Samuel Christian Gottfried Küster

Küster, Samuel Christian Gottfried, son of S. C. K. Küster, inspector and chief pastor at Havelberg, Brandenburg, was born at Havelberg, Aug. 18, 1762. After studying at the University of Berlin (D.D. 1835) he became third pastor of the Friedrich-Werder Church at Berlin, in 1786; in 1793 second pastor; and in 1797 chief pastor and superintendent, on the death of his father (who had been called to this church in 1771). He died at Eberswalde (Neustadt-E.), near Berlin, Aug. 22, 1838 ( Allg. Deutsche Biographie, xvi. 439, &c:

He was one of the editors of the Berlin Gesang-Buch , 1829, and contributed to it two hymns, Nos. 294 and 549; and in 1831 published a small volume of Kurze lebensgeschichtliche Nachrichten regarding the authors of the hymns therein contained.

One of Küster's hymns has passed into English, viz:—
0 Jesu, Freund der Seelen. Love to Christ, 1829, as above, No. 549, in 6 stanzas of 8 lines. Suggested by the "Schatz über alle Schatze" [see Liscovius]. Translated as:—
0 Jesus, Friend unfailing. A good and full translation by Miss Burlingham, written June 13,1865, and first published in the British Herald, July, 1865, p. 100. Repeated in full in Reid's Praise Book, 1872; W. F. Stevenson's Hymns for Church & Home, 1873; Dale's English Hymn Book, 1875, and others; and abridged in Newman Hall's Christ Church Hymnal, 1876; Baptist Hymnal, 1879; Supplement of 1880 to Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858, &c. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)