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will go through the Ispravnik's hands, during which the surrounding country and that he will follow no occupation presents the appearance of a noiseless, except shoemaking, carpentering, or lifeless, frozen marsh-no roads, no field-labor. He is then told he is free! communication with the other world, no -but at the same time is solemnly warned that should he attempt to pass the limits of the town he shall be shot down like a dog rather than be allowed to escape, and should he be taken alive shall be sent off to Eastern Siberia without further formality than that of the Ispravnik's order.

German Hymn Writers.

BY THE EDITOR.

Some of our readers have read and admired

Longfellow's beautiful translation of "Annie of Tharaw." How touching and true are the following lines:

means of escape. In course of time almost every individual exile is attacked by nervous convulsions, followed by prolonged apathy and prostration. They begin to quarrel, and even hate each other. Some of them contrive to forge false passports. and by a miracle, as it were, make their escape, but the The poor fellow takes up his little great majority of these victims of the bundle, and fully realizing that he has Third Section either go mad, commit now bidden farewell to the culture and suicide, or die of delirium tremens. material comfort of his past life, he Their history, when the time comes for walks out into the cheerless street A it to be studied and published, will disgroup of exiles all pale and emaciated, close a terrible tale of human suffering are there to greet him, take him to some and administerial evils and shortof their miserable lodgings, and fever- comings, not likely to find their equivaishly demand news from home. The lent in the contemporary history of new-comer gazes on them as one in a any other European State.-London dream; some are melancholy mad, Standard. others nervously irritable, and the remainder have evidently tried to find solace in drink. They live in communities of twos and threes, have food, a scanty provision of clothes, money, and books in common, and consider it their sacred duty to help each other in every emergency, without distinction of rank or age. The noble by birth get sixteen shillings a month from the Go-"How in the turmoil of life can love stand, vernment for their maintenance, and Where there is not one heart, and one mouth, commoners only ten, although many of them are married, and sent into exile with families. Daily a gendarme young visits their lodgings, inspects the premises when and how he pleases, and now and then makes some mysterious entry in his note-book. Should any of their number carry a warm dinner, a pair of newly mended boots, or a change of linen to some passing exile lodged for a moment in a police ward, it is just as likely as not marked against him as a crime. It is a crime to come and see a friend off, or accompany him on his way. In fact, should the Ispravnik feel out of sorts-the effect of cards or drink-he vents out his bad temper on the exiles; and as cards and drink are the favorite amusements in these dreary regions, crimes are marked down against the exiles in astonishing numbers, and a report of them sent regularly to the Governor of the Province.

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sex,

Winter lasts eight months, a period

and one hand?

Some seek for dissension, and trouble, and
strife;
Like a dog and a cat live such man and wife.

Annie of Tharaw, such is not our love.
Thou art my lambkin, my chick, and my dove.

Whate'er my desire is, in thine may be seen;
I am King of the household,-thou art its
queen.

It is this, O my Annie, my heart's sweetest rest,
That makes of us twain but one soul in one
breast.

This turns to a heaven the hut where we
dwell;
While wrangling soon changes a home to a hell.”

It

Simon Dach wrote this poem. was inspired by the daughter of a neighboring clergyman, whom the young poet was courting at the time. He was for years professor of poetry in the University of Konigsberg, Prussia. Dach,

too, had to pass through the terrorstricken period of war, pestilence and famine. He spent years amid scenes of slaughter and death. The many religious hymns which he wrote are tinged with the sad spirit of the times, but are full of faith and the deepest devotion. One of the first prayers of my childhood were a few verses of a German hymn. For, my now sainted mother, especially in her devotions, preferred the use of the German language. And thus it happened that my first evening prayer was;

"Ach bleib' bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ,

Weil es nun Abend worden ist."

"Lord Jesus Christ, with us abide,
For round us falls the evening tide;
Nor let Thy Word, our glorious light,
For us be ever quenched in night.

In these dark days that yet remain
May we Thy sacraments maintain,
And keep Thy word still true and pure,
And steadfast in the faith endure!"

