Scripture Verse

Who is this…fair as the moon, bright as the sun, majestic as the stars? Song of Solomon 6:10

Introduction

portrait
Richard S. Willis (1819–1900)

Words: Writ­ten by Ger­man Je­su­its as Schön­ster Herr Je­su, 17th Cen­tu­ry. Pub­lished in the Mün­ster Ge­sang­buch, 1677. Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by Jo­seph A. Seiss, 1873.

Music: Cru­sade­r’s Hymn Si­le­si­an folk tune from Schle­sische Volks­lied­er, 1842. Ar­ranged by Ri­chard S. Wil­lis, 1850 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Joseph A. Seiss (1823–1904)
Wikipedia

button

Lyrics

Fairest Lord Je­sus, Rul­er of all na­ture,
O Thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cher­ish, Thee will I hon­or,
Thou, my soul’s glo­ry, joy and crown.

Fair are the mea­dows, fair­er still the wood­lands,
Robed in the bloom­ing garb of spring;
Jesus is fair­er, Je­sus is pur­er,
Who makes the woe­ful heart to sing.

Fair is the sun­shine, fairer still the moon­light,
And all the twink­ling star­ry host;
Jesus shines bright­er, Je­sus shines pur­er
Than all the an­gels Heav’n can boast.

All fair­est beau­ty, hea­ven­ly and earth­ly,
Wondrously, Je­sus, is found in Thee;
None can be near­er, fair­er or dear­er,
Than Thou, my Sav­ior, art to me.

Beautiful Sav­ior! Lord of all the na­tions!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and hon­or, praise, ado­ra­tion,
Now and for­ev­er more be Thine.

illustration
Resting by a Stream
Thomas Hill (1829–1908)

The lyr­ics above are giv­en in most hym­nals. How­ev­er, Seiss’ orig­in­al trans­la­tion is some­what dif­fer­ent. He ti­tled it Beau­ti­ful Sav­ior, and it is found un­der this name in ma­ny Lu­ther­an hym­nals.

Beautiful Sav­ior, king of cre­ation
Son of God and Son of Man!
Truly I’d love Thee, tru­ly I’d serve Thee,
Light of my soul, my joy, my crown.

Fair are the mea­dows, fair are the wood­lands,
Robed in the flow­ers of bloom­ing spring;
Jesus is fair­er, Je­sus is pur­er,
He makes our sor­row­ing spi­rit sing.

Fair is the sun­shine, fair is the moon­light,
Bright the spark­ling stars on high;
Jesus shines bright­er, Je­sus shines pur­er
Than all the an­gels in the sky.

Beautiful Sav­ior, Lord of the na­tions,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and hon­or, praise, ado­ra­tion
Now and for­ev­er­more be Thine!