14. XII - Labadie, the Pietists, Zizendorf, Philadelphia

Chapter XII Labadie, the Pietists, Zinzendorf, Philadelphia

1635-1750

Labadie—Forms a fellowship in the Roman Catholic Church—Joins the Reformed Church—Goes to Orange—To Geneva—Willem Teelinck—Gisbert Voet—van Lodensteyn—Labadie goes to Holland—Difference between Presbyterian and Independent ideals—Reforms forms in the Middelburg church—Conflict with Synods of the Reformed Church—Conflict on Rationalism—Labadie condemns Synods—He is excluded from the Reformed Church—A separate church formed in Middelburg—The new church expelled from Middelburg—It removes to Veere—Then to Amsterdam—Household church formed—Anna Maria van Schürman—Difference with Voet—Household troubles—Removal to Herford—Labadie dies in Altona—Removal of household in Wieuwerd—Household broken up—Effects of testimony—Spener—Pietists—Franke—Christian David—Zinzendorf—Herrnhut—Dissensions—Zinzendorf’s Statutes accepted—Revival—Discovery of document in Zittau—Determination to restore the Bohemian Church—Question of relations with the Lutheran Church—The negro Anthony—Moravian Missions—The Mission in England—Cennick—Central control unsuited to expanding work—Philadelphia Societies—Miguel de Molines—Madame Guyon—Gottfried Arnold—Wittgenstein—The Marburg Bible—The Berleburg Bible—Philadelphian Invitation—Hochmann von Hochenau—Tersteegen—Jung Stilling—Primitive and Reformed and other churches—Various ways of return to Scripture. The line of thought of the mystics in the Roman Catholic Church affected a young man, Jean de Labadie, born in Bordeaux in 1610, and educated by the Jesuits with a view to his becoming a member of their Society. Dissatisfied with his theological studies he turned to the New Testament and became deeply impressed by the greatness of the Gospel; saw, too, how corrupt Christendom had become and that the way of restoration could only be in a return to the pattern of the first assembly in Jerusalem. Ordained a priest (1635) he felt that his ordination was not from the bishop but the Lord Himself, who had called him from his mother’s womb to reform the Christian Church.

He saw that he must leave the Jesuits—with whom he was not yet completely associated. There seemed, however, no possibility of disentangling himself even from the position in which he already was; he had gone too far to turn back; so he committed himself into the hands of God and waited for Him to open the way. Serious and prolonged sickness led to the Jesuits’ giving up the idea of his finally becoming one of their number, and he was able to leave Bordeaux and all his old surroundings. His activities in Bordeaux had been so successful that with the consent of the archbishop he accepted a call and began to teach, first in Paris, then in Amiens.

Large numbers were attracted to his lectures. His method was to read a considerable portion of Scripture, several chapters even, and then expound them. People began to give up their rosaries and to occupy themselves with the New Testaments which Labadie circulated widely. He taught that the Gospel is the only rule of faith and piety, and that the manner of life of the primitive Christians is the pattern for all times. With the permission of the bishop a "congregation" or "brotherhood" was formed, consisting of those only who were awakened; they met twice weekly for meditation, and in their own houses they read the Bible. In this circle he made known his earnest desire that, in the will of God, the time might come when the Church would be restored to its original condition, so that it might be possible to read the Word of God there, to preach according to the custom of the original church (1Co 14:1-40), and to take the Lord’s Supper in both kinds. Persistently persecuted by the Jesuits, Labadie left Picardy and went to Guyenne, his birthplace, accompanied by several members of the brotherhood as a travelling assembly. There he was brought into contact with the teaching of Calvin, which he studied, thinking he might find among the reformed a people who lived for God and acted according to the principles, of the Gospel in doctrine, worship, and manner of life. He found that all the most important and decisive convictions he had received had been obtained by him through the study of Scripture, while still in the Roman Catholic Church, and not through the Study of Calvin’s works. Here he heard of the efforts made in the 16th century by Le Fèvre, Briçonnet, Roussel and others to reform the Church. Continued persecution obliged him to hide among the Carmelites and in the castles of his admirers, where he came among families belonging to the Reformed Church, families by whose life and teaching he was affected and impressed. He had tried to serve and heal the Church of Rome, but came to see that he was in irreconcilable opposition to its clergy. He hoped that if he joined the Reformed Church he might have liberty to confess openly the truths which God had so laid on his heart. Being in general agreement with the teaching of the Reformed Church he entered it in 1650 at Montauban, but did so under the conviction that its discipline was lax and its practice unworthy, and that as his efforts to reform the Roman Catholic Church had been resisted he was called now to bring about reform in the Reformed Church. In his writings and preaching Labadie showed that the power for outward reform and godly living lies in an inward life of communion with God, and wrote detailed instructions as to prayer and meditation. The constant aim of the Christian, he said, must be conformity of the will to the will of God, union with God. His love to God should be unselfish and unconditional; he would love and glorify God even if God had reckoned him to the lost.

Obliged to leave Montauban, Labadie was passing through Orange, but the presbytery of the church there persuaded him to remain. With the help of the members he set about a thorough reform, so that it might be really a "Reformed" Church, and this was, to a large extent effected. After less than two years the threatenings of Louis XIV making his stay even in the territories of the Prince of Orange dangerous, he accepted an invitation from the French church in London to become its minister. Fearing to pass through France he travelled by way of Switzerland. In Geneva, however, he was restrained from going further, remaining as a preacher in the church there (1659). His preaching was so powerful that the laxity that had followed Calvin’s strict rule was immediately checked and there was a return to righteousness which affected the moral condition of the city generally. More special blessing attended the Bible readings which were held in his own house, where a group of young people gathered around him to whom he taught "sound doctrine and holy life" as the "two hands" of the Christian. One of the young men who was helped through these Bible readings was Philip Jakob Spener. In 1661 Labadie received an invitation to Holland from some who were well known for their earnest Christian testimony. Among them were Voet, van Lodensteyn and Anna Maria van Schürman, who requested him to accept the place of preacher in the church at Middelburg where Teelinck had exercised a ministry of remarkable power and blessing.

