56 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
Rinkart, born in 1586, was the son of a cooper at Eilenburg, in Saxony. He became a foundation scholar and chorister of St. Thomas s School at Leipzig, and a student of theology in the university. In 1610 he was made a master in the Eisleben Gymnasium, and cantor of St. Nicholas Church. He became a pastor in 1611, and in 1617 was appointed Archidiaconus at Eilenburg. A tablet was placed there in 1886 on the house in which he lived. The town was walled, and during the Thirty Years War fugitives flocked into it for shelter, bringing famine and pestilence with them. Rinkart was for some time the only pastor in the place, and during the great pestilence of 1637 often had to read the funeral service over forty or fifty bodies. In all he buried about 4,480. At last the refugees had to be thrown into trenches without service. The mortality reached 8,000. Rinkart s wife was one of the victims. Famine followed, and his utmost help was called for by his starving people. He twice saved the town from the Swedes.
Though he had laid his native place under such obligation, he was much harassed by the people, and when peace came, in October, 1648, he was worn out by the long strain, and died next year. He wrote a cycle of seven dramas on the Reforma tion, suggested by the centenary in 1617. His hymns are marked by a true patriotism, a childlike devotion to God, and a firm confidence in God s mercy, and His promised help and grace. His hymn has become the German Te Deum for national festivals and special thanksgivings. It was sung on August 14, 1880, at the festival for the completion of Cologne Cathedral, and when the Emperor William laid the foundation- stone of the new Reichstag building in Berlin. It was sung also at St. Paul s Cathedral when peace was declared after the Boer War.
Miss Catherine Winkworth was born in London in 1829, and spent most of her life in the neighbourhood of Manchester, until she removed with her family to Clifton. She died suddenly of heart disease at Monnetier, in Savoy, in 1878. She took an active part in educational and other work for the benefit of women. Her Lyra Germanica, ist Series, was published in 1855 ; 2nd Series, containing 244 translations, in 1858 ; The Chorale Book for England, containing translations from the German, in 1863 ; and her Christian Singers of Germany, 1869. Dr. Martineau said her translations had not quite the fire of John Wesley s versions of Moravian hymns, or the wonderful
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