Bartholomaüs Helder

Helder, Bartholomäus, son of Johann Helder, Superintendent in Gotha, became, in 1607, schoolmaster at Friemar, and in 1616, pastor of Bemstadt, near Gotha, where he died of the pestilence, Oct. 28, 1635 (Koch, iii. 114, 115, 248; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, xi. 684, 685, &c).

Helder published two works (both in the Royal Library, Berlin). (1) Cymbalum Genethliacum. Erfurt, 1615 ; and (2) Cymbalum Davidicum. Erfurt, 1620. The first contains 15 Christmas and New Year Hymns, and the second 25, mostly Psalm versions. In the Cantionale Sacrum, Gotna, 1646-48, over 50 hymns are given with his name as composer of the music and without definite ascription as regards the words.

Two of these have passed into English, viz.:—
i. In meiner Noth ruf ich zu dir. Supplication. A prayer for grace, which appeared in the Cantionale Sacrum, pt. ii., Gotha, 1648, No. 71, in 3 st. of 6 1. Translated by Miss Manington, 1863, p. 1, as "From out my woe I cry to Thee."
ii. O Lämmlein Gottes, Jesu Christ. St. John Baptist's Day. Founded on St. John i. 29. Appeared as No. 103 in the Cantionale Sacrum, Gotha, 1646, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, entitled, "On St. John's Day." Included as No. 391 in the Unverfälschter Liedersegen. 1851. The only translation in common use is "O Jesus, Lamb of God, who art," in full, by A. Crull, as No. 120 in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)