MOR 
the faith and practices of the Moravian 
Brethren, and commencing preacher, was, 
in the year 1735, chosen to be their bisliop. 
From this period the sect of the Moravians 
began to flourish rapidly. Count Zinzen- 
dorf was a zealous and enterprising man, 
though enthusiastical and mystical in a very 
high degree. His exertions were of singu- 
lar service to the cause of the brethren, 
though his extravagancies sometimes brought 
them into contempt with the sober and 
reflecting part of mankind. It is even 
acknowledged, on the part of the Count’s 
friends, that much of the extravagance and 
absurdity that has been attributed to him, 
owes its origin, or at least its publication, 
to those persons who wrote his extempore 
sermons in short hand, and afterwards pub- 
lished them with all their indelicacies and 
imperfections about them. 
The church of the United Brethren is 
episcopal, and their church govcrmi\ent is 
conducted with great form and regularity. 
Questions of dispute are settled by ballot, 
and in cases of real or supposed importance 
are often decided by lot. The lot is deemed 
a solemn appeal to heaven, and is made 
use of with great seriousness. They have 
oeconomies, or choir-houses, where they 
live together in community : the single men 
and single women apart, widows and wi- 
dowers apart, each under the superintend- 
ance of elderly persons of their own class. 
At Fairfield, near Manchester, there is a 
Moravian settlement ; it is a small village, 
uncommonly neat and clean, consisting of 
one large open street, having a handsome 
chapel, and a small public-house for the re- 
ception of strangers who visit the settlement 
from Manchester and the neighbourhood, 
particularly on Sundays and other holidays. 
The Moravians are very strict in their atten- 
tion to the youth of both sexes, and never 
suffer them to come together or to marry 
without the previous consent of the church ; 
and as the lot must be cast to sanction 
their union, each receives his partner as a 
divine appointment. Though the Mora- 
vians are united in one body, they are by 
no means illiberal in their views towards 
other Christians, who hold what Ihey con- 
ceive to be the essentials of religion, and 
pay divine adoration to Jesus Christ. In 
doctrine they appear to be inclined to Sa- 
bellianism. They address all their pray- 
ers to Jesu, or The Lamb, and they have 
been accused, not without reason, of adopt- 
ing a [diraseology in their hymns and pray- 
ers not consistent with the rules of decency 
MOR 
and chastity. They are, however, a very 
harmless and unoffending people. They ap- 
pear to be Arminians in opposition to Calvi- 
nism, and they reject the use of the term 
Trinity, and some other popular and unscrip- 
tural terms and phrases. In zeal, tempered 
with modesty, and in silent perseverance 
in attempting to convert the heatlien world 
to Christianity, the Moravians are une- 
qualled. While some other bodies of Chris- 
tians -are filling the world with pompous 
details of their missionary labour’s, and are 
every day and hour sounding the trumpet 
of their own fame to all the world, the 
Moravian missionaries are quietly and suc- 
cessfully pursuing their labour of love in 
almost every part of the known world. 
They have settlements in various parts, 
particularly in the following places : begun 
1732, in the Danish West India Islands ; 
in St. Thomas, New Herrnhut, Nisky ; in 
St. Croix, Friedensburg, Friedenstalj in 
St. Jan, Bethany, and Emmaus. In 1733, 
in Greenland, New Herrnhut, Lichtensels, 
and Lichtenau. In 1734, North America, 
Fairfield in Upper Canada, and Goshen 
on the river Muskingum. In 1736, at the 
Cape of Good Hope, Bavians Kloof, In 
1738, in South America, among the negro 
slaves at Paramaribo and Sommelsdyk ; 
among the free negroes at Bambey, on the 
Sarameca, and among the native Indians at 
Hope on the river Corentyn. In 1754, in 
Jamaica, two settlements in Elizabeth pa- 
rish. In 1756, in Antigua, at St. John’s, 
Grace hill, and Grace bay. In 1760, near 
Tranquebar in the East Indies, Brethren’s 
Garden. In 1764, on the Coast of Labra- 
dor, Nain, Okkak, and Hopedale. In 
1765, in Barbadoes, Sharrou near Bridge- 
town. In the same year, in the Russian 
part of Asia, Sarepta. In 1773, in St. 
Kitt’s, at Basseterre. In 1789, in Tobago, 
Signal Hill. By the latest accounts pub- 
lished, most of these settlements appear to 
be in a flourishing state. 
Whoever wishes to see a more detailed 
account of the'BIoravians, will do well to 
consult Crantz’s Ancient and Modern His- 
tory of the United Brethren, the same au- 
thor’s History of the Mission in Greenland, 
La Trobe’s edition of Spangenbiirgh’s Ex- 
position of Christian Doctrine, also Rimi- 
us’s Narrative of the Moravians, Bishop 
Lavington's Moravians compared and de- 
tected, and the Periodical Accounts of the 
Missions of the United Brethren. 
MORBID, among physicians, signifies 
diseased or corrupt, a term applied either 
