Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/272

 260 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED

he found a friend in the chief pastor, a native of Thuringia. Still no employment was to be had. About the end of the month, however, the tutor in the family of a judge fell into disgrace, and fled from Kiel. The pastor s recommendation secured the place for Neumark, who expressed his gratitude to God in this hymn, which soon became popular all over Germany. He saved enough to go to Konigsberg, where he matriculated as a student of law in June, 1643. I* 1 ^46 he lost all he had by fire. In 1652 he was appointed court poet, librarian, and registrar at Weimar, and in 1656 was made secretary of the Fruit-bearing Society, a famous literary union. He became blind in 1681, and died that year in Weimar.

In the last year of his life Neumark speaks of this hymn, Which good fortune coming suddenly, and as if fallen from heaven, greatly rejoiced me, and on that very day I composed to the honour of my beloved Lord the here and there well- known hymn, &quot; Wer nur den lieben Gott lasst walten &quot; ; and had certainly cause enough to thank the divine compassion for such unlooked-for grace shown to me. A baker s boy in New Brandenburg used to sing it over his work, and soon the whole town and neighbourhood flocked to him to learn this beautiful new song. The hymn was sung, by his own request, at the funeral of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia in 1740. J. S. Bach composed a cantata based on Neumark s own tune. Mendelssohn used it in his St. Paul : To Thee, O Lord, I yield my spirit.

��Hymn 407. My Saviour, mid life s varied scene.

ELIZABETH AYTON GODWIN.

Mrs. Godwin was the daughter of Mr. W. E. Etheridge ; born at Thorpe Hamlet, 1817 ; died at Stoke Bishop, 1889. This hymn was written whilst she was a girl, and printed in the Evangelical Magazine, then in her Songs for the Weary, 1865. Mrs. Godwin also wrote Songs amidst Daily Life.

Hymn 408. I seek the kingdom first.

CHARLES WESLEY (i).

Hymns on the Four Gospels, from Short Hymns on Select Passages of Scripture, 1762 ; Works, x. 190. Matt. vi. 33.

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