Suggested tune: JESUS, MEINE ZUVERSICHT
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Himmelan geht unsre Bahn. B. Schmolck. [Ascensiontide.] First published as the concluding hymn in his Bochim und Elim, Breslau, 1731 (No. 105, p. 275), in 10 stanza of 6 L, entitled "The sweet thought of heaven." It is a beautiful hymn of looking forward to the heavenly aim and the heavenly prize. It is found in many recent German hymn-books as in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder, edition 1863, No. 706 (omitting stanza vii.). Translated as:—
1. Heavenward still our pathway tends, a good translation, omitting stanzas iii., iv., vii., by Miss Cox in her Sacred Hymns from the German, 1841, p. 117, and thence in the Pennsylvania Lutheran Church Book, 1868. She revised her translation for Lyra Eucharistica, 1864, p. 296, and her Hymns from the German, 1864, p. 211. This revised form is in the Baptist Hymnal, 1879.
2. Heavenward doth our journey tend, a good translation, omitting stanzas iii., iv., vii., by Miss Winkworth in her Lyra Germanica, first Ser., 1855, p.108, and repeated in Harland's Church Psalter & Hymnal, No. 452, Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858, &c. In her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 65, altered in metre, and thence, omitting the translation of stanza viii., in the Ohio Evangelical Lutheran Hymnal, 1880.
3. Heavenward our path still goes, a translation of stanzas i., ii., ix., x., based on Miss Cox, as No. 231, in Bp. Kyle's Collection, 1860; repeated in Dr. Pagenstecher's Collection, 1864. Altered and beginning "Heavenward still our pathway goes," in Kennedy, 1863.
Other translations are:—
(1) “Heavenward may our course begin," by Lady E. Fortescue, 1843, p. 50. (2) "Heavenward our pathway lies," by Miss Dunn, 1857, p. 63. (3) "Heavenward our pathway lies, In this world," &c., by Dr. F. W. Gotch, in the Baptist Magazine, Jan. 1857. (4) "Heavenward our road doth lie," by Miss Warner, 1858, p. 117. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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