Since the freeing of the Netherlands from the yoke of Spain, through the heroic fight led by William of Orange, the Low Countries had been in advance of all their neighbours both in religious liberty and material prosperity, and had become the scene and centre of intense spiritual activities. The University at Franecke was celebrated for the learning and piety of its professors. An originator of much of this life and interest in matters of religion was Willem Teelinck, born in 1579, whose father occupied a prominent position in the administration of the country. Teelinck travelled and studied for seven years in France, Scotland, and England. In London he came into contact with Puritan families, where what he heard and read led him to a change of life. He spent time in prayer, had days of fasting, and determined to give up his legal studies in order to devote himself exclusively to the ministry of the Word. He lived for some time in a family in Bamburgh, where he found such a life of prayer and of good works as he had never before seen or imagined possible. The regular prayer and reading of the Scriptures with exposition in the household; the thanksgiving at meals, conversation at table, singing, attendance at meetings, in all of which the servants and the children were as much interested as the heads of the household, the unfailing kindness, the care of the sick and needy—all this had an influence upon him which affected his whole after life. Returning to Holland, he laboured with great effect in preaching, visiting, and writing. This, with his godly example in personal life and in his household, was the occasion of widespread revival. The last sixteen years of his life were spent in Middelburg, where he died in 1629. He had felt deeply the merely nominal character of reformed Christianity. It seemed to him that in his own country it was to a great extent as a body without life, light or warmth, and he devoted himself entirely to its real reformation. While he trusted chiefly in spiritual means for this, he still thought that where fundamental errors could not be suppressed by such means, the help of the State should be called in.

Gisbert Voet, who continued Teelinck’s line of teaching, took an active part in the theological controversies of his day, ably defending the Reformed Church against all who differed from it, and came to be recognized as its most distinguished member. He introduced the practice of holding conventicles or meetings outside of the regular services of the church, in which laymen also took part. These conventicles were developed by Jodocus van Lodensteyn, a disciple of Voet, who had studied also at Franecke. Under his warm, hearty encouragement the conventicles became an important part of the religious life of the country. But to return to Labadie: an invitation from such people and into such apparently favourable conditions appealed to him so strongly that, in spite of many efforts to keep him in Geneva, he removed to Holland. The journey was dangerous; but a company of eighty Waldenses was in Geneva, provided with passports, on their way to the Palatinate (Pfalz); three of them were detained in Geneva through illness, and Labadie and his friends, Yvon and Dulignon, travelled undetected with the party, in their place. In Heidelberg they were joined by Menuret, and there the four vowed themselves to entire sanctification, to deny the world with its desires, goods, pleasures and friends; so to follow Jesus Christ, poor, despised and persecuted, as to grow into His likeness and carry His cross and shame; to give themselves to God and to His Gospel, first practicing it themselves that they might then help others to do so.

Reaching Holland they went first to Utrecht, where they were invited to the house of Anna Maria van Schürman, were warmly welcomed by her and Voet and others, and stayed ten days. During this time Labadie preached with power and marked effect. Their hostess was captivated by his teaching, but Voet and van Lodensteyn saw that Labadie’s spirit was very different from what Teelinek’s had been; they wondered whether he and they would be able to work together, and doubted whether the world could be altogether driven out of the church as Labadie thought it certainly could.

Even at this early stage the difference between the Presbyterian and Independent systems began to show itself; the former was practised by the Reformed Church, the latter was more prevalent in England, and was the one which Labadie with increasing clearness was coming to approve. The Independents denied the authority of Synods, looking upon each congregation as directly under Christ and responsible to Him, whereas the Dutch and French Reformed Churches had organized a system of half-yearly Synods, to which each church sent two representatives, who then conveyed the decisions of the Synod to the church. The Reformed Church attached great importance also to the office and rights of its preachers and to their training for that office, and failures which they observed in the ministry among other bodies, such as the Mennonites, confirmed them in their view. The Independents did not acknowledge any church office as absolutely necessary and appointed by God, they considered, and so did Labadie, that a church is a congregation of believing people, and this condition of belief the necessary foundation of teaching and testimony. Teelinck and Voet on the other hand viewed the church as the field in which the power of the Gospel is to become effective and the aim of their work was the conversion of its members, and then the leading of them on in worthy living. Van Lodensteyn would have liked to call the Church not "Reformed" (Reformata) but "to be Reformed" (Reformanda). He and Voet long hoped to steer a middle way between the two ideals. There was a section which thought the Church had fallen so utterly that it was no longer to be found in the world and all that remained was to wait for the coming of Christ.

Soon after reaching Middelburg Labadie found himself deeply disappointed at the low spiritual level to which both the Dutch and French assemblies had sunk. Church discipline had been neglected and the church was far from Labadie’s ideal. He set about reform by means of preaching, catechizing, discipline, and meetings of small groups, but his personal piety and self-denial were more effectual still in influencing the people. He urged upon the members of the Consistorium that with fasting and prayer and absolute separation from all evil they should effectually use the keys of "loosing and binding" that Christ had committed to them, denying self and giving time to meditation and prayer, for only thus would the assembly be changed. No such preaching as his had been heard in Holland. His habit of extempore prayer, in which he encouraged others also, was new to the church, and he taught the union of the soul with God in an unaccustomed way. Under his guidance the assembly endeavoured to carry out New Testament principles. "Prophecy" was understood among them to be a gift to be exercised by any brother, who, led by the Spirit, might stand up in the meeting, expound the Word and apply it in a way suited to the needs of the church. Labadie wrote a book entitled "The discernment of a true church according to the Holy Scripture containing thirty remarkable signs by which it may be well known". He shows that it is only a company of those who are really born again that can be considered a true church; one where all, through the Holy Spirit, are united in one body and where all members of the assembly are led by the Spirit of Christ. His teaching won the hearts of great numbers not only in Middelburg but also throughout the Netherlands. At the same time it became increasingly evident that if it were followed it would altogether change the character of the Reformed churches, emphasizing in a way to which those congregations were not accustomed the inner life of communion with God. Such an emphasis, they feared, would endanger the soul’s rest in the work of Christ, making more of Christ in it than of Christ for it, exalting works at the expense of faith, dwelling more on sanctification than on justification. They also saw that the liberty of ministry allowed must affect the guiding power and influence of the ordained ministers of the Church. Opposition to that which Labadie considered as needful reformation, but which was regarded by most leaders of the Church as a bringing in of strange and disturbing changes, grew to be definite, organized, and bitter. At a French Synod held in Amsterdam in 1667 he was required to sign the Belgian Confession. This he refused to do on the ground that he now found many unscriptural expressions in it, though he had formerly signed the identical French Confession at Montauban, Orange and Geneva. This so strengthened the opposition to him that, at a following Synod at Leyden, it was decided that if he would not sign the Belgian Confession at the next Synod, to be held at Vlissingen, and undertake to conform to the usages of the Reformed Church, he should be suspended from office. The people of Middelburg were so indignant at this that the magistrate was compelled to take action, with the result that when the Synod met at Vlissingen it was obliged to have the complaints against Labadie removed from the minutes of the Leyden Synod.

