To Friedrich Adolf Krummacher, a Reformed pastor, we owe the highly prized hymn:
Thou art the Way, the Truth, the Life from heaven,
This blest assurance Thou to us hast given;
O wilt Thou teach us, Lord, to win Thy pleasure
In fullest measure?
Krummacher was a teacher of theology in the Reformed University of Duisburg. After the battle of Jena in 1806 Duisburg was taken from Prussia by Napoleon and the salaries of the professors were cut off. Krummacher continued to lecture, however, until his class consisted of one student! He afterwards served as pastor in a number of cities, finally accepting appointment to St. Ansgarius church in Bremen. He died in Bremen in 1845.
Of the more modern hymn-writers of Germany the best known is Karl von Gerok, chief court preacher at Stuttgart, where he died as recently as 1890. An eloquent preacher and able writer, he attained fame principally through the publication in 1857 of a collection of poems known as “Palmblätter.” This work received a marvelous circulation in Germany, and by 1916 no less than 130 editions had been printed. Although most of Gerok’s compositions are poems rather than hymns, a few have found their way into hymn-books. A devotional hymn by von Gerok reads:
Holy, holy, holy, blessed Lord,
All the choirs of heaven now adore Thee;
O that I might join that great white host,