rrow and despair, and before the day was ended another glorious victory
had been won. The Protestant cause was saved, but the noble Gustavus had
made the supreme sacrifice.

The authorship of his famous "battle-hymn" has been the subject of much
dispute. The German poet and hymnologist, Albert Knapp, has called it "a
little feather from the eagle wing of Gustavus Adolphus." Most Swedish
authorities, too, unite in naming their hero king as the author. However,
the weight of evidence seems to point to Johann Michael Altenberg, a
German pastor of Gross Sommern, Thueringen, as the real writer of the
hymn. It is said that Altenberg was inspired to write it upon hearing of
the great victory gained by Gustavus Adolphus at the battle of Leipzig,
September 7, 1631, about a year before the battle of Luetzen.

In any event, it is a matter of record that the Swedish king adopted it
immediately, and that he sang it as his own "swan-song" just before he
died at Luetzen. Someone has aptly said, "Whether German or Swede may
claim this hymn is a question. They both rightly own it."

Rinkart's Hymn of Praise

Now thank we all our God,
With hearts and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things hath done,
In whom His earth rejoices;
Who from our mother's arms
Hath blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God
Through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts
And blessed peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace,
And guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all ills,
In this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God
The Father now be given,
The Son, and Him who reigns
With them in highest heaven;
The One eternal God,
Whom earth and heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now,
And shall be evermore!

Martin Rinkart (1586-1649).

THE LUTHERAN TE DEUM

The last of the great Lutheran hymn-writers belonging to the period of
the Thirty Years' War was Martin Rinkart. Except for the time of the
Reformation, this period was probably the greatest creative epoch in the
history of Lutheran hymnody. But of all the glorious hymns that were
written during those stirring years, there is none that equals Rinkart's
famous hymn, "Now thank we all our God."

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