"Evangelia-lieder," the "Meditationes" and the revised Sudermann hymns, when these series were being written. He had learned by personal inquiry, the purpose of George Weiss in arranging the second compilation on the basis of metre, and had conversed with him respecting the misfortune of the choice of this system of arrangement, in view of the fact that the compilation had become the accepted hymnary of the sect. It was Hoffmann also who had contributed to the second collection, the "Epistellieder" complete pro anno ecclesiastico—the idea of the series having been suggested by the "Evangelia-lieder" of his friend Weiss. Moreover, Hoffmann made a transcription of the second hymn-collection, as he had done in the case of the first.
However, as the head of the Schwenkfelder ministerium (in this capacity, Hoffmann succeeded Rev. George Weiss, serving until 1763) he had found the collection unhappily arranged, since it was altogether deficient in the matter of arrangement as to sequence of doctrine. It is further evident, that in this particular, Hoffmann regarded the compilation as unsuited to the purposes of a church hymnary. As such, it needed to undergo a thorough recompiling; and in the volumes listed in our second chapter for the years 1758 and 1759, we have carried into effect, the rearrangement which without doubt Hoffmann for some years had had in mind.
The study of hymns was for Balthaser Hoffmann an employment which he loved. Occasionally on "Gedächtnisstag"[1] he would present the study of a favorite hymn. His analyses of numerous hymns have been preserved. They reflect both intensity of method and an amazing wealth of meditations. They are worthy of a close homiletic study. Rev. Christopher Hoffmann made a selection of these studies, of which the list follows:[2]
- ↑ The Memorial Day of the Schwenkfelders, observed annually on the 24th of September and commemorating the landing at Philadelphia, 1734.
- ↑ From a manuscript in folio now in the possession of Hon. S. W. Pennypacker, LL. D., who most kindly placed it at the disposal of the present writer. The title of the volume follows:
Erbauliche und Nützliche/ Betrachtungen./ Welche der treue und ein-faltige Zeuge Gottes, Je-/ su Christi, und seiner reinen Wahrheit/ Balthaser
