his fellow-citizens. He was a man of unfeigned and firm faith and personal piety, characteristics which are reflected in his hymns. He held such high place among his fellow-townsmen that on the occasion of the bicentennial of his death, June 18, 1877, the people of Guben thought him worthy of a memorial tablet, which was given a place of honor on the outer wall of the Stadtkirche of Guben. He is an illustration to our boys that to refrain from indulging in college excesses is not a hindrance to future distinguished usefulness. He is also, as a pious and successful lawyer who has contributed materially to the permanent hymnology of the Church, a man worthy to be kept in the minds of all Christian laymen. We do well to think of the man whose words we sing when we sing, "Herr Jesu, Licht der Heiden."

O

MISSIONARY HYMNS

NE of our best missionary hymns was written over night. It came as an inspiration from a soul afire with the missionary spirit. The story of its origin is most interesting, and illustrates well how a true hymn breathes the soul of the singer. The hymn to which we refer is so universally popular that a missionary service today, if it is not sung, seems incomplete. The hymn, which was written by Bishop Heber, in 1819, is such a general favorite that few active Christians do not have its lines committed to memory. Yet we quote it in its fulness for the missionary message which it carries with it.

BISHOP HEBER'S GREAT MISSIONARY HYMN

From Greenland's icy mountains,

From India's coral strand;
Where Afric's sunny fountains
Roll down their golden sand;
From many an ancient river,
From many a palmy plain,
They call us to deliver

Their land from error's chain.

What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle;
Though every prospect pleases,
And only man is vile;
In vain with lavish kindness
The gifts of God are strewn;
The heathen, in his blindness,
Bows down to wood and stone.

Shall we whose souls are lighted
With wisdom from on high,
Shall we to men benighted
The lamp of life deny?
Salvation, O salvation!

The joyful sound proclaim,
Till each remotest nation

Has learned Messiah's name.

Waft, waft, ye winds, His story,
And you, ye waters, roll,
Till, like a sea of glory,

It spreads from pole to pole;
Till o'er our ransomed nature
The Lamb for sinners slain,
Redeemer, King, Creator,

In bliss returns to reign.

The hymn grew out of a great missionary occasion. A royal letter had been written authorizing missionary services and collections in every church and chapel in England for furthering the missionary work of the Society for Propagating the Gospel. Reginald Heber, who was born April 21, 1783, was a young clergyman of the Church of England at the time. While a student he had shown poetic talent sufficient to gain special recognition from Sir Walter Scott.

Young Heber was the son-in-law of Dr. Shipley, dean of St. Asaph and vicar of Wrexham. He had gone to Wrexham to participate in the Whitsunday missionary service. It was the evening preceding, and in the course of the preparations for the morning service the vicar of the church in Wrexham asked his son-in-law, then rector of the church at Hodnet, if he could not prepare something to be sung at the morning service.

Heber retired to a quiet corner of the house. Shortly,