e lawyers. Homburg was born near Eisenach in 1605,
and later we find him practising law in Naumburg, Saxony. He was a man of
great poetic talent, but at first he devoted his gifts to writing love
ballads and drinking songs. During the days of the dread pestilence he
turned to God, and now he began to write hymns. In 1659 he published a
collection of 150 spiritual songs. In a preface he speaks of them as his
"Sunday labor," and he tells how he had been led to write them "by the
anxious and sore domestic afflictions by which God ... has for some time
laid me aside." The Lenten hymn, "Christ, the Life of all the living," is
found in this collection.

Held, who practiced law in his native town of Guhrau, Silesia, also was a
man chastened in the school of sorrow and affliction. He is the author of
two hymns that have found their way into the English language--"Let the
earth now praise the Lord" and "Come, O come, Thou quickening Spirit."

Weissel, a Lutheran pastor at Konigsberg, has given us one of the finest
Advent hymns in the German language, "Lift up your heads, ye mighty
gates."

Olearius, who wrote a commentary on the Bible and compiled one of the
most important hymn-books of the 17th century, has also bequeathed to the
Church a splendid Advent hymn, "Comfort, comfort ye My people."

Stegmann, a theological professor at Rinteln who suffered much
persecution at the hands of Benedictine monks during the Thirty Years'
War, was the author of the beautiful evening hymn, "Abide with us, our
Saviour."

Wilhelm II, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who wrote the inspiring hymn, "O Christ,
Thy grace unto us lend," was not only a poet and musician, but also a man
of war. He was twice wounded in battle with the Imperial forces, and was
once left for dead. He was taken prisoner by Tilly, but was released by
the emperor. When Gustavus Adolphus came to Germany to save the
Protestant cause, Wilhelm after some hesitation joined him. However, when
the Duke in 1635 made a separate peace with the emperor, the Swedish army
ravaged his territory.

Johann Meyfart also belongs to this period. He was a theological
professor at the University of Erfuert, and died at that place in 1642.
One of his hymns, "Jerusalem, thou city fair and high," has found its way
into English hymn books.

The beautiful hymn, "O how blest are ye," which was translated into
English by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, comes to us from the pen of Simon
Dach, another Lutheran th