$8 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
visited Italy in 1638. He returned to England in 1639, having always borne this thought with him, that though he could escape the eyes of men, he could not flee from the presence of God. He was soon embarked on a troubled sea of noises and hoarse disputes. He took a leading part in the contro versies of that stormy time. In 1649 he became Secretary for Foreign Tongues under the Commonwealth. Paradise Lost was finished in 1665. All that he and his widow re ceived for it was about ^15. Milton, like John Wesley, went to bed at nine, and rose at four in summer and five in winter. He had a chapter read from the Hebrew Bible, and studied till twelve. Then he took an hour for exercise, dined, played on the organ, and sang. He studied again till six, entertained visitors till eight, and after a light supper, with a pipe and a glass of water, went to bed. He died on November 8, 1674, and was buried in the chancel of St. Giles, Cripplegate. He is the greatest poet of Christian themes England has produced.
Hymn 22. God reveals His presence.
GERHARD TERSTEEGEN ; translated by F. W. FOSTER and J. MILLER.
Gott ist gegenwartig is, in Tersteegen s Geistliches Bhimengiirilein, 1729, entitled Remembrance of the glorious and delightful presence of God. The translation of Tersteegen s verses, I, 2, 4, 7, 8, by F. W. Foster and J. Miller is in the Moravian Hymn-book, 1789.
William Mercer, in his Church Psalter and Hymn-book, 1854, omitted ver. 4 of Foster and Miller s translation, retained thirteen lines, slightly altered five, and rewrote the rest, with little regard to the German.
Tersteegen was born at Mors, in Rhenish Prussia, in 1697. He was intended for the ministry, but his father died in 1703, and his mother was not able to meet the cost of his university training. He became a weaver of silk ribbons. After five years of religious conflict, he was able to rest in the atonement of Christ, and on the day before Good Friday, 1724, wrote out a covenant with God, which he signed with his own blood. He had ceased to take the Communion with the Reformed Church, as he did not feel able to share in that service with people of openly irreligious life. He soon became a teacher among the Stillen im Lande, and in 1728 gave up his business to translate
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