"
During the two days which elapsed before the transport came
to take the Moravians from the ship, Wesley and Spangenberg had several
long conversations, each recording the points that struck him most,
but without comment. These discussions regarding doctrine and practice
were renewed at intervals during the remainder of Spangenberg's stay
in Savannah, and the young Englishman showed himself eager
to learn the Indian language so that he might preach to the natives,
generous in his offers to share his advantages of study with the Moravians,
and above all determined to enforce the letter of the ecclesiastical law,
as he understood it, in his new parish. He thought "it would be well
if two of the Moravian women would dedicate themselves to the Indian service,
and at once begin to study the language," and "as the early Church
employed deaconesses, it would be profitable if these women were ordained
to their office." He was also convinced "that the apostolic custom
of baptism by immersion ought to be observed in Georgia."
"He bound himself to no sect, but took the ground that a man ought to study
the Bible and the writings of the Church Fathers of the first three centuries,
accepting what agreed with these two sources, and rejecting all else.
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