nia. He was created
a baron by Emperor Joseph II shortly afterwards.

Pfeil began writing hymns at the age of eighteen years and continued it
as his chief diversion throughout life. He was a prolific writer, his
published hymns numbering about 850. He was a warm friend of Bengel, who
wrote the introduction to one of Pfeil's hymn collections. Pfeil wrote
hymns on various phases of civil life. His hymn on the Christian home is
typical:

O blest the house, whate'er befall,
Where Jesus Christ is All in all;
Yea, if He were not dwelling there,
How poor and dark and void it were!

The Silesian pastors, Johann Andreas Rothe and Johann Mentzer, also may
be regarded as belonging to the more conservative Pietistic hymn-writers.
Rothe was pastor at Berthelsdorf, having been brought there through the
influence of Count von Zinzendorf, who had heard him preach in Silesia.
The Moravian community of Herrnhut formed a part of Rothe's parish, and
he took a keen interest in the activities of Zinzendorf and his
followers. However, when Rothe, in 1737, found it necessary to report to
the ecclesiastical authorities that the Moravians were deviating from
sound Lutheran doctrine, the friendship between him and Zinzendorf
ceased, and Rothe found it advisable to remove to Thommendorf, where he
died in 1758.

Rothe wrote approximately forty hymns, the most famous of which is "Now I
have found the ground wherein." This hymn was greatly admired by John
Wesley and was translated by him in 1740. Because it first appeared in
the Moravian hymn-book, the Lutherans suspected that Zinzendorf was the
author. Upon discovering that it was by Rothe, they quickly adopted it.
The first stanza reads:

Now I have found the ground wherein
My soul's sure anchor may remain:
The wounds of Jesus, for my sin
Before the world's foundation slain;
Whose mercy shall unshaken stay
When heaven and earth are fled away.

Mentzer, who has given us the beautiful hymn, "O would, my God, that I
could praise Thee," was born at Jahmen, Silesia, in 1658. For
thirty-eight years he was pastor at Kemnitz, Saxony, at which place he
wrote his hymns, about thirty in number. There is an exalted strain in
his hymns of praise:

O all ye powers that He implanted,
Arise, keep silence thus no more,
Put forth the strength that He hath granted,
Your noblest work is to adore;
O soul and body, be ye meet
With hea