Whether we live…or die, we are the Lord’s.
Romans 14:8
Words: Attributed to Johann Pappus, 1598. Translated from German to English by Catherine Winkworth, Lyra Germanica, second series (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, 1858), pages 210–11. In time of dangerous duty.
Music: Salus Mortalium, Gesangbuch (Erfurt, Germany: 1663) (🔊 pdf nwc).
Alternate Tune:
This hymn has frequently been ascribed to Dr. Johann Pappus…professor of Hebrew at the University of Strassburg…but this ascription has not been traced earlier than about 1640, e.g., in the Cantionale sacrum, Gotha, pt. iii, 1648, No. 18, and the Königsberg G. B. [Gesangbuch], 1650, p. 530.
Lauxmann, in Koch, viii. 609, thinks that Pappus may have arranged the hymn in its present form. It was probably suggested by a song beginning,
Ich hab meine Sach zu Gott gestellt,which Wackernagel, iii. Nos. 1242, 1243, quotes from a Leipzig broadsheet of 1555, and other sources.Julian, p. 671
My cause is God’s, and I am still,
Let Him do with me as He will;
Whether for me the fight is won,
Or scarce begun,
I ask no more—His will be done!
My sins are more than I can bear,
Yet not for this will I despair,
I know to death and to the grave
The Father gave
His dearest Son, that He might save.
In Him my Savior I abide,
I know for all my sins He died,
And ris’n again to work my good,
The burning flood
Hath quenched with His most precious blood.
To Him I live and die alone,
Death cannot part Him from His own;
Living or dying I am His
Who only is
Our comfort, and our gate of bliss.
This is my solace, day by day,
When snares and death beset my way,
I know that at the morn of doom
From out the tomb
With joy to meet Him I shall come.
Then I shall see God face to face,
I doubt it not, through Jesus’ grace,
Amid the joys prepared for me!
Thanks be to Thee
Who givest us the victory!
O Jesus Christ, Thou Son of God,
Who once for me didst bear the rod,
Ah, hide me in Thy wounded heart
When I depart;
My help, my hope, Thou only art!
Amen, dear God! now send us faith,
And at the last a happy death;
And grant us all ere long to be
In Heav’n with Thee,
To praise Thee there eternally.