I***—'"— I JLr V^'

iwei

*fc ¦

w

CENT1NNML SERMON.

^f'HE HATH NIOT DEALT SOWITH ANY NATION,"

jS » .ya Scft \^el*r\ \ i~ -z,

CENTENNIAL SERMON,

PREACHED IN THE

MORAVIAN CIRCE i? BETHLEHEM. PENNA.

SUNDAY MORNING. JULY 2nd, 1876,

THE RT. REV. E. DE SCIIWEINITZ, S.T.D.
BISHOP OP THE UNITAS FBATKUM.

tllS

BETHLEHEM:
MORAVIAN PUBLICATION OFFICE.
1876.

HE HATH NOT DEALT SO WITH ANY NATION.
PRAISE YE THE LORD !
PSALM CXLVII, 20.

Dearly Beloved : — This day has been set apart, by the late Provin
cial Synod, as a day of Centennial thanksgiving for the tender mercies
and loving kindness with which God has crowned our nation.
I will, first of all, briefly review the history of our own town during
the past century. For sixty-eight years of this period the Moravian
Church and the town of Bethlehem, in all outward respects, were one,
as they had been for thirty-five years previously. Bethlehem consti
tuted an exclusively Moravian settlement for one hundred and three
years. In the time of the Revolution it was prominent, not as a
military centre, and not as a power in furthering the liberty of our
land, but, in harmony with its antecedents, as a quiet retreat, where
many of the Revolutionary leaders were glad to snatch an occasional
day of rest from their arduous toils, and where the sick, the wounded,
and the dying, were nursed with tender care and comforted with the
sweet promises of the Gospel.
The first Sunday in July, of 1776, was observed by our fathers as a
missionary day. Several services took place at which reports from the
foreign field were communicated, and fervent intercessions made that
the Lord would bless and keep His messengers in heathen lands, and
send the Gospel into all the world. In view of the revolutionary
conflict and the dangers which it might bring them, the Missionaries
among the Indians were particularly commended to Him. At the
evening service, so says the record, while the congregation united in
the closing prayer, Christ manifested His presence so sensibly that
young and old were melted in tears. " He was inexpressibly near to
us," writes the diarist.
At that time, there stood at the head of our Church in America, as
President of the Provincial Board, Bishop Nathaniel Seidel. He had
been a distinguished evangelist in his day, and had spent years in
traversing the Indian wilderness and traveling to distant parts of the
earth. In the time of the Revolution he was growing infirm, but still

took a deep interest in the welfare of Bethlehem, and frequently
officiated at the religious services of the congregation. Next to him
among the members of the Board, identified with the spiritual and
temporal prosperity of our town and its Church, and exercising a
quiet but widely-spread influence, was John Christian Alexander de
Schweinitz, the first Administrator of the American property of the
Unitas Fratrum. The Pastor of the Church, and, at the same time,
Bishop Seidel's Assistant, was John Ettwein, who subsequently be
came well-known to the leaders of the Revolution, with whom he
negotiated in the name of the Brethren, and with some of whom he
was intimately acquainted. Associated with him in the pastorate we
find Paul Miinster, a direct descendant of the Ancient Moravian
Brethren He had escaped from the spiritual bondage of his native
land in 1729, and had carried, strapped to his back, all the way from
Moravia to Herrnhut, a quarto copy of the hymnbook of his fore
fathers, deeming it, for want of a Bible, the most precious treasure
which he possessed. This identical volume is still in our archives.
The office of Warden was filled by Jeremiah Dencke, who had come
to America in 1761. Who the laymen were that constituted the Board
of Overseers, advisers of the Warden in all municipal affairs — a sort
of town council — I have not been able to ascertain. But four years
later the names of Hiibner, Beckel, Boehler, Stiener, Borhek, Horsfield,
Huber and Oerter, are mentioned, and it is very likely that the most
of them were in office in 1776.
These were the men who governed our community one hundred
years ago, amidst the sore trials of the times.
On the fourth of July the town rang with the news, that Congress,
on the second, therefore this very day a century ago, had adopted a
resolution declaring the Colonies independent of Great Britain; and
on the tenth intelligence was brought that the Declaration of Inde
pendence, after having been signed on the fourth, had been publicly
read, on the eighth, at the State House in Philadelphia. Simultane
ously with this news, twenty wagons arrived, with prisoners of war
from Canada. Two weeks later, on Sunday the twenty-fifth, the peti
tion for the King of Great Britain was dropped from the Litany. In
the weeks and months which followed, bodies of volunteers and of
militia frequently passed through the town, and many officers of rank
visited it, such as Lord Stirling, Generals Gates, Sullivan, Arnold and
Clover. On the third of December the Hospital of the American Army
was established at Bethlehem. In the course of that month between
five and six hundred invalids were quartered in the town, while troops
to the number of four thousand lay encamped in the neighborhood.

