Zinzendorf and the Sabbath by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 8, 1906

Zinzendorf and the Sabbath

By W. A. S.

THE earnest zeal with which the Moravians prosecuted their work has furnished many lessons in missionary enterprise during the last two centuries. Their origin is found in the earlier Reformation, under Huss and Jerome, rather than in the later reform movements of Luther’s day.

“The Moravian doctrine,” says Goethe, “had something magical in that it appeared to continue, or rather to perpetuate, the condition of those first times [the apostolic times]. It connected its origin with them, and had never perished, but had only wound its way through the world by unnoticed shoots and tendrils, until a single germ took root under the protection of a pious and eminent man, once more to expand wide over the world.”

This man was Count Zinzendorf, who, in 1722, gave many of the persecuted Moravians a place of refuge on his estates in Saxony, and became their leader and organizer. Missionaries were sent to foreign lands, and through Count Zinzendorf’s personal influence they obtained from the English Parliament an act authorizing the establishment of Moravian missions in America.

In 1742 Zinzendorf visited America, and established congregations in Bethlehem and Nazareth, Pa. Speaking of his life there, a French biographer, M. Bovet, mentions an interesting fact. Some years ago Brother J. Vuilleumier, editor of our French paper, gave me this translation of M. Bovet’s account:—

In June, after the closing of the seventh synod, Zinzendorf went to Bethlehem. New recruits of one hundred and twenty brethren had just arrived from Europe. The count then gave to this colony a regular organization, nearly the same as that of the Moravian communities of Germany. This American community had, nevertheless, some institutions which were particular to itself; for instance, the celebration of the seventh day of the week as a day of rest. Zinzendorf had always as much as possible celebrated the Sabbath by abstaining himself from labor on that day, and devoting it to prayer. It was also that day that he used to choose in preference for the agape. That which in his own eyes was the particular value of the Saturday, was not the Mosaic commandment (for in this case he would have believed himself to be obliged to conform to other prescriptions of the Old Testament); it was the blessing placed upon this day by the Lord after the work of creation. Nevertheless, he differed from the English and American Sabbatarians in celebrating with the Christian church the first day of the week, as being the one of the resurrection of Christ.

In a word, he did not pretend to impose upon any one his opinion and his way relative to the rest of the seventh day. On the contrary, seeing the inconvenience that a respite of two consecutive days would bring to the men who were obliged to live by the work of their hands, he did not hesitate to express himself in the community of Bethlehem, declaring that every one was free to act in the matter as he liked. But for himself he continued all his life to celebrate the Saturday and the Sunday, with all his family. All this did not shelter him from the rigors of the American Puritanism. One Sunday evening, when he was occupied with his daughter, composing some hymns, the justice of the peace entered and summoned them in the name of the king, forbidding them to continue to write. The next day they were obliged to appear before the court, for this offense, and in spite of their defense were condemned to pay a fine of six shillings, each, as profaners of the sabbath [Sunday].

In considering the history of various early reform movements which have striven to pattern after the primitive faith and practise, we have frequently to record how such awakenings to Bible truth led individual believers to the keeping of the Lord’s Sabbath.

It is not surprising that, with his early training and the example of the religious world, Count Zinzendorf should also have recognized the Sunday. Not so great light was then shining in the world as to the origin of its observance; nor had that “time of the end” of Daniel’s prophecy been reached, which was to bring to the student of the Scriptures an understanding of those prophecies relative to the works of the man of sin in seeking “to change times and laws” of the Most High. But it is significant that the leader of the great missionary movement which prepared the way for the “century of missions,” was also ahead of most in his time in the recognition of the Sabbath truth, which is now being carried to all nations.

W. A. S.