it was through the person of count Zinzendorf that God chose to give new life and a rebirth of sorts to the Brethren, originally of moravia and bohemia.
count Zinzendorf was born at 6 in the evening, may 26th, 1700 in dresden..zinzendorf street reminds us still of the noble family that has now died out. (written early 1900s) he was only 6 weeks old when his father burst a blood vessel and died; he was only 4 when his mother married again; and the young count..nicholas lewis, count of zinzendorf and pottendorf - was handed over to the tender care of his grandmother..who lived at gross-hennersdorf castle. and now, even in childhood's days, little lutz, as his grandmother loved to call him, began to show signs of his coming greatness. as his father lay on his dying bed, he had taken the child in his feeble arms, and consecrated him to the service of Christ; and now in his grandmother's noble home he sat at the feet of the learned, the pious, and the refined. never was a child less petted and pampered; never was a child more strictly trained; never was a child made more familiar with the person and teaching Jesus Christ.
dr. spener, the famous pietist leader, watched his growth with fatherly interest. the old lady was a leader in pietist circles, was a writer of beautiful religious poetry and guarded him as the apple of her eye. he read the bible every day. he doted on luther's catechism. he had the gospel story at his finger ends. his aunt henrietta, who was rather an oddity, prayed with him morning and night. his tutor, edeling, was an earnest young pietist from franke's school at halle; and the story of zinzendorf's early days reads like a medeaeval tale.
'already in my fourth year i began to seek God earnestly and determined to become a true servant of Jesus Christ'. at the age of 6 he regarded Christ as his brother, would talk with Him for hours together as with a familiar friend and was often found rapt in thought, like socrates in the market place at athens. as other children love and trust their parents, so this bright lad with the golden hair loved and trusted Christ. 'a thousand times i heard Him speak in my heart and saw Him with the eye of faith'. already the keynote of his life was struck; already the fire of zeal burned in his bosom. 'of all the qualities of Christ, the greatest is His nobility; and of all the noble ideas in the world, the noblest is the idea that the Creator should die for His children. if the Lord were forsaken by all the world, i still would cling to Him and love Him'. he held prayer meetings in his private room. he was sure that Christ Himself was present there.
he held prayer meetings in his private room. he was sure that Christ Himself was present there. he preached sermons to companies of friends. if hearers failed, he arranged the chairs as an audience; and still is shown the little window from which he threw letters addressed to Christ, not doubting that Christ would receive them. as the child was engaged one day in prayer, the rude soldiers of charles XIL burst into his room. forthwith the lad began to speak of Christ; and away the soldiers fled in awe and terror. at the ageof 8 he lay awake at night tormented with atheistic doubts. but the doubts did not last long. how ever much he doubted with the head whenever doubted with the heart; and the charm that drove the doubts away was the figure of the living Christ.
and here we touch the springs of the boy's religion. it is easy to call all this a hot house process; it is easy to dub the child a precocious prig. but at bottom his religion was healthy and sound. it was not morbid; it was joyful. it was not based on dreamy imagination; it was based on the historiic person of Christ. it was not the result of mystic exaltation; it was the result of a study of the gospels. it was not, above all, self centered; it led him to seek for fellowship with others. as the boy devoured the gospel story, he was impressed first by the drama of the crucifixion; and often pondered on the words of gerhardt's hymn:
O head so full of bruises
so full of pain and scorn
midst other sore abuses
mocked with a crown of thorns
his tutor, edeling..'spoke to me of Jesus and His wounds'.
but the boy did not linger in holy week for ever. he began by laying stress on the suffering Christ; he went on to lay stress on the whole life of Christ; and on that life, from the cradle to the grave, his own strong faith was based. 'i was as certain that the Son of God was my Lord as of the existence of my 5 fingers'. to him the existence of Jesus was a proof of the existence of God; and he felt all his limbs ablaze, to use his own expression, with the desire to preach the eternal Godhead of Christ. 'if it were possible that there should be another God than Christ i would rather be damned with Christ than happy with another. i have but one passion - tis He, tis only He'.
SCHOOL AT HALLE..at 10 he was taken by his mother to professor franke's school at halle; and by mistake he overheard a conversation between her and the pious professor. she described him as a lad of parts, but full of pride and in need of the curbing rein. he was soon to find how much these words implied. if a boy has been trained by gentle ladies he is hardly well equipped, as a rule, to stand the rough horseplay of a boarding school; and if, in addition, he boasts blue blood, he is sure to come in for blows. and the count was a delicate aristocrat, with weak legs and a cough. he was proud of his noble birth; he was rather officious in his manner; he had his meals at franke's private table; he had private lodgings a few minutes' walk from school; he had plenty of $ in his purse; and, therefore, on the whole, he was as well detested as the son of a lord can be. 'with a few exceptions my schoolfellows hated me throughout.
but this was not the bitterest part of the pill. if there was any wholesome feeling missing in his heart hitherto, it was what theologians call the sense of sin. he had no sense of sin whatever, and no sense of any need of pardon. his masters soon proceeded to humble his pride. he was introduced as a smut little pharisee and they treated him as a viper. of all systems of school discipline, the most revolting is the system of employing spies; and that was the system used by the staff at halle. they placed the young count under boyish police supervision, encouraged the lads to tell tales about him, rebuked him for his misconduct in the measles, lectured him before the whole school on his rank and disgusting offenses, and treated him as half a rogue and half an idiot. if he pleaded not guilty, they called him a liar, and gave him an extra thrashing. the thrashing was a public school entertainment, and was advertised on the school notice board. 'next week the count is to have the stick'.
for 2 years he lived in a moral purgatory. the masters gave him the fire of their wrath, and the boys the cold shoulder of contempt. the masters called him a malicious rebel, and the boys called him a snob. as the little fellow set off for morning school, with his pile of books upon his arm, the others waylaid him, jostled him to and fro, knocked him into the gutter, scattered his books on the street and then officiously reported him late for school. he was clever and, therefore, the masters called him idle; and when he did not know his lesson they made him stand in the street, with a pair of ass's ears on his head and a placard on his back proclaiming to the public that the culprit was a 'lazy donkey'.
his private tutor..was a bully, who had made his way into franke's school by varnishing himself with a shiny coating of piety. if the count's relations came to see him, he made him beg for $ and then took the $ himself. if his grandmother sent him a ducat, the tutor pocketed a florin. if he wrote a letter home, the tutor read it. if he drank a cup of coffee, the tutor would say, 'you have me to think for that, let me hear you sing a song of thanksgiving'. if he tried to pour out his soul in prayer, he mocked him, interrupted him, and introduced disgusting topics of conversation. he even made the lad appear a sneak. 'my tutor often persuaded me to write letters to my guardian complaining of my hard treatment, and then showed the letters to the inspector.
in vain little lutz laid his case before his mother. his tutor thrashed him to such good purpose that he never dared to complain again; and his mother still held that he needed drastic medicine. to franke she wrote, 'i beseech you , be severe with the lad; if talking will not cure him of lying, then let him feel it'.
at last the muddy lane broadened into a highway. one day his tutor pestered franke with one of his whining complaints. the headmaster snapped him short.'i am sick of your growlings; you must manage the matter yourself'.
as the months rolled on, the count breathed purer air. he became more manly and bold. he astonished the masters by his progress. he was learning greek, could speak in french and dash off letters in latin. he was confirmed, attended the communion, and wrote a beautiful hymn recording his feelings...
