Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/155

 THE STORY OF THE HYMNS AND THEIR WRITERS 143

with equal effect, the dying love of our Saviour, and our bound less indebtedness to Him. Paulus Gerhardt (1607-76), a Lutheran pastor, ranks next to Luther as the most gifted and popular hymn-writer of his own Church. Gerhardt had many sorrows. He did not obtain a pastorate till he was forty- four ; four of his five children died in early youth ; his wife died after a long illness during the time he was without office in Berlin. Yet his hymns have no morbid touch, but are fresh and healthy in tone. From the first they became popular with all ranks and creeds, and are among the most cherished treasures of Germany to-day.

Dr. Alexander, the translator of Gerhardt s hymn, was born in Virginia, March 13, 1804, and was professor at Princeton, and Presbyterian minister in New York. He died at Sweet Springs, Virginia, July 31, 1859. He translated also the Stabat Mater and Jesu dulcis manoria.

When Christian Friedrich Schwartz was dying at Tanjore, in 1798, after nearly fifty years apostolic labour for jlndia, where Hyder Ali trusted and honoured him, his Malabar pupils gathered round and sang in their own language the last verse of this hymn. The missionary frequently joined in it. Then he rested a little, asked to be raised up, and passed to his rest.

The Passion Chorale, to [which the hymn is set, was published at Ntirnberg in 1601, and first associated with this hymn in 1656. John Sebastian Bach greatly admired it, and used it several times in his .57. Matthew Passion Music.

Hymn 101. When I survey the wondrous cross. ISAAC WATTS, D.D. (3).

Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707. It is No. 7 in Hook III., Pre pared for the Holy Ordinance of the Lord s Supper, and is headed Crucifixion to the world by the cross of Christ, Gal. vi. 14.

Ver. 4 is omitted

His dying crimson, like a robe,

Spreads o er His body on the tree ;

Then am I dead to all the globe, And all the globe is dead to me.

In the first edition, 1707, the hymn begins

When I survey the wondrous cross

Where the young Prince of Glory dy d.

�� �