USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > Bethlehem > A history of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1741-1892, with some account of its founders and their early activity in America > Part 63
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Before the edifice was finally completed, two men departed this life who stood in very important connection with the enterprise. One, on July 4, 1805, as already stated, was the eminently capable, energetic and faithful Warden, John Schropp. He was, therefore, not permitted to see the completion and dedication of the church. in the building of which he had borne so large a part of the official responsibility and burden. The other was the famous old Mora-
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
vian organ-builder, David Tanneberger, of Lititz, referred to in a previous chapter, who in May, 1804, was suddenly stricken down while finishing the placing and tuning of an organ in York, Pa. He expected to build the great organ for the Bethlehem church as his crowning achievement. He had come to Bethlehem on horseback in July, 1803, when the contract was made. At his instance the walls of the church were run up four feet higher than the architect's plan called for in order to have what he deemed sufficient vertical space under the ceiling to construct special pipes which it was desired to have.
On June 5, 1804, a meeting of the General Council of the village was called to secure approval of the plan of the Elders' Conference to negotiate with a reputable organ-builder of New York, of whom information had been gotten by Bishop Loskiel. This was John Geib, who had his son associated with him in the business. The result was that Cunow, himself a good organist and therefore the most competent official for the purpose, was commissioned to go to New York to see Geib. On July 16, Cunow rendered a report, and, all things being considered satisfactory, a contract was at once made with John Geib and Son, for an organ somewhat larger than Tanneberger was to have built. The organ was finished in March, 1806, and tested on the 27th of April. It is now in use in the chapel of the Parochial School, to which place it was removed at the close of 1872, to make way for the present church-organ, built by Jardine and Sons, of New York. The entire original cost of the church, including the organ, was slightly more than $52,000.
The consecration of the new edifice began on Sunday Exaudi, May 18, 1806, and the festivities extended to the evening of Whit- Monday, May 26, including a variety of services. Elaborate prepa- rations were made by the clergy, the musicians, the committee on entertainment and the officials of the town; even some special police arrangements being deemed necessary in anticipation of an enor- mous mixed multitude. Such a multitude did gather. The num- ber of people in Bethlehem on that Sunday, May 18, was estimated at more than six thousand, which was a great throng for a village of barely more than five hundred inhabitants. At five o'clock itt the morning the jubilant sound of trombones, trumpets and other wind instruments from the belfry of the church broke the stillness of the awakening village with a musical announcement of the great festival day. Already troops of people from the surrounding coun-
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1786-1806.
try were making their way towards the place, everything was soon astir and before eight o'clock the street in front of the church was thronged. The first service of the day was a brief one in the Old Chapel at eight o'clock. It was intended to be a formal leave- taking of that second sanctuary of the village, which, although occupied only fifty-five years, was rich in venerable associations. Bishop Loskiel officiated. At the close, the assembled membership passed in two processions into the new church, which was sur- rounded by great crowds inspecting the exterior of the structure and awaiting their arrival. One procession, headed by the Bishop and clergy and the various church officers, consisted of the male portion of the congregation. Following the church officers came the school boys, then the older boys and single men, and finally all the men of the village. They entered at the north-east door. The other procession, which passed in at the south-east door, was headed by the wives of the clergy and other women in official position. They were followed by the school girls and their teachers, and back of them came all the women of the congregation. The moment the doors swung open and the ministers entered the silent and empty building, they were greeted by a burst of music from the organ and trombones like that which announces the midnight hour at the New Year Eve vigils, and the chorale was the same-"Nun danket alle Gott." While the congregation filed in and took seats, a large choir, with elaborate orchestral accompaniment, sang the second part of the hundredth Psalm: "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise : be thankful unto Him and bless His Name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations." When the sound of the chorus ceased, the congregation raised the solemn hymn: "Heiliger Herr und Gott"-chorale No. 519 in the Moravian collection-the first verse of which, in English translation, is incorporated in the church litany. Thereupon all fell on their knees and Bishop Loskiel dedi- cated the finished edifice to the worship of the Triune God with a prayer of thanksgiving, confession and supplication, imploring the Divine blessing upon the house, upon all the future assemblies of the people within its walls and especially upon the preaching of the gospel within it during the coming years. This was followed by a brief address, in which gratitude for the completion of the structure after so many years of waiting, and cordial recognition of the ser- vices of those who had directed the work, all who had labored at it
