them as a hymn. The poet and disciple are both

revealed in the lines:

"But warm, sweet, tender, even yet

A present help is He;

And faith has yet its Olivet,

And love its Galilee."

The

Another very useful hymn has been taken from his poem, "Seedtime and Harvest." hymn begins,

"It may not be our lot to wield
The sickle in the ripened field;
Nor ours to hear, on summer eves,
The reaper's song among the sheaves."

Oliver Wendell Holmes gave the Church:

"Lord of all being! throned afar,
Thy glory flames from sun and star;"

and,

"O Love Divine, that stooped to share

Our sharpest pang, our bitterest tear!”

The first glories in God's majesty, the second confides in His mercy. They are both poetical

treasures.

Some authors have introduced existing hymns into their books with great effect. Dr. Horder says that the "Dies Ira" and "Stabat Mater"

have made a greater impression on both literature and music than any other hymns. Besides the instance already cited, the "Dies Ira" is introduced into Goethe's "Faust." The heroine is so moved by hearing the great judgment hymn chanted that she is overcome, and ever afterwards is a changed woman.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, in "Uncle Tom's Cabin," represents St. Clair as singing strains from this same hymn on the night of his death. "All people that on earth do dwell," is referred to in one of Shakespeare's plays.

Many other instances might be cited if space permitted. Hymns occupy a very important place in general literature.

CHAPTER VII.

Women Hymn-Writers.

THE first woman hymn-writer appeared during the Protestant Reformation. She was Louisa Henrietta, wife of the Great Elector, Frederick William, of Brandenburg. Her hymn is on the "Resurrection of the Just." For strength of faith it is worthy to be compared to Luther's hymns. Here are selections:

"Jesus, my eternal Trust

And my Savior, ever liveth:
This I know; and deep and just

Is the peace this knowledge giveth:
Though death's lingering night may start
Many a question in my heart.

What is weak and maimed below,

There shall be made strong and free:

Earthly is the seed we sow

Heavenly shall the harvest be:

Nature here and sin; but there

Spiritual all, and fair.

Only raise your souls above

Pleasures in which earth delighteth;

Give your souls to Him in love,

To whom death so soon uniteth;

Thither oft in spirit flee

Where ye would forever be."

Since the Reformation women have held an honored place among hymn-writers. It was a woman who wrote "Nearer, my God, to Thee," one of the most popular hymns in the English language. According to an eminent authority, women write the best children's hymns. At the dawn of the twentieth century the greatest living hymn-writer was a woman.

Many women found the inspiration of their hymns in misfortune and affliction. This was true of Madam Guyon, a French mystic, who lived in the last half of the seventeenth century. Her life was filled with trial. She was married at the age of sixteen, and left a widow at twenty-eight. Her child died at an early age; her mother-in-law rendered her life miserable; and smallpox robbed her of her beauty when she was only twenty-two years old. Amid all these misfortunes her religion was her only consolation. She wrote: "In losing all the gifts, with their supports, I found the Giver." A Franciscan monk told her to seek God in her heart. She did so, and was rewarded by a bright experience. She says of her conversion: "I was on a sudden so altered that I was hardly to be known, either by myself or others.

Nothing is more easy to me now than the practice of prayer." Her religious life was rich and full, but beset by persecution. She was accused of heresy by the Roman Catholic Church, and was consequently banished to Gex, near Geneva. There she occupied herself with writing, and with works of mercy. Although exiled by the Church she was not banished from God's presence. She wrote:

"My Lord, how full of sweet content
I pass my years of banishment!
Where'er I dwell, I dwell with Thee,
In heaven, in earth, or on the sea.

I can be calm and free from care
On any shore, since God is there.

Could I be cast where Thou art not,
That were indeed a dreadful lot;
But regions none remote I call,
Secure of finding God in all."

Afterwards she was imprisoned in the Bastile. But there God was still her comfort, and she sang:

"Nor castle walls, nor dungeons deep,

Exclude his quickening beams;
There I can sit, and sing, and weep,
And dwell on heavenly themes.”

It was a happy fulfillment of Christ's promise, "I am with you alway." Before her death,