1705 - 1787 Author of "O führe doch ein Feuer aus" Hehl, Matthäus Gottfried, was born April 30, 1705, at Ebersbach, near Goppingen, Württemberg, and studied at the University of Tubingen (M.A. 1723). He was assistant clergyman in a village near Tubingen when Zinzendorf visited Tubingen in 1733. Thereafter he became a Moravian, was ordained in 1744 a presbyter, and in 1751 was consecrated in London as coadjutor bishop for America. He arrived at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Dec. 10, 1751, and in Nov., 1756, removed to Lititz. On account of advancing years ho resigned his office in 1781, and died at Lititz, Dec. 4, 1787 (Koch, v. 348-349). His hymns were written during his "stay at Herrnhut, and appeared in the Herrnhut Gesang-Buch 1735, and its Appendices. One has passed into English non-Moravian use, viz.:—
Geht, erhbht die Majestat. Supplication. This is No. 1054 in Appendix iii. to the Herrnhut Gesang-Buch, 1735, in 4 stanzas of 10 lines. In the Brüder Gesang-Buch, 1778, it is No. 1069, and in the Historische Nachricht thereto stanzas i., ii. are ascribed to Hehl, and iii., iv. to N. L. von Zinzendorf [Zinzendorf stanzas beginning "Lamm und Haupt, das selbst geglaubt," are included by Knapp in his edition, 1845, of Zinzendorf s Geistliche Lieder, p. 218, and dated 1733]. Translated as:—
Rise, exalt the Majesty, in full, by P. H. Molther, as No. 116, in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1742, with an added stanza iii. from "Lamm und Haupt! es sey geglaubt," by N. L. von Zinzendorf [No. 1089 in Appendix iv. to the Herrnhut Gesang-Buch, 1735, in 1 stanza of 10 lines, and by Knapp, 1845, p. 121, dated May 26, 1736]. In the 1789 and later editions of the Moravian Hymn Book (1886, No. 768), it is greatly altered, and begins, "Rise, exalt our Head and King." Included in Montgomery's Christian Psalmist, 1825, and J. A. Latrobe's Collection, 1841. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology
Matthew Gottfried Hehl
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