Folget mir, ruft uns das Leben. J. Rist. [Following Christ.] First published as No. 1 in the "Viertes Zehen" of his Himlische Lieder, Lüneburg, 1642, in 16 stanzas of 8 lines, entitled, "A devout hymn to God for the following of Christ in true godliness and all good works." Included in Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch, 1704, No. 393, omitting stanzas x., xi., and this form was repeated in most subsequent collections, and is No. 307 in the Unverfälschter Liedersegen 1851. The only translations in common use is:—
Follow me, in me ye live. A good translation of stanzas i.-iii., vi., vii., ix., xv., xvi., by Miss Winkworth in the 1st Series of Lyra Germanica, 1855, p. 188, entitled "St. Andrew's Day." Her stanzas i., v., vi. are included in Kennedy, 1863 ; and her stanzas vii., viii., with a stanza from her ii., iv., v. beginning, "Saviour, meet it is indeed," in the Pennsylvania Lutheran Hymn Book, 1865. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Rist, Johann, son of Kaspar Rist, pastor at Ottensen, near Hamburg, was born at Ottensen, March 8, 1607, and from his birth was dedicated to the ministry. After passing through the Johanneum at Hamburg and the Gymnasium Illustre at Bremen, he matriculated, in his 21st year, at the University of Rinteln, and there, under Josua Stegmann (q. v.), he received an impulse to hymn-writing. On leaving Rinteln he acted as tutor to the sons of a Hamburg merchant, accompanying them to the University of Rostock, where he himself studied Hebrew, Mathematics and also Medicine.
During his residence at Rostock the terrors, of the Thirty Years War almost emptied the University, and Rist himself also lay there for weeks ill of the pestilence. After his r… Go to person page >
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