

1 Lord Jesus Christ, my Life, my Light,
My strength by day, my trust by night,
On earth I'm but a passing guest,
And sorely by my sins oppressed.
2 O let thy sufferings give me power
To meet the last and darkest hour.
Thy cross, the staff whereon I lean,
My couch, the grave where Thou hast been.
3 Since Thou hast died, the pure, the just,
I take my homeward way in trust;
The gates of heaven, Lord, open wide,
When here I may no more abide.
4 And when the last great day is come,
And Thou, our Judge, shalt speak the doom,
Let me with joy behold the light,
And set me then upon Thy right.
5 Renew this wasted flesh of mine,
That like the sun it there may shine
Among the angels pure and bright.
Yea, like thyself, in glorious light.
6 Ah, then I have my heart's desire,
When, singing with the angels' choir,
Among the ransomed of thy grace,
Forever I behold thy face.
AMEN.
Source: The A.M.E. Zion Hymnal: official hymnal of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church #295
First Line: | Lord Jesus Christ, my Life, my Light |
German Title: | O Jesu Christ, mein's Lebens Licht |
Author: | Martin Behm |
Translator: | Catherine Winkworth |
Meter: | 8.8.8.8 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht. [For the Dying.] His finest hymn. First published in a collection entitled Christliche Gebet, 1610, and then in his Zehen Sterbegebet, appended to his Centuria secunda, 1611 (see above), in 14 stanzas of 4 lines, entitled "Prayer fora happy journey home, founded upon the sufferings of Christ." Thence in Wackernagel, v. p. 235, Noldeke, 1857, p. 79, and the Unverfalschter Liedersegen, 1851, No. 835. The translation in common use are:—
Lord Jesus Christ, my Life, my Light. A very good translations by Miss Winkworth in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Series, 1858, p. 213, stanzas v., x. being omitted and viii., ix. combined as one stanza. In her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 190, she omitted her stanzas v., vi., and united her stanzas iv., vii. as iv. This translations is included more or less abridged in Wilson's Service of Praise, 1865, and in America in the Baptist Hymn Book, Phil, 1871, the Methodist Episcopal Hymnal, 1878/and the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880, &c.
--Excerpt from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)