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,and all who had contributed to the building fund was expressed. Then this first service closed. Apart from the elaborate music, no outward pomp and circumstance attended the occasion. The ritual, as will be observed, was extremely simple, but it is recorded that all present were profoundly impressed. It had been the desire that this first service should be exclusively for members of the congregation and of other Moravian congregations who had come to Bethlehem, but the pressure about the doors was so great that this could not be strictly adhered to. The next service, at which the first sermon was preached in German by Bishop Loskiel, was understood to be open to all who could find entrance. Not a spot, even of standing room, remained unoccupied in any part of the building into which people could crowd. Its seating capacity, with the loose benches of that time placed for close sitting, was fifteen hundred. It was estimated that about a thousand more were present. At this service the pulpit was used the first time and a special prayer of dedication, in view of this, preceded the sermon, which was based on the words, "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men"-Rev. 21:3. At the conclusion of this service, the metrical version of the Te Deum Laudamus which, both in German and in English translation, is yet used in the Moravian Church, was sung. The English sermon was preached at three o'clock in the afternoon by the Rev. Andrew Benade, Principal of the boarding-school and associate minister. The text was, I Kings, 9:13. At this service anthems with English text were sung by the choir. The crowd was not so great as in the morn- ing, for many from distant neighborhoods left at noon and the most of the country people who had assembled were German. At the evening service, when few excepting Moravian visitors were present with the congregation, the Rev. John Herbst, Head Pastor at Lititz, preached in German; his text being 2 Tim. 2:19.
The second day's festivities took place on Tuesday, May 20. At half-past eight there was morning prayer-a choral service with a brief address by Bishop Loskiel. At ten o'clock the first adminis- tration of baptism in the new church took place. The candidate was a young woman named Sarah Rothrock. At three o'clock there was lovefeast. The collection of hymns and anthems sung by the congregation and choir was arranged by Bishop Loskiel. In the evening the Holy Communion was celebrated. Wednesday, the 2Ist, the first funeral was held in the church by the associate min- ister, Benade. It was that of Anna Catherine Hanke. In the even-
GEORGE HENRY LOSKIEL CHARLES GOTTHOLD REICHEL
JACOB VAN VLECK
ANDREW BENADE
JOHN DAVID BISHOP
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1786 -- 1806.
ing the first of the purely musical services, then so popular, called simply Singstunden, was held, with full choir and orchestra. Thurs- day evening was devoted to a special prayer-meeting by the mem- bers who participated in the hourly prayer-turns which were yet observed, as instituted at Herrnhut in 1727, but in a modified man- ner. This service was in charge of the Rev. John Herbst, of Lititz, and the inspiring associations of the occasion were made use of to revive devout interest in this union of prayer. On Friday another funeral took place, that of Sarah Pyrlaeus, wife of John Christopher Pyrlaeus, Jr.
On Whitsunday, May 25, there were six services : Morning prayer at nine o'clock; a general service with preaching, at half-past ten, and in the afternoon, beginning at three o'clock, a succession of short special services for the several choir divisions of the congre- gation in the old manner, several of the more nearly related choirs being, however, combined. At the evening service a young negro woman was baptized. Finally, on Whitmonday, an elaborate Gemeintag was observed somewhat after the old-time manner described in an earlier chapter, having largely a missionary char- acter suitable to the associations of this great Christian festival. The first service was at nine o'clock, when interesting matter from the latest missionary reports was read. At half-past ten o'clock there was English preaching, at three o'clock there was another missionary meeting, at which a report was communicated from the Rev. John Peter Kluge, on the mission undertaken by the Rev. Abraham Luckenbach and himself among the Indians on the White River, in the present State of Indiana. The day was closed with one of the old-time antiphonal services of song, once so greatly enjoyed, and commonly spoken of as Liturgien-Liturgies-treating of the theme of Pentecost and the office of the Holy Spirit. Thus the present spacious Moravian Church of Bethlehem was consecrated and made use of for the first festive week. Very nearly a hundred years have passed since then, and therefore the details of its first history have an interest which may be increased when the centennial anniversary of its dedication draws near.
