The Widow Speaks the Meaning of God's Acre

Photo Credit: Lobster Pot Photography

The widow speaks having buried her husband, Dr. Hans Martin Kalberlahn, in God's Acre, in 1759, at Bethabara, NC.

"So that is what God's Acre meant! Not a place of burial, not even a measure of land consecrated to God, but a field in

which the bodies of believers were laid awaiting the glories of the resurrection!  I knew that of course, but I had never realized what it could mean to one whose best beloved lay there. How sweet it was to think of my Martin, one of the pioneers in this hundred thousand-acre field that we call Wachovia, now one of the first fruits standing in that glorious presence, his labors accepted, his soul ripe for the harvest. Humbly I accept the comfort which the Savior gave me, and the last lines of Brother Reuter's poem became my prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, Thou art so true,

Thou are so merciful to all,

I pray for grace Thy will to do,

To trust Thy love whatever befall."

The Road to Salem, by Adelaide L. Fries, Page 82, John F. Blair, Publisher. 

"Sanding in the light of the tallow dip" - A Moravian Quote

History, to be really true, needs to take account of many things. My field has been limited, but I have lived with the

men of Wachovia in its Colonial and Revolutionary days (I sometimes really do feel as though I knew them personally!), and I have come to see that the first thing is not to judge men or actions by the standard of today, but to mentally stand in their shoes and see things as they saw them, not to call this or that right or wrong according to our judgment, but according to the light and the standard that they had when they had to face the circumstances of their lives.

So many would-be historians fail in this respect. They judge by their own standards, not by the light of the tallow dip! Or they draw their conclusions first and then start out to find history to prove them right.

— Adelaide Lisetta Fries
Archivist of the Moravian Church, 1911-49