Ours the bounties of Thy love,
Ours Thy peace, till we inherit
Endless life in heaven above.
Miss Hoppe speaks in glowing terms of the spiritual impressions received in childhood from pious parents and a consecrated pastor, the sainted John Bading, who both baptized and confirmed her. Her father died in 1910.
“He was a very pious Lutheran,” she writes, “and so is mother. They often spoke of afternoon prayer meetings they attended in Germany.”
Some of her hymns not already mentioned are, “By nature deaf to things divine,” “Heavenly Sower, Thou hast scattered,” “How blest are they who through the power,” “Lord Jesus Christ, the children’s Friend,” “O dear Redeemer, crucified,” “O precious Saviour, heal and bless,” “O’er Jerusalem Thou weepest,” “Precious Child, so sweetly sleeping,” “Repent, the Kingdom draweth nigh,” “The Sower goeth forth to sow,” “Thou camest down from heaven on high,” “Thou hast indeed made manifest,” “Thou Lord of life and death,” “Thou virgin-born incarnate Word,” “O Lord, my God, Thy holy law,” “Jesus, Thine unbounded love,” “He did not die in vain,” “I open wide the portals of my heart,” “Rise, my soul, to watch and pray,” “O joyful message, sent from heaven,” “O Thou who once in Galilee,” and “Thou goest to Jerusalem.” She is the translator of “O precious thought! some day the mist shall vanish,” a hymn from the Swedish, as well as some eighty gems from German hymnody. Thirty-two of her German translations appeared in “The Selah Song Book,” edited by Adolf T. Hanser in 1922.
Many of Miss Hoppe’s hymns have been written on the pericopes of the Church Year. She has consistently refused to have her hymns copyrighted, believing that no hindrance should be put in the way of any one who desires to use them.
Up to 1930 nearly 400 hymns had appeared from Miss Hoppe’s pen. Her ambition is to write a thousand original Christian lyrics.
A Song of Victory
Rise, ye children of salvation,