Who knows how near my life's expended

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Who knows how near my life's expended

Translator: Henry Mills ; Author: Aemilie Juliane, Gräfin von Schwarzburg Rudolstadt
Tune: WER WEISS, WIE NAHE
Published in 12 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Who knows how near my life's expended?
Time flies, and death is hasting on,
How soon, my term of trial ended
Death may be here and life be gone.
My God, for Jesus' sake, I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

2 My many sins! O veil them over
With merits of Thy dying Son!
I here Thy richest grace discover,
Here find I peace, and here alone;
My God, for Jesus' sake, I pray
thy peace may bless my dying day.

3 His bleeding wounds give me assurance
That Thy free mercy will abide;
Here strength I find for death's endurance,
And hope for all I need beside:
My God, for Jesus' sake, I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

4 Naught shall my soul from Jesus sever,
Nor life, nor death; things high nor low;
I take Him as my Lord forever,
My future trust, as He is now;
My God, for Jesus' sake, I pray
Thy peace may bless my dying day.

Source: The Lutheran Hymnary #579

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Translator: Henry Mills

Mills, Henry, D.D., son of John Mills, was born at Morriston, New Jersey, March 12, 1786, and educated at the New Jersey College, Princeton, where he graduated in 1802. After being engaged in teaching for some time at Morristown and elsewhere, he was ordained Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Woodbridge, New Jersey, in 1816. On the opening of the Auburn Theological Seminary in 1821, he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Oriental Languages, from which he retired in 1854. He died at Auburn, June 10, 1867. In 1845 he published Horae Germanicae; A Version of German Hymns. This was enlarged in 1856. The translations are not well done, and very few are now in common use, although 18 and 9 doxologies were given in the Lutheran Ge… Go to person page >

Author: Aemilie Juliane, Gräfin von Schwarzburg Rudolstadt

Emilie Juliane was daughter of Count Albert Friedrich of Barby and Mühlingen (on the Elbe, near its junction with the Saale). During the Thirty Years' war her father and family had to seek refuge in the Heidecksburg, the castle of his uncle, Count Ludwig Günther of Schwarzburg Rudolstadt, and Emilie was born at the Heidecksburg, Aug. 16, 1637. After the death of her father (1641) and mother (1642), she was adopted by her mother's sister (who was her godmother, and had become the wife of Count Ludwig Günther), and was educated at Rudolstadt with her cousins, under the care of Dr. Ahasuerus Fritsch, and other tutors. She became the wife of her cousin, Albert Anton, July 7, 1665, and died at Rudolstadt, Dec. 3, 1706 (Koch, iv. 56-63; Allg.… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Who knows how near my life's expended
German Title:	Wer weiss, wie nahe mir mein Ende
Translator:	Henry Mills
Author:	Aemilie Juliane, Gräfin von Schwarzburg Rudolstadt
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain