised the Lord that Israel was free again and that the people had agreed to it. All of us can see what a noble gift of the Lord freedom is by the example of others in this land, who are sold after their sea voyage; whereas the dear benefactors in England and Germany were willing to bring our listeners in three transports from Germany to England and thence here, with much love and free of cost, and to support them until they could support themselves. I reminded them that others who also wish to join us may not fare this well, inasmuch as both willingness and funds may be lacking; and we could be sure that many would thank the Lord if they were to receive but half of the good that was bestowed on us. And since we did not experience any of the want and misery which the children of Israel suffered under the tyrannical king of the Canaanites, but could enjoy our divine services and our work in peace and enjoy the Lord’s blessing with a contented heart, the experience of the Lord’s providence should lead us to eager praise of the Lord, following the example of Deborah and others, so that it might be said: “May my heart be God’s vale of praise,” etc.

N.N. from N.²⁷ visited me and asked to receive Holy Communion next Sunday. I told him that I did not like to refuse strangers who wished to take the Lord’s Supper here and therefore would not object to his desire. However, I begged him to examine himself carefully so that he might not go to judgment but to a blessing. I knew that God had worked hard on his soul; but I also know that his common sins were an equal acceptance of the world and frivolous company, so that he is quickly deprived of all the good that the Lord has built in his soul. I told him from the previously treated texts from the Book of Judges that the most common sins of the Israelites had been forgetfulness of the Lord, their Benefactor, acceptance of the world, and idolatry, and that these had led them into their physical and spiritual perdition. Thus is was with most Christians, who accept as sins many gross things, but not the acceptance of the world, sinful customs, workmen’s habits, and similar acts of participation.

Monday, the 21st of May. There are many among our dear listeners to whom the Lord has shown His mercy, and who gladly attest this in His praise. However, they are never satisfied with themselves and cannot complain enough about their misery once they start talking about it; and therefore they wish to realize it all the better, so that they may all the more surely claim the good which is promised to the miserable. I advised one of them to look eagerly upon the crucified Christ, for then he would learn how to become even smaller. The more we savor the love of the Lord and participate in His mercy, the lower we become. If there is anything good in our hearts, we must blow on it constantly so as to make it glow. Yes, he answered, if he were not to do that and bare his heart before the Lord in prayer, he would decrease more and more; but the more closely he learned to know the Lord Jesus, the more he savored His love, and his desire to stay with Him forever and consort with Him grew greater and greater. The Lord has blessed what we preached on the preceding day in many souls, as I have been told. May His name be blessed!

Tuesday, the 22nd of May. A man and his wife came into town from their plantation and visited me this afternoon. I read him a chapter from Johann Arndt’s Book of True Christianity, spoke in explanation of the text, and then prayed with them. The man had been here yesterday and had asked whether he could see me this afternoon, because then his wife would be here too. Among other things, he told me how he enjoys spending a whole day in town on Sunday to hear God’s word. On another occasion he told me that he often thought of last year, when he had given me to understand that he would have a bad harvest for lack of rain; for soon thereafter the wind had shifted and rain had fallen and the dear Lord had given him a plentiful harvest. This, he said, caused him to be quite ashamed.

Wednesday, the 23rd of May. Both the receipt of our salary and the forwarding of our package of letters required me to travel to Savannah very early Monday morning, whence I returned, thank the Lord, this noon, healthy in body and soul. Mr. Purry, who is prepared to accept our note on the salary, was not home; but I could not await his return from Mr. Montagut’s plantation because of our present communicants, so I shall transact my business with him when I travel again on behalf of the German people. In the meantime, however, I was able to obtain from his store all supplies needed for the orphanage, the community, and our own needs.

In Mr. Oglethorpe’s envelope Mr. Newman had written us a letter in which he announced that he had talked with the famous London merchant, Mr. Simonds, in regard to our salary, which we are to borrow on a note here in Savannah. That gentleman had been quite agreeable to the payment of this sum through Mr. Montagut and Mr. Purry, who are his agents here and trade in his name; and he had promised to give the necessary instructions. I gave our letters to Colonel Stephens, who will forward them shortly with his letters to the Honorable Trustees. He told me that a ship had arrived in Charleston to deliver some trading goods and was to proceed to Georgia from there. The ship had sailed from London in February; and it therefore can be assumed that our gifts, of which Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen again made mention in his last letter, dated from December, will have arrived. In the congregation, many prayers are said that the dear Lord may preserve these blessings and let them reach us safely. These long awaited gifts will be all the more appreciated, especially since many of our listeners badly lack summer clothing.

In Savannah I had to baptize the child of a Reformed family. The man is a servant of the preacher there, Mr. Norris, who had offered to baptize the child once it saw the light of this world. For this reason the German man had postponed the ceremony of Holy Baptism for several weeks, in the hope that the English preacher would return shortly from Frederica, whither he had travelled. An Englishman had tried a fortnight ago to persuade me to join a young couple for whom Mr. Norris had pronounced the bans but whom he had not yet married. However, this does not pertain to my office. I had once asked the preacher whether, in casu necessitatis,²⁸ he would agree to my performing some services for the English in Savannah, but he would not consent to this.