About this time a book was published by an Amsterdam doctor, Ludwig Meijer, arguing that natural understanding should be the ground of all Scripture exegesis. This rationalistic teaching aroused such opposition among all in the Netherlands who believed in the inspiration of the Scriptures that the civil authorities appointed the learned and well-known Professor Coccejus to write a refutation. Others also wrote, and among them Ludwig Wolzogen, preacher of the French Reformed Church at Utrecht. Wolzogen’s book, however, while written ostensibly to oppose rationalism, diverged so widely from the accepted teaching of the Church that believers in the inspiration of the Bible looked upon this book as being rather an apology for the teaching objected to. Labadie also wrote, and the church council of the French church at Middelburg found his book to be so convincing a refutation of the rationalistic teaching that it decided to bring forward a motion at the next Synod at Vlissingen for a formal condemnation of Meijer’s book. In consequence of this the Synod appointed the church councils of three cities, one of which was Middelburg to prepare a report on the book for the next Synod, to be held at Naarden (1668). The reports of the three councils differed considerably, but it was a surprise when a large majority of the Synod declared Meijer’s book to be orthodox and justified Wolzogen. Labadie left the Synod to consult with his church council at Middelburg, but in the meantime the Synod proceeded to suspend him from his office provisionally as one who had introduced strange teachings and practices into the church. Further charges were brought against him, namely, that he had taught that the present time is the reign of grace, and that the millennial reign of Christ will not begin until He shall have overcome all enemies and accomplished the object of creation, in spite of the Fall of man, and brought about the restitution of all things to that state in which God created them. If Labadie would not submit he was to be finally removed from office. A commission of the Synod was sent to Middelburg with power to suspend any members of the church council who might resist its decree, but the Middelburg church council refused to accept the decree of the Synod, saying that Labadie was not convicted of falling away from the teaching and order of the church. The council was suspended. It was decided that at the next Synod Labadie should be forbidden to preach.

He was thought the more dangerous because of his extraordinary gifts. He himself never thought of yielding, but continued to preach, and wrote declaring that he could have no fellowship with the Synod, which had fallen altogether into error and evil. He not only found error in the Belgian Confession, but asserted that the Synod rejected the teaching of 1Co 14:1-40. He also condemned the whole system of Synods and Consistoriums, the stereotyped liturgical forms, the reading of Scripture without explanation, the misuse of the Sacraments by accepting those who were not born again as witnesses at baptisms and to partake of the Lord’s Supper. He pointed out too that at marriages notoriously ungodly people were made to take Christian vows and promised God’s blessing, that the church authorities took Papal powers to themselves, and bound people’s consciences with their ordinances. He said that there is no authority in the church but that of the Spirit and the Word of God, i.e, what is contained in the Holy Scriptures, and the inward witness of the Word which corresponds with this. As therefore the Christian conscience is only guided by the authority of the Word of God, it is not rebellion to refuse the ordinances of Synods and other human institutions when they are contrary to this; it is, on the other hand, rather the duty of a Christian assembly to do this in the interests of Christian liberty and to oppose the setting up of a new Popery which would act as though it were above the Word of God. The much looked for Synod was held at Dordrecht in the year 1669. Labadie and the Middelburg church council with some members of the church waited a week in Dordrecht that they might appeal against the treatment they had received. They were not given a hearing. The Synod confirmed the expulsion of Labadie and all his supporters, "because they had shown themselves disobedient to the laws of the Church and intended to bring about division".

Labadie was assured that he had been called by God to re-establish Apostolic churches. Until he was forty years of age he had laboured for the reform of the Church of Rome, and then for twenty years for that of the Reformed Church. He had thrown his excellent gifts and his whole life into both these attempts with enthusiasm and delight—now both had failed! This brought him to the conclusion that "a reform of the existing church bodies is impossible, and that restoration of the Apostolic church can only be accomplished through separation from them". He at once introduced this principle into the Middelburg church, and some three hundred separated from it and formed a new gathering. Several elders and three pastors took the oversight of this; meetings were held twice daily, and on Sundays three times. The meeting room had nothing in it but benches, not even a pulpit. One bench was a little higher than the others, and on this sat the elders and preachers, all of whom were in the habit of speaking in the meetings. They would not use the name "Reformed", but preferred to be known as "Evangelical". Only those might be members of whom there was reason to believe that they were born again.

Differences between the Reformed Church and this newly formed congregation induced the town authorities to ask the members of the latter to leave Middelburg. No sooner was this known than the town of Ter Veere, an hour distant, invited the exiled church to remove there. The invitation was thankfully accepted, but the chief magistrate of Middelburg soon saw that he had made a mistake, for crowds flocked to Ter Veere to hear Labadie preach, while Middelburg was deserted. Annoyed at the material loss this involved, the Middelburg magistrate persuaded the higher district authorities to order the Veere magistrate to expel Labadie and Yvon on the ground that they had caused division in the church and unrest among the people. The Middelburg magistrate armed his men to enforce the decree, but the people of Veere rose as one man to resist forcibly. Civil war was imminent. Then Labadie came forward and said that no blood should flow on his account, he saw the hand of God leading them from Veere, and would go to Amsterdam, with those who wished to accompany him. There was dismay in Veere, but Labadie remained firm, and the citizens had to yield, the magistrate said he only let him go "most unwillingly and on the ground of utmost necessity."

Labadie and his three friends, with some other sympathizers, moved to Amsterdam, where they were well received and promised protection and religious liberty. The influence of Labadie’s work had been such that in Amsterdam there were many thousands who were attached to the new church and abstained from taking the Lord’s Supper in the Reformed Church, and it was the same in all the larger churches in the country, while many who did not actually join these companies were greatly influenced by them. This serious danger to their system induced the leaders of the Reformed Church to ask the help of the Government, but under the eminent statesman, Jan de Witt, religious freedom was assured, and no steps could be taken.

Unhappily, however, events in his own mind and in his immediate circle did more to injure Labadie’s testimony than any outward attack could have done. He had learned by experience and from the Word, that it is not possible so to reform a town or a church system as to bring it to the condition he aimed at; but he was not content with the formation of churches of the Apostolic pattern—gatherings of persons saved, indeed, and separated from the surrounding world, but many of them weak and failing and needing constant patient care—so he decided to form a Household Church, where the household and the church would be the same and it would be possible, as he supposed, to know each member and lead each into the true following of Christ and union with God. A house was rented in Amsterdam where there was accommodation for about forty and the new household was gathered. Regular meetings were held, and once a week a meal was taken in common. The meetings were attended by many from outside, and when French was spoken it was translated into Dutch. Yvon, Dulignon and Menuret went out on preaching expeditions throughout the Netherlands and surrounding countries.

