O Lord of life, from Thee:
In Thee is life provided
For all mankind and me;
I know no death, O Jesus,
Because I live in Thee;
Thy death it is that frees us
From death eternally.
Other well-known hymns from this consecrated writer are “O come, Eternal Spirit,” “By the holy hills surrounded,” “I place myself in Jesus’ hands,” “Thou, whose coming seers and sages,” “We are the Lord’s: His all-sufficient merit,” “How blessed from the bonds of sin,” “We praise and bless Thee, gracious Lord,” “Brethren, called by one vocation,” “Withhold not, Lord, the help I crave,” “O blessed Sun, whose splendor,” and “Say, my soul, what preparation.” The beloved German psalmist passed away suddenly while seated at his desk, September 28, 1859.
Most noted among the contemporaries of Spitta was Albert Knapp, who, although his hymns never met with the popular favor that attended Spitta’s efforts, nevertheless excelled the latter as a poet. Knapp was born at Tübingen, July 25, 1798, and was educated for the Lutheran ministry in the University at that place. His most important post after ordination was at St. Leonard’s church in Stuttgart, where he served from 1845 until his death in 1864.
Knapp was not only a hymnist but also a hymnologist. Perhaps the greatest service he rendered his Church was the editing of a collection of more than 3,000 of the great hymns of Germany. This monumental work, known as “Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz,” is the most comprehensive hymn collection ever published in German, and is a veritable gold-mine of the classics of Protestant hymnody. Knapp has been severely criticized, however, for the liberties he took in revising the hymns of some of the older writers. The best known of his own works is a baptismal hymn, “Father, who hast created all.” A hymn for church dedication begins with the line, “O God, whom we as Father know.”