Above:  One of My Crucifixes, July 2015

Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

Hymn Source = Moravian Book of Worship (1995), Moravian Church in America

Original Czech Text (1541) by John Augusta (1500-1572)

English Translation (1989; copyright 1991) by Jaroslav Jan Vajda (1919-2008)

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1.  How shall we thank you,

Christ, our Lord, for holy life and blood outpoured?

Who else assumed our debt and death,

who else deserves our trust and faith?

2.  Your dying cleansed the world of sin,

and all who die with you are clean,

washed in your blood, we lose our stains,

and with your cross you break our chains.

3.  Your willing death upon the cross

has earned God’s priceless gift for us;

the Spirit by whose pow’r we

kill our pride and do our Father’s will.

4.  The life you lived you lived that

we might live that life eternally;

your eager Spirit shows us

how we can enjoy it even now.

5.  How shall we praise you, Christ our Lord,

for holy life and blood outpoured?

Who else assumed our debt and death,

who else deserves our trust and faith?

Above:  Dawn on a River

Image in the Public Domain

Hymn Source #1 = The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971)

Hymn Source #2 = Moravian Book of Worship (1995), Moravian Church in America

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Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, offers a different translation, the first words of which are “Rise, O Sun of Righteousness.”

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The Moravian Book of Worship (1995) contains an altered translation, which begins:

Sun of righteousness, arise;

dawn upon our clouded skies;….

C. Daniel Crews (1947-) and Roy Ledbetter (1949-) prepared their translation in 1977.  Crews revised it in 1994.

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The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (1971) contains the first four stanzas.  The Moravian Book of Worship (1995) contains the fifth stanza.

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Stanza #1 by Christian David (1690-1751); Translated by Jay Macpherson (1931-2012)

Stanzas #2 and 4 by Christian Gottlob Barth (1799-1862); Translated by Jay Macpherson (1931-2012)

Stanza #3 by Johann Christian Nehring (1671-1736); Translated by Jay Macpherson (1931-2012)

Stanza #5 by Johann Christian Nehring (1671-1736); Translated by C. Daniel Crews (1947-) and Roy Ledbetter (1949-)

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1.  Sun of righteousness, shine forth;

dawn upon this age of earth;

in thy church let light appear,

till the world shall see it clear.

Have mercy, Lord.

2.  Wake dead Christendom from sleep,

lapped in comfort, drowsing deep;

tell thy name and acts abroad;

show this land thou art God.

Have mercy, Lord.

3.  See our sad divisions, Lord;

heal by thy unbroken word;

gather, shepherd of mankind,

all the lost, the hurt, the blind.

Have mercy, Lord.

4.  Help us to behold afar

in this age thy glory’s star,

that, in what small strength we own,

knightly virtue may be show.

Have mercy, Lord.

5.  Glory, praise, and royal might

to our God of endless light,

who is perfect, three in one,

and unites us in the Son:

have mercy, Lord.

Above:  Suthers Center for Christian Outreach, Chamblee, Georgia, April 15, 2015

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

Hymn Source = Hymnal and Liturgies of the Moravian Church (1969), Moravian Church in America

The Moravian Book of Worship (1995) contains a version of this hymn with modernized pronouns.

Stanza #1 by Anna Nitschmann (1715-1760); Translated by Frederick William Foster (1760-1835)

Stanza #2 by Henriette Luise von Hayn (1724-1782); Translated by an anonymous Moravian

According to Albert H. Frank, Companion to the Moravian Book of Worship (2004), North American Moravian hymnals from 1786 to 1969 attributed the text to Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) inaccurately.  (My copies of the 1923 and 1969 Hymnal and Liturgies contain that attribution.)  Charles Adams corrected that error in Our Moravian Hymn Heritage (1984).

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1.  In mercy, Lord, this grace bestow,

That in Thy service we may do

With gladness and a willing mind

Whatever is for us assigned.

2.  Grant we, impelled by Thy love,

In smallest things may faithful prove;

Till we depart, we wish to be

Devoted wholly unto Thee.