been the habit of the "inspired instruments" to travel from one to the
other, deliver messages from on high, and inquire into the spiritual
condition of the faithful. Under the leadership of Christian Metz and
several others, between 1825 and 1839 a considerable number of their
followers were brought together at a place called Armenburg, where
manufactures gave them employment, and here they prospered, but fell
into trouble with the government because they refused to take oaths
and to send their children to the public schools, which were under
the rule of the clergy.

In 1842 it was revealed to Christian Metz that all the congregations
should be gathered together, and be led far away out of their own country.
Later, America was pointed out as their future home. To a meeting of the
elders it was revealed who should go to seek out a place for settlement;
and Metz relates in his brief history that one Peter Mook wanted to be
among these pioneers, and was dissatisfied because he was not among those
named; and as Mook insisted on going, a message came the next day from
God, in which he told them they might go or stay as they pleased, but
if they remained in Germany it would be "at their own risk;" and as Mook
was not even named in this message, he concluded to remain at home.

Metz and four others sailed in September, 1842, for New York. They found
their way to Buffalo; and there, on the advice of the late Mr. Dorsheimer,
from whom they received much kindness, bought five thousand acres of the
old Seneca Indian reservation at ten dollars per acre. To this they added
later nearly as much more. Parts of this estate now lie within the
corporate limits of Buffalo; and though they sold out and removed to the
West before the land attained its present value, the purchase was a most
fortunate one for them. Metz records that they had much trouble at first
with the Indians; but they overcame this and other difficulties, and by