Johannes Mühlmann › Tunes

Mühlmann, Johannes, son of Hieronymus Mühlmann or Mühlmann, pastor at Pegau, near Leipzig, was born at Pegau, July 28, 1573. He studied at the Universities of Leipzig (M.A. January, 1597) and Jena, and was then for some time Saturday preacher at St. Thomas's Church in Leipzig. In 1599 he was appointed diaconus of the St. Wenzel Church in Naumburg, and in 1604 pastor at Laucha on the Unstrut. In the end of 1604 he became archidiaconus of the St. Nicholas Church at Leipzig, and, in 1607, was also appointed Professor of Theology in the University, and D.D. in 1612. He died of typhus at Leipzig, Nov. 14, 1613. (Allgemeine Deutsch Biographie, xxii. 483; Goedeke's Grundriss, vol. iii., 1887, p. 151, &c.)

Mühlmann was a staunch upholder of Lutheran orthodoxy, alike against Romanists and Calvinists. He was a great lover of the Psalms; his published sermons, as well as his hymns, are based on them, and almost his last words were Ps. lxiii., 3, "Thy lovingkindness is better than life." Wackernagel v. pp. 443-447, gives five hymns under his name, all of which are found in the Geistliche Psalmen, &c, published at Nürnberg in 1618, by J. Lauer. [The only known copy, in the Royal Library, Berlin, has lost its titlepage.]

Two of Mühlmann's hymns have passed into English, viz.:—
i. Dank sei Gott in der Höhe. Morning. The most popular of his hymns. Appeared 1618 as above, with his initials, and thence in Wackernagel v. p. 444, in 7 st. of 8 1. Also in the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851, No. 443. Translated as:—

While yet the morn is breaking. A good translation of st. i., ii., v., vii. by Miss Winkworth, as No. 163 in her Chorale Book for England, 1863. Repeated in full in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880, and abridged in the Marlborough College Hymn Book, 1869.

Another translation "Christ is the vine, we branches are" (st. vii.). By J. Swertner, as No. 438, in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1789 (1849, No. 612).

ii. 0 Lebens-Brünnlein tief und gross. Ps. lxv. Appeared 1618 as above, with his initials, in 9 st. of 9 1., entitled "a hymn from the 65th Psalm." Thence in Wackernagel v. p. 446; also in the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851, No. 426. It is really a hymn on Christ as the Fountain of Life here and in Eternity, and with Ps. lxv. 10 as its motto. Translated as:—

0 spring of Life, so deep, so great. A good translation of st. i., ii., v., vi., ix. by A. T. Russell, as No. 166 in his Psalms & Hymns, 1851. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)