New York, especially by Peter Böhler, who in January, 1741, enjoyed the friendship and hospitality of the Noble and Horsfield families. Zinzendorf also became acquainted with them, and the visits of the Brethren were regularly continued since 1742. In February, 1748, Abraham Bömper was commissioned to make an arrangement with the trustees of the Lutheran or any of the Reformed Churches in New York, to obtain permission for Moravian worship at stated times. This request was not granted, and in consequence the Brethren built a church of their own, in 1752.

Beyond the boundaries of Pennsylvania there was yet another neighborhood, in which the services of the Brethren were desired at this time and where at a later period the country congregation of Graceham was organized, namely:

6. Monocasy in Maryland.-The first acquaintance with the Brethren was occasioned by Pastor Nyberg, who in 1745 kept the funeral of the Lutheran Pastor Canzler. By his powerful testimony of the sufferings and death of the Saviour many became awakened and requested Pastor Nyberg to procure for them a minister or schoolmaster or lector. Upon his application to the Brethren at Bethlehem, J. H. Herzer was sent there as Biblereader, and was succeeded in 1746 by the ordained Brother George Nieke, who for a while was in blessed activity there as a Lutheran pastor, until dissensions arose and he had to be recalled. Thereupon fifteen English families requested a minister, and Daniel Dulaney, of Annapolis, made a present of ten acres of land for church and school purposes, which tract, called Dulaney's gift," was secured to the Brethren by law in 1751, a school-house having been built upon it in 1749. A number of years elapsed, however, before a congregation was organized.

A PECULIAR feature of the Brethren's Church from its earliest times, and retained to the present day, has been their solicitude not only to preach the Gospel to the adults among Christians and heathen, but to suffer little children to come to the Saviour and for this purpose to conduct their schools in such a manner, that not only the faculties of the mind might become developed and strengthened by judicious training, but the affections of the heart be drawn in early years to the best Friend of children. Before Count Zinzendorf left America he said in his "Pennsylvania Testament:" "It is one of my greatest hopes and desires that Bethlehem may become a pattern of the education of children.”

This desire was remembered and acted upon by those brethren to whom the superintendence and direction of all congregational affairs was entrusted, and a system of education was introduced, the like of which may probably never be found in any other community. The peculiar situation of the Bethlehem congregation, forming one very extended Family Economy, connected with their peculiar religious tenets, led to a system which we, a century later, would hardly wish to imitate, but which nevertheless, was a most judicious arrangement under the peculiar circumstances of the times. The infants were hardly weaned from their mother's breast when the Church assumed all further care for their support and early training. With very rare exceptions all the infants of the colonists at Bethlehem and Nazareth were placed by their mothers in the "Nursery," when hardly sixteen or eighteen months old, where widowed or unmarried sisters devoted all their time to nursing them. And as it was not considered the main object of education to aim at a ripe scholarship for all their children, but to nurse and train them for the Lord and His King

dom, their tutors and nurses endeavored to make them acquainted with the Saviour, and their infant lispings and their juvenile plays were governed and biased by this one and all-important idea.

Cammerhof remarks in one of his letters: "The dear little ones are very lively, playful and unaffected. The wounds and the blood are their favorite theme, and their parents rejoice when they hear of the life and sufferings of the Saviour. Now and then some five or six sit together on a bench and have a meeting. They sing a hymn, and one or the other tells of the Saviour's blood, how many wounds He had, etc., He had, etc., or they keep a love-feast." J. C. Franke, a man peculiarly adapted for such a station, was the superintendent of this school. In May, 1747, there were in this nursery more than fifty infants, all under five years of age. Hence it may justly be called the first infant school that ever existed.

On January 7, 1749, the Nursery was transferred from Bethlehem to Nazareth and found its dwellingplace in the so-called Whitefield House, which gradually was devoted entirely to this purpose. On June 5, 1758, the little girls were removed to Bethlehem, but the little boys remained till 1764, when the remaining seven were transferred to Nazareth Hall and this Nursery came to an end.

When five or six years old, the boys were transferred from the Nursery to the Boys' School, which was commenced in Nazareth in July, 1743, and was removed to Frederick Township in May, 1745, where Henry Antes had offered his own house for this purpose. Besides the sons of the colonists at Bethlehem and Nazareth, some children of friends of the Brethren were admitted, and in November, 1747, there were about forty boys in this school, including seven Indians and a few negroes. Brother Adolph

Meyer was the superintendent of this school. The plantation and mill of Henry Antes, and for a time. also the farm of William Frey, a Baptist, were managed for the benefit of this school, around which a small congregation was collected.

"Such a company of white, brown and black children, as was assembled here, who were singing and speaking of the wounds of the Saviour," could not fail to make a deep impression on the hearts of all visitors. Brother Spangenberg always found time to keep up a regular correspondence with the larger boys. In 1750 this school was connected with that in Oley.

The school for the little girls, of five to eleven years of age, was commenced in Bethlehem in 1743, transferred to Nazareth in June, 1745, and afterwards again removed to Bethlehem. In 1747 it contained about thirty girls, among whom there were some Indians, for instance, one adopted by Spangenberg and called Mary Spangenberg. Amongst themselves these children elected a spiritual elder, Elizabeth Horsfield, of New York, who, though young in years, was a faithful handmaiden of the Lord. There was a great work of grace among these children and many impressions were made on their youthful hearts which lasted for life.

On July 27, 1746, Mr. Whitefield paid his first and only visit to Nazareth, accompanied by Henry Antes: "He was very friendly and polite, and when he heard the name of Brother Abraham Reincke he remembered that he had seen him formerly in London. He admired our whole arrangement, and especially the order prevailing everywhere. He was pleased to observe the industry of the children, especially in spinning. The Indian girls greatly attracted his attention and enlisted his most lively interest, and he was pleased to see his original plan of a school executed in this way." Amongst the children he

found one whom he six years before had baptized in Georgia-Rebecca Burnside. Soon after she died of the small-pox, after a great deal of patient suffering. Besides her some ten or twelve girls were suffering from the same disease, and it was a great comfort when Brother Pyrlæus had his spinet brought into their sick-room and kept a singing-meeting there. Two little Indian girls also died from this sickness -one commonly called "Little Chicken," baptized Beata, the other, "Little Worm," and in baptism called Sarah. When they were buried on the old grave-yard (once a desolate spot in the fields) a brother had to precede to point out the way through the dense forest.

As a peculiar feature of this first American Moravian Female Academy must be mentioned the industry of the little girls in spinning, which was not only a regular branch of instruction, considered needful for a complete female education, but also a source of income for the children themselves and a means by which they were enabled to assist in repaying, in part, the expenses of their education. And when, from time to time, these little spinners had their special love-feasts, the extra toil was fully compensated by this additional pleasure and the consciousness of having learned in early years to do their duty.

From these schools the larger boys and girls, at the age of twelve or fourteen years, entered the choir-houses of the unmarried brethren and unmarried sisters, where they remained under the spiritual and temporal superintendence of the “laborers of the congregation" or the "choir elders," until they entered the service of the Church either as members of the "Church of Pilgrims or as economists, or settled in some other place where the Family Economy system was not introduced.

19 Spinet, an old-fashioned piano; probably the first musical instrument of this kind in these parts of Pennsylvania.