He thought it worth his while to give attention to a few, widely scattered brethren of the faith. He gathered the fragments that nothing be lost. It is the old story of faithfulness in little things. Father Boehm had a high regard for sacred things. Witness the reluctance with which he, unordained, assumed ministerial functions.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Nothing but the direst necessities and the most urgent entreaties of his destitute countrymen could induce the school-master, John Philip Boehm, to assume the functions of the sacred office. When the opportunity for ordination came, though it was coupled with the strictest conditions, he willing submitted to the laying on of hands, solemnly pledging himself to be guided in all his ministrations by the symbols and ordinances of the church. Father Boehm believed in law and order. This appears from the foregoing, but no less also from his correspondence with Zinzendorf and Antes, and from the constitution which he prepared for the government of the congregation over which he presided, which constitution appears elsewhere in this work. This also was a potent factor in giving permanency to the interests, in behalf of which he labored, and to which he devoted his life.