The Story of the Fourth Wise Man

Henry van Dyke (1852-1933) was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in the United States. He graduated from Princeton University in 1873 and from Princeton Theo-logical Seminary in 1877; and served as a professor of English literature at Princeton between 1899 and 1923. In 1908–09 Dr. van Dyke was an American lecturer at the University of Paris. By appointment of President Wilson, a friend and former classmate of van Dyke, he became Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg in 1913. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and received many other honors. He chaired the committee that wrote the first Presbyterian printed liturgy, The Book of Common Worship of 1906. He also wrote the lyrics to the popular hymn, "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" (1907), sung to the tune of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". The following quote is attributed to van Dyke, "Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love – time is eternity."