ran.

For more than 150 years Lutheran hymn-writers had been pouring out a
mighty stream of inspired song, but the voice of hymnody was stifled in
the Reformed Church. Then came Joachim Neander. His life was short--he
died at the age of thirty--and many of his hymns seem to have been
written in the last few months before his death; but the influence he
exerted on the subsequent hymnody of his Church earned for him the title,
"the Gerhardt of the Reformed Church."

Neander's hymns are preeminently hymns of praise. Their jubilant tone and
smooth rhythmical flow are at once an invitation to sing them. They
speedily found their way into Lutheran hymn-books in Germany, and from
thence to the entire Protestant world. Neander's most famous hymn,
"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty," with its splendid chorale melody,
grows in popularity with the passing of years, and promises to live on as
one of the greatest _Te Deums_ of the Christian Church.

Joachim Neander was born in Bremen, Germany, in 1650. He came from a
distinguished line of clergymen, his father, grandfather, great
grandfather and great great grandfather having been pastors, and all of
them bearing the name Joachim Neander.

Young Joachim entered the Academic Gymnasium of Bremen at the age of
sixteen years. It seems that he led a careless and profligate life,
joining in the sins and follies that characterized student life in his
age.

In the year 1670, when Neander was twenty years old, he chanced to attend
services in St. Martin's church, Bremen, where Theodore Under-Eyck had
recently come as pastor. Two other students accompanied Neander, their
main purpose being to criticize and scoff at the sermon. However, they
had not reckoned with the Spirit of God. The burning words of Under-Eyck
made a powerful impression on the mind and heart of the youthful Neander,
and he who went to scoff came away to pray.

It proved the turning point in the spiritual life of the young student.
Under the guidance of Under-Eyck he was led to embrace Christ as his
Saviour, and from that time he and Under-Eyck were life-long friends.

The following year Neander became tutor to five young students,
accompanying them to the University of Heidelberg. Three years later he
became rector of the Latin school at Duesseldorf. This institution was
under the supervision of a Reformed pastor, Sylvester Luersen, an able
man, but of contentious spirit. At first the two men worked together
harmonio