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1 The precious seed of weeping
To-day we sow once more,
The form of one now sleeping,
Whose pilgrimage is o'er.
Ah, death but safely lands him
Where we too would attain;
Our Father's voice demands him,
And death to him is gain.
2 He has what we are wanting,
He sees what we believe;
The sins on earth so haunting
Have there no power to grieve;
Safe in His Saviour's keeping
Who sent him calm release;
'Tis only we are weeping,
He dwells in perfect peace.
3 The crown of life he weareth.
He bears the shining palm,
The "Holy, holy," shareth,
And joins the angels' psalm;
But we poor pilgrims wander
Still through this land of woe,
Till we shall meet him yonder,
And all his joy shall know.
Source: Church Book: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran congregations #554
First Line: | The precious seed of weeping |
Title: | The Precious Seed of Weeping |
German Title: | Am Grabe steh'n wir stille |
Author: | Karl Johann Philipp Spitta |
Translator: | Catherine Winkworth (1863) |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Am Grabe stehn wir stille. C. J. P. Spitta. [Burial of the Dead.] First published in Series i. of his Psalter und Harfe, Leipzig, 1833, p. 140 (ed. 1838, p. 155), in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, entitled "At the Grave." Taken by his colleague, Pastor Borchers, as the text of his oration at Spitta's funeral, Sunday, Oct. 1, 1859 (Münkel's Spitta, 1861, pp. 283-284). Included as No. 2918 in Knapp's Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz ed. 1850.
Translation in common use:—
The precious seed of weeping. An excellent translation, as No. 98, by Miss Winkworth in her Chorale Book for England, 1863. Thence, unaltered, as No. 236 in Allon's Supplemental Hymns, 1868, as No. 554 in the Pennsylvania Lutheran Church Book, 1808, and as No. 1010 in the American Methodist Episcopal Hymnal, 1878.
Other translations are:—
(1.) ”Now weeping at the grave we stand," by Miss Winkworth, 1858, p. 118. (2.) "Beside the dark grave standing," by M. Massie, 1860, p. 138. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)