The little prayer calls to mind the gentle patience with which the dear mother first helped me to memorize it. The spot where stood the old rush-bottomed chair on which she sat as I stood by her side learning this pious lesson. The little room with all its belongings. The bed in the corner. The solemn tender tones of her voice; the conscientiousness and sincerity with which it was prayed; the repeated worrying effor's made to keep awake till the amen had been said; all these sacred reminiscences are called to mind by these lines. How, after it was prayed, I felt absolutely sure that the kind and merciful Father would keep me from harm, that night and forever! How the lov ing "good night" of this guardian angel of my childhood was hallowed by this little prayer, I now well remember. For aught I then knew she herself wrote the prayer, never dreaming that Nicholas Selnecker had written it more than 200 years before. He was born in Nuremberg, the home of Hans Sachs and Albrecht Dürer. Like David of old, he was a boy with a beautiful face; so attractive indeed that Ferdinand, King of Rome, tried to kidnap and take him to Spain. Then he narrowly escaped death at the hands of a highway robber. He became a ripe scholar

whose services for a while were in great demand. From his cordial intercourse with Melanchthon he became charitable in his views, gave offence both to the ultra Lutherans and to the extreme Calvinists or Reformed. Seven times he was driven from Saxony and seven times entreated to return. He served in turn as pastor in Wildesheim, Court preacher at Dresden and Wolfenbüttel, and was professor at the Universities of Jena and Leipsich. He was a man of gentle spirit, yet firm and decided in his views. He suffered much for conscience' sake, which gave to some of his hymns the dreary spirit of his personal sadness. In 1592 he died at the age of 62 years. He had for his motto: God knows us." And for his daily prayer he had composed the following lines:

("Lass mich Dein sein und bleiben.")

"Let me be Thine forever,

Thou faithful God and Lord,
From Thee let naught me sever,

Preserve me in Thy word."

Selnecker belonged to the class of hymn writers who "learn in suffering what they teach in song." Quite a number of very good hymns in common use, found in all the best German Hymn books, were written by Christian Fürchtegott Gellert. Those of our readers who are familiar with the religious services of our German Churches will

gratefully recognize such hymns as :

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"Wie gross ist des All mächt'gen Güte !" "Diess ist der Tag den Gott gemacht!" Jesus lebt, mit ihm auch ich!" These and many others were written by him. Gellert was born July 4th, 1715. His father served more than fifty years as pastor in a mountain village of Saxony, where he was the shepherd of a population of humble miners. rickety parsonage had to be kept on its unstable foundation with 15 props. Thus like the people of Amsterdam, he was perched on tree tops. This gave the son a subject for his first poem. When but a youth he wrote this on his father's birthday, in which he compared the 15 props of the parsonage to the children and grand-children of the good man, of whom there happened to be just fifteen. When only fifteen years. of age he was, for certain reasons, called on to deliver an address at the burial

of a child, where he had the misfortune to check their youthful excesses and to to stick, whether from want of matter imbue their hearts with a spirit of piety. or memory I do not know. The shock Continuous ill-heath mingled his cup of this failure followed him through with gloom and sadness. At a time life. In due time he studied theology when Europe was prevailingly infidel at Leipsich. With timid fear and with and atheistic, Gellert was openly pious, almost a trembling heart, he preached for which he incurred ridicule. He his first sermon in the church of his would never write a letter nor answer a native village. His timidity, treacher- message on Sunday, no matter how ous memory and weak lungs diverted pressing the circumstances. He wrote him from the pulpit to a University 54 spiritual odes and hymns within a chair. The University of Leipsich period of eleven days. During the appointed him as professor of poetry writing of them he unceasingly prayed and eloquence at a salary of 100 Thalers. to God for help. Trusting solely in the He soon won many grateful admirers. merits of Jesus Christ, he died in 1769, His simple Fables and Comedies so in his fifty-fifth year. touched the heart of a plain farmer, The Moravian Church has from its that his gratitude prompted him to pile start been noted for its love and praca wagon load of wood before the poet's tice of music. Count Zinzendorf, its door, just at a time, too, when he most apostle, is said to have written more needed it. Perhaps Prince Henry of than two thousand hymns. But a small Prussia thought the professor's delicate proportion of these have passed into health could be improved by horseback general use. Among them are some of riding, for he presented him with a fine the best in the language. Indeed I gray horse. know of no better uninspired hymn, With moved heart a Prussian officer breathing more of a devotional and said to him: "Through your writings truly worshipping spirit, in any lanyou have benefited my heart; this guage than Zinzendorf's: blessing I would not exchange for the whole world," and therewith the grateful warrior pressed a paper enclosing one hundred Thalers into Gellert's hand. His writings attracted the attention of the learned of all Europe. Frederick, the Great, admired his scholarship greatly, paid him a visit, and vainly tried to gain him for Berlin. Goethe was a student under Gellert, and in his Autobiography, or Wahrheit und Dichtung, says:

"The reverence and love with which Gellert was regarded by all young people was extraordinary. I had already visited him, and was received by him in a friendly manner. Not of a large frame, slender without being lank, soft and rather pensive eyes, a very fine forehead,

"Jesu geh voran

Auf der Lebens Bahn."

"Jesus, day by day

Lead us on life's way:

Naught of dangers will we reckon,
Simply haste where Thou dost beckon;
Lead us by the hand

To our Fatherland.

"Thus our path shall be

Daily traced by Thee;

Draw Thou nearer when 'tis rougher, Help us most when most we suffer, And when all is o'er Ope to us Thy door." The Moravians, like the Methodists, have always had much singing in their public and private devotions. In their not too much of a Roman nose, a delicate earlier European history they were, for mouth, a face of an agreeable oval, all made this reason, called "The Singers" his presence pleasing and desirable. It cost ("die Singisten.") They count among some trouble to reach him. His two Famuli their number some eight or ten hymn (servants) appeared like priests who keep guard over a sanctuary, the access to which was not permitted to everybody, nor at every time; and such a precaution was very necessary; for he would have sacrificed his whole time, had he been willing to receive and satisfy all those who wished to become more intimate with

him."

He watched over the students with fatherly tenderness, and did his utmost

writers of well-known reputation. Spangenberg, "the Melanchthon of the Moravian Church," Albertini, whose hymns the great German philosopher Schleiermacher asked to have read to him on his death-bed, and the Zinzendorfs, father and son, are among the best of this class. Chief among these is the nobleman who was instrumental

in the reviving of the old Church of Moravia.

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tures at Utrecht, visited Paris; made the acquaintance of Cardinal Noailles, an eminent prelate of the Catholic Church, who although he failed to pervert the young Count to another faith, yet learned to esteem him highly. After being introduced to the Court of France, he visited his uncle, fell in love with his cousin, which affair led to the romantic heart-rendings common in premature and hasty engagements. Neither were to blame, and all was overruled for good. He introduced a young friend to his cousin whom she afterwards married, and Zinzendorf found his predestined help-meet elsewhere.

Zinzendorf belonged to an old Austrian noble family, but when he was converted he said: I will no longer be a Count, but a Christian." Left fatherless in his childhood, a pious grandmother and an aunt took charge of his training. Faithfully and well did they perform their solemn mission. His mother was a fashionable lady, and not very religious, who married a second time. Some writers consider it a fortunate providence for Zinzendorf that his grandmother, and not his mother, had charge of his early education. At ten years of age he became a student at Halle; at sixteen he entered the Count Zinzendorf had a castle and University of Wittenberg. Unlike the extensive lands about 57 miles from most German students he strove to Dresden. About that time a colony of lead a religious life. He strictly fugitive emigrants were driven from observed Sundays as days of fasting Moravia whom he offered a home on and prayer; indeed often spent whole his estate. Their character and condinights in prayer. He began the study tion deeply enlisted his interest. of law, but his pious longings also led 1722, Christ an David, one of these colhim to study Theology, chiefly for his onists, felled the first tree and began own comfort. to build the first house here. Many of his brethren followed his example. In 1727 Zinzendorf resigned an office he held under the Government, and moved among the colonists. The group of homes built around that of David was called Herrnhut. It is about a mile. from the castle of Bethelsdorf, where Count Zinzendorf made his home. This is the mother colony of the modern Moravian Church, the centre of its great missionary operations throughout the world.