The inhabitants of Bethlehem ministered, with all faithfulness, to tl.e
sick, and religious services were statedly held for them. " Many
hundreds," says the record, "called Bethlehem blessed in those days."
Sixty-two of the invalids died in December. At the close of the year,
the membership of the Church, and consequently the population of
the town, numbered five hundred and eighty souls. The town itself
consisted of about thirty houses. It had one church-edifice, one
school, and, besides, a Brethren's House, a Sisters' House, and a
Widows' Home, institutions, which, at that time, were in the noon
tide of their prosperity.
A century has rolled by, my brethren, and to-day, in place of the
hamlet clustering to the side and crowning the top of the hill of Beth
lehem, we see two boroughs bearing this ancient name — first given by
Count Zinzendorf on the eve of Christmas in 1741 — and embracing,
with their outskirts, a population of ten thousand inhabitants, of whom
more than two thousand belong to our communion. Its solitary sanc
tuary has become the centre of "a constellation of sixteen churches. Its
single school has given place to our Theological Seminary, to a Uni
versity, to our Boarding School, with its national reputation and more
than six thousand seven hundred graduates, to two other Boarding
Schools, to our Parochial School, well appointed, and to five Public
Schools. We can point, moreover, to our Publication Office, which
is spreading Christ's cause through the agency of three periodicals;
while, in all industrial respects, we find developments of which our
fathers never dreamed, a utilizing of the resources of the Lehigh
Valley that they would have deemed incredible. And yet this won
derful transformation is but a faint type of the progress of our whole
country. Therefore, in union with all those of our fellow-citizens who know
the Lord, we, as the descendants of the men who lived and labored at
Bethlehem amidst the early and uncertain issues of the Revolution,
this day reverently lift up our voices, saying of the God of these our
fathers in the triumphant language of the one hundred and forty-
seventh Psalm and the twentieth verse :
" He hath not dealt so with any nation. Praise ye the Lord."
In constituting these words the text of my centennial discourse, I
will not stop to prove that, "the Lord hath made us," as a nation
"and not we ourselves." I am addressing a Christian congregation,
and have a right to take for granted that you all concede this funda
mental point. Hence the application of the text to the development
of our country, in the first century of its independence, is legitimate.
I. I will endeavor to show, in the first place, that our progress at

6 I
home justifies us in adopting the sentiment of the Psalmist and saying:
"The Lord hath not dealt so with any nation."
One hundred years ago, on the birthday of our Republic, it num
bered about three million of people and comprised thirteen States.
To-day, on the eve of its jubilee birthday, it counts more than forty-
two millions of inhabitants, embraces thirty-seven States, and owns one
District and ten Territories, one of which, Colorado, is even now
assuming the dignity of a commonwealth, and will dawn upon our flag
as its centennial star. One hundred years ago, our area was eight
hundred and fifteen thousand six hundred and fifteen square miles, and
extended not far beyond the Alleghany Mountains and their corres
ponding Southern chains. To-day this area has expanded into three
million, six hundred and eleven thousand, eight hundred and forty-
four square miles, and stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and
from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. One hundred years ago, we
had a seaboard that began at the lower end of New Hampshire and
reached to Georgia, a distance of perhaps one thousand miles. To-day
our seaboard is washed by three oceans and the Gulf, and is twenty-
two thousand, six hundred and nine miles long. One hundred years
ago, railroads, steamboats, and the magnetic telegraph, were unknown.
Not even a canal had anywhere been opened in our land. Lumbering
wagons and slow teams formed the avenues of trade ; horseback, the
private carriage, and an occasional stage-coach, the means of travel.
To-day, besides thousands of canal boats and river steamboats, a net
work of fifty-eight thousand miles of railroads, and a system of be
tween seventy to seventy-five thousand miles of telegraph wires, bind
together the very ends of our land in friendly trade and fraternal
intercourse. The longest journey is a thing of hours, and a message
to the farthest point a question of minutes. At the same time cables,
hidden in the depths of two of our oceans, send the greetings of
America to all the world. One hundred years ago, our industrial pur
suits were in their infancy. Immense tracts of land still lay a silent
wilderness. Here and there rose primitive factories. A few ships
left our ports. To-day the greater part of that desert rejoices and
blossoms as the rose. Where the Indian squaw raised a handful of
corn, the drill is driven over broad acres ; and where prairies stretched
out like the sea, or tangled thickets of the forest forbid even the
hunter's approach, is heard the click of the reaper. The golden grain,
which even now is bowing its head, yields enough to feed other peoples
beside our own. Moreover, two hundred and fifty-two thousand fac
tories, mills and metal-works, are all alive with untiring machinery and
belching forth the smoke of their great industries. Our merchant