A month after the consecration of the new church, July 19, 1806, two members of the Unity's Elders' Conference, with their wives, arrived in Bethlehem from Europe on an official visit, the Rev. Charles von Forestier and the Rev. John Renatus Verbeek. With them came four single men; two bound for North Carolina, John
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Christian Burkhardt and Carsten Petersen, and two called to serve in the ministry of the Moravian Church in America, Emanuel Rond- thaler, who in later years was so long identified with the pastorate at Nazareth, and Charles Frederick Seidel, who after three years' service at Salem, N. C., and eight at Nazareth, was called, in 1817, to Bethlehem, where, excepting one interval of about three years, the remainder of his life, to 1861, was spent in various capacities, as minister, principal of the boarding-school and member of the Executive Board. He was associated with church and town for a longer time and through more great changes than any man who figures in the long list of Moravian ministers at Bethlehem, and will be frequently mentioned in these pages. Very significantly does his name appear at the epoch marked by the completion of the new church, when so many associations of the interesting past receded and the connections of the modern period opened.
JE5/12
FS 92
BETHLEHEM
1805
1810
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BEGINNING OF MODERNIZING MOVEMENTS. 1807-1825.
The period embraced in this chapter extends over the most extreme efforts to maintain without modification the close regime under which Bethlehem, like all other Moravian villages, was brought by the re-organization completed in 1786. This period was one of decadence in some main elements of the system that had been gradually developed after 1769. This system was not only proving inadequate, even in Europe, to preserve its theoretical ideals of internal village life, but in America was becoming clearly an impossible thing. The people were no longer unique in a united religious purpose had in view as the reason for the existence of the settlement, and in enthusiastic loyalty to this purpose. They had no desire, therefore, to remain unique in the minor external features of regulation and custom that had in course of time become fixed in con- nection with the former purpose. However peculiarly interesting or quaintly pretty many such things might seem to the casual observer, people of the place who were living in touch with the times and their surroundings, in the affairs of business and in social relations, had no taste for posing as an attractive curiosity for the diversion of visi- tors. Various things which seemed very odd, particularly to untraveled and not well-read Americans, because different from pre- vailing ways, were, amid European surroundings, not at all striking, just as many other village customs and regulations, domestic arrangements, modes of dress and the like, prevailing also outside of Moravian circles in Germany and other countries, would, if trans- planted to America, have appeared very singular to such ; for narrow provincialism in all countries regards everything as queer that is different from its own customs and habits. In modern times more people travel and more cosmopolitan views prevail; for even those who do not travel have the customs and habits of other people thrust upon their attention through the more general intermingling
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of varieties, so that those, both in the city and the country, who find all ways of people that are different from their own so strikingly absurd or amusing, constitute a relatively much smaller part of the population than was the case from fifty to a hundred years ago. While modern conditions tend to eliminate eccentricities and modify sharp contrasts in the customs and manners of society generally, they at the same time broaden views and make people more tolerant of differences. Not so many things are now regarded as outlandish as formerly, for well-informed people are more numerous. This fact is not confined to the ways of society and to domestic habits, but extends also to ecclesiastical matters. It is the person of narrow training and contracted horizon who is impressed by the oddity of organization, terminology, ritual and custom in churches other than that in which he has been brought up.
