Bei ihm im Leiden stehen!
Denn wer nicht kämpft, trägt auch die Kron’
Des ew’gen Lebens nicht davon.
Based on Matt. 16:24: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” The hymn has been called a “masterpiece of scriptural didactic poetry.” It appeared first in the author’s Heilige Seelenlust, 1668.
Johann Scheffler, author of the hymn, holds a high place in the first rank of German poets. Born in Breslau, Silesia, the son of Lutheran parents, he studied in the Universities of Strassburg, Leyden, and Padua, graduating with the degrees of Ph.D. and M.D. Early in life he became deeply interested in the famous shoemaker, Jacob Böhme, a mystic and writer of popular books on the inner life. As a result of his studies in mysticism, Scheffler left the Lutherans and became a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. He then gave up the medical profession to devote himself to writing and the priesthood. Scheffler’s hymns, on the whole, are, however, not distinctly Roman Catholic in sentiment, and they became much more popular among the Lutherans and Moravians than among the Catholics. Scheffler wrote under the nom de plume, “Angelus Silesius,” “Angelus” being the name of a Spanish mystic who influenced him greatly, to which he added “Silesius” to indicate his native country.
The translation was made especially for the Hymnary, by Mrs. Joanna Andres, Newton, Kansas. The hymn is unusual in its use of the personal pronoun “I” in the first three stanzas.
MUSIC. MIR NACH! SPRICHT CHRISTUS UNSER HELD is a popular tune composed by Johann Hermann Schein (misspelled “Rhein” in the Hymnary and the Gesangbuch mit Noten).
For comments on Schein see [Hymn 508].
566. O God, Thou faithful God
Johann Heermann, 1585-1647