Leave all to God

Representative Text

Leave all to God,
Forsaken one, and stay thy tears;
For the Highest knows thy pain,
Sees thy sufferings and thy fears
Thou shalt not wait His help in vain,
Leave all to God.

Be still and trust!
For His strokes are strokes of love,
Thou must for thy profit bear;
He thy filial fear would move,
Trust thy Father's loving care,
Be still and trust!

Know, God is near!
Though thou think Him far away,
Though His mercy long have slept,
He will come and not delay,
When His child enough hath wept,
For God is near!

O teach Him not
When and how to hear thy prayers;
Never doth our God forget,
He the cross who longest bears
Finds his sorrows' bounds are set,
Then teach Him not.

If thou love Him,
Walking truly in His ways,
Then no trouble, cross or death,
E'er shall silence faith and praise;
All things serve thee here beneath,
If thou love God!

Source: Lyra Germanica: The Christian Year #67

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Author: Anton Ulrich

Anton Ulrich of Brunswick, born Oct. 4, 1633, at Hitzaeker, on the Elbe above Lauenburg, the portion as younger son of his father, Duke August, who three years afterwards succeeded to the Dukedom of Wolfenbuttel. He was the only child of the Duke's second marriage. In 1635 the Duke contracted a third marriage with Sophie Elisabethe of Mecklenburg. Father and stepmother alike were pious and fond of music and poetry, and their children were trained with a simple home life, in Lutheran orthodox ; and, under J. G. Schottelius and Sigismund v. Birken, instructed in all the learning of the time. Under these influences, supplemented by a residence at the University of Helmstädt, 1650, Anton Ulrich grew up a lover of his mother tongue and of poetr… Go to person page >

Translator: Catherine Winkworth

Catherine Winkworth (b. Holborn, London, England, 1827; d. Monnetier, Savoy, France, 1878) is well known for her English translations of German hymns; her translations were polished and yet remained close to the original. Educated initially by her mother, she lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany, in 1845, where she acquired her knowledge of German and interest in German hymnody. After residing near Manchester until 1862, she moved to Clifton, near Bristol. A pioneer in promoting women's rights, Winkworth put much of her energy into the encouragement of higher education for women. She translated a large number of German hymn texts from hymnals owned by a friend, Baron Bunsen. Though often altered, these translations continue to be used i… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Leave all to God
German Title:	Lass dich Gott
Author:	Anton Ulrich (1667)
Translator:	Catherine Winkworth (1855)
Meter:	4.8.7.7.8.4
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

i. Lass dich Gott. [Resignation.) This beautiful hymn on Consolation in Trial appeared in 1667, p. 237, as above (ed. Wendebourg, 1856, p. 68), in 6 stanzas of 6 lines, lines 1, 6, of each stanza being identical. Included as No. 468 in pt. ii., 1714, of Freylinghausens Gesang-Buch, and as No. 787 in Bunsen's Versuch, 1833 (Allgemeine Gesang-Buch, 1846, No. 319). Translated as:—
Leave all to God. A good translation (omitting stanza iv.) by Miss Winkworth in the 1st Series, 1855, of her Lyra Germanica, p. 159 (ed. 1876, p. 161), and thence as No. 155 in Psalms & Hymns, Bedford, 1859, as No. 302 in the Free Church Hymn Book, 1882, and in the Gilman-Schaff Library of Religious Poetry, ed. 1883.

-- Excerpt from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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