Herz und Herz vereint zusammen. N. L. von Zinzendorf. [Communion of Saints.] Written in 1725, and said to have been occasioned by strife in the Brethren's Unity, healed by common love to the Saviour. First published in his Die letzten Beden unsers Herrn und Heylandes Jesu Christi vor seinem Creutzes-Tode, Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1725.
This work contains a poetical rendering of our Lord's Farewell Discourse as recorded in St. John xiv.-xvii., each chapter forming a section of the poem, which thus contains respectively 43, 83, 81, and 113 stanzas of 8 lines—in all 320 stanzas. From this stanzas 53-59 of section ii. were included as No. 1305 in the 3rd edition, 1731, of the Sammlung geist-und lieblicher Lieder, 1725, and repeated in the Herrnhut Gesang-Buch, 1735, in 8 stanzas. In the Brüder Gesang-Buch, 1778, No. 713, stanza 55 of section ii., 1725, was omitted, and three stanzas inserted as vii., viii., x., which are taken from stanzas 78, 81, and 104 of section iv. of the 1725; while the text of all the stanzas is considerably altered. (See the various forms in the Blatter für Hymnologie, 1883, pp. 49-52.) The text of 1778 is No. 1040 in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder edition 1863. The text in Bunsen's Versuch, 1833, No. 480, in 6 stanzas, is greatly altered from the 1778.
The translation in common use is:—
Heart and heart together bound, a good translation of Bunsen's text by Miss Winkworth in her Lyra Germanica, first ser. 1855, p. 124, repeated as No. 105 in her Chorale Book for England, 1863. Her stanzas iv.-vi. altered, and omitting iv., lines 5-8, and beginning "Jesus, truest Friend, unite," were included as No. 278 in the Pennsylvania Lutheran Church Book, 1868.
Other translations are:—
(1) "Flock of Jesus, be united " (stanza ii.), by J. Miller and F. W. Foster, as No. 389 in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1789, (1849, No. 485). (2) "Grant, Lord, that with Thy direction," (stanza ix.) as No. 1055, in the Supplement of 1808 to the Moravian Hymn Book, 1801. In the 1886 edition of the Moravian Hymn Book, Nos. 1 and 2 are rewritten, and a translation of stanza i. prefixed, beginning, "Christian hearts in love united," (3) "Heart to heart in love united," In the Christian Examiner, Boston, U.S., Sept. 1860, p. 255. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Zinzendorf, Count Nicolaus Ludwig, the founder of the religious community of Herrnhut and the apostle of the United Brethren, was born at Dresden May 26, 1700. It is not often that noble blood and worldly wealth are allied with true piety and missionary zeal. Such, however, was the case with Count Zinzendorf. In 1731 Zinzendorf resigned all public duties and devoted himself to missionary work. He traveled extensively on the Continent, in Great Britain, and in America, preaching "Christ, and him crucified," and organizing societies of Moravian brethren. John Wesley is said to have been under obligation to Zinzendorf for some ideas on singing, organization of classes, and Church government. Zinzendorf was the author of some two thousand hymn… Go to person page >
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