The subsequent years spent at Tranquebar were a mingled experience of blessing, progress and difficulties, and disappointment at the loss of some very promising converts. And the time for the departure of Ziegenbalg drew near. It is painful to hear that the sorrow which hastened his end was not the opposition of unbelievers but the persecution of a man who for a time was the presiding power on the Missionary Board at Copenhagen. With a narrow and uncharitable spirit he assailed Ziegenbalg and his co-workers, trying to force upon the already wearied workers theories and orders as foolish as unkind. Ziegenbalg answered this mandate with a dying hand, but the mischief was already wrought. He was not the first brave witness of Christ who has laid down his life in a storm. On Christmas Day, 1719, he preached to his flock for the last time, and after much patient suffering, interspersed with tender counsel, meditation and prayer, he asked to be seated in his armchair and that they would sing his favourite hymn—written by Louisa Henrietta, Electress of Brandenburg.
“Jesus Meine Zuversicht.”
Jesus my Redeemer lives,
Christ my trust is dead no more,
In the strength this knowledge gives,
Shall not all my fears be o’er,
Though the night of death be fraught
Still with many an anxious thought.
As the voices filled the chamber he caught the sound of other music beyond the river and passed heavenward. Old before his time, for he was scarcely thirty-six, Ziegenbalg had put into those years a consecrated labour which was evidenced by the four hundred converts and catechumens who followed their stricken shepherd to his rest. He was buried in the Jerusalem Church he had built, and the remains of his colleague, Gründler, are also within those walls. On the other side of the way is the old Danish Government Church of Zion, built in the early days of the mission. In the vestry is suspended a curious representation of the Last Supper carved in high relief and painted, the Latin inscription underneath being:—
“Tu vis esse meus per coenam, Christe, sacratam: