THEIK AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. Ill
ness seemed strange and unreasonable, though he was not without skill in ruling men by reason and love, and in negotiating with kings and governments when it was necessary. And to men of weak faith and superficial spirituality, his familiarity with Christ and his professed knowledge of the working of Divine providence seemed to border on fanaticism ; and perhaps he was not altoge ther free from it. To his honour in all time it must be recorded that, having devoted his life to a great spiritual enterprise, he was singularly free from personal ostentation and self-assertion in its accomplishment.
Zinzendorf s prose works were very numerous. In addition to those mentioned, in 1725 he published a weekly review, called the "Dresden Socrates." It was continued in the following year, and reprinted in 1732 under the name of the " German Socrates." It was a satirical philosophical work, intended to correct abuses and lead men to Christianity. One of his prin cipal works was his Reflections Xaturelles," written in twelve parts, between the years 1746 and 1749. It explains his views and the reasons for his course of action. He also published, about the year 1740, " Conversations on various Keligious Truths," and a work entitled " Jeremiah, the Preacher of Righteousness," a stirring word to preachers. He also gave much time to a trans lation of the New Testament, the corrected edition of which appeared in 1744 ; and he published translations of other parts of the Scriptures. While in America, in 1743, he wrote, amongst other works, an "Introduction to Spiritual Direction," and a Latin letter, " To Free Thinkers;" and to defend the position of the church at Herrnhut against Bengel and others, he wrote his work on " The Present State of the Kingdom of the Cross of Christ;" on: 1 , in 1757, he published a harmony of the gospels, entitled " The History of the Days of the Son of man." Span- genberg, his biographer, gives a list of his published works, amounting to a hundred and eight.
Among his poetical works were in 1725, " A Paraphrase, in verse, of the Last Discourse of Jesus before His Crucifixion," and
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