f a Continental colonel.

"There is a time to preach and a time to pray," he cried, "but these
times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that time has now
come!"

Thereupon he called upon the men of his congregation to enlist in his
regiment. Before the war ended he had risen to the rank of major general.

William Augustus Muhlenberg, the hymn-writer, was born in Philadelphia in
1796. Since the German language was then being used exclusively in the
German Lutheran churches, he and his little sister were allowed to attend
Christ Episcopal Church. In this way William Augustus drifted away from
the Church of his great forbears, and when he grew up he became a
clergyman in the Episcopal communion.

It is evident that Muhlenberg brought something of the spirit of the
"singing church" into the church of his adoption, for in 1821 he issued a
tract with the title, "A Plea for Christian Hymns." It appears that the
Episcopal Church at this time was using a prayer-book that included only
fifty-seven hymns, and no one felt the poverty of his Church in this
respect more keenly than did Muhlenberg.

Two years later the General Convention of the Episcopal body voted to
prepare a hymn-book, and Muhlenberg was made a member of the committee.
One of his associates was Francis Scott Key, author of "Star spangled
banner."

As a member of the committee Muhlenberg contributed four original hymns
to the new collection. They were "I would not live alway," "Like Noah's
weary dove," "Shout the glad tidings, triumphantly sing," and "Saviour,
who Thy flock art leading." The latter is a baptism hymn and is one of
the most exquisite lyrics on that theme ever written. Although Muhlenberg
never married, he had a very deep love for children. No service seemed so
hallowed to him as the baptism of a little child. It is said that shortly
after his ordination, when asked to officiate at such a rite, Muhlenberg
flushed and hesitated, and then asked a bishop who was present to baptize
the babe. The latter, however, insisted that the young clergyman should
carry out the holy ordinance, and from that day there was no duty that
afforded Muhlenberg more joy.

Muhlenberg often expressed regret that he had written "I would not live
alway." It seems that the poem was called into being in 1824, following a
"heart-breaking disappointment in the matter of love." Muhlenberg was a
young man at the time, and in his later years he sought to alter it in