Scripture Verse

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels. Revelation 3:5

Introduction

portrait
Valerius Herberger (1562–1627)

Words: Va­le­ri­us Her­ber­ger, 1613 (Valet will ich dir ge­ben). First pub­lished on a broad­sheet in Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny, in 1614. Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by Ca­the­rine Wink­worth, Chor­ale Book for Eng­land, 1863, alt. Her­ber­ger wrote these words dur­ing a pe­ri­od of plague.

Music: Va­let will ich dir ge­ben Mel­chi­or Tesch­ner, 1613 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Tesch­ner (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Catherine Winkworth
(1827–1878)

A de­vout pray­er with which the Evan­gel­ical ci­ti­zens of Fraw­en­stadt in the au­tumn of the year 1613 moved the heart of God the Lord so that He mer­ci­ful­ly laid down the sharp rod of wrath un­der which nea­rly two thou­sand fell on sleep. And al­so a hymn of con­so­la­tion in which a pi­ous heart bids fare­well (Val­et) to this world. Both com­posed by Va­le­ri­us Her­ber­ger, preach­er at the Kripp­lein Chri­sti.

Julian, p. 511

Lyrics

Farewell I glad­ly bid thee,
False, ev­il world, fare­well.
Thy life is vain and sin­ful,
With thee I would not dwell.
I long to be in Hea­ven,
In that un­trou­bled sphere
Where they will be re­ward­ed
Who served their God while here.

By Thy good coun­sel lead me,
O Son of God, my stay;
In each per­plex­ing tri­al
Help me, O Lord, I pray.
Mine hour of sor­row short­en,
Support my faint­ing heart,
From ev­ery cross de­li­ver,
The crown of life im­part.

When dark­ness round me ga­thers,
Thy name and cross, still bright,
Deep in my heart are spark­ling
Like stars in black­est night.
O heart, this im­age cher­ish:
The Christ on Cal­va­ry,
How pa­tient­ly He suf­fered
And shed His blood for me!

Lord, hide my soul se­cure­ly,
Deep in Thy wound­ed side;
From ev­ery dan­ger shield me
And to Thy glo­ry guide.
He has been tru­ly bless­èd
Who reach­es Heav’n ab­ove;
He has found per­fect heal­ing
Who rests up­on Thy love.

Lord, write my name, I pray Thee,
Now in the Book of Life,
And with all true believers
Take me where joys are rife.
There let me bloom and flour­ish,
Thy per­fect free­dom prove,
And tell, as I ad­ore Thee,
How faith­ful was Thy love.