Christian Jakob Koitsch

Koitsch, Christian Jacob, was born Sept. 13, 1671, at Meissen, where his father was a leathercutter. He entered the University of Leipzig in 1692, and then went as a student of theology to Halle, where, under the influence of Francke and Breithaupt, he became one of the first "awakened" students. After he had finished his course, Francke appointed him, in 1696, as one of the Masters, and in 1700 as Inspector, of the Paedagogium at Halle. In 1705 he became Professor and Kector of the Gymnasium at Elbing, and died at Elbing, Aug. 21, 1734. (Bode, p. 99; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, xvi. 455, &c.) To Freylinghausen's Geistreiches Gesang-Buch 1704, and its 2nd edition, 1705, he contributed 8 (or 9) hymns, and two others to his Neues Geistreiches Gesang-Buch, 1714. Of these the following have passed into English, viz.:—
i. Du bist ja, Jesu, meine Freude, Christian Warfare. 1704, as above, No. 308, in 6 stanzas. Translated as "Tnott, Jesu, art my Consolation," by Miss Burlingham, in the British Herald , March, 1866, p. 232, repeated in Reid's Praise Book, 1872.
ii. Lasset uns den Herren preisen Thanksgiving. Founded on Ps. lxxii. 18, 19. 1704, as above, No. 488, in 7 stanzas. Translated as "Now unite to render praises," by W. Okely, as No. 800 in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1789 (1886, No. 648).
iii. Mein Herze, wie wankest und fladderst du noch. Self-Renunciation. 1705, as above, No. 718, in 8 stanzas. Translated as "O Saviour, the truest, the best of all friends" (st. vi.), as No. 429 in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1886.
iv. O Ursprung des Lebens, o ewiges Licht. Love to Christ. A fine hymn on Christ as the Fountain of Life. 1704, as above, No. 356, in 7 stanzas of 6 lines; and in the Berlin Geistlicher Lieder Schatz, ed. 1863, No. 825. The translation in common use is "O Fountain eternal of life and of light." A good translation, omitting st. iii., as No. 1100 in the Supplement of 1808 to the Moravian Hymn Book, 1801. In the 1826 and later eds. (1886, No. 631), a translation by J. Swertner of stanza iii. was incorporated—this stanza having appeared as No. 267 in the Moravian Hymn Book., 1801. Included, altered and abridged, in Mercer's Church Praise and Hymn Book, 1855 and 1864, and the Irish Church Hymnal, 1873. Another tr. is "O everlasting source of life and light," by Miss Borthwick, in Hymns from the Land of Luther, 1862, p. 79 (1884, p. 241). [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)