Both we submit to Thee:
In death we live as well as life,
If Thine in death we be.
William Austin (d. 1633) had not the devotional fervour of his younger namesake (he does not seem to have been a relative, though both were of Lincoln’s Inn), but he is among the noteworthy hymn-writers of a time when hymns were few. As his poems are little known, I give a charming little hymn and two verses of a bright Christmas carol—
What a gracious God have we,
In His gifts of grace how free!
How intent our prayers to hear,
And to them that pray how near.
How to balmy mercy prone,
And to kind compassion.