Come, Christians, praise your Maker's goodness

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Come, Christians, praise your Maker's goodness

Author: Ehrenfried Liebich (1768); Translator: Catherine Winkworth (1863)
Tune: O DASS ICH TAUSEND ZUNGEN HÄTTE (König)
Published in 5 hymnals

Piano/Organ
	Organ Music for the Trinity Season

Representative Text

1 Come Christians, praise your Maker's goodness,
Rejoice in Him and in His gift;
To-day before the Lord of harvest
In happy songs your voices lift;
For He who cared for us of yore
Hath bless'd our fields and homes once more.

2 Accept, O Lord, our thankful praises
For all our Father doth bestow;
May it increase our faith, and lead us
Our praise by godly lives to show;
That every deed and word may prove
We trust and own our Father's love.

3 Thou feedest us in pure compassion;
Teach us to care for others' need;
Let each, as he is able, comfort
The sick and poor, the hungry feed:
O Father Thou of all below,
On each what most he needs bestow.

4 Open Thy bounteous hands in blessing
Thus to refresh us year by year;
Provide for us through all life's journey,
And make us faithful stewards here
Of all that to our care is given,
That greater gifts be ours in heaven.

5 Preserve to us what Thou hast sent us,
And grant us calm and peaceful days
And grateful hearts, that we may use it
In quiet gladness to Thy praise:
And while our bodies thus are fed,
O grant our souls the Living Bread!

Source: Evangelical Lutheran hymnal: with music #136

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Author: Ehrenfried Liebich

Liebich, Ehrenfried, was born July 15, 1713, at Probsthain, near Goldberg, Silesia, where his father was a miller. He assisted his father in the mill up to his sixteenth year, and was thereafter allowed to study at the Latin school at Schweidnitz, and the St. Elisabeth school at Breslau. At Easter, 1738, he entered the University of Leipzig as a student of Theology, and on concluding his course in 1740, was for some time engaged in private tuition. In April, 1742, he became pastor at Lomnitz and Erdmannsdorf, near Hirschberg, Silesia, and remained there till his death on June 23, 1780 (Koch, vi. 391; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, xviii. 584, &c). Liebich is one of the best German hymn-writers of the middle of the 18th century; Scriptura… Go to person page >

Translator: Catherine Winkworth

Catherine Winkworth (b. Holborn, London, England, 1827; d. Monnetier, Savoy, France, 1878) is well known for her English translations of German hymns; her translations were polished and yet remained close to the original. Educated initially by her mother, she lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany, in 1845, where she acquired her knowledge of German and interest in German hymnody. After residing near Manchester until 1862, she moved to Clifton, near Bristol. A pioneer in promoting women's rights, Winkworth put much of her energy into the encouragement of higher education for women. She translated a large number of German hymn texts from hymnals owned by a friend, Baron Bunsen. Though often altered, these translations continue to be used i… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Come, Christians, praise your Maker's goodness
German Title:	Kommt, Christen, Gottes Huld zu feiern
Author:	Ehrenfried Liebich (1768)
Translator:	Catherine Winkworth (1863)
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Tune

O DASS ICH TAUSEND ZUNGEN HÄTTE (König)

Johann Balthaser König (b. Waltershausen, near Gotha, Germany, 1691; d. Frankfurt, Germany, 1758) composed this tune, which later became associated with Johann Mentzer's hymn "O dass ich tausend Zungen hätte" (Oh, That I Had a Thousand Voices). The harmonization is from the Wurttembergische Choral…

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