O du allersüßte Freude

Author: Paul Gerhardt

Paul Gerhardt (b. GraEenhainichen, Saxony, Germany, 1607; d. Lubben, Germany, 1676), famous author of Lutheran evangelical hymns, studied theology and hymnody at the University of Wittenberg and then was a tutor in Berlin, where he became friends with Johann Crüger. He served the Lutheran parish of Mittenwalde near Berlin (1651-1657) and the great St. Nicholas' Church in Berlin (1657-1666). Friederich William, the Calvinist elector, had issued an edict that forbade the various Protestant groups to fight each other. Although Gerhardt did not want strife between the churches, he refused to comply with the edict because he thought it opposed the Lutheran "Formula of Concord," which con­demned some Calvinist doctrines. Consequently, he was re… Go to person page >

Suggested tune: GENEVAN 42 (FREU DICH SEHR) O du allersüsste Freude. P. Gerhardt. [Whitsuntide.] This beautiful hymn of supplication to the Holy Spirit for His gifts and graces was 1st published in the 3rd edition, 1648, of Crüger's Praxis pietatis melica, No. 155, in 10 stanzas of 8 lines, reprinted in Wackernagel’s edition of his Geistliche Lieder, No. 30, and in Bachmann's edition. No. 10. It has attained a wide popularity in Germany, and is included in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder, edition 1863, No. 366. Through J. C. Jacobi's version it has also been very largely used, in various forms, in Great Britain and America. Translated as:— 1. 0 Thou sweetest Source of gladness. A full and good translation by J. C. Jacobi, in Part ii., 1725, of his Psalmodia Germanica , p. 6 (edition 1732, p. 43, greatly altered). His stanzas i.-iv., ix., x. were considerably altered, as "Holy Ghost, dispel our sadness," by A. M. Toplady, and were given in the Gospel Magazine, June, 1776, and repeated in the same year in Toplady's Psalms & Hymns, No. 155. They are thus included in Sedgwick's edition of Toplady's Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1860, p. 169. These stanza are (i.) "Holy Ghost, dispel our sad¬ness." (ii.) "From that height which knows no measure." (iii.) "Come, Thou best of all dona¬tions." (iv.) "Known to Thee are all recesses." (v.) "Manifest Thy love for ever." (vi.) "Be our Friend on each occasion." While appearing in many centos, it usually begins with the first stanza of the Jacobi-Toplady text of 1776, "Holy Ghost, dispel our sadness." These centos may be thus grouped:— (1) In the original metre. There are about a dozen of centos in common use in this metre, and all beginning with stanza i., given in hymn-books from the Lady Hun¬tingdonCollection, 1780, in 5 stanzas, to the Irish Church Hymnal, 1873, in 2 stanzas. The construction of all these centos may be ascertained by comparing them with the first lines of the Jacobi-Toplady text as above. (2) In 8.7.8.7.4.7. metre. This, composed of stanzas i., iii. greatly altered, is in Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody, 1833; Kennedy, 1863; Com. Praise, 1879. &c. (3) In 8.7.8.7. metre. There are nearly ten centos in this metre from the Congregational Hymn Book, 1836, in 2 stanzas to the Pennsylvania Lutheran Church Book, 1868, in 3 stanzas of 8 lines. (4) In addition to these centos there are also (1) " Holy Spirit, Source of gladness," in the American Unitarian Book of Hymns, 1848, and other collections; (2) "Come, Thou Source of sweetest gladness," in Stopford Brookes's Christian Hymns, 1881, both being altered forms of the Jacobi-Toplady text. 2. Sweetest joy the soul can know. A good translation, omitting stanzas viii. and ix., by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd Series, 1858, p. 55, and again, altered in metre, as "Sweetest Fount of holy gladness," in her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 73. In this stanzas ii. and iv., as in Lyra Germanica are omittedition. From the Lyra Germanica text, No. 408 of the American Hymns of the Spirit, 1864, is derived; and from the Chorale Book for England text, No. 108, in Stryker's Christian Chorals, N. Y., 1885. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)