Scripture Verse

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. Mark 12:17

Introduction

portrait
Karl F. Lochner
1634–1697

Words: Karl F. Loch­ner, 1673 (Was gibt du denn, o meine Seele); com­po­site trans­la­tion from Ger­man to Eng­lish.

Music: O dass ich tau­send Kor­ne­li­us H. Dret­zel, Des ev­an­gel­isch­en Zi­ons mu­si­cal­ische Har­mo­nie (Nur­em­berg, Ger­ma­ny: 1731) (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Dret­zel (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Soul, what re­turn has God, thy Sav­ior,
For all He gives thee day by day?
Oh, hast thou in thy gift a fa­vor
That can de­light and please Him?—Say!
The best of of­fer­ings He re­quires:
Thy heart it is that He de­sires.

Give un­to God thy heart’s af­fect­ion;
Who else can claim thee as His own?
Should Sa­tan hold thee in sub­jec­tion?
With him but pangs of hell are known.
To Thee alone, O Lord di­vine,
My heart and all I now re­sign.

Accept the gift which Thou re­quir­est,
My heart and soul, O gra­cious God,
The first-fruits Thou so much de­sir­est,
For which Thy Son paid with His blood.
To Thee I will­ing­ly as­sign
My heart, dear Lord, for it is Thine.

Whom should I give my heart’s af­fect­ion
But Thee, who gav­est Thine to faith?
Thy fer­vent love is my pro­tect­ion;
Lord, Thou hast loved me un­to death.
My heart with Thine shall ev­er be
One heart through­out eter­ni­ty.