162 OUR HYMNS :
lived near to God. He was a great Bible reader, and a firm believer in Providence. In a pamphlet, entitled "The Adven tures of a Hymn," published in London, 18G2, there is a graphic description of the way in which Providence put it into the hearts of those already favourably disposed towards Gellert, to assist him in his hour of need, and how faith justified uttered itself in new songs. The hymns of Gellert do not equal in grandeur and simple strength those of earlier writers, such as Luther, Ringwaldt, and Gerhard. Gellert felt this, and said that he would give up all his own hymns for one of theirs ; but Gellert s hymns are heart utterances, and reach the heart. With the simplicity of the author, they convey the strength of his convictions, and the clear teaching of the truths he firmly believed. His sole contri bution to the "New Congregational Hymn Book" illustrates this view
" Jesus lives, no longer now." No. 388. " Jesus lebt, mit Him auch ich."
The translation is by Frances Elizabeth Cox, 1841.
��ANNE STEELE. 17161778.
Miss STEELE was the daughter of the Rev. Win. Steele, a Baptist minister at Broughton, in Hampshire. The Steeles were for several generations possessed of good talents and means, which they devoted unreservedly to the cause of Christ. Anne was a member of the Church under her father s care, and a person eminent for her piety and useful Christian activity. She was the authoress of " Poems on subjects chiefly devotional," in three vols. (1780), with the signature " Theodosia ;" and of a ver sion of the Psalms. Her hymns in the " New Congregational Hymn Book " are free from the defects which mar some others,
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