In

In 1719, at nineteen years of age, according to the custom for young people of his class, he was sent a traveling to complete his education. Whilst such persons then mostly traveled for pleasure, through which they lost what little piety they possessed, this young nobleman sought light and peace for his soul on his journeys. Passing through Düsseldorf on the Rhine, he visited the famous Gallery of Art in this city. Among other paintings he saw an Ecce homo-representing Christ's cruel trial Thereafter Zinzendorf devoted himbefore Pilate, when the latter pointing self wholly to the cause of religion. to our Saviour said to the ferocious He visited America twice. While here Jews: "Behold the man." Underneath the picture was the inscription: "All this I have done for thee, what doest thou for me?" Zinzendorf had been a pious man before, but this brief sermon gave him new light, and moved his heart to its inmost depths. He resolved henceforth to live wholly for Christ. In Holland he got a clearer insight into the emptiness and vanity of earthly pomp and show. A certain writer says that one of the great bless ings of Zinzendorf's visit to Holland was that he here first learned to know men of the Reformed Church, after their pious hearts. He attended lec

he wrought with ceaseless effort to spread the Gospel. He spent months among the wild Indians, shared with them the discomforts of their uncivilized habits and preached to them through an interpreter. The following is told of one of these visits: Zinzendorf encamped several days with a few Moravian brethren among the Shawnees, a very depraved and cruel tribe. Conrad Weiser, who had come with him, left him for a short time alone with the Indains. The latter thought the white men had come to trade or buy land, and would not believe the denial of this opinion. During his absence,

teen years of age, who very faintly said, "Madame, I'll be very willing to marry him, but I fear he'll not take me." To which the lady replied, "If that be all your objection, I'll soon get you an answer.'

Next night at supper the lady said, "Sir, I have been considering upon a wife for you, and find one very willing." To which Knox inquired: "Who is it, Madame ?"

Conrad Weiser, for some unaccountable spoke to her third daughter, about ninereason felt very uneasy. Something urged him to return at once. On his arrival he learned that the Indians had conspired to murder the white visitors. By his prudent intervention the foul deed was prevented. Unconscious of danger Zinzendorf had nightly retired to his tent, prayed for the poor savages, and slept sweetly under the shadow of the Almighty. At sixty years of age this good man entered into rest, and to this day his works do follow him. Thus endeth our story of some of the German Hymn writers. But the life and power of song endeth not. On the wings of their rhythmic words the prayers and praise of millions are still borne to heaven. And so shall they continue to do until the battle songs of the Church militant shall be changed into the anthems of peace and glory of the Church triumphant.

The Courtship of John Knox.

John Knox, before the light of the Reformation broke, traveled among several honest families in the west of Scotland, who were converts to the Protestant religion. Particularly he visited oft Steward Lord Ochiltree's family, preaching the Gospel privately to those who were willing to receive it. The lady and some of the family were converts. Her ladyship had a chamber, table, stool and candlestick for the prophet, and one night about supper said to him:

"Mr. Knox, I think you are at a loss by want of a wife!"

To which he said, "Madame, I think nobody will take such a wanderer as I." To which she replied, "Sir, if that be your objection, I'll make inquiry to find an answer against our next meeting."

The lady accordingly addressed herself to her eldest daughter, telling her she might be very happy if she could marry Mr. Knox, who would be a great reformer and a credit to the church; but she despised the proposal, hoping her ladyship wished her better than to marry a poor wanderer. Then the lady addressed her second daughter, who answered as the eldest. Then the lady

She answered, "My young daughter, sitting by your side at the table."

Then, addressing himself to the young lady, he said, "My bird, are you willing to marry me?"

6.

She answered, "Yes, sir; only I fear you will not be willing to take me." He said, My bird, if you be willing to take me, you must take your venture of God's providence as I do. I go through the country sometimes on my foot, with a wallet on my arm and a Bible in it. You may put some things in for yourself, and if I bid you take the wallet you must do it, and go where I go, and lodge where I lodge."

46

Sir," she said, “I'll do all this." "Will you be as good as your word?"

"Yes, I will."

Upon which the marriage was concluded. She went with him to Geneva. And as he was ascending a hill, she got up to the top of it before him and took the wallet on her arm, and sitting down said, "Now, good man, am not I as good as my word?'-Christian Intelligencer.

A Beautiful Incident.

A man blind from birth, a man of much intellectual vigor and with many engaging social qualities, found a woman who, appreciating his worth, was willing to cast in her lot with him and become his wife. Several bright, beautiful children became theirs, who tenderly and equally loved both their parents.

An eminent French surgeon while in this country called upon them, and examining the blind man with much interest and care, said to him:

"Your blindness is wholly artificial; your eyes are naturally good, and could

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