Anna Maria van Schürman moved to Amsterdam, rented an apartment in the house, and threw in her lot with the new household. She was considered the most accomplished woman of her time. She corresponded in various languages with the most famous literary men in Europe, and her opinion and counsel were sought and valued by those who were themselves experts in the arts and sciences. She had been a devoted Christian from her childhood. In her book, "Eukleria", written in Latin, she relates, "as a child of scarcely four years old I sat with my nurse on the banks of a stream. She repeated to me the words, ’I am not my own but belong to my truest Saviour, Jesus Christ.’ I was filled with such an inward sense of love to Christ that in all my following years nothing has ever been able to erase the vivid remembrance of that moment". In justifying her adhesion to the new company she wrote: "As I have now seen for a number of years, with pain, the departure of Christendom from its origins, and its almost entire unlikeness to the same ... and had lost any hope of its restoration in the usual course of things which is followed by our clergy (most of whom are themselves greatly in need of reformation), who can rightly object that I have, with a happy heart, chosen for my own those teachers fitted by God to bring about a reform of degenerate Christianity?" Her renown caused this step to be everywhere spoken of and she was overwhelmed with letters calling her back to the Reformed Church, but she rejoiced that she had now put aside the old man and chosen that good part that would not be taken away from her. She had formerly sought God’s honour, but her own also, now she sought none for herself but only for God. She sold what she had and gave it to Labadie and never seems to have regretted this. In all the many vicissitudes of the family she was an invaluable helper, and in her old age its most trusted counsellor.

Voet saw dangers in this new development and, though he had hitherto been one of Labadie’s most important supporters, now became his opponent. He wrote to show that no one should leave the Reformed Church because evil, lukewarmness and weakness were to be found in it, or in order to join a separated, cloister-like union taking the place of the church, and said that a household such as that proposed would give rise to evil surmisings. The publication of this book had an extraordinary effect. An anonymous reply appeared in which Voet was attacked in a violent and unworthy way. It was found that Labadie was the author, and his reputation was seriously injured by it. Many wrote against him, but the increase of these attacks only drew the members of the household more closely together, and they were joined by others, including the Burgomaster of Amsterdam.

Troubles arose in the household however. A member of it, a widow, died, and a false report was circulated that she had been killed, and that her body was to be buried in the garden. A mob surrounded the house, which had to be protected for three days by a military force. Menuret, whom Labadie loved as a son, became mentally afflicted and died in a frenzy of madness. Members of the household questioned whether such a thing could happen in a church that was really of God. It was found that in spite of all their care, one of the household held Socinian views, and that another had Quaker ideas. When they were reproved for these, they published a pamphlet full of calumnies, in revenge. The matter came before the courts and the statements in the pamphlets were proved to be false, but the report gained currency nevertheless that there were members of the family who were dangerous sectaries. So much prejudice was excited against them, that in the interests of peace, the magistrates forbade anyone to attend meetings in Labadie’s house except the members of the household. This checked their growing numbers and cut off the hope of development. To escape these difficulties Anna Maria van Schürman appealed to her old friend Princess Elizabeth, Abbess of Herford, who invited all who would come to take refuge on her free estate, so Labadie and a party of about fifty sailed from Amsterdam to Bremen, and travelled from there by waggon to Herford (1670). The Lutheran inhabitants of Herford violently resented the coming of the "Quakers", as they called them, and it was only the authority of the Princess that made it possible for them to remain. The hatred and enmity by which they were surrounded isolated the household still more from the world, and they became increasingly occupied with their own religious exercises. The preaching of Labadie at this time so affected his hearers that they felt they had only now attained to an entire yielding of themselves to God, and this led to their introducing community of goods as a means of expressing their giving up of all worldly things and their denial of self and entire union with the members of the body of Christ. At the introduction of this change they were engaged in the breaking of bread in memory of the Lord’s death when a strange spiritual ecstasy came over, first some, then all of them; they began to speak with tongues and then stood up and danced and this lasted for about an hour. At somewhat rare intervals similar manifestations were repeated. To most of them these things seemed to show that they were now really of one heart and one soul in the Lord. Others disapproved and withdrew from their fellowship. The hatred of those outside was embittered as such doings were related. Until this time the community had, on the whole, discouraged marriage, but now took another view of this and Labadie, Yvon and Dulignon all married, finding wives who were a help to them in their testimony. The growing animosity of the people obliged them at last to leave Herford in spite of the protection of the Princess, who never ceased to defend them, and they found a quiet dwellingplace in Altona, where they rented two houses. Here Labadie died peacefully (1674), and here Anna Maria van Schürman wrote her book "Eukleria". War obliged them to leave this retreat and they moved to Castle Waltha, in the little village of Wieuwerd in West Friesland, which had been placed at their disposal. This was their last home. The country people received them gladly and a commission appointed by the Reformed Church to inquire into their views and ways reported them to be harmless, which led to their being allowed to remain in peace. Here Anna Maria van Schürman died, aged 71; also Dulignon and his wife. The community increased and large numbers attended the services from the country round. Considerable parties were sent out, one to Surinam and one to New York. They were financed and controlled by the Wieuwerd community, but both parties returned unsuccessful, chiefly because, instead of trying to win the heathen to Christ, they had occupied themselves with endeavouring to gain the Christians there to their party. These expeditions impoverished those left at home, and the practical difficulties of having community of goods compelled them to abandon the system after carrying it on for twenty years. This change caused great distress, since most of the members were poor, many had not been in the habit of earning a living, and many were unfit to do so, and had depended on those who had means. Yvon explained that when the first church at Jerusalem was scattered, community of goods ceased, and that they themselves also were now called to spread in the world and work as a leaven there. If this had been seen earlier it would have saved them from giving up the Scriptural church order which they practised at first and exchanging it for a community life which narrowed their testimony and hindered it from the wider development of which it had given promise. The household was broken up and scattered. Yvon remained at Castle Waltha, where he died, and twenty-five years later, the castle passing into other hands, the last of the Labadists left. The life of Labadie was one of valiant effort, the source of which lay in inward communion with God, nourished by systematic prayer and instructed by diligent study of the Scriptures. He learned that his great idea of a reformation of the Roman Catholic Church was impossible of attainment. Then he found by large experiment that a city or state cannot, as such, be converted and become a church. He found later that the Reformed Protestant Church was incapable of reformation and of being restored to the New Testament pattern. Then through long conflicts he came to see the true churches of God as they were at the first and always have been. Afterwards, discouraged by much opposition and many disappointments, he sought refuge in a household church, thinking that in its limited circle purity could be maintained, but he missed the track here, for the true churches are not the resting places of perfect people but the nurseries and schools where all are received who confess Christ and where all their weakness and ignorance and imperfection must be borne with and instructed in the patience of unfailing love. In Labadie we see a man whose life held elements of heroic failure and yet of abiding success. First he tried to include too much in the Church; great worldly systems from which the true churches must be separate. Then he included too little, thinking that the churches must contain only those who are perfect. There was a period when he founded true churches of God and the influence of what he then taught and accomplished continued beyond his lifetime. Taking a limited view of the church involved him in the mistakes to which such a course leads—the narrowed communion favoured the extravagances and lack of balance which accompany undue restriction. His experiences remain strikingly valuable, illustrating the excellence of the way of the Word and the danger of turning to the right hand or to the left—of including the world in the churches or of excluding the saints from them. At the close of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648, the Protestant countries, exhausted economically and suffering from the moral degradation of a generation brought up in conditions of violence and disorder, were also in a low and careless spiritual state. The Lutheran, and to a less degree the Reformed, churches were more occupied with a rigid orthodoxy than with a godly manner of life.

