Jesus, my all, my highest good

Jesus, my all, my highest good

Author: Martin Moeller
Published in 3 hymnals

Author: Martin Moeller

Moller, Martin, son of Dionysius Moller, mason at Liessnitz (now Kroptädt), near Wittenberg, was born at Liessnitz, Nov. 11, 1547. He attended the town school at Wittenberg and the gymnasium at Görlitz, but was too poor to go to any university. In 1568 he was appointed cantor at Löwenberg in Silesia, but in April, 1572, was ordained as pastor of Kesselsdorf, near Löwenberg. In the autumn of 1572 he was appointed diaconus at Löwenberg, in 1575 pastor at Sprottau, and in July, 1600, became chief pastor at Görlitz. He preached his last sermon, Oct. 30, 1605, and died at Görlitz, March 2, 1606 (Koch, ii. 211, iv. 552, &c). Moller's hymns appeared in his two very popular devotional books, (I) Meditationes sanctorumpatrum, Görlitz, 1584;… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Jesus, my all, my highest good
Author: Martin Moeller
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid. Martin Moller? [Cross and Consolation.] First appeared in the 2nd ed., Gorlitz, 1587, of Moller's Meditationes Sanctorum Patrum, entitled "A consoling prayer wherewith a troubled soul, amid all the crosses and tribulations of these last troublous times, can sweetly comfort itself and longingly delight itself in the Sweet Name of Jesus Christ. From the Ancient hymn 'Jesu dulcis memoria.'" It is a very free paraphrase of the Rhythm in 12 stanzas of 6 lines. Lauxmann, in Koch, viii. 466-468, says stanzas i., iv., v., x. have been special favourites in Germany, and inclines to ascribe the hymn to Moller.
Jesus, my all, my highest good, a very free translation in 7 stanzas of 4 lines (based on the version in 14 stanzas of 4 lines, beginning with st. ix., "Jesu! du edler Bräutgam werth," included as No. 871 in the Brüder Gesang-Buch, 1778; as No. 454 in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1789, and continued, altered, in later eds. From this, 5 stanzas, based in order of stanzas ix., ii., vii., iv., xii. of the original, were given as No. 718, in Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody , 1832. In C. Wilson's General Psalmody, 1842, No. 893, the order of stanzas is ix., ii., iv., v.

-- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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