The system which governed the Moravian villages also naturally produced this same kind of narrowness to a striking degree among their people, besides fostering a certain characteristic self-com- placency and a kind of egotism that was sui generis. Therefore, while so many people elsewhere regarded their ways as peculiar and in some respects absurd, they, in turn, especially in matters more strictly ecclesiastical, lived in the happy indulgence of this narrow egotism which had its origin in the idea of earlier times that a Mora- vian congregation was one of culled out people; an idea fostered unduly by the exclusive system which had been instituted. That a degree of general culture prevailed that was far above the common country surroundings is an undeniable fact. That a degree of decorum and good manners marked even the plainest laboring classes of the community, far beyond that to be commonly met with among the same order of people in traveling the country, was a characteristic of the Moravian village of those days that never failed to impress the stranger who entered its gates.
The general cultivation of good music, as one of the refinements, reached a stage at Bethlehem hardly to be found anywhere else in the country. It attracted many to the place. Some of the leading compositions of the masters which during the preceding decade had been more generally introduced to the music-loving public in Euro- pean cities, were brought to Bethlehem and rendered, at least in part, before their production had been attempted anywhere else in America. A conspicuous instance was the first rendition of Haydn's oratorio, "The Creation" in 1811. That musicians from the cities or
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1807-1825.
visiting the United States from Europe were drawn to Bethlehem was natural, and during the years now under review the records of the place frequently refer to such visits by performers of note, and to con- certs in which they had the satisfaction of rendering music of a high order to an audience by taste and training capable of appreciating it. The pleasing and impressive character of the services of the sanctuary heightened by this assiduous cultivation of music, which fills such an important place in the general liturgicum of the Mora- vian Church, was one of the most notable things in Bethlehem; and in those days, as well as in modern times, it was a common thing for people to visit the place at the seasons of high festivals for the purpose of enjoying the music.
The visitor could not fail, furthermore, to be impressed by a pre- vailing friendliness and disposition to accommodate, and by a style of intercourse among the people that bore evidence of a relation not merely as fellow-citizens, but as brethren, on a religious as well as a social ground, existing between them. The church routine main- tained and the nature of the services and sermons suggested the prevalence of deep piety as one of the characteristics of the place. But with all this which appeared on the surface, there was much beneath and behind it that was far from ideal. In many cases, reli- giousness was largely a matter of conventional habit, and among the population born and bred in the place and trained to all of its external ways, there were persons enough whose real character and life were by no means superior. There was that in the religious training of the time which tended to produce a refined type of hypocrisy among some kinds of people. The conspicuous appear- ance of fraternal relations did not have beneath it a greater measure of cordial good will between man and man, in many cases, than pre- vails between well-disposed fellow-citizens and neighbors in other villages. The common rivalries, jealousies and bickerings of people existed among many Moravians in Bethlehem just as they did among people elsewhere and as they do among many of them in modern times, when there is less show of fraternity in mode of address and general habit of speech. Indeed, after the harmonious enthusiasm of former times had disappeared, many of the more petty disturbances of cordial relations were aggravated by the close regime under which men had to deal with each other at such short range, were crowded into such intimate contact with one another's perversities, frailties and foibles, and felt each other's angularities
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more forcibly in the contracted relations in which they had to jostle each other in struggling for the elbow-room more easily afforded by the larger freedom of modern times. The spirit of chronic criti- cism and fault-finding, referred to in the previous chapter as one of the unpleasant products of the old Moravian village system, grew with the increased stringency by which those who were trying to maintain it in its extreme character sought to correct irregularities and abuses. The general system was entering upon an ordeal of severe strain at the opening of the period of which this chapter treats. This came partly through the growing determination of many to be rid of the burden of antiquated rules and methods which they would no longer endure, and partly through controversy in matters of finance and property, in which the struggle was not so much with inflexible regulations as with domineering men. An acute condition of things in both features of the ordeal was brought on in connection with the several chief events of this period, as will appear in their narration.
