The wounds of Jesus, for my sin

Before the world’s foundation slain;

Whose mercy shall unshaken stay

When heaven and earth are fled away.

Mentzer, who has given us the beautiful hymn, “O would, my God, that I could praise Thee,” was born at Jahmen, Silesia, in 1658. For thirty-eight years he was pastor at Kemnitz, Saxony, at which place he wrote his hymns, about thirty in number. There is an exalted strain in his hymns of praise:

O all ye powers that He implanted,

Arise, keep silence thus no more,

Put forth the strength that He hath granted,

Your noblest work is to adore;

O soul and body, be ye meet