t of triumph a riderless horse came galloping back to the camp.
It was the horse of the martyred King.

The battle song just quoted--next to Luther's "Ein feste Burg" the most
famous German hymn--has always since that day been called "Gustavus
Adolphus' Hymn"; and the mingled sorrow and joy of the event at Lutzen
named it also "King Gustavus' Swan Song." Gustavus Adolphus did not
write hymns. He could sing them, and he could make them historic--and it
was this connection that identified him with the famous battle song. Its
author was the Rev. Johan Michael Altenburg, a Lutheran clergyman, who
composed apparently both hymn and tune on receiving news of the king's
victory at Leipsic a year before.

Gustavus Adolphus was born in 1594. His death on the battlefield
occurred Nov. 5, 1632--when he was in the prime of his manhood. He was
one of the greatest military commanders in history, besides being a
great ruler and administrator, and a devout Christian. He was, during
the Thirty Years' War (until his untimely death), the leading champion
of Protestantism in Europe.

The English translator of the battle song was Miss Catherine Winkworth,
born in London, Sept. 13, 1827. She was an industrious and successful
translator of German hymns, contributing many results of her work to two
English editions of the _Lyra Germania_, to the _Church Book of
England_, and to _Christian Singers of Germany_. She died in 1878.

The tune of "Ravendale" by Walter Stokes (born 1847) is the best modern
rendering of the celebrated hymn.

PAUL GERHARDT.

"_Befiehl Du Deine Wege._"

Paul Gerhardt was one of those minstrels of experience who are--

"Cradled into poetry by wrong,
And learn in suffering what they teach in song."

He was a graduate of that school when he wrote his "Hymn of Trust:"

Commit thou all thy griefs
And ways into His hands;
To His sure trust and tender care
Who earth and heaven commands.

Thou on the Lord rely,
So, safe, shalt thou go on;
Fix on His work thy steadfast eye,
So shall thy work be done.

* * * * *

Give to the winds thy fears;
Hope, and be undismayed;
God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,
He shall lift up thy head.

Through waves and clouds and storms
He gently clears thy way;
Wait thou His time, so shall this night
Soon end in joyous day.

Gerhardt was born at Grafenhei