Sacred Hymns from the German: Translated by Frances Elizabeth Cox
Religion
Sacred Hymns from the German: Translated by Frances Elizabeth Cox
Hymns, German; Hymns, German -- Translations into English
Edeling, Christian Ludwig, a Saxon, native of Löbegün, in Saalkreis,
tutor to Count Zinzendorf, afterwards a clergyman at Schwanebeck, near
Halberstadt, where he died in 1742.
Fouqué, Friedrich Freiherr, de la Motte, born, in 1777, at
Neubrandenberg. He is still living at Berlin, the worthy and
distinguished descendant of the brave, intellectual, and pious general of
Frederick the Great; he has given a beautiful and lasting memorial of his
poetical spirit, and his Christian mind, in the hymn ‘Was du vor tausend
Jahren.’
Freylinghausen, Johann Anastasius—1670-1739—born at Gandersheim, in
Wolfenbüttel; a clergyman, and director of the Orphan Asylum at Halle.
Gellert, Christian Fürchtegott—1715-1769—a Saxon, native of Haynichen, in
Erzgebirge, and son of the minister of that place. He studied theology,
in distressed circumstances, at Leipzig, but his bad health did not allow
him to preach. He lived at Leipzig, and gave lectures (first as a master
of arts and afterwards as extraordinary professor) on eloquence and moral
philosophy, and gained as universally the reputation of an author and a
pattern of pure taste, as he did love and esteem as a man and a
Christian, by his integrity of conduct, and his unaffected piety and
humility. Composing hymns was his favourite employment, in which,
together with prayer, he spent the happiest hours of his life of
suffering. All his hymns speak the simple Christian poet of the people,
and many of them have lasting classic merit. His death, as was his life,
was worthy of a Christian. When, in his last illness, his friends told
him, in answer to his question, that the struggle between life and death
might probably last an hour, he lifted up his hands with a cheerful
countenance, exclaimed, “Now, God be praised, only an hour!” turned on
his side, his eyes gleaming with joy, and gently breathed his last.
Gerhard, Paul—1606-1676—native of Gräfenhaynichen, in the circle of the
Electorate; a zealous preacher of the gospel, and a devout Christian.
That personality of expression which stamps his hymns, represents most
completely the character of the German people; profound and cheerful,
firm and full of repose; for which reason his hymns are the most popular.
If the Church had to select only one psalmist, it must be Paul Gerhard,
whose hymns are so numerous, that they would almost alone form a
hymn-book.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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