Loskiel, George Henry

Loskiel, George Henry a bishop of the Moravian Church, celebrated as a preacher, hymnologist, and author, was born November 7, 1740, at Angermunde, in Courland, where his father had charge of a Lutheran parish. In early life he joined the Moravians, and studied both theology and medicine at their college at Barby, in Germany. After practicing medicine for a time, he devoted himself wholly to the ministry, in Holland, Germany, and Livonia. In 1802 he was consecrated a bishop, and came to the United States in order to fill the office of president of the provincial board which governs the Moravian churches in this country. Failing health and other circumstances constrained him to retire from this position in 1810. Two years later he was elected into the general board of the Church at Berthelsdorf, in Saxony; but the war with Great Britain and the state of his health prevented him from leaving America. He died February 23, 1814, at Bethlehem, Pa. His two principal works are Geschichte d. Mission der Evang. Brüder unter den indianerm in N.A. (1789), translated into English by La Trobe, and published in London (1794), a standard on the Moravian missions among the Indians, with a full account of their manners and customs, based upon the reports of the missionaries, and Etwas fürs Herz auf dem Wege zure Ewigkeit (Religious Meditations for every Day in the Year), a book which passed through eight editions (the last in 1848), and is still read with great profit by thousands of Christians in Germany. See De Schweinitz, Life and Times of David Zeisberer (Phila. 1871, 8vo), pages 662 sq. (E. de S.)