The controversy between the Lutherans and Calvinists, which had continued from the days of the Reformation, flared up again at this time as the result of efforts on the part of Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia to unite the two parties. Friedrich Wilhelm, who was a Calvinist, sought to compel the clergy to sign a document promising that they would abstain from any references in their sermons to doctrinal differences. Gerhardt was sick at the time, and, although he had always been moderate in his utterances, he felt that to sign such a document would be to compromise the faith. Summoning the other Lutheran clergymen of Berlin to his bedside, he urged them to stand firm and to refuse to surrender to the demands of the Elector. Soon after this the courageous pastor was deposed from office. He was also prohibited from holding private services in his own home. Though he felt the blow very keenly, he met it with true Christian fortitude. "This," he said, "is only a small Berlin affliction; but I am also willing and ready to seal with my blood the evangelical truth, and, like my namesake, St. Paul, to offer my neck to the sword." To add to his sorrows, Gerhardt's wife and a son died in the midst of these troubles. Three other children had died previous to this, and now the sorely tried pastor was left with a single child, a boy of six years. In May, 1669, he was called to the church at Luebden, where he labored faithfully and with great success until his death, on June 7, 1676. The glorious spirit that dwelt in him, and which neither trials nor persecutions could quench, is reflected in the lines of his famous hymn, "If God Himself be for me," based on the latter part of the eighth chapter of Romans: Though earth be rent asunder, Thou'rt mine eternally; Not fire, nor sword, nor thunder, Shall sever me from Thee; Not hunger, thirst, nor danger, Not pain nor poverty, Nor mighty princes' anger, Shall ever hinder me. Catherine Winkworth, who has translated the same hymn in a different meter under the title, "Since Jesus is my Friend," has probably succeeded best in giving expression to the triumphant faith and the note of transcendent hope and joy in the final stanza: My heart for gladness springs; It cannot more be sad; For very joy it smiles and sings-- Sees naught but sunshine glad. The Sun that lights mine eyes Is Christ, the Lord I love; I sing for joy of that which lies Stored up for me above. Because of his own warm, confiding, childlike faith in God, Gerhardt's hymns have become a source of special comfort to sorrowing and heavy-laden souls. They not only breathe a spirit of tender consolation but of a "joy unspeakable and full of glory." We have a beautiful example of this in his Advent hymn, "O how shall I receive Thee":