Scripture Verse

Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps. 1 Peter 2:21

Introduction

portrait
Sigismund von Birken (1626–1681)

Words: Sig­is­mund von Bir­ken, 1653 (Lass­et uns mit Je­su zie­hen). Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by J. Ad­am Rim­bach, 1900.

Music: Lass­et uns mit Je­su zie­hen Ge­org G. Bolt­ze, 1788 (🔊 pdf nwc). The tune was orig­in­al­ly com­posed for Paul Ger­hardt’s Sollt ich mein­em Gott nicht sing­en.

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

Lyrics

Let us ev­er walk with Je­sus,
Follow His ex­am­ple pure,
Flee the world, which would de­ceive us
And to sin our souls al­lure.
Ever in His foot­steps tread­ing,
Body here, yet soul above,
Full of faith and hope and love,
Let us do the Fa­ther’s bid­ding,
Faithful, Lord, abide with me;
Savior, lead, I fol­low Thee.

Let us suf­fer here with Je­sus,
To His im­age e’er con­form;
Heaven’s glo­ry soon will please us,
Sunshine fol­low on the storm.
Tho’ we sow in tears of sor­row,
We shall reap in heav’n­ly joy;
And the fears that now an­noy
Shall be laugh­ter on the mor­row.
Christ, I suf­fer here with Thee;
There, oh, share Thy joy with me!

Let us al­so die with Je­sus.
His death from the se­cond death,
From our soul’s de­struc­tion, frees us,
Quickens us with life’s glad breath.
Let us mor­ti­fy, while liv­ing,
Flesh and blood and die to sin;
And the grave that shuts us in
Shall but prove the gate to Hea­ven.
Jesus, here I die to Thee
There to live eter­nal­ly.

Let us glad­ly live with Je­sus;
Since He’s ris­en from the dead;
Death and grave must soon re­lease us.
Jesus, Thou art now our head,
We are truly Thine own mem­bers;
Where Thou liv­est, there live we.
Take and own us con­stant­ly,
Faithful Friend, as Thy dear breth­ren.
Jesus, here I live to Thee,
Also there eter­nal­ly.