Ohio History Journal

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DAVID ZEISBERGER

DAVID ZEISBERGER.

 

 

REV. JOHN GREENFIELD.

Memorial delivered Sunday, Nov. 15, 1908, in Nazareth, Pa.

"That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through

faith and patience inherit the promises."- Hebrews 6:12.

Our congregation celebrates today a threefold festival.

We commemorate, first of all, "the powerful experience" made

by our Fathers, November 13, 1741, "that Jesus Christ is the

Chief Shepherd and Head of the Church." We celebrate, in

the second place, our annual congregation festival, for it was

on November 13, 1756, that "the consecration of the Chapel in

Nazareth Hall" took place, it being apparently the first house of

worship which was built and set apart for this exclusive pur-

pose. We observe furthermore today the David Zeisberger Cen-

tennial, for it was on November 17, 1808, that this "Moravian

Apostle to the Indians" died at Goshen, Ohio, after a service of

sixty-three years.

The town in which we live was founded in the year 1740

by eleven Moravian immigrants, under the leadership of Bishop

Peter Boehler. One of the eleven, and perhaps the youngest

of the party, was the man whose triumphant death a century

ago we today commemorate. David Zeisberger, in 1740, then a

youth of nineteen, was one of the Moravian woodsmen and car-

penters sent to Nazareth by the great English evangelist, George

Whitefield, to build here a school for negro children. These

early Moravians, in more than one sense, builded better than

they knew. That structure which they began in 1740 still stands

and bears the name of its illustrious founder, being known as

the "Whitefield House."

David Zeisberger, whose happy departure we today "call

to mind with joy," and who was one of the first founders of this

town and congregation, is also the best practical illustration of

one to whom Christ has become Chief Shepherd, Head and

Elder. Let us briefly consider I. His Decisive Conversion; II.

His Evangelistic Zeal; III. His Triumphant Death.

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