Spener, born in Alsace in 1635, became at the age of 35 chief pastor of the Lutheran Church in Frankfurt. Deeply impressed with the crying need for reform in the Church, he held meetings, first in his own house and afterwards in the church, the aim of which was to bring into practice "the old apostolic way of church meetings ... as Paul in 1Co 14:1-40 describes it, when those who have gifts and knowledge should also speak and, without disorder and strife, express their pious thoughts on the matters in hand, and that the others might judge". The believers came together regularly, and an appointed subject was considered and a conversation on it took place. The men and women sat apart and only the men took part. It was understood that other people were not to be judged and that all gossip was excluded. At first edifying books were read and discussed, but hater they confined themselves to the reading and general consideration of the New Testament. In many of the private meetings after this there followed questions, confessions or experiences, designed to bring out what was learned. Spener himself did not encourage this but kept to the exposition of the Word. He objected to names, as Pietist, Spenerite and others, as he did not want to found a sect, or that they should become a monkish community, but only that they should come back to the old and universal Christianity. Spener could allow and even support in other churches what he would not do himself. He felt that he had not himself the energy and force of a Reformer, but rather an ability to tolerate differences. He allowed the self-examination and confession that prevailed in some meetings but did not introduce them into his own, and valued the mysticism of some believers while confessing that he had had no experiences of the ecstasies they enjoyed in the revelation of the Bridegroom, nor of the Quietist self-abandonment that they practised. His desire was expressed in his words: "Oh that I knew a single assembly upright in all things, in doctrine, order, and practice, all that would make it what an apostolic Christian assembly should be in doctrine and life!" He did not expect an assembly "without weeds", but one where the preachers carried out their work in the leading of the Holy Spirit and the greater part of the hearers were such as had died to the world and led not only an honest but also a godly life. He said the greater part of professing Christians were not born again and many of the ministers of the Word did not understand as they should the true doctrines on which the steadfastness of the church depends. After a time the members of Spener’s church in Frankfurt abstained from the Lord’s Supper so that they might not take it with those who took it unworthily. From Frankfurt Spener was removed to Dresden as Court chaplain, and then to Berlin, where he was diligent in service until his death (1705). The societies, called Pietist, which he did so much to found and encourage became a vivifying force; though attacked and ridiculed by official Christianity, they did not separate from the Lutheran Church but formed centres within it which attracted seekers after godliness and bore fruit in many and far-reaching spiritual activities.

One to whom Spener was a help was August Hermann Franke, who became his chief successor in the Pietist movement. He was born at Lübeck (1663), and studied theology, which, though it had a certain value for him, did not bring peace to his soul. His studies, however, awakened in him an earnest desire to understand in his life and conduct what he had merely apprehended in the mind and memory, and, after some years of anxious seeking he experienced a sudden conversion by which all his unbelief was dissipated and he received an entire assurance of salvation. His insistence on conversion and godliness brought blessing to many, but also made him enemies; he was branded as a Pietist and expelled from Erfurt, where he was minister, at forty-eight hours’ notice. The same day an invitation from the Court of Brandenburg led to his being appointed Professor of Greek and Oriental Languages at the University which was being founded at Halle. There he was much affected by the distress of the poor and set up a box into which contributions might be put, which he then distributed. One day a larger sum than before was put in, about 15/. "On taking this sum into my hand", he wrote, "I exclaimed with great liberty of faith: This is a considerable sum, with which something really good must be accomplished; I will begin a school for the poor with it." This was the beginning of the extensive institutions at Halle, which were built up and carried on without appealing for money and without any visible supply, "but solely and simply, " he said, "in reliance on the living God in heaven". At Franke’s death 134 orphans were being supported in the Home, cared for by 10 women and men; 2200 children and young men were being taught in the different schools, mostly without charge, by 175 teachers; hundreds of poor students were fed daily, and there were in operation printing and bookselling, a library, a dispensary, a hospital, and other institutions. As a boy in this school, and, later, sitting at Franke’s table and listening to the stories of missionaries, who were often there, Zinzendorf received impressions which were fruitful in his after life. In 1690, seventy years after the battle of the White Mountain, and sixty-two years after Comenius had led the last band of exiles from Moravia, Christian David was born, not far from Fulneck. The "hidden seed" which Comenius had prayed might be preserved was still hidden; Christian’s parents were Roman Catholics, like their neighbours, and he as a shepherd boy and then a carpenter was very devout, while inwardly concerned as to how he could be assured that God had forgiven his sins. Reading and inquiring he got such contradictory answers to his questions that he was altogether perplexed, left home and wandered away into Germany, seeking truth. After many adventures and constant disappointments he met with Pastor Schäfer in Görlitz, a Pietist, from whom he learned the way of salvation. Full of joy and zeal he returned to Moravia and went about preaching everywhere. The forgotten truths of former times were revived in the hearts of many of his hearers as they listened to his homely discourse. Those, however, who obeyed the Gospel were met at once by crushing persecution. David went back to Schäfer in Görlitz to see whether a place of refuge could be found in Saxony, and through him met with Count Zinzendorf. From his earliest childhood Zinzendorf had been a lover of Jesus Christ, and his training in Pietist circles had strengthened his devotion. At the time when Christian David met him he was living in his castle of Berthelsdorf, near the Bohemian frontier, where he and his friend, Pastor Johann Andreae Rothe were engaged in serving the Lord among the surrounding people. The two young men, Zinzendorf 22, David ten years older, discussed the need in Moravia, and Zinzendorf invited the persecuted believers there to come and settle on his estates in Saxony. David was quickly back in his own country, where he gathered a few families of believers, who were able to steal away from their homes and whom he led over the mountains into Saxony and to Berthelsdorf. There they were cordially received, but there was no place where they could live. About a mile away, on Zinzendorf’s estate, was a low, wooded hill called Hutberg, or the Watch Hill. This they re-named Herrnhut, the Lord’s Watch, and decided to build a home for themselves there. Christian David, taking an axe, felled the first tree, and, an indefatigable workman and preacher, he guided and encouraged the builders so that in a short time (1722) a house was finished, the beginning of the extensive buildings now forming Herrnhut, and the pattern for many that were to follow in different parts of the world.

