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 and a prayer hall, where religious services are daily held. There is nothing monastic in the regulations by which these establishments are governed. The inmates remain in them entirely at their own option, and are almost invariably such as have no other home. A community of goods never existed at any time in a Moravian church or Moravian institution. During the Indian wars the system of "common housekeeping," as it was called, was introduced; but each person retained his own private property, and when the wars were over and the settlements secure, the system was given up. It continued only for about 20 years.—The Moravians are an evangelical church, in the fullest sense of the term, as it is commonly used in the United States. They have no confession of faith, as such; but the doctrines which they uphold are embodied in a catechism and a special litany, called the Easter morning litany, and used on Easter Sunday. Catholicity eminently marks the church, in a doctrinal point of view. Its motto may be said to be that of Augustine: "In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity." The distinguishing feature of Moravian theology is the prominence given to the person and atonement of Christ. He is regarded as the centre of Christian doctrine, "in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen, and in whom we have the grace of the Son, the love of the Father, and the communion of the Holy Ghost." The Moravian ministry embraces bishops, presbyters, and deacons. Bishops only have the right to ordain. They are usually appointed by lot, in imitation of the mode of appointing the apostle Matthias. The Moravian episcopacy is not diocesan; the bishops are bishops of the whole Unitas Fratrum, have an official seat in the general synod, and can be appointed only by this body, or by its executive board. They do not govern the church in virtue of their office, but only when elected to the governing boards. However, they are almost invariably members of these boards by election. In other respects, their duties relate to the spiritual concerns of the church. The Moravian episcopal succession from 1467 to 1874 embraces 174 bishops. There are 17 bishops in office at present. Of these, 6 reside in Germany, 4 in England, 6 in the United States, and 1 in the West Indies. The ritual of the church is similar to that of the Protestant Episcopal. A litany is used, in several languages, in all the different parts of the Unity; and there are regular forms for infant and adult baptism, the sacrament of the Lord's supper, the rites of confirmation and ordination, burial, and marriage. Love feasts, in imitation of the apostolical agapæ, are celebrated; and liturgical services, particularly on occasion of church festivals, are held in many churches. The Moravians are distinguished for their church music.—The present numerical strength of the home church is as follows (1875): in the American province there are 75 churches, 8,315 communicants, and 14,737 souls; in the continental, 28 churches, 5,872 communicants, and 7,345 souls; in the British province, 40 churches, 3,249 communicants, and 5,548 souls. The whole number of communicants in the three provinces is 17,436, and of souls 27,630. Although the church is so small, it is engaged in very extensive operations. There are 5 church boarding schools in the American province (at Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Litiz, Pa., Hope, Ind., and Salem, N. C.), at which more than 600 pupils are annually educated; 15 in the British province, educating about 400 pupils every year; and 25 in the continental province, with about 1,000 pupils. Nearly all the scholars come from beyond the pale of the church. At Bethlehem, Pa., there is a college, and in connection with it a theological seminary. Similar institutions belong to the continental province. The next enterprise is that of domestic missions. These, in the United States, were commenced very recently among the German immigrants. On the continent of Europe the enterprise is extensive, and peculiarly interesting. It is called the work of the Diaspora, from the original Greek of 1 Peter i. 1, and has for its object the evangelization of the state churches, without proselyting their members. Hence societies within these churches are formed and regulated by the missionaries, who hold meetings for prayer and exhortation, and visit from house to house, but never administer the sacraments. There are 120 missionaries, male and female, engaged in this enterprise. It extends over Saxony, Prussia, and other German countries, Switzerland, parts of France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the Russian empire. In the Russian provinces of Livonia and Esthonia the cause prospers very much, there being more than 250 chapels, and more than 60,000 members. The whole number of Diaspora members, as they are called, on the continent, is about 80,000. But the great work which chiefly engages the energies of the church, and in which all the provinces unite, is that of foreign missions. It was commenced in 1732, when Herrnhut constituted the only Moravian church, numbering about 600 souls. Since then about 2,300 missionaries, male and female, not counting the native assistants, have labored in this field. Unsuccessful missions were commenced in Lapland, among the Samoyeds, in Algeria, Ceylon, China, Persia, the East Indies, the Caucasus, Guiana, Guinea, among the Calmucks, in Abyssinia, and in Tranquebar. At present the church has missions in Greenland, Labrador, North America (among the Indians), on the Mosquito coast, in the islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John, Jamaica, Antigua, St. Christopher, Barbadoes, and Tobago, in Surinam, S. Africa, Thibet, and Australia. There are 333 missionaries in the field, not counting the native assistants; 92 regular stations, not counting the out stations; and 69,322 converts under