Mr. N.²⁹ had written a very kind letter to both of us, which was given to me in Savannah. The letter dated from October; and since he promised to be back in Georgia within seven months, with God’s help, we are now expecting him by the first boat. He wrote, among other things, that he had written to Prof. Francke,³⁰ as promised, and had also composed something in which he was asking for a contribution toward the construction of a church in Ebenezer. Mr. N. has also returned from Germany and I was told that God had given him the grace to take a better look at the gospel and search for justice only in the blood and wounds of Christ.³¹

Thursday, the 24th of May. Both recently and on this occasion, I heard that Mr. Oglethorpe had promised those people in Savannah who would work industriously and harvest corn, beans, and potatoes a present of 2 shillings sterling for each bushel as an encouragement for further industry, and that they should keep the produce for their use. I inquired with those in charge of Mr. Oglethorpe’s business in Savannah whether this favor was also to be extended to us, but I could not receive any assurance in this respect. However, Mr. Jones, the storehouse keeper, will inquire into it.³²

Friday, the 25th of May. I heard a woman pray and sigh, even before I had reached her room; and she told me in tears that she had read that the Lord demanded that no idle talk should come forth from our mouths, whereas she said many a word that could well be omitted, etc., and thus she found many sins whereby she transgressed the Lord’s commands. “If I could only,” she continued with upraised hands, “be rid of all my sins at once! I have so often insulted the Lord since my youth,” etc. I told her that a believer would be free of all his sins in his justification; and then there would be nothing damnable left in him, since he would be freed from the bondage of sin through the conversion in Jesus Christ, the strangled lamb of the Lord. From then on, in the course of his Christianity, he would shed all sin that might stick to him and make him slothful, the more the longer. If we were to ask all true Christians in present and former times what had been their daily exercise of Christianity, we would hear that, through God’s grace, they had let this be their worry: to extinguish the Old Adam with his lusts by daily penitence and remorse, so that the New Man and the spirit directed to Christ would emerge ever more strongly.

She should not ask what God Himself does not ask, that is, to be rid of all sins in this life so that she would no longer require any struggle; for that could only be expected when the just rise in the life beyond. In the meantime, I said, she should not lose her courage if she recognized more and more her sinful and rotten heart and had to struggle with it; because this was a great blessing, for which she indeed prayed. Therefore, if God revealed her sins to her in her prayers, He meant well and she should hasten to Christ, the Physician and Savior. This reminded me of the beautiful song, Eins Christen Hertz sehnt sich nach hohen Dingen, etc., wherein she would find it indicated in the very first lines that she no longer belongs to this world but to the Lord Jesus. And, since she is always worried that God might yet reject her for her deep perdition and become loath of her, I recalled to her the end of the first verse: “Once He begins, He continues and achieves;” also, in verse 2, “The Lord so dearly loves the poor worm even if it, like Jonas, should flee from Him, He will still love it and will not let go of the child of sin, but seek to embrace it.”

I reminded her that she had told me several times of her frivolity in Salzburg and of her damnable condition, and I asked her whether God had not indeed run after and followed her even though she had gone away from Him. How much less would He leave or reject her now that she is no longer fleeing from Him but wishes to come closer and now that her greatest sorrow is being prevented from this by her sinful weaknesses, etc. Finally, she told me of some instances when the Lord had blessed her heart by unspeakable joy and assurances of His mercy, but this changes constantly.

Another woman, who had been bedridden for several weeks, recognized well that both came from the Lord: health and sickness, good days and bad (or at least those that seem bad to our flesh); He always had a salutary intention of freeing man from this world and drawing him to Him. He achieves more through sickness and contrary circumstances than through true blessings, etc. I reminded her of the saying: “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib, but,” etc. She said this verse was the first that so impressed her in Salzburg that she remembered it as often as she went into the stable; for she had always fed the cattle and been good to them, and they had looked around after her, but had not done so for strangers. Another Salzburger woman living close by joined us and brought her little child along, and thus our joint prayer was increased. The simple but warm words exchanged between these people impressed me much, for there was nothing but Christian simplicity, frankness of the heart, willingness to serve each other, etc.

Saturday, the 26th of May. We now have rain every day, accompanied by thunderstorms; and yesterday’s rains were very strong and prevented us from holding the prayer meeting, which I would have liked to hold in preparation for Holy Communion. In the order of the gospel we are now having the 6th chapter of Judges with its noteworthy sermon of penance, which one of the prophets of God held for the Israelites and wherein both the acts of God regarding His people and the acts of His people with regard to Him are stated briefly but impressively. Our actual preparation and penance and confession concerned the first verse of tomorrow’s text, John 16:23, the words of which may well be called the golden scepter which the Lord Jesus extends to His orphaned, aggrieved, and deprived children.

