In the story of the Moravians and their mission enterprises, and in individual mission enterprises, the Lord has furnished object lessons in the power of prayer in behalf of missions.
Pastor Harms assumed the pastorate of Hermannsburg about 1844. His soul was made alive with missionary zeal as he read of the needs of the heathen world. A sketch of his life tells the simple story of the work wrought out by prayer and consecration.
The parish included seven of the villages that dot the Luneburg Heath, an expanse of thinly-peopled moorland. The parishioners, about forty-five hundred in number, were, for the most part, sturdy, self-reliant German yeomanry and peasantry. The religious life of the pariah was cold and formal, with little spirituality.
The new pastor, by his singularly devout life, fed by deep communion and unceasing prayer, soon raised the people to a higher spiritual level, and a great religious awakening followed. He soon succeeded in kindling the fires of missionary enthusiasm throughout his parish. The first-fruits were three gifts--six shillings from a widow, a six-pence from a laborer, and a penny from a little child.
Erelong men as well as money began to be offered, until soon a company of twelve stood ready to go wherever God would send them. These untaught peasants, though filled with the Spirit, with faith and heroism, were by no means prepared for the work.
A training school is established, and the prospective missionaries enter upon a four years' course. Besides a daily round of manual labor, the curriculum included Bible study, church history, dogmatics, history of missions, etc.--a formidable array of subjects to men unused to study. This, however, as all else connected with Hermannsburg, was accomplished through prayer. The missionary enthusiasm ran high. As many as sixty offered themselves. Eight more were accepted and put under training.
Perplexing questions arise. How is this large company to be sent to the field? The field chosen was a district in south-eastern Africa, occupied by a fierce and bloodthirsty tribe to whom as yet no Gospel herald had carried the story of the cross. "Build a ship," was suggested. "The proposal is good," says Harms, "but the money."
That was a time of great conflict, and I wrestled with God. No one encouraged me. My friends hinted that I was out of my senses. I was spending a night in prayer. I laid the whole matter in the Lord's hands. As I rose from my knees at midnight, I said, "Forward, now, in God's name!"
The crisis was passed. The contract is let. The ship is built. Hermannsburg is a scene of activity. The women and girls by their sewing and knitting have contributed. The outfit is complete. Eight of the missionaries have completed the course and are ordained. Farewell services are held. The pastor's final counsel is given: "Give heed to the reading of the Word, and pray without ceasing;" and on October 28, 1853, the first missionary colony from Hermannsburg set sail.
Year after year the work grew. As the demands exhausted the local supply of funds, the little people who had consecrated all to God, sought Him in prayer, and the Lord was able to open treasuries in the hearts of people outside of their community. Prayer and the spirit of consecration brought the community into the place where God could cooperate with their efforts.
So greatly was the mission blessed of God that in 1860, seven years after the first missionaries sailed, the Hermannsburg mission in the homeland owned, and had in successful operation, the mission house occupied by forty-five students, a mission farm, a refuge farm, and a printing house; owned in Africa, ten thousand acres of land, occupied by eight stations, at each of which comfortable houses and workshops had been erected. One hundred of their own number were on the field, and fifty converts had been gathered from the African tribes. Besides they owned a ship and a mission magazine. The work of one pastor and his congregation of humble peasants!
The financial record of the mission has been a marvel. Such operations demanded large outlays of money, and neither Harms nor his people were rich in anything but faith. Though they gave with great liberality, one missionary giving his farm, and some others all they had, it was quite impossible for them to furnish more than a tithe of the whole amount. Where did it come from? God, who manifestly directed the enterprise, sent it in answer to prayer. Contributions came unsought from all parts of the world. How richly his faith was rewarded! His experiences of answered prayer were as remarkable as those of George Müller.
While they were so busily engaged in sending the Gospel to the heathen, the windows of heaven were opened to them. During the whole period of Louis Harm's pastorate, there was an uninterrupted revival in the Hermannsburg parish, in which it is said ten thousand souls were brought into the kingdom. Professor Park, who spent three weeks with Pastor Harms during this period, says:
Supposing the parish was then in a state of special revival, I asked, "How long has this revival continued?" "About seventeen years," was the reply, "ever since Pastor Harms came among us."
The missionary interest grows out of persons experience. And missionary effort reacts in continuous blessing at home. A thoroughly united effort in behalf of lands and needs beyond our borders is the sure way, of keeping hearts in the home churches aglow with the love of God and the joy of service.
The work to which we are now called so urgently in other lands will prove God's way of bringing new life and power into the home work.--Present Truth, October 31, 1901.