Scripture References:
st. 1-3 = Luke 24:29
Originally in six stanzas, Josua Stegmann's German text ("Ach bleib mit deiner Gnade") was published in the third edition of his Suspiria Temparum (1628). Our version includes the original stanzas 1-3 and an anonymous doxological stanza.
The English translation of the first two stanzas is an anonymous translation found in the Lutheran Church Book (Philadelphia, 1868). The third stanza is derived from a translation by August Crull, whose hymn texts were published in various nineteenth century Lutheran hymnals in the United States.
The opening phrases in stanzas 1-3 ("Abide with us") recall the Emmaus travelers (Luke 24:29). The text is a prayer for guidance on our life's journey and for obedience to God's Word, particularly in the face of Satan's temptations.
Josua Stegmann (b. Sulzfeld, near Meiningen, Germany, 1588; d. Rinteln, Germany, 1632) was a brilliant scholar and church administrator whose life was greatly troubled by the political and religious disturbances of his time. Educated at the University of Leipzig, he became a pastor in the Lutheran church in Stadthagen and a teacher at the gymnasium (high school) there in 1617. When the gymnasium became a university and moved to Rinteln, Stegmann was appointed professor of theology, but he fled the town in 1623 because of local battles in the Thirty Years' War. He returned to Rinteln in 1625, but his career was interrupted by the Edict of Restitution (1629), which ordered that all church estates (secularized in 1552) be returned to the Roman Catholic Church. The local Benedictine monks claimed possession of the university and the lands, which had been used to pay the professors' salaries. Stegmann was also harassed by soldiers coming to his home to claim a refund on his salary. Soon after these incidents he succumbed to illness and died in 1632. His devotional writings include verse written in Latin and a few hymn texts written in German.
Liturgical Use:
As a sung prayer for illumination before the Service of the Word; for evening services; the close of worship; Old/New Year services and other times when embarking on new ventures in the church's ministries.
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook
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