I have learned by experience that
where strife and disunion have occurred in neighborhoods and congregations
among the Germans in America, there black and white apostles
have immediately appeared, and tried to fish in the troubled waters,
like eagles which have a keen sight and smell."
Dr. Muehlenberg was too much prejudiced against the Moravians
to judge them fairly, for he belonged to the Halle party in Germany,
and in Pennsylvania had clashed with Zinzendorf during the latter's
residence there. The Lutheran Church was in no way endangered
by the preaching of the missionaries, for their instructions
were explicit: "If you have an opportunity to preach the Gospel
to German or English residents use it gladly, but receive none
into your congregation, for you are sent expressly to the negroes."
"You will probably find some of the so-called Salzburgers there,
with their ministers. With them you will in all fairness do only that
to which you are invited by their pastor. You will do nothing
in their congregation that you would not like to have another do in yours."
Dr. Muehlenberg, therefore, might safely have left them free
to preach the Gospel where they would, even to his own distracted flock,
which was weakened by dissensions, suffered severely in the Revolutionary War,
and gradually scattered into the adjoining country.
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