Bartholomew Ringwaldt

[94]Ringwaldt was the author of the hymn so well known in England under the mistaken title of "Luther's Hymn," --

"Great God, what do I see and hear,

The end of things created," --

which is in fact a quotation rather freely handled from a celebrated hymn of his on the Second Advent to judgment. He was a native of Frankfort-on-the-Oder; a man of cheerful, courageous, genial spirit, whose life was passed as the pastor of a little place called Langfeldt, where he died in 1598. But his many hymns and religious works strongly illustrate what has been said of the tone of feeling at that time, for they are generally penitential, or filled with warnings of the coming judgment. Among the best of the former is the following: --