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. Wackernagel, in giving the text in his D. Kirchenlied, v. p. 84, says that Moller, in his 1596 Manuale de Praeparatione ad Mortem, gives it among those “composed by other spiritual persons" [perhaps as being based on the Latin], and that Conrad Hojer [or Cunrad Höier, Sub-prior at Mollenbeck, near Rinteln on the Weser] in his Die fünff Heupt Stücke Christlicher Lehre, Stadthagen, 1614, claims it as his own. He thus gives it under Hojer's name, but says that Hojer probably only altered it, and reduced it to more regular form. Included in many subsequent hymn-books, and recently us No. 734 in the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851.
Translations in common use:—
1. 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 editions. 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.
2. 0 God, what manifold distress, a good translation of stanzas i., ii., iv., xi., by A. T. Russell, as No. 222, in his Psalms & Hymns, 1851. Part ii. begins, "Jesu, my Lord and God, Thou art."
3. Ah God, my days are dark indeed, a very good translation, omitting stanzas iii., v., in the 2nd Ser. 1858, of Miss Winkworth’s Lyra Germanica p. 185, and repeated, as No. 136, in her Chorale Book for England , 1863. In the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880, stanzas i., ii., iv., vii., ix., xii., are given as No. 416. Her translation of stanzas iv., vi., vii., ix.-xi., beginning, "Jesus, my only God and Lord," were included as No. 215, in the Methodist New Congregational Hymn Book, 1863, and the same, omitting stanza vi., as No. 300 in Holy Song , 1869. Her translations of stanzas vii., viii., xi., xii., slightly altered and beginning "Jesu, my boast, my light, my joy," were given as No. 507, in Kennedy , 1863.
Other translations are:—
(1) "O Lord! how many miseries," by J. C. Jacobi, 1720, p. 21 (1722, p. 76, 1732, p. 125). (2) "O God, how many an anxious hour," as No. 235 in pt. i. of the Moravian Hymn Book, 1754.
In Bunsen's Versuch, 1833, a greatly altered form of stanzas iii.—v., beginning, "Mein Herzenstrost ist Jesus Christ," was included as No. 465, without name of adapter. Of this form the translations are:—
(1) "Christ to my heart true joy can give," good and full, in Miss Cox's Sacred Hymns from the German, 1841, p. 185. Thence, unaltered, as No. 77 in Alford's Psalms & Hymns, 1844, and as No. 206 in Hook's Church School Hymn Book, 1850. (2) "Jesus! I place my trust in Thee," by Lady Eleanor Fortescue, 1843 (1847, p. 73). [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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