Wir sagen dir Lob, Ehr und Dank
Jetzund und unser Leben lang,
O heiliger Geist, o heiliger Gott.
The original hymn, in six stanzas, first appeared in Johann Niedling’s Lutherisches-Altenburgisches Handbüchlein, Naumburg, 1651. Some of the hymns in this collection are original with Niedling, and bear his name. This hymn, however, appears anonymously, leaving doubt as to its authorship. The Common Service Book of the United Lutheran Church credits it to Niedling.
The English translation was made especially for the United Lutheran Hymnal, in 1913, employing the first four stanzas of the original.
The translator, John Casper Mattes, was born in Easton, Pa. After graduating from Lafayette College and Mt. Airy Theological Seminary, he served as pastor of the Church of the Saviour, Trenton, N. J., 1901-15, and St. John Lutheran Church, Scranton, Pa., 1915-38. From 1939 until his death in 1948 he was a teacher at the Wartburg Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa. Mattes was a frequent contributor to Lutheran publications and served on the United Lutheran Church Common Service Book Committee. He was a member of the Intersynodical Committee on translation of Luther’s Small Catechism, and is translator of Koberle’s Rechtfertigung und Heiligung.
MUSIC. O HEILIGER GEIST, O HEILIGER GOTT, also called “O Jesulein Süss,” first appears in Auserlesene Catholische Geistliche Kirchengesäng, Cologne, 1623, set to the hymn, “Ist das der Leib, Herr Jesu Christ.” In Christliche Seelenharfe, Halle, 1650, it is set to “Komm heiliger Geist, mit deinen Genad” while in S. Scheldt’s Tabulatur Buch, Görlitz, 1650, it is used with the hymn, “O Jesulein süss, O Jesulein mild.” The melody appears in many later collections, both Catholic and Protestant. Its present form, a variant of Scheldt’s, appeared in the Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch, Leipzig, 1682, set to the hymn, “O heiliger Geist, O heiliger Gott.” It is an attractive tune in triple time, of the type associated with early German carols.
Samuel Scheidt, 1587-1654, the composer, was born at Halle, the son of Conrad Scheidt, overseer of the salt works. He had for his teacher the famous Peter Sweelinck of Amsterdam, and became a noted organist and composer. His Tabulatura Nova, 1624, set a new standard in organ playing, by showing how to make it less ostentatious and more meaningful and coherent. His great work, Tablaturbuch, is a series of harmonized chorales, published in three parts, 1624-53.
548. Come, O come, Thou quickening Spirit
Heinrich Held, c. 1620-59