Page:Our Hymns.djvu/130

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110 otm HYMNS:

fourteen years of banishment the count was recalled to Saxony, by the king, in 1748. Between that year and 1755, he spent much time in London, where the affairs of the brethren needed his presence ; and in 1756 the sermons he had preached there from 1751 to 1755 were collected and printed in two Volumes, forming a kind of sequel to his " Discourses in Berlin."

Soon after the count had left London, the countess died, on the 19th of June, 1756. In June of the following year he married Anne Nitschmann, who for thirty years held the office of elder among the Sisters. Zinzendorf s last years were devoted without any reservation to the spiritual good of Herrnhut, and he came into intimate association with every member of the commu nity. His last writing was a collection of " Texts" for the year following. Two days before his death he composed an ode of thirty- six stanzas in commemoration of a special service held among the unmarried sisters, and in the evening he attended an agape. He was very full of joy in the love that prevailed amongst the brethren, and at the success beyond expectation which had attended their labours in the world. Among his last words were, " I am going to the Saviour. If He does not wish to employ me any longer here below, I am quite ready to go to Him, for I have nothing else to keep me here." He died on the 9th of May, 1760.

Zinzendorf had to bear with the mis -interpretation of friends as well as the opposition of enemies. One of the worthiest of men, he was yet continually spoken against. Even the Wesleys, after intimate association with him, and after receiving lasting spiritual benefits from Moravian teachers, parted company with the count because of their divergence of doctrine. And White- field, though differing in doctrine from the Wesleys, was found arrayed against Zinzendorf. To the men of sects, Zinzendorf, owing to his charity to men of all religions, and his readiness for truth from every quarter, seemed to be a latitudinarian. To men of expediency, his simplicity of life and his freedom from worldli-

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