acher was invited to Dresden, but behold, nothing but a school
teacher!" He deemed it his duty to accept the invitation of Frederic of
Brandenburg to make Berlin his residence, where, in 1705, he ended his
days, after a life of remarkable usefulness but of unusual strife.

It would be a pleasure to linger a while in the beautiful scenes which
Spener's life affords us. Endowed with the most childlike nature, he
was nevertheless a lion in contest. And yet who will find any
bitterness in his words; where does he wax angry against his opponent?
He did not shun controversy, because his mission demanded it; but no man
loved peace more than Spener. His mind was always calm; and it was his
lifelong aim to "do no sin." His enemies,--among whom we must not forget
that he had a Schelwig, a Carpzov, an Alberti, and a whole Wittenberg
Faculty,--never denied his amiable disposition; and it was one of his
expressions in late life that "all the attacks of his enemies had never
afflicted him with but one sleepless night." It was his personal
character that went almost as far as his various writings to infuse
practical piety into the church. He was respected by the great and good
throughout the land. Crowned heads from distant parts of the Continent
wrote to him, asking his advice on ecclesiastical questions. He was one
of those men who, like Luther, Wesley, and others, was not blind to the
great service of an extensive correspondence. He answered six hundred
and twenty-two letters during one year, and at the end of that time
there lay three hundred unanswered upon his table. His activity in
composition knew no bounds. For many years of his life he was a member
of the Consistory, and was engaged in its sessions from eight o'clock in
the morning until seven in the evening. But still he found time,
according to Canstein, to publish seven folio volumes, sixty-three
quartos, seven octavos, and forty-six duodecimos; besides very many
introductions and prefaces to the works of friends and admirers, and
republications of practical books suited to the times and the cause he
was serving. After his death his enemies did all in their power to cast
reproach upon his name. They even maligned his moral character, which
had hitherto stood above reproach. It was a grave question at the
hostile universities whether the term _Beatus Spener_ could be used of
him. Professor Teck, of Rostock, published a work _On the Happiness of
those who die in the Lord_, i