marine numbers nearly thirty thousand ships, which sail in all waters ;
and our exports amount to six hundred and seventy-seven million, two
hundred and eighty-two thousand, and seventy-four dollars annually,
while the imports nearly equal this amount. One hundred years ago,
our fathers had no conception of the mineral wealth concealed beneath
the soil. To-day there are more than seven thousand eight hundred
and fifty-seven mining enterprises in operation, and gold, silver, coal,
iron, zinc, and other metals, are brought out of the bowels of the earth
for our use in such quantities that the value of them defies computation.
One hundred years ago, New York, the largest city in the country,
had about twenty-two thousand inhabitants. To-day it numbers
nearly a million. In the same ratio other cities have increased through
out our land ; while in the West new cities have started into existence
as if by magic. Take Chicago as an instance. In 1830, it was an
Indian trading-post ; in 1840 it was not half as large as Bethlehem;
in 1870 it had two hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred
and seventy-seven inhabitants. To-day it must have more than three
hundred thousand. Hence, out of a few Indian huts there has grown,
in less than a half a century, a metropolis numbering one hundred
and twenty-three thousand more people than Dresden, the capital of
Saxony, with a history of six centuries.
I have no data which would give you an idea of the state of educa
tion in 1776, except a list of the Colleges which then existed, n'ine in
number. But it is a well known fact that there were, comparatively
speaking, few schools, and that in some of the Colonies, they were of
a low order. Hence the progress of our country in this respect is not
the least wonderful. For, in 1874, we not only had three hundred
and forty-three incorporated Colleges, one hundred and thirteen
Theological Seminaries, and nineteen hundred and twenty-three Acad
emies, Normal and Technical and other Schools, of an advanced grade,
in charge of eighteen thousand, six hundred and two teachers and pro
fessors, and attended by two hundred and eighty-two thousand, one
hundred and forty-five students, but could also point to a widely
spread system of Public Schools, established by the several states and
territories, employing two hundred and thirty-nine thousand, eight
hundred and seventy three teachers, and having eight million and
thirty thousand, seven hundred and seventy two scholars enrolled on
their registers. Three hundred and fifty four thousand, four hundred
and sixty, moreover, attended private schools
Intimately connected with education is our periodical literature.
In this respect also the development has been astonishing. There
were thirty seven newspapers and magazines published in 1776; in

1873 tne number of newspapers alone had increased to eight thousand,
five hundred, of which four hundred and seven were religious journals,
and which together had a circulation of fifteen hundred -millions of
copies. I come, last of all, to the progress of the Gospel. Statistics of a
century ago are again wanting. We know, however, that the people
were very inadequately supplied with the means of grace, especially in
some parts of _the country, our own State for example. But God's
Word, according to His blessed promise, has had free course and been
glorified. I think it may safely be asserted that religion is a greater
power in the land now than it was in 1776. In proportion to the
population, the number of churches is, without question, very much
larger. In 1870 there were sixty-seven thousand, eight hundred and
fifty-nine church-organizations, and fifty-eight thousand, nine hundred
and thirty-one church -edifices, with a membership of about twenty
three million of souls, all arrayed under the Protestant standard; and
four thousand, one hundred and twenty-seven church-organizations,
three thousand eight hundred and six church-edifices, and six millions
of members, belonging to the Roman Catholic communion. Hence
about twenty-nine millions of our people stand in connection with the
Christian Church.
Nor is this all that the Gospel has accomplished. Through its benign
influences hospitals for the sick, asylums for orphans, homes for the in
digent, and missionary associations having in view the conversion of
the heathen, have arisen in our land in larger numbers than in any
other. Through the same agency there exist three Societies of which
American Christianity may well be proud, as catholic in their prin
ciples as they are mighty in their influence, conceived in the very
spirit of the Master, imperishable monuments of the love which He
taught. The first is the American Bible Society, which has scattered
broadcast more than twenty nine millions of copies and parts of copies
of God's Holy Word. The second is the American Tract Society,
which issues fifty-four thousand copies of its publications daily, and has
sent forth three hundred and fifty-eight million, seven hundred and
eighteen thousand, three hundred and thirty eight copies in all. The
third is the American Sunday School Union, which expends over
$90,000 annually for missionary work, and provides a rich literature
for seventy-nine thousand, eight hundred and seventy-one Sunday
Schools, embracing seven hundred and fifty-three thousand and sixty
teachers, and five million, seven hundred and ninety thousand, six
hundred and eighty-three scholars. ,
My brethren, if our Moravian fathers as they went out, two by two,

