28 OUIl HYMNS :
763, show his power of harmonious expression, and especially his skill in producing striking couplets, a gift of great value in trans lating the brief parallelisms of Hebrew poetry, and in providing psalms sometimes sung in portions of two or four lines.
" Sing the great Jehovah s praise." No. 91.
This is a small portion of his rendering of Psalm Ixvi. It is given in "A paraphrase upon the Divine Poems," by George Sandys, 1G48, and begins in the original
" Happy sons of Israel."
This work is dedicated by Sandys to King Charles. The first portion is a paraphrase on the Book of Job, and a brief preface to the Psalms explains that they were written before the para phrase on Job, L e. before 1648.
" Thou who art enthroned above." No. 763.
Verse 1 of this hymn, as it is given in the " New Congregational," is the first portion of Sandys rendering of the 92nd Psalm, in the work just referred to, given with slight alterations, but the other two stanzas bear no resemblance to the remaining portion as he has given it.
MARTIN RINKART.
15861649.
EILENBURG, in Saxony, was the birthplace of this German poet and pastor. His father was a cooper, and being unable to pro vide his son with the means of education, Martin supported himself by his musical skill while studying theology at Leipsic. In course of time, he became pastor in his native town, for whose good belaboured all through the " Thirty Years War," and long after.
During the pestilence in 1637, and the famine in the following year, Rinkart was indefatigable in ministering to the necessities of his suffering congregation and neighbours. And in the year
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