Sunday, the 27th of May. Today, fifty-two persons celebrated Holy Communion, and we wish from the bottom of our hearts that the Lord may bless this dear feast in all of them for their eternal salvation! Although our dear listeners are in the midst of their fieldwork, they do not let themselves be prevented from the industrious use of the means of salvation and an industrious attendance of all occasions for edification; and this pleases us very much.

Today, I was visited by a child whose brother-in-law had taken her from the orphanage for business reasons. She had joined the other children in prayer and prayed herself in a heartfelt manner and with many tears; she remained after the prayer and asked me plaintively to take her back, as she preferred the orphanage to all other opportunities. She promised to be pious and industrious and obedient, and therefore I simply did not have the heart to refuse this poor orphan. We have a rich Father, and He will surely be able to provide for this one as well as for the others. Today’s epistle contains the beautiful verse: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,” etc. God, who is pleased by charity, will surely give us the strength and the means to exercise such charity.

Monday, the 28th of May. For those among us who like to cause discord, it may be a great affliction that we two, by the grace of God, stand as one man and act from one principle and for one purpose, so that they cannot find a patrocinium³³ for their disorderly intentions and actions in either of us. It is most salutary and contributes much to mutual agreement and to the furthering of the best interest of the congregation if preachers who work with one congregation take pains to consult with each other on what is required in this or that doubtful case, where caution must be exercised. For, if the listeners find no contradiction among them but see one act like the other, honest spirits are strengthened in their confidence in their teachers; and the evil minds are all the more surely put to shame and prevented in their disorderliness. Concordia res parvae crescunt, etc.³⁴

Flax, barley, and peas are already ripe and being harvested; and therefore our people can use these fields twice a year. They are now planting either Indian beans or sweet potatoes, or, in a few months, turnips. They use the fenced land for all sorts of purposes, whereas in Savannah and Purysburg many beautiful plots near these towns are uncultivated and Purysburg looks more like a forest than a town. In Savannah, too, little is planted; and we hear that the people there still tend to move away and to find their living elsewhere.

Tuesday, the 29th of May. A sick woman praised the goodness of the Lord, which ruled over her even during her illness, in that she had been led much deeper to the bottom of her heart and brought closer to her Savior. In our conversation, we mentioned the song: Schwing dich auf zu deinem Gott, du betrübte Seele, etc., which fitted the circumstances of her soul right closely; and she was thereby much strengthened in her trust in the fatherly love of God in Christ. She finds much refreshment in the song: Jehovah ist mein Hirt und Hüter, etc.; and she wishes that, if she should die in a state of grace thanks to the grace of God, this song should be sung at her funeral.

For some time now meat has been quite dear in this colony and very scarce. As the orphanage, too, is suffering want in this respect, the dear Lord has ordained for two large, six-year-old oxen to join our herd. They belonged to a merchant in Savannah who is about to leave this colony, and he sold them to us for £6 10s and I have been assured by our people that the orphanage has fared very well in this purchase. I must borrow the money for this, because the £25 which I borrowed on a note upon the instructions of Court Chaplain Ziegenhagen, and which were meant as a present from Prof. Francke, were used partly to pay old debts and partly to buy linen for summer clothing and other necessaries and foodstuffs. I received a good admonition these days when somebody repeated the verse: “Casting all your care upon Him, (on Him Whose hand is powerful) for He careth for you,” 1 Peter, 5:7.

Wednesday, the 30th of May. This afternoon we had a strong wind, accompanied by heavy rains and thunderstorms, which bent the tall corn to the ground and blew over some of the fences. The ground here is very loose and soft and is quickly made even softer by the rain; and therefore the corn is bent quickly, and even trees in the forest are easily uprooted. This storm arose quite suddenly and unexpectedly, and we will have to hear whether there was any damage at sea. The wind came from the south, and thus was all the more dangerous for the ships which recently left Charleston or its vicinity. The sailors fear the coast more than the winds or the open sea.

Thursday, the 31st of May. We have received much edification today, both from preaching the Lord’s word and from the visits of our dear listeners, for we have learned that the Lord has let His words find a good place in their hearts. On the other hand, there has been much disquiet because of certain circumstances; but the dear Lord has not let this affect our edification or that of the others. The English here do not observe Ascension Day, and they attempted to force the German people in Old Ebenezer to work on this day too; but some refused to do this and instead joined us in church. We hear many complaints regarding the disorderly and offensive ways of some of the Germans there, who act as badly as the others in every way and are therefore a great burden through their wicked words and example for those who are better than they are. Since we have learned of their offenses, such people have not had the heart to come to us to register for Holy Communion or to be seen by us.

My dear colleague had reached the elevation of Christ in the second article; and, as he had occasion to discuss the teaching of the ascension of Christ and His sitting on the right hand of the Father, I chose the two most impressive verses from Mark 16:15-16 as a text and preached on the loving arms of our Lord Jesus, which are open to receive all sinners; here, I based myself on the beautiful words of our dear Savior in John 12: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” May God be praised for all His help and blessing.