THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 94
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church still chiefly devotes itself, which God has wonderfully blessed. At various times missions— in the service of which large amounts of money were spent and many lives sacrificed, but which eventually proved unsuccessful—were undertaken in the following countries: Lapland (1734-36), shores of the Arctic Ocean (1737-38), Ceylon (1738-41), Algiers (1740), Guinea (1737-41 and 1767-70), Persia (1747-50), Egypt (1752-83), East Indies (1759-96), and the Calmuck territory (1768-1823). In 1900 the mission among the Eskimos of Greenland, commenced in 1733, was transferred to the care of the State Church of Denmark, there being no more professed heathen in this region. The field at the present day embraces the following mission provinces: Labrador (1771), Alaska (1885), Indians of North America (1734), St. Thomas and St. John (1732), St. Croix (1732), Jamaica (1754), Antigua (1756), St. Kitts (1775), Barbados (1765), Tobago (1790, renewed 1827), Trinidad (1890), Santo Domingo (1907), Demerara (1835, renewed 1878), Nicaragua (1848), Surinam (1735), South African Western Province (1736, renewed 1792), South African Eastern Province (1828), German East Africa (1891), Australia (1849), and West Himalaya (1853). The annual cost of this extensive work is about $500,000. This amount is made up by the contributions of the members of the church, by gifts from friends of the cause, by grants from missionary societies in the home provinces, by the interest of funded legacies, and by the missions themselves through the voluntary donations and the profits of trade. The London Association in aid of the Missions of the United Brethren, founded in 1817, is composed of members of various churches, not of Moravians, and contributes about $80,000 a year. The Brethren’s Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel among the Heathen, founded in England in 1741, works for the support of the mission in Labrador and owns a missionary vessel, which has now been annually sailing to that uncharted coast for 141 years without ever wholly failing in its mission. A similar society in Bethlehem, Penn., the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen, founded in 1787, undertakes the support of the mission among the Eskimos of Alaska and of that among the Indians of Southern California. The converts are divided into four classes—new people (or applicants for religious instruction), candidates for baptism, baptized adults, and communicants. According to the latest statistics, the missions comprise 309 stations and 1,213 preaching-places. There are two theological seminaries for the training of native ministers in the field itself; 5 normal schools with about 90 scholars, 347 day-schools with 30,504 pupils, 578 teachers, and 235 monitors; 142 Sunday-schools with 24,357 pupils and 1,354 teachers; 407 missionaries, male and female; 102 native ministers and wives of ministers; 2,134 native assistants, and 102,643 converts, in the care of the mission. The Bohemian mission work was begun in 1870. At first it advanced very slowly, on account of the restrictions imposed by the Austrian laws. In 1880 these restrictions were removed, and the Unitas Fratrum was legally acknowledged by that same government at whose hands it received its death-
blow in the Counter-Reformation. This mission embraces 5 chief stations, with about 25 filials. Three orphanages are conducted, 12 3. Other missionaries are engaged, and the mem- Agencies. bership numbers 1,178. In 1881 the Moravians took charge, in Jerusalem, of a hospital previously established for lepers. This institution is supported by contributions from the three provinces and the gifts of friends. The inmates number between 50 and 60. The Diaspora (from diaspora, in I Pet. i. 1) work is carried on by the German province, and has for its object the evangelization of the state churches on the continent of Europe, without depriving them of their members. Evangelists itinerate through the various countries of Germany, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and through Poland, Livonia, Esthonia, and other parts of Russia, visiting, preaching, and organizing “‘ societies.”” This mission embraces 54 central stations, 61 laborers, and about 75,000 ‘‘ society members.”
VI. Statistics: The home provinces report 411 bishops, presbyters, deacons, and unordained assistants, male and female, in various departments of church work, not counting teachers; 42,791 souls. Foreign and Bohemian missions report 198 bishops, presbyters, and deacons; 60 unordained assistants; 234 female assistants; 2,134 native assistants; 103,- - 810 souls. The Unitas Fratrum, therefore, numbers in all 888 bishops, presbyters and deacons, and other appointed workers; or, with native assistants, 3,037 workers, and 146,601 souls, and has, besides, about 75,000 souls in its Diaspora societies.
(E. pe Scuwermirz{.) J. Taytor Hamitton.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: D. Cranz, Alte und neue Briiderhistorie, Barby, 1772, Eng. transl., Ancient and Modern Hist. of the Brethren, London, 1780, the German continued by Hegner, 3 parts, Barby and Gnadau, 1791-1816; J. Risler, Select Narratives from the Hist. of the . . . Unitas Fratrum, ib. 1806; J. B. Holmes, Hist. of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren, 2 vols., ib. 1825, Bethlehem, Pa., 1830; E. H. Reichel, Historical Sketch of the Church and Missions of the United Brethren, Bethlehem, 1848; J. Latrobe, Historical Sketch of the Church of the United Brethren, Bath, 1850; L. C. Schrautenbach, Zinzendorf und die Briider-Gemeinde, Gnadau, 1851; E. W. Croéger, Geschichte der alten und erneuerten Briider-Kirche, 5 vols., ib. 1851-65; L. T. Reichel, Hist. of the Moravians in North Carolina, Bethlehem, 1857; J. Henry, Sketches of Moravian Life and Character, Philadelphia, 1859; A. Bost, Hist. of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, new ed., London, 1863; W. C. Reichel, Memorials of the Moravian Church, Philadelphia, 1870; J. M. Martin, Historical Sketch of Bethlehem and the Moravians, Bethlehem, 1873; E. de Schweinitz, Hist. of the Church Known as the Unitas Fratrum, ib. 1885; idem, Moravian Manual, 3d ed., by J. T. Hamilton, ib. 1901; Schultze, Die Missionsfelder der erneuerten Briider- Kirche, ib. 1890; J. T. Hamilton, Hist. of the Moravian Church during the 18th and 19th Centuries, ib. 1900; idem, Hist. of the Moravian Missions, ib. 1901; idem, Twenty Years of Pioneer Missionary Enterprise in Nyasa-Land, Bethlehem, Pa., 1911; J. H. Clewell, Hist. of Wachovia in N.C.; the Unitas Fratrum or Moravian Church 1672-1902, New York, 1902; J. M. Levering, Hist. of Bethlehem, Pa., 1741-1892, Bethlehem, 1903; A. L. Fries, Moravians in Georgia, 1735-40, Winston Salem, 1905; G. Burkhardt, Die Briidergemeine, 2 parts, Gnadau, 1905; O. Steinecke, Die Diaspora der Briidergemeine in Deutschland, Halle, 1905; H. Garst, Otterbein University, 1847-1907, Dayton, O., 1908; J. G. E. Heckwelder, A Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians from its Commencement in 1740 to the Close of the Year 1808, Cleveland, 1907; Missionsatlas der Briidergemeinde, Herrnhut, 1908.