century, they used in their devotional
exercises, particularly in their hymns, many expressions justly
censurable: but these have been corrected. They consider Lutherans and
Calvinists, to be their brethren in faith, as according with them in the
essential articles of religion; and therefore, when any of their members
reside at a distance from a congregation of the United Brethren, they
not only attend a Lutheran, or Calvinist church, but receive the
Sacrament, from its ministers, without scruple. In this, they profess to
act in conformity to the Convention at Sendomer. The union, which
prevails both among the congregations, and the individuals which compose
them, their modest and humble carriage, their moderation in lucrative
pursuits, the simplicity of their manners, their laborious industry,
their frugal habits, their ardent but mild piety, and their regular
discharge of all their spiritual observances, are universally
acknowledged and admired. Their charities are boundless, their kindness
to their poor brethren is most edifying; there is not among them a
beggar. The care, which they bestow, on the education of their children,
in forming their minds, chastening their hearts, and curbing their
imaginations,--particularly in those years,

"When youth, elate and gay,
Steps into life and follows, unrestrained,
Where passion leads, or reason points the way." _Lowth._

are universally acknowledged, universally admired, and deserve universal
imitation.

But, it is principally, by the extent and success of their missionary
labours, that they now engage, the attention of the public. These began,
in 1732. In 1812, they had thirty-three settlements, in heathen nations.
One hundred and thirty-seven missionaries, were employed in them: they
had baptized, twenty-seven thousand, four hundred converts: and such had
been their care, in admitting them to that sacred rite, and such their
assiduity, in cultivating a spirit of religion, among them, that
scarcely an individual, had been known, to relapse into paganism. All
travellers, who have visited their settlements, speak with wonder, and
praise, of the humility, the patient endurance of privation, and
hardship, the affectionate zeal, the mild, and persevering exertions of
the missionaries; and the innocence, industry and piety of the
converts:--the European, the American, the African, and the Asiatic
traveller speaks of them, in the same terms: a