THE MORAVIANS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In the year 1782 the Moravian Church started its work as the first Protestant Church to the heathen. It has always been a cardinal principal that " to be a Moravian and to further Foreign Missions are identical." Their missionaries have always gone to the darkest places of the earth, courting difficulties rather than avoiding them.
At least one in every seventy-five members of the Moravian Church is a missionary. That is a very high percentage. The fact speaks for itself and, I think, is unparalleled. In other Protestant Churches it is about one in every five or six thousand. In 1736 missionaries began special work among the Jews. In 1746 the Moravian Church was the first to send out medical missionaries. Over a hundred years ago special efforts were commenced among lepers for which the Mission has homes at Jerusalem and elsewhere. In those homes lepers have been cured- of their terrible disease and many have heel converted to God.
With such a history it would be a lasting disgrace if even one Mission Station should have to be abandoned because of inadequate support ; and yet there was a drop of £4,000 in last year's income.—I am, Sir, &c.,
EDGAR SWAINSON,
Secretary, London Association in Aid of Moravian Missions.
7 New Court, Lincoln's Inn, London, W.C. 2.
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