Christus der ist mein Leben. [For the Dying.] The oldest accessible form of this hymn is in M. Vulpius's Ein schön geistlich Gesangbuch, Jena, 1609, No. 148, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, Wackernagel, v. p. 435, gives this and also a second form from a Christliches Gesangbüchlein, Hamburg, 1612, in 8 stanzas. In the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851, No. 808, stanzas i.-vii. are as 1609, and stanza viii. as 1612. According to a tradition, seemingly baseless, it was written by Anna, wife of Count Heinrich of Stolberg, about 1600. Some would ascribe it to Simon Graf, who was only 6 in 1603. It has been a favourite hymn in prospect of death, and was thus sung by his wire and children to Heinrich Möwes, just before his death, Oct. 14, 1834, and repeated to Queen Elizabeth of Prussia on the third day of Advent, 1873 (Koch, viii. 614). Translated as:—
1. My life is hid in Jesus, a good translation of stanzas i.-vii., by Miss Winkworth, in her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 186.
2. To me to live is Jesus, a translation of stanzas i.-iv., vii., signed "F. C. C," as No. 289 in Dr. Pagenstecher's Collection, 1864.
3. For me to live is Jesus, in full, by E. Cronenwett, as No. 433 in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnall, 1880.
Other translations are:—
(1) “Christ is my light and treasure," by J. C. Jacobi, 1725, p. 55 (ed. 1732, p. 198). (2) "In Christ my life is hidden," by N. L. Frothingham, 1870, p. 149.
The hymn, "In Christ my life abideth," in 5 stanzas, contributed by A. T. Russell, in the Dalston Hospital Hymn Book, 1848, No. 106, and repeated in his own Psalms & Hymns, 1851, No. 252, while not a translation is based on the German. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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