Johann C. Schwedler

Schwedler, Johann Christoph, son of Anton Schwedler, farmer and rural magistrate at Krobsdorf, near Lowenberg, in Silesia, was born at Krobsdorf, Dec. 21, 1672, and matriculated at the University of Leipzig, in 1695 (M.A. 1697). In 1698 he was appointed assistant minister at Niederwiese, near Greiffenberg, and began his duties there on the 18th Sunday after Trinity. On the death of the diaconus, Christoph Adolph, he succeeded him as diaconus, in December, 1698; and, finally, in 1701, he became pastor there. He died at Niederwiese, suddenly, during the night of Jan. 12, 1730.

Schwedler was a powerful and popular preacher, and peculiarly gifted in prayer. It is said that sometimes, beginning service at 5 or 6 a.m., he would continue the service to relays who in succession filled the church, till 2 or 3 p.m. He also founded an orphanage at Niederwiese. He was a near neighbour and great friend of Johann Mentzer and N. L. von Zinzendorf. As a hymnwriter he was useful and popular. The principal theme of his hymns was the Grace of God through Christ, and the joyful confidence imparted to the soul that experienced it. Of his hymns, 462 appeared in his Die Lieder Mose und des Lammes, oder neu eingerichtetes Gesang-Buch, Budissin, 1720, Nos. 345-806. Others are in his Wöchentliche Hauss-Andacht, 1112, in his various devotional works, and in the hymn-books of the period.

The only hymn by Schwedler translated into English is:—
Wollt ihr wissen was mein Preis? Jesus the Crucified, or Love to Christ. Founded on 1 Cor. ii. 2, and Gal. vi. 14. The trs. in common use are:—
1. Ask ye what great thing I know. By Dr. Kennedy, in his Hymnologia Christiana, 1863, No. 620, being a good tr. of st. i.-v., with a sixth stanza suggested by st. vi. of the German.
2. Do you ask what most I prize? This is a fairly close version, omitting st. vi., as No. 98, in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1886. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)