One day David, nailing a plank in the castle in Berthelsdorf, his thoughts in Moravia, suddenly left his tools and even his hat, set off, without preparation, and walked the two hundred miles to Kunewald, where there were a number of believers, descendants of families that had belonged to the old Church of the Bohemian Brethren. He brought away a party of these, among them the families Nitschmann, Zeisberger and Toeltschig, afterwards to become well-known in connection with the missionary enterprises of the new Moravian Church. They reached Herrnhut just as Zinzendorf and his friend de Watteville were laying the foundation stone of the first meeting-house to be built there, and they threw in their lot with the company that had preceded them.

After this many came from Bohemia and Moravia, some escaping from prison or leaving hiding places in the forests. As this place of refuge for the oppressed came to be more widely known, others came there, of divers views, some followers of Schwenckfeld, some Pietists, and some who could agree with no one. Bitter disputing took the place of brotherly accord, and the settlement was threatened with disruption. In the meantime Zinzendorf had been converting Berthelsdorf into a model village, where everything was done in accordance with his wishes, and those of his friend Pastor Rothe. The Count believed in organizing an appeal to the imagination. As a boy at Halle his missionary enthusiasm expressed itself in the formation of the "Order of the Mustard Seed", with promises and emblems and motto and ring, which, beginning with five boys of whom he was the Grand Master, grew to be a powerful incentive to devotion in missionary work. In Berthelsdorf he had founded the "League of the Four Brethren", himself, de Watteville, Rothe, and Schäfer, to make known to the world the "Universal Religion of the Saviour and His Family of Disciples, the Heart-Religion, in which the Person of the Saviour is the central point"; in later days his "Warrior Band" became an effectual missionary instrument. Now he intervened in Herrnhut. He recognized the honest intent in these quarrelling partisans, was able to say of one of the most impetuous of them: "Although our dear Christian David was calling me the Beast and Mr. Rothe the False Prophet, we could see his honest heart nevertheless, and knew we could lead him right. It is not a bad maxim, when honest men are going wrong, to put them into office, and they will learn from experience what they will never learn from speculation". He gathered them together, and in a three hours’ address, expounded to them the "Statutes, Injunctions and Prohibitions" which he had made out to regulate every particular of their lives. A spiritual revival was given them at this time, power to forgive and be reconciled, and they settled down peaceably to the new order.

About the same time Zinzendorf found in the library of the neighbouring town of Zittau, a copy of the "Order of Discipline" drawn up by the last meeting of the Bohemian Brethren just before the battle of the White Mountain edited by Comenius. From this Zinzendorf saw that the settlers he had received represented the ancient church that had existed so long in Bohemia. He was profoundly touched by the lament of Comenius as he recorded the destruction of its testimony, and he resolved that he and all that he had should be devoted to the preservation of the Little Company of the Lord’s disciples that had taken refuge with him. When this document was communicated to the refugees they were stirred to restore the old church, from members of which many of them were descended. The question of the relations of the communal society at Herrnhut to the Lutheran Church naturally arose. Zinzendorf, himself a Lutheran, wanted the community to attach itself altogether to the Lutheran Church. This they were determined not to do. Eventually the matter was decided by lot, a method much in use among them, and the lot decided against joining the Lutheran Church. Then Zinzendorf, to avoid friction with that, the established Church, had himself ordained as a minister in it, while one of the refugees was consecrated bishop by Daniel Ernst Jablonsky, Court preacher at Berlin, and the only surviving bishop of the old Church of the Bohemian Brethren. In this way they were acknowledged as a community within the Lutheran Church and so able to administer the sacraments. In spite of this the forces opposed to them were such that Zinzendorf was banished from the kingdom of Saxony (1736).

Visiting the King of Denmark, Christian VI, he met a negro, Anthony, whom he invited to Herrnhut, and Anthony’s description of the condition of the slaves in the West Indies so affected his hearers, that one, Leonard Dober, offered to go and carry the Gospel to them. The project was confirmed by casting lots and the young man, with another, David Nitschmann, set out. They were practical men, a carpenter and a potter, had been well educated in the Herrnhut schools, and were able speakers. They set forth on their journey on foot, with no more baggage than they could carry on their backs and with 18/ between them. This was the beginning of the Moravian Missions, which turned the whole Body into a Missionary Society (1732). Devotion to Christ led many of the missionaries to choose by preference the most difficult and dangerous regions to work in. Herrnhut became a centre associated with all parts of the world. In many countries settlements modelled upon it were established. In its large cemetery are the graves of natives of the most diverse countries, who came from their distant lands to visit the parent settlement. The work of the Moravians in England began in 1738, when Peter Boehler, on his way as a missionary to South Carolina, spoke in London in a Society founded by James Hutton, a London bookseller. Hutton and his friends were seekers after salvation, but had not found assurance, and as Boehler, in broken English, but with much ability, expounded the Scriptures to them, "it was", said Hutton, "with indescribable astonishment and joy that we embraced the doctrine of the Saviour, of His merits and sufferings, of justification through faith in Him, and of freedom by it from the dominion of guilt and sin." This company accepted the Herrnhut rules given them by Boehler, and a preacher from Germany was sent to them, though they still remained members of the Church of England. Four years later Spangenberg came from Germany, and admitted them as a congregation of the Brethren’s Church, introducing the rules and officers of the German congregations. At first there was much intercourse between them and Wesley, who was largely influenced by their example in his organization of Societies within the Established Church, class meetings and love feasts. Benjamin Ingham, a clergyman at Ossett, in Yorkshire, was one of those who in these days of revival was active and greatly blessed in his work. Not confining himself to his parish, he travelled over the country from Halifax to Leeds, and founded some fifty little societies for reading and prayer. Seeing a need of more helpers, he invited the Moravians, who, responding immediately, sent twenty-six workers, men and women, into Yorkshire. They set to work methodically. Spangenberg directed operations from Wyke as a centre; Toeltschig, who had come with Christian David from Moravia, was at Holbeck; altogether there were five directing centres arranged, controlling in a short time nearly fifty preaching places, which were carried on with the help of "National Assistants" or native helpers. The preachers had all the tumultuous experiences usual at that time, and it was decided to establish a more solid base by building a Herrnhut in England. Count Zinzendorf came over and helped them in securing land at Pudsey between Leeds and Bradford, money was sent from Germany and Fulneck was built, its name chosen to commemorate its connection with Fulneck in Moravia. Here a settlement was established on the Herrnhut model, and others on a smaller scale at Wyke, Mirfield, and Gomersal, where Zinzendorf’s rules and regulations were reproduced.