or alone with God, on their missionary tours, could have foreseen that
the preaching of the Gospel would lead to such results, they would have
made the primeval forests through which they passed to ring with hymns
of praise.
The details of our progress at home, which I have now given,
might be greatly amplified, if time permitted. Enough, however, has
been said to prove that such progress does justify us in taking up with
all reverence, this day, as a people, the sentiment of the Psalmist :
"The Lord hath not dealt so with any nation." In none of the
particulars which I have adduced can any other country point to a
development like ours. God, by His free grace and for His own sake,
has brought about this consummation. To Him be all the glory !
II. In the next place, I will direct your attention to our position
and influence abroad, among the other nations of the world, as a
further evidence that the Psalmist's sentiment furnishes the key-note
to our centennial thanksgiving. The kingdoms of Europe, excepting.
France, looked upon our Revolution with amazement and no little
suspicion. Principles were enunciated which found no favor among
their leading minds. When the war was at an end, the victorious
shout of American liberty awakened sympathy only among those who
dared not answer it. Hence, although our Republic was acknow
ledged, it was not welcomed, and exercised but little influence. Its
manners and customs were ridiculed ; its weak points caricatured ;
its young literature despised. In many circles of the Old World it
was looked upon as an obscure land of the west, to which unruly
demagogues might be sent and malefactors might escape.
How differently the nations of the earth s^eak of us, and estimate
our power, a* the close of this first century of our history ! Our Re
public stands to-day in the fore-rank of Kingdoms and Empires. Its
influence is universally acknowledged. Its flag is universally respected.
Its name is universally esteemed. Who among the fathers of 1776
would have believed it possible that, in 1876, Europe, Asia, Africa
South America and the Isles of the Sea, would unite, in the city where
the Declaration of Independence was signed, in the grandest Exposi
tion the world has ever seen ? That the whole family of nations would
thus, with one heart and one voice, practically celebrate the birth of
our liberty, do honor to our position, and acknowledge the influence
which we exercise throughout the earth? God has permitted us trium
phantly to prove the possibility, the advantages, and the happiness
of self-government. God has shown through us that public opinion,
when shaped by virtue and led by the Christian religion, can do more
in correcting abuses, quelling anti-christian disturbances, and asserting

10
legitimate authority, than an army of bayonets. God, by our ex
ample, has set the seal of His divine approval to the separation of the
Church from the State, and enabled the rest of the Christian World
to see that the Gospel flourishes more gloriously than the cedars of
Lebanon when left to grow absolutely in its own strength. God has,
finally, through His people in this land, manifested the true character
of Christian beneficence. Nowhere else, except perhaps in England,
is money poured out in so rich a stream, for the advancement of
education, for the good of suffering humanity, and for the spread of
the glorious Gospel. We take no praise to ourselves. "This is the
Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes."
In view of all these things, therefore, we confess again : " He hath
not dealt so with any nation" — neither as regards political power,
nor as regards a world-wide fame, nor as regards the lessons which we
are teaching other peoples of the earth.
III. In the last place, taking a general view of our development in
the past one hundred years, let me show you several additional points
that serve to establish, still more incontrovertibly, the sentiment of
the text.
Nearly all climates, nearly all productions, nearly all races, meet
and harmonize in this land. It is a little world within the world.
The ice of the Arctic Ocean bounds our northernmost coast. The
variableness of the temperate zone is found in the Middle States. The
perennial summer of the tropics brightens the region of the far South.
While the Alaska hunter spears the seal, the Western and Northern
farmer reaps his grain ; and while the gardener of California gathers
grapes, almost rivaling those of Eshcol, the Southern planter brings in
his cotton, his rice and sugar, or strips his orange-groves of their de
licious fruit. The Caucasian, the African, the Indian, and the Mon
golian races are here. From China to our Western shore, and from
Europe to our Eastern, there have come such hosts of immigrants,
that their moving masses can be compared only to the migration of
nations in the fifth century. All the languages of Europe are spoken
among us. Distant Japan, inaccessible for ages to the rest of the
world, sends her sons to be educated in our schools. New York has
a larger German population than any city in Germany itself, except
Berlin and Vienna. And yet all these heterogeneous elements are
amalgamated and unified. Our nation grows stronger ; our land
more prosperous.
My brethren, is there not something significant in this? Some
thing wonderful ? Something unparalleled, look to what other coun-
tryyouwill? Verily, "theLord hath not dealt so with any nation."