The deputies of the Unity's Elders' Conference who arrived in Bethlehem in July, 1806, as stated in the preceding chapter-the Rev. John Renatus Verbeek and the Rev. Charles von Forestier- closed their official labors in America by convening a conference of ministers at Bethlehem which was in session, September 14 to 16, 1807, and on September 28, they left to return to Europe. No material changes of organization or supervision were made during their stay, the policy of that time being to endeavor to tone up and strengthen the existing system. Several things of importance resulted, however, from their visit, which had to do partly with retrogression and decay and partly with plans for the future which had life and progress in view. Of the first sort was the termination of the once promising organization and institutions of Hope, New Jersey, which had sunk under a burden of debt with no prospect of recuperation. This settlement, besides the disadvantage of unhealthy surroundings, was too weak to survive the dead- ening system of the time, as Bethlehem, Nazareth, Lititz and Salem, N. C., did. After arranging for the disposition of the mill, farm, store and other appurtenances of the estab- lishment; for locating and utilizing various officials, artisans and laborers of the place, and for measures to get rid of the prop- erty, the deputies formally made the melancholy announcement. at Hope on May 26, 1807, that the place would be abandoned as a church-village. Some of the people were given a home and employ-
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1807-1825.
ment at Bethlehem, others at Nazareth, at Lititz and at Salem. The services of Easter Sunday, April 17, 1808, terminated the history of the place as a Moravian settlement. Occasional services were sub- sequently held there by Moravian ministers, it being regarded as a mere preaching-place, but even these did not continue long. An offer by the Messrs. Kraemer and Horn of $48,000 for the main body of the property had been submitted to the lot with an affirma- tive result and was definitely accepted on September 19, 1807. There- upon the sale was made and the place ceased to be the property of the Moravian Church. A residue that was leased was finally sold in February, 1835, for $9000 to Abraham Bininger, of Camden, N. Y.
Another move inaugurated at the same time under the direction of Verbeek and Forestier had a more cheering character, even though its early years were attended by circumstances that caused disagreeable disturbances, starting the first active revolt against the narrow, rigid system of the time. This was the establishment of a Theological Seminary to take the place of the importation of all regularly educated ministers from Europe, which was no longer feasible. This enterprise had been particularly advocated by the Rev. Jacob Van Vleck while he was principal of Nazareth Hall and was laboring to elevate the standard of his teaching force by secur- ing classically educated men from Europe, and by the Rev. Christian Lewis Benzien, of Salem, N. C. The project had been discussed for some time without results; difficulties seemed to have blocked the way, and Van Vleck was making arrangements in the summer of 1807, to send his subsequently distinguished son, William Henry, to Europe with the deputies of the governing board, to pursue his theological studies, when the question was re-opened. A letter from the Unity's Elders' Conference cordially favoring and encour- aging the undertaking was received in August. They proposed to appropriate the necessary amount from the general educational fund of the Unity for the support of young Van Vleck and also of another candidate, eventually a well-known bishop, executive official and musician, Peter Wolle, son of a West India missionary of the same name, they having both completed the course of study at Nazareth Hall. It was stipulated, however, that the institution, if founded, should not be a tax on that treasury beyond these appropriations at the beginning. Then it was decided, on September 8, to take this * important step in a modest way with these two students as the first class. A general scheme and a curriculum were elaborated by Ver-
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A HISTORY OF BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA.
beek and Forestier. Ernst Lewis Hazelius, who had arrived in 1800 and was employed at advanced teaching in Nazareth Hall-the most gifted and best educated, both classically and theologically, among the men available-was appointed as professor, to be assisted by the other theologically educated and most capable of the teachers, John Christian Bechler, who, like Rondthaler and Seidel, mentioned in the previous chapter, had come over from Europe in 1806. It was arranged to combine the institution with Nazareth Hall. On September 26, a proposition was made by Jacob Van Vleck and con- curred in by the General Helpers' Conference to add a third student to the class. This was Samuel Reinke-the venerable bishop, well- remembered by many-a son of the Rev. Abraham Reinke and a grandson of the Rev. Abraham Reinke, Sr., who fifty years before figured prominently at Bethlehem and Nazareth. Young Reinke had been a fellow-pupil, at Nazareth Hall, of Van Vleck, who entered in 1799, and of Wolle, who entered in 1800. He was employed at this time in the store at Nazareth, but, as Principal Van Vleck stated, did not like the place, did not seem adapted for mercantile life and undoubtedly would soon be useful as a teacher.
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