Ach! treuer Gott, barmherzigs Herz. P. Gerhardt. [Cross and Consolation.] Founded on a prayer "for patience under great trial," No. xxv. in Class iii. of J. Arndt's Paradies-gartlein, 1612. Appeared in Crüger's Praxis pietatis melica, Frankfurt, 1656, No. 381, in 16 stanzas of 7 lines, and included in many subsequent hymn-books, as recently in the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851, No. 693; also in Wackernagel's edition of his Geistliche Lieder, No. 57; Bachmann's ed., No. 80.
Translations in common use:—
1. 0 God most true, most merciful!—A good translation of stanzas i., iv., v., x., by A. T. Russell, as No. 224, in his Psalms & Hymns 1851, and thence, altered and beginning, “O God of mercy full and free," as No. 665, in Kennedy, 1863.
2. 0 faithful God! 0 pitying heart, a good translation, omitting stanzas iii., ix., xi., xiii., xv., in the 2nd Ser. 1858, of Miss Winkworth's Lyra Germanica. p. 182, and thence, in the Gilman-Schaff, Library of Religious Poetry, ed. 1883, p. 837. The translations of stanzas x., xii., xiv., xvi., beginning, "O Thou, who diedst to give us life," appear as No. 327, in Church Praise, 1883.
3. Ah! faithful God, compassionate heart, by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 169. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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Ach! treuer Gott. This hymn is found in the Berlin edition of Crüger's Praxis, &c. 1653, No. 373.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
Paul Gerhardt (b. Gräfenheinichen, Saxony, Germany, 1607; d. Lubben, Germany, 1676), famous author of Lutheran evangelical hymns, studied theology and hymnody at the University of Wittenberg and then was a tutor in Berlin, where he became friends with Johann Crüger. He served the Lutheran parish of Mittenwalde near Berlin (1651-1657) and the great St. Nicholas' Church in Berlin (1657-1666). Friederich William, the Calvinist elector, had issued an edict that forbade the various Protestant groups to fight each other. Although Gerhardt did not want strife between the churches, he refused to comply with the edict because he thought it opposed the Lutheran "Formula of Concord," which condemned some Calvinist doctrines. Consequently, he was r… Go to person page >
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