Eternal Son of God

Representative Text

1 Eternal Son of God, O Thou,
Before whom earth and heaven bow,
Regard Thy people as they raise
To Thee their songs of pray'r and praise.

2 This house they dedicate to Thee,
That here they may Thy glory see;
Thy body and Thy blood they here
Receive, their fainting souls to cheer.

3 Here in baptismal water pure
They find for sins a gracious cure;
Their children here to Thee they bring,
O Thou,our death-subduing King.

4 Here sin's diseases healing find,
The weak grow strong, light cheers the blind;
The troubled heart with peace is blest,
And weariness finds heav'nly rest.

5 When tempests shake the world around,
The rock-built Church secure is found;
The gates of hell may here assail
Whom Christ defends, but not prevail.

6 Praise to the Father, and the Son,
And Holy Spirit, Three in One;
Blest Trinity, whom we adore,
Teach us to praise Thee evermore.

Source: Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #68

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Author: J. J. Rambach

Rambach, Johann Jakob, D.D., son of Hans Jakob Rambach, cabinet maker at Halle on the Saale, was born at Halle, Feb. 24, 1693. In 1706 he left school and entered his father's workshop, but, in the autumn of 1707, he dislocated his ankle. During his illness he turned again to his schoolbooks; the desire for learning reawoke; and on his recovery, early in 1708, he entered the Latin school of the Orphanage at Halle (Glaucha). On Oct. 27, 1712, he matriculated at the University of Halle as a student of medicine, but soon turned his attention to theology. He became specially interested in the study of the Old Testament under J. H. Michaelis. In May 1715 he became one of Michaelis's assistants in preparing his edition of the Hebrew Bible, for whi… Go to person page >

Translator: Anonymous

In some hymnals, the editors noted that a hymn's author is unknown to them, and so this artificial "person" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the hymns attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many people over a span of many centuries. Go to person page >

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Text Information

First Line: Eternal Son of God, O Thou
Title: Eternal Son of God
Latin Title: Christe cunctorum dominator alme
Author: J. J. Rambach
Translator: Anonymous (1880)
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Source: Latin, 11th century
Language: English
Notes: Hymn text, suggested tune HERR JESU CHRIST, DICH
Copyright: Public Domain
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Notes

Christe cunctorum dominator alme. [Consecration of a Church.] This hymn of unknown date and authorship, is found in three manuscripts of the 11th century, in the British Museum (Jul. A. vi. f. 68 b; Vesp. D. xii. f. 112 b; Harl. 2961, f. 250), in the Latin Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, 1851, p. 141, and in an 11th century Mozarabic Breviary in the British Museum. The oldest manuscript in which it is now found is one of the 9th century, in the Library at Bern. Daniel, i., No. 96, and iv. pp. 110 and 364, has the full text with various readings from the Bern manuscript, and other sources.
It has also been rendered into English through the German as follows:—
Du, dem der Himmel und die Erd' sich beuget, by A. J. Rambach, in his Anthologie, i. p. 176, in 9 stanzas. Thence altered and beginning "0 Herr, vor dem sich Erd' und Himmel beuget," in Knapp's Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz, 1837, No. 1129 (1865, No. 1286). The only translation in common use is —
Eternal Son of God, 0 Thou, a translation in L. M. of stanzas i.—iv., vi., ix. as No. 131 in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Tune

FEDERAL STREET

Henry Kemble Oliver (b. Beverly, MA, 1800; d. Salem, MA, 1885) composed FEDERAL STREET in 1832, possibly as an imitation of earlier psalm tunes in long meter. He took it to a music class taught by Lowell Mason (who may have contributed to the harmony); Mason (PHH 96) published it in his Boston Acade…

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HERR JESU CHRIST DICH ZU UNS WEND (13532)


OLD HUNDREDTH

This tune is likely the work of the composer named here, but has also been attributed to others as shown in the instances list below. According to the Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (1992), Old 100th first appeared in the Genevan Psalter, and "the first half of the tune contains phrases which may ha…

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Instances

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Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #68

Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #68
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