Nicholas Lewis (1700-1760), Count and Lord of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf, Lord of the Baronies of Freydeck, Schoeneck, Thuernstein, and the Vale of Wachovia, Lord of the Manor of Upper, Middle and Lower Berthelsdorf, Hereditary Warden of the Chace to his Imperial Roman Majesty, in the Duchy of Austria, below the Ens, and at one time Aulic and Justicial Counsellor to the Elector of Saxony. Having said all this let us acknowledge that this nobleman saw himself as a sinner saved by the grace of God to whom he owed everything. His hymn "Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness" expresses that we are saved by grace alone. As a youngster he was influenced by his grandmother, who was a Lutheran.
He was trained at Halle and Wittenberg. His life-motto was, "I have one passion: it is He, and He alone." He and his new wife renounced their rank and devoted all their property as well as themselves to the service of Christ. He turned over his estate to the Moravians as a center of their work. He abandoned public life in 1727 and you can just imagine what the nobility though of this "foolish" young man. But God has chosen just such "fools". In 1737 he was ordained Bishop of the Moravian Church.
While we could not agree with his pietism, there is no question as to the tremendous outreach that he supported under a Christ centered theology. Under his leadership outreach blossomed in profusion. "The Moravians have set and maintained a standard of missionary devotion never yet approached by any other church body" (Herbert Kane, Progress of World-Wide Missions).
On February 10, 1728 at the Herrnhut Colony a day of prayer and fasting was held from which a group of twenty-six men expressed a willingness to go anywhere for the Lord:
- In 1732 they went to Greenland and the Danish West Indies.
- In 1735 to Dutch Guiana.
- In 1737 to Capetown, South Africa.
On and on the record goes: Russia, Nicobar Islands (Bay of Bengal), Nicaragua, Gold Coast (Africa), Lapland, Pennsylvania.
In their Jubilee year of 1782 they had 27 stations with 165 missionaries in widely separated countries.
Jesus, be endless praise to Thee,
Whose boundless mercy hath for me,
For me, and all Thy hands have made,
An everlasting ransom paid.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 371:7) |
