Scripture Verse

Introduction

Background

Lauxmann calls [this] ‘the most com­fort­ing of all the hymns that have re­sound­ed on Paul­us Ger­hardt’s gol­den lyre, sweet­er to ma­ny souls than hon­ey and the hon­ey-comb.’ It soon spread over Ger­ma­ny.

It was sung in 1743, when the foun­da­tion-stones were laid of the first Lu­ther­an church in Phi­la­del­phia [Penn­syl­va­nia], and again at the op­en­ing ser­vice.

When Na­po­le­on was bent on crush­ing Ger­ma­ny, Queen Lou­ise of Prus­sia wrote in her di­ary at Or­tels­burg [now Szczytno, Po­land], on De­cem­ber 5, 1806, Goe­the’s lines from ‘Wil­helm Meis­ter,’ which Car­lyle ren­ders—

Who ne­ver ate his bread in sor­row,
Who ne­ver spent the dark­ness hours,
Weeping and watch­ing for the mor­row,
He knows ye not, ye gloomy Pow­ers.

To earth, this wea­ry earth, ye bring us,
To guilt ye let us heed­less go,
Then leave re­pent­ance fierce to wring us:
A mo­ment’s guilt, an age of woe!

Then dry­ing her tears, she went to her harp­si­chord and played and sang this hymn. Laux­mann writes, ‘Tru­ly a hymn, as Luth­er’s Ein Feste Burg, is sur­round­ed by a cloud of wit­ness­es.

Telford, p. 294