Similar work was done in some other parts of the country; the most successful evangelist being John Cennick, born in England but descended from a Bohemian family that had taken refuge in England at the break-up of the Old Bohemian Brethren’s Church. Cennick was at first an active helper of the Wesleys but his leanings to Whitefield’s doctrines led them to repudiate him, and eventually he became fully associated with the Moravians. He was an open-air preacher of extraordinary power and a man of a gentle and winning disposition. His short life was wholly devoted to the Lord’s service, and in the West of England and Northern Ireland the fruit of his labours was very abundant. The endeavour to control from Germany this widespread organization proved an increasing hindrance to the work, and even when modified as it was later in England and America, the unsuitability of the settlement system to meet the varied needs of different national characteristics, and of changing circumstances, emphasizes the fact that the wisest plans of even the best of men are not fitted for permanent or universal application, whereas the teaching and example of the New Testament as to the founding and conduct of the churches of God prove suitable to every variety of need. In the eighteenth century the Philadelphia societies or churches were formed as the result of the meeting of two streams of spiritual experience. The first owed its origin to the desire of the soul for immediate communion with God, and union with Him. The second sprang from a sense of the essential unity of all the children of God, and a desire to express this communion of the true Church. The Roman Catholic Church early introduced its clergy and sacraments between the soul and the Saviour, but while this system kept many at a distance from Him, there were those whose longing for communion with God, as He is revealed in Christ Jesus, and desire for the Heavenly Bridegroom was so strong that they devoted themselves to the attainment of the full knowledge of Him and the experience of union with Him. This they sought in the way of following Jesus, of the imitation of Christ. They thought to attain this by meditation on Him, so that His beauty and blessedness might be increasingly revealed to them, and by an asceticism which should subdue the body and the natural will.

Protestantism accentuated the divisions among the professing people of God and induced the bitterest strife and enmity between the numerous parties. There were, however, those who lamented this and tried to emphasize the underlying unity in life and love of those who are separated from the world but joined to Christ and His members by faith.

Those in the Roman Catholic Church, often called Mystics or Quietists, were long looked upon as patterns of the Christian life, some of the best known among them being canonized, but later the influence of the Jesuits and of Louis XIV of France caused them to be persecuted. The Spanish priest, Miguel de Molinos (1640-1697), coming to Rome about 1670, became the greatest spiritual power there. His book the "Spiritual Guide" was used as a rule of life by large numbers, especially of the aristocracy and the priesthood. He was the confessor and most trusted adviser of the Pope Innocent XI, a Pope who was personally opposed to persecution, yet Molinos was eventually condemned to lifelong imprisonment, and died in the hands of the Inquisition, though in what manner remains unknown. Madame Guyon (1648-1717) by her life and writings led wide circles to strive after a life of perfect love and entire acquiescence in the will of God. The gifted and saintly Archbishop Fénélon accepted and defended her teaching at the cost of all his popularity and prospects at court. Louis XIV imprisoned her repeatedly, at last in the dreaded Bastille, but those stone walls, twelve feet thick, could not check the influence and spread of her teaching. In Protestant circles the writings of Gottfried Arnold (1666-1714) had a great effect. He studied at Wittenberg and became Professor of History at Giessen, but withdrew from the position as he found that the social and ceremonial duties it involved hindered his inner life of communion with the Lord. Spener disagreed with this, maintaining that we must hold on to what we do not approve even if it endangers our own souls, as long as there is any hope of helping others. Arnold, however, regarded the Lutheran Church as Babel and incapable of reformation, and felt that the way he took of lonely separation was more in accord with the example of the Apostles. His first book, "First Love, that is a True Picture of the First Christians according to their Living Faith and holy Life" was a history of the Church in Apostolic times and until the time of Constantine, in which he showed the evils brought in by the union of Church and State. Being increasingly impressed by the fact that Church history has been written by representatives of the dominant churches and from a party point of view, he thought it necessary to present that important history in an impartial way, and so wrote the history by which he became so widely known in his own and succeeding generations, entitled "Impartial History of the Churches and Heretics from the Beginning of the New Testament to the Year of Christ, 1688". Abandoning the idea that the Church is bound up with some particular society or organization, he sought the universal Church’s hidden and scattered throughout the whole world and among all peoples and churches. Naturally opinions of the book differed. One theologian wrote that it was the most harmful book that had been written since the birth of Christ and another called it the best and most useful book of its kind after the Holy Scriptures.

Madame Guyon’s writings opened to many the view of the possibility of a life in perfect communion with God.

Arnold’s book awakened the hope of separation from the world and communion with all saints.

About 1700 there was a drawing together of these various scattered elements into societies or churches, to which the name of Philadelphia (Brotherly love) was given. The little country of Wittgenstein, at the southern end of Westphalia, had a series of good and tolerant rulers, and this attracted a large population of very varied character. Fugitives from the Cevennes in France were kindly received, the more so as the two brothers who ruled respectively the northern and southern parts of the country had married (1657) two sisters, daughters of a French nobleman who had escaped to the Netherlands from the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Both these families were devoted Christians. In 1712 the northern part of the country, called Berleburg, was ruled by a descendant of one of these families, Count Casimir, who, with his wife and widowed mother, was the consistent protector of all who were oppressed.

