Ich will singen ein Lied von dem herrlichen Land

Translator: August Johann Berens

Berens, August. (Hamburg, Germany, October 30, 1843--January 12, 1908, Niles Center, Illinois). He attended the Missionhaus at Barmen, Germany, ca. 1859-1862, and then did post-graduate study at Tübingen, ca. 1862-1863. Coming to the United States, he was a missionary pastor for the Evangelical Synod of North America on the western frontier, especially in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He was pastor in Washington, Missouri, 1878-1887, and of St. Peter's Church, Elmhurst, Illinois, 1887-1906. He was the author of Frülingsboten: Gedichte (St. Charles, Illinois, 1889) and Frisch und fromm: Ein Kinderbüchlein mit Gedichten, Liedern, und Sprüchen (St. Louis, n.d.). He became a U.S. citizen in June, 1892. Berens married a school teacher, Clara R… Go to person page >

Author: Ellen M. H. Gates

Gates, Ellen, née Huntingdon, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, is the author of several popular pieces in the American Mission and Sunday School hymn-books. Of these the following have passed from the American books into Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos:— 1. Come home, come home, you are weary at heart. Invitation. 2. I am now a child of God. Saved through Jesus. 3. I will sing you a song of that beautiful land. Concerning Heaven. 4. O the clanging bells of time. Yearning for Heaven. 5. Say, is your lamp burning, my brother. Watching and Waiting. Concerning her poem which is used as a hymn in America, "If you cannot on the ocean" (Duty), Duffield says her account of its origin is as follows:—"The lines were written upo… Go to person page >