11
And who but He shaped our history ? The American Colonies,
without an army, when the Revolution began, without a navy, with
out money, could never have forced the greatest and richest power
of Europe to acknowledge their independence and sue for peace, if Je
hovah, Lord of Hosts, had not made bare His mighty arm in their
behalf. Nor would the War of 1812 have ended as it did, if He had
not been on our side. Nor would our Federal Union have come forth
unbroken, amidst the jubilee-songs of four millions of emancipated
slaves, from the fearful civil strife which' raged but a few years ago,
if the Judge of all the earth had not hastened to help us with His
omnipotence. Therefore, in these respects also, we may well prolong our Centen
nial thanksgiving and say, with deep humility, but, at the same time,
with joy unspeakable and full of glory : "He hath not dealt so with
any nation."
IV. Such joy will lead us, in conclusion, to appreciate the force
of the charge which the Psalmist, in the text, adds to his sentiment,
namely, " Praise ye the Lord !"
That praise which the Lord expects, and which will be acceptable
in His sight, centres in a consecration of body, soul, and spirit, to
His glorious service. If ever there existed a nation which owed
Him such a consecration, we are that nation. If ever there lived
upon earth a people of which He could claim such a service, we are
that people. If ever Kingdom or Republic was set apart to lead the
van in subduing the whole world to the sway of Jesus Christ, we are
that Republic. Shall we, therefore not "praise the Lord" by being
true to our destiny? What particular work He means to assign to us
in the future, I know not. But may we not believe, that the extraor
dinary developments in our land, the extraordinary confluence of
nationalities within its borders, and the extraordinary history which
it has thus far had, all point U3 some great and wonderful end ?
Whatever it may be, it will be reached only if we, as a people, " praise
the Lord" with the influence which He has given us, with the resources
which He has provided, and with the aggressiveness which He has '
implanted in our national being.
This is a personal matter. The praise of the nation must be the
united praise of each heart and life. Therefore we, the citizens of
Bethlehem, and the members of this Church, are called to do our part
in discharging the obligations which our country owes to God.
My brother, do you believe that the lines have fallen unto you in
pleasant places and that you have a goodly heritage? Do you grant
that the Lord "has not dealt so with any nation" as with your

12
nation ? Do you love this land of your birth, or of your adoption,
its free institutions, and its religious liberty? Do the aspirations of
a patriot stir your heart to-day and make you thankful that you are
an American ? Then "praise the Lord" by accepting Him as your
personal Saviour and living all the days of your years to His glory.
"Praise theLord" by dedicating your children to Him and training
them to prize their national blessings and to understand their national
responsibilities. "Praise the Lord" by doing what you can to elevate
the tone of our social and public life, to drive corruption from office,
to advance education, to maintain the sanctity of His holy day, to
establish the Bible as the law-book of the land and Christ's religion
as its moral standard. He is our only hope for the future as He was
in the past. The more His gospel spreads among us the more will our
liberties be secured. For if the Son shall make us free, we shall be
free indeed.
And now may God be merciful unto us, in the second century of
our history, and help us, and cause His face to shine upon us ; that
His way may be known upon earth, His saving health among all
nations. Yea, " let the people praise Thee, O God, let all the people
praise Thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even
our own God, shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear
Him." Amen.

08540 1645

'¦¦