They were connected with the Philadelphia churches which spread widely at this time. Jane Leade of Norwich and others taught that the messages to the churches in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of the Revelation had a progressive historic meaning. Sardis represented Protestantism, having a name to live and yet being dead. The indifference and apostasy of Laodicea were coming. All awakened souls were called to realize and be joined to faithful Philadelphia. A Philadelphia church was founded in London in 1695, not, they said, to form a new sect, but to preserve in their meetings the spirit of love and the form of the first holy and Catholic Apostolic Church. The members did not necessarily separate from the churches to which they had belonged and did not persuade others to do so, yet they held their regular meetings at the same time as the churches had their services, so that attendance at the latter was made impossible for those who attended the former. At present, they said, the Philadelphia church is weak, and until it is manifested in power it is not to be expected that those things will take place which are looked for, the conversion of the Jews, the bringing in of the Turks and other unbelievers, the recovery of the apostasy, the restitution of all things and the personal appearing of Christ on the earth. Similar meetings were begun in many parts of Germany, Holland, and elsewhere, and Berleburg became the centre of an important revival spreading over all west Germany from the Alps to the sea. In these circles, in 1712, the Marburg Bible was published with the title, "Mystic and Prophetic Bible, that is the whole of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, newly translated from the original, with explanations of the Principal Types and Prophecies, especially of the Song of Songs of Solomon and the Revelation of Jesus Christ, with their principal Doctrines, etc." Later (1726-1742) a larger work was produced, the Berleburg Bible, in eight volumes, beautifully printed in large type and containing extensive notes, among which some of the teachings of Madame Guyon were included. The Philadelphia society or church was the outcome of a great variety of different movements and it aimed at setting aside the differences in the churches and uniting all in love and thought the purifying and perfecting of the soul more important than the observance of the outward forms of the "churches". In order to help one another they set aside a time each morning when, in all the different places where they were, they would join in spirit in waiting on God. An active member of the society in Berleburg was Dr. Carl, medical attendant to Count Casimir. In 1730 he issued the "Philadelphia Invitation", an appeal to undying souls to turn from the circumference of opinions and passions to the centre, to worship in Spirit and in truth. Those whose ears are opened do not differ (it says) in their sentiments, they have one language, taste and affection. But such central unity is only found in those who leave the fleshly letter and self-made articles and turn continually into themselves in spirit and in truth and taste the theology of the heart as the sweet Word of God. They may be called Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, etc.—there Tauler, Kempis, Arndt, Neander are all one. The real, abiding part of Christianity is the putting to death of the old man and making alive of the spirit. This appeal awakened a response in countless hearts, especially in Württemberg and Switzerland. Many who did not join the outward circle of Philadelphia belonged to it in heart. All these sought the Kingdom of God and practised piety, they looked upon Philadelphia as the society to which they belonged inwardly because they believed they saw in it that which is essential to the Kingdom of God, whereas in the churches of the different confessions they saw only outward shells and forms, among which the spirit of the Antichrist was hidden. Zinzendorf tried to organize these societies and attach them to the Moravian Brethren’s Unity, but without success. The preaching of Hochmann von Hochenau at this time was one great means of revival, in the conversion of sinners and founding of Philadelphia churches. His constant journeys, when he was attacked by mobs, imprisoned by the authorities, and yet listened to everywhere by enormous crowds, filled a life of enthusiastic service for the Lord with blessing to countless numbers of his hearers. His only periods of rest were when he retired from time to time to a little hermitage he had in the forests of Wittgenstein, otherwise his love to all men, especially the Jews, kept him travelling and preaching all over western and northern Germany. The preaching of Hochmann was the means of the conversion of a young student of theology, Hoffman, whose meetings, outside the Established Church, helped towards the conversion of Gerhard Tersteegen, who became later a powerful witness for Christ and has ministered to succeeding generations also by his beautiful hymns. Jung Stilling (1740-1817), whose life and writings exercised a great influence, wrote of these days: "In the whole history of the Church is no time in which the expectation of the Lord’s coming was so instant and so universal as in the first half of the century just ended, the revivals at Halle led the way, the restoration of the Brethren’s Church through Zinzendorf followed immediately, then the mystic Philadelphia society at Berleburg, the fruit of which is the Berleburg Bible. At the same time two heralds appeared, Friedrich Roch and Hochmann von Hochenau, then Gerhard Tersteegen and many other men."

Those called Waldenses, or Anabaptists, and others of like character, were not reformers of the Roman Catholic Church, nor, afterwards, of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. Their origin was earlier and they carried on their primitive Bible teachings and practices from before, and then through the times of the rise and progress of those later-developed communions. In the same way those called Paulicians, and others spiritually related to them, were not reformers of the Greek Orthodox Church, but preceded it and were later contemporary with it, but always separate from it.

There were, however, other movements which were movements of reform, in connection with both the Catholic and the Protestant churches. Some of these made efforts to influence the existing communion from within, while others formed groups which left, or were expelled from it. Of these latter "the Reformation" came out of the Roman Catholic Church and formed Protestant denominations, which represented varying degrees of reform of Roman Catholicism. There were also attempts at reform within the Roman Catholic Church, such as those of Francis of Assisi, and of several of the Popes, who made genuine efforts to remove abuses, but found long established custom and entanglement of financial obligations too strong for them.

Similarly, in the Lutheran and Reformed Churches there were some who attempted reform from within, as the Pietists. There were also others who separated from them, such as those called Labadists. The Bohemian Brethren were originally of primitive, Waldensian belief, but when Zinzendorf reorganized them it was on those Pietist lines which tended to keep them within the established churches. The Mystics represent those who, not seeing any possibility of returning to the order of the primitive church, took refuge in personal sanctification and communion with God and remained in the ecclesiastical associations in which they were, and which they valued more or less according to their individual character. They had spiritual affinities with what was best in monasticism, and were found in both the Catholic and Protestant communions. They endeavoured to form actual churches at the time of the "Philadelphian Invitation".

Departure from the commands of Christ and from Apostolic doctrine had been very great, and had extended to every particular of the teachings of Scripture, therefore the long way back was not found all at once; first one truth was recovered, then another. As these spiritual revivals occurred in various surroundings and at different times they produced a number of churches, differing from each other in their history, in the measure of their apprehension of original revelation, and of their return to primitive practice. On this account they incur the reproach of multiplying sects, but in reality they are many paths back to the first unity—that first unity which will be their final one, for the travellers will reach the goal at last, according to the Lord’s prayer for them: "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in One; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me" (John 17:23).