Zuinglius was hidden among the immense rocks which hem in the furious torrent of the Jamina, when he unexpectedly learned that the plague, or as it was termed "_the great death_,"[733] was at Zurich. This dreadful scourge broke out in August, on St. Lawrence day, lasted till Candlemas, and carried off two thousand five hundred persons. The young people who lodged with Zuinglius had immediately left, conformably to directions which he had given. His house was empty, but it was to him the very moment to return. He hurriedly quitted Pfeffers, and reappearing in the bosom of his flock, now decimated by the plague, he immediately sent to Wildhaus for his young brother Andrew, who wished to attend him. From that moment he devoted himself entirely to the victims of this dreadful scourge. Every day he preached Christ and his consolations to the sick.[734] His friends delighted to see him safe and sound in the midst of so many fatal darts,[735] still felt a secret alarm. Conrad Brunner, who himself died of the plague a few months after, writing him from Bâle said; "Do good, but at the same time remember to take care of your life." It was too late: Zuinglius was seized with the plague. The great preacher of Switzerland was stretched on a bed from which, perhaps, he was never again to rise. He communed with himself, and turned his eye heavenward. He knew that Christ had given him a sure inheritance, and disclosing the feelings of his heart in a hymn remarkable for unction and simplicity, of which, not being able to give the antique and expressive phraseology, we have endeavoured to preserve the rhythm and literal meaning, he exclaimed:-- My door has opened ... Death appears.[736] My God! my strength! Dispel all fears! Oh, Jesus! raise Thy pierced arm, And break the sword That caused alarm. But if my soul In life's mid-day Thy voice recalls,[737] Then I obey. Ah! let me die, For I am thine; Thy mansions wait Such faith as mine. [733] Der Grosse Tod. (Bullinger, MS.) [734] Ut in majori periculo sis, quod in dies te novo exponas, dum invisis ægrotos. (Ibid., MS. 87.) Chateaubriand had forgotten this fact, and thousands similar to it, when he said, "the protestant pastor abandons the poor man on his death-bed, and rushes not into the midst of the plague." (Essai sur la Literature Anglaise.) [735] Plurimum gaudeo te inter tot jactus telorum versantem, illæsum, hactenus evassisse. (Ibid.) [736] Ich mein der Tod, Syg an der Thür. (Zw. Op. ii, 2nd part, p. 270.) [737] Willit du dann glych Tod haben mich In mitts der Tagen min So soll's willig sin. (Ibid.) [Sidenote: ZUINGLIUS ATTACKED BY THE PLAGUE.]