....he had always maintained his private habit of personal communion with
Christ; and now he wished to share his religion with others. the time was ripe. the moral state of franke's school was low; the boys were given to vicious habits and tried to corrupt his soul; and the count, who was a healthy minded boy, and shrank with disgust from fleshly sins. retorted by forming a number of religious clubs for mutual encouragement and help. 'i established little societies in which we spoke of the grace of Christ and encouraged each other in diligence and good works'. he became a healthy moral force in the school. he rescued his friend..from the hands of 50 seducers; he persuaded 3 others to join in the work of rescue; and 5 lads established a club which became a 'church within the church' for boys. they called themselves 'the slaves of virtue', next the 'confessors of Christ', and finally the 'honorable order of the mustard seed'; and they took a pledge to be true to Christ, to be upright and moral and to do good to their fellow men. of all the school clubs..the last was the most famous and the most enduring. as the boys grew up to man's estate they invited others to join their ranks; the doctrinal basis was broad...for an emblem they had a small shield, with an 'ecce homo', and the motto 'His wounds our healing'; and each member of the order wore a gold ring, inscribed with the words, 'no man liveth unto himself'. the grand master of the order was Z..he wore a golden cross; the cross had an oval green front; and on that front was painted a mustard tree, with the words beneath, 'quod fuit ante nihil' ie. what was formerly nothing.
but already the boy had wider conceptions still. as he sat at franke's dinner table, he listened one day to the conversation of the danixh missionary, ziegenbalg..and he even saw some dusky converts whom the missionary had brought from malabar. his missionary zeal was aroused. as his guardian had already settled that Z should enter the service of the state, he had, of course, no idea of becoming a missionary himself; but, as that was out of the question, he formed a solemn league and covenant with his ..friend watteville that when God would show them suitable men they would send them out to heathen tribes for whom no one else seemed to care...the count later saw these early clubs and covenants as the germs of his later work; and when he left for the university the delighted professor franke said, 'this youth will some day become a great light in the world'.
UNIVERSITY OF WITTENBERG..as the count..in his uncles opinion was growing rather too pietistic, he was now sent to the university at wittenberg, to study the science of jurisprudence and prepare for high service in the state. his father had been a secretary of state and the son was to follow in his footsteps. his uncle had a contempt for pietist religion; and sent the lad.. 'to drive the nonsense out of him'. he had certainly chosen the right place. for 200 years the great university had been regarded as the stronghold of the orthodox lutheran faith; the bi-centenary luther jubilee was fast approaching; the theological professors were models of orthodox belief; and the count was enjoined to be regular at church and to listen with due attention and reverence to the sermons of those infallible divines.
it was like sending a boy to oxford to cure him of a taste for dissent. his tutor..went with him, to guard his morals, read his letters, and rob him of $ at cards. he had also to master the useful arts of riding, fencing, and dancing. the cards gave him twinges of conscience. if he took a hand, he laid down the condition that any $ he might win should be given to the poor. he prayed for skill in his dancing lessons, because he wanted to have more time for more serious studies. he was more devout in his daily life than ever, prayed to Christ with the foil in his hand, studied the bible in hebrew and greek, spent whole nights in prayer, fasted the livelong day on sundays, and was, in a word, so methodistic in his habits that he could truly describe himself as a 'rigid pietist'. he interfered in many a duel and rebuked his fellow students for drinking hard; and for this he was not beloved.
as he had come to wittenberg to study law, he was not, of course, allowed to attend the regular theological lectures; but, all the same, he spent his leisure in studying the works of luther and spener, and cultivated the personal friendship of many of the theological professors. and here he made a most delightful discovery. as he came to know these professors better, he found that a man could be orthodox without being narrow minded; and they, for their part, also found that a man could be a rigid pietist without being a sectarian prig. it was time, he thought, to put an end to the quarrel. he would make peace between wittenberg and halle. he would reconcile the lutherans and pietists. he consulted with leading professors on both sides; he convinced them of the need for peace; and the rival teachers actually agreed to accept this student..as the agent of the longed for truce. but here count Z's mother intervened. 'you must not meddle in such weighty matters; they are above your understanding and your powers'. and Z, being a dutiful son,. obeyed. 'i think a visit to halle might have been of use, but, of course, i must obey the 4th commandment'.
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