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Count Zinzendorf
Nikolaus Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf (1700–1760). Born on May 26, 1700, in Dresden, Saxony, to an aristocratic Austrian family, Nikolaus Zinzendorf was a German Pietist, bishop, and founder of the renewed Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum). His father died weeks after his birth, leaving him to be raised by his Pietist grandmother, Henriette von Gersdorf, whose influence, along with godfather Philipp Spener’s, shaped his early faith. Educated at Francke’s Paedagogium in Halle (1710–1716) and law at Wittenberg (1716–1719), he served briefly as a Dresden councilor before buying the Berthelsdorf estate in 1722, where he welcomed Moravian refugees, founding Herrnhut (“Lord’s Watch”). His preaching emphasized a “religion of the heart,” focusing on personal devotion to Christ over doctrine, and sparked the 1727 Moravian revival, marked by a 100-year prayer chain. Ordained a Lutheran pastor in 1734 and Moravian bishop in 1737, Zinzendorf faced exile from Saxony (1736–1748) for his nonconformity, traveling to London, the West Indies, and America, where he met Native American leaders and Benjamin Franklin, planting missions from Greenland to South Africa. He authored over 2,000 hymns, including “Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness,” and works like The Socrates of Dresden (1725), though some criticized his emotionalism during the 1740s “Sifting Time.” Married to Erdmuth Dorothea von Reuss in 1722, with 12 children (four surviving), and later Anna Nitschmann in 1757, he died on May 9, 1760, in Herrnhut, saying, “I only asked for first fruits among the heathen, and thousands have been granted me.”
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Count Zinzendorf preaches a sermon focusing on the roles of the Holy Spirit in the Church, emphasizing the divine origins of the Spirit from the Father and the crucial part played in the conception of Jesus. The sermon highlights the Holy Spirit as the Church's Mother, bringing clarity and understanding of Jesus' Word to believers and guiding them into the righteousness of God through the distribution of spiritual nourishment. Count Zinzendorf also acknowledges the Holy Spirit's role in sustaining and protecting the Church from temptations and the attacks of the enemy, ultimately praying for the Spirit's continued presence and guidance among believers.
The Church’s Prayer to the Holy Ghost (1759)
1. Thou, who from the Father hast ‘Fore all Time proceeded, Spirit, by whom the Virgin Blest The Son here conceived! 2. Since the Lamb of God, so red, Is his People’s Brother, And Christ’s God their Father’s made, Thou’rt the Church’s Mother. 3. Of thy Name, O God, and Breath Grant us still the Nearness! That the Word of Jesu’s Shine to Souls with Clearness. 4. Whom from Death-Sleep of the Fall Our dear Lord doth quicken, Fetch into thy Church-Ark all; Help their Abba speaking. 5. As in greatest Things thy Will Meets with Execution: So in small shall it fulfil His Church-Constitution. 6. Of the Righteousness of God Thro’ the Blood-Effusion, Of that daily Bread and Food Thou mak’st Distribution. 7. MOTHER! all the Church’s Life Is the Father’s Kindness, Our Lord’s Patience with his Wife, And thy rich Forgiveness. 8. We would fain not tempted be, With none thus distressed; Yet if one’s chastis’d by Thee, It to him be blessed. 9. And till once the wicked Fiend Is at God’s Feet lying, (Ps. cx.1. Heb. ii.8.) Sleeps within thy Cradle screen’d The Church from his Trying. 10. Amen, Ruach Elohim! Come in th’ Name of Jesus, Thy Children’s whole Sanhedrim Rule with Instinct gracious.
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Nikolaus Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf (1700–1760). Born on May 26, 1700, in Dresden, Saxony, to an aristocratic Austrian family, Nikolaus Zinzendorf was a German Pietist, bishop, and founder of the renewed Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum). His father died weeks after his birth, leaving him to be raised by his Pietist grandmother, Henriette von Gersdorf, whose influence, along with godfather Philipp Spener’s, shaped his early faith. Educated at Francke’s Paedagogium in Halle (1710–1716) and law at Wittenberg (1716–1719), he served briefly as a Dresden councilor before buying the Berthelsdorf estate in 1722, where he welcomed Moravian refugees, founding Herrnhut (“Lord’s Watch”). His preaching emphasized a “religion of the heart,” focusing on personal devotion to Christ over doctrine, and sparked the 1727 Moravian revival, marked by a 100-year prayer chain. Ordained a Lutheran pastor in 1734 and Moravian bishop in 1737, Zinzendorf faced exile from Saxony (1736–1748) for his nonconformity, traveling to London, the West Indies, and America, where he met Native American leaders and Benjamin Franklin, planting missions from Greenland to South Africa. He authored over 2,000 hymns, including “Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness,” and works like The Socrates of Dresden (1725), though some criticized his emotionalism during the 1740s “Sifting Time.” Married to Erdmuth Dorothea von Reuss in 1722, with 12 children (four surviving), and later Anna Nitschmann in 1757, he died on May 9, 1760, in Herrnhut, saying, “I only asked for first fruits among the heathen, and thousands have been granted me.”