# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 08 19_S204
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

204

was, as in all Westphalia. In the preface of the said book the author himself gives information concerning the time and circumstances under which it was written by him. "In such misery and distress," he says, "when here at Unna it was astir in all the streets, and often for several days together over twenty, now four, seven, eight or twenty-nine, and up to thirty dead, not far from my dwelling, were buried in the earth in the churchyard, I had always to contend with thoughts of death, and it was not once with me as with King Hezekiah, when he said: I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living, mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life, Isa. 38. — The pestilence fell with its storm and raging upon the city like an unforeseen downpour and tempest, soon left no house unharmed, at last broke in also at my dwelling, and the people went about for the most part with fainting mind and frightened heart, as if benumbed and half dead, so that one might have applied hither what Moses writes (Deut. 28) in the following words: The LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. — At Lübeck, Hamburg, Lüneburg, Hildesheim, Göttingen, likewise in Lower Hesse and in the County of Waldeck, my dear fatherland, at Corbach, Wildungen and Mengeringhausen it was not lacking either. And what one had here and there in such places of acquaintances and friends, of this he heard almost nothing, save of their sicknesses and mortal departure from this life. Inasmuch as many sad tidings and sad news came to my ears also, of several of my sisters, kinsmen and brothers-in-law, strangled and snatched away by the pestilence, which only increased my affliction, and gave so much the more ample occasion to turn away all my mind, heart and thoughts from the world. Then nothing was sweeter to me, nothing dearer and more agreeable, than the contemplation of the noble, high article of eternal life, obtained by Christ's blood. I let it surge day and night in my heart and searched the Scripture, what it testified of this, read also the lovely little treatises of the old teacher St. Augustine, in which he cracks this high mystery as a little nut, and reaches out the wondrous sweet kernel. Afterward I put my meditations on paper from day to day, found myself, God be praised, therein very well, comforted at heart, joyful in spirit and well content, gave my writing the name and title of a Freudenspiegel, and purposed to leave the said composed Freudenspiegel (if God should call me away from this world) as a testimony of my peaceful, joyful and blessed departure, or else, if He spared me in health, to serve other Christians in distress (to whom He might also send the pestilence to their house) out of Christian, bounden love, and as it were to be present with present comfort. — Now the gracious, pious God has most graciously preserved me in the midst of the dying from the cruel pestilence and wonderfully prolonged my life beyond all my thoughts and hope, so that I can say with the prophet David to Him: How great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee! LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave, thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, give thanks and praise his glory. For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning; thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness." In this preface one has a foretaste of what the author, rich in spirit and faith, has furnished in this book, and although it is to be regretted that the same has become so rare, yet the two hymns found with it have become a possession of the whole Church, which may justly count them among her jewels. Albert Knapp, a well-known spiritual poet of our century, calls the hymn: Wachet auf, ruft etc. very aptly "the counterpart of the Strasbourg Minster"; for as this in its heaven-aspiring mighty structure remains an unattainable monument of the age of old, inspired for what is divine; so this hymn is not only in its exalted poetry and its solemn tones an inimitable work of art of the age of old, but there is also expressed therein such a longing of faith, such a joyfulness of eternal life, and such an overflowing comfort from the contemplation of the future glory, that one feels himself lifted with the author far above all that is earthly and as it were transported into heaven.

The fundamental thoughts which the hymn expresses are taken from that parable of the five wise virgins, wherefore the author also has headed it: Of the Voice at Midnight and of the Wise Virgins who meet their heavenly Bridegroom. The first verse contains the call of the watchmen of Zion, who hold before the Church of the LORD the promise of His glorious future, and remind her to hold herself in readiness, to put away all the sleep of security, and to go forth to meet Him in prayer, repentance, faith and living hope. Their call becomes the more urgent thereby, in that they present the LORD as one already coming: Wake, awake! the Bridegroom comes, arise, take the lamps, Hallelujah! Make yourselves ready for the wedding, ye must go forth to meet Him. In the second verse there is now described how believing Zion, the bride of Christ, strengthened in faith by the encouraging call of the watchmen, arms herself with joyful longing to go forth to meet her Friend, who comes again from heaven in power and glory. She fears not that the sight of His glory will bring her destruction and pain; for she knows Him as Him who is strong of grace, mighty of truth, whose fullness of grace covers and annihilates all her sin, and who faithfully and mightily fulfils His promise to all who believe Him. Christ, her light and her star, is recognized by her ever more brightly and plainly, she rejoices unspeakably to see the Son of God and of man in His glory and to be clothed upon with eternal brightness by Him. She therefore breaks out into the joyful welcome: Now come, thou precious crown, LORD JESUS, God's Son! Hosanna! We follow all to the hall of joy, and hold with Thee the Supper. (Rev. 19:7, 9.) The third verse opens the view into the unutterable joy of eternal life, and from the mighty impression which this description makes upon the heart one may infer what a powerful foretaste of the future life the dear author must have felt in the composing of this hymn. The images under which this joy is set forth are all taken from Scripture: the Gloria, or Glory be to God on high, wherein the angels unite with the blessed made perfect, the harps and cymbals, the heavenly Jerusalem, whose twelve gates are twelve pearls, every several gate of one pearl. (Rev. 21:21.) Yet however splendid and lovely these images are, they cannot attain what is unattainable for all human speech and conception; for that which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, God hath prepared for them that love him, 1 Cor. 2:9. The old word Jo! io! — which must be spoken and sung with two syllables, and which was the word that was shouted to the triumphing Roman emperors — and the old-church in dulci jubilo, that is, in sweet delight, which occurs often in the festal hymns of the ancient Church, makes a joyful close and is as it were the echo of the triumphant jubilation which the enraptured spirit hears resounding in heaven.

As to the melody of this hymn, it probably proceeds from the author himself, since it appeared together with the original of the hymn in the "Freudenspiegel," and both the circumstance that Nicolai was a good musician, and the intimate agreement of the text and the melody, in which the sublimity and holy inspiration of the hymn is so unsurpassably mirrored, justify the assumption that both, namely text and melody, must have flowed from one soul.

So much the more is it to be regretted that this glorious melody in its rhythmical structure in