550. The work is Thine, O Christ our Lord
Stanzas 1 and 2, S. Preiswerk, 1799-1871
Stanza 3, F. Zaremba, 1794-1874
Tr. Julius Henry Horstmann
1.
Die Sach’ ist dein, Herr Jesu Christ,
Die Sach’ an der wir steh’n,
Und weil es deine Sache ist,
Kann sie nicht untergeh’n.
Allein das Weizenkorn, bevor
Es fruchtbar sprosst zum Licht empor,
Muss sterben in der Erde Schoss
Zuvor vom eig’nen Wesen los.
Durch Sterben los,
Vom eig’nen Wesen los.
2.
Du gingst, O Jesu, unser Haupt,
Durch Leiden himmelan,
Und führest Jeden, der da glaubt,
Mit dir die gleiche Bahn.
Wohlan, so nimm uns allzugleich
Zum Teil am Leiden und am Reich;
Führ uns durch deines Todes Tor
Samt deiner Sach’ zum Licht empor,
Zum Licht empor,
Durch Nacht zum Licht empor!
3.
Du starbest selbst als Weizenkorn
Und sankest in das Grab;
Belebe denn, o Lebensborn,
Die Welt, die Gott dir gab.
Send Boten aus in jedes Land,
Dass bald dein Name werd’ bekannt,
Dein Name voller Seligkeit;
Auch wir steh’n dir zum Dienst bereit
In Kampf und Streit,
Zum Dienst in Kampf und Streit.
A missionary hymn written at the request of students at the Basel Mission House, Basel, Switzerland. The students wanted a good missionary poem to use with the present tune, then erroneously ascribed to J. Michael Haydn. Preiswerk supplied the first two stanzas. They were first sung June 17, 1829, at an anniversary festival. The third stanza was added by Count Felician von Zaremba, since it was felt that the first two did not have enough emphasis on foreign missions.
The hymn was sung at the laying of the cornerstone of Bethel College and again at the sixtieth anniversary of that event, celebrated October 12, 1948.
Samuel Preiswerk was born in Rümlingen, Switzerland, the son of the pastor of the Reformed Church at that place. He was educated at the Universities of Basel, Tübingen, and Erlangen. After serving in a curacy at Benken and on the staff of the Basel Orphanage, he taught Hebrew at the Basel Mission House, later accepting a pastorate at Muttenz, and a professorship at the Ecole de Théologie in Geneva. In 1840 he was called to the St. Leonhardt Church in Basel, where he became the main pastor in 1843. Finally he was made Antistes or Superintendent of the Reformed Churches in the Basel Area. Preiswerk was one of the editors of the Baseler Gesangbuch of 1854 and was otherwise active as a hymnologist.
Felician von Zaremba, author of the third stanza, was born at Zaroy, Poland, and died in Basel. A descendant of an old Polish noble family, he received a good education at the University of Dorpat, excelling in languages. Although he prepared himself for the diplomatic service to Russia, he became greatly interested in the missionary work centering in Basel, and eventually entered the work carried on among the Mohammedans and Nestorians in South Russia and the Caucasus regions. For many years he was an itinerant preacher in Germany and Switzerland.
The translator, Julius Henry Horstmann, was born at Naperville, Ill., and is living in retirement at Maplewood, Mo. He was educated at Northwestern College, Elmhurst College and Eden Theological Seminary. He served churches in Indiana and Texas and from 1906 to 1936 was editor of the Evangelical Herald.
MUSIC. DIE SACH’ IST DEIN, a popular, effective melody, is of uncertain origin. It was formerly attributed, without evidence, to Haydn.