Jesu meine Freude. J. Franck. [Love to Christ.] This beautiful hymn appears in C. Peter's Andachts Zymbeln, Freyberg, 1655, No. 211, in 6 stanzas of 10 lines, followed by a seventh stanza marked off “Vater aller Ehren," from Franck's Vaterunserharfe (i.e. one of his metrical versions of the Lord's Prayer). It is also in J. Crüger's Praxis, Frankfurt, 1656, No. 385 (with the melody by Crüger still in German use); in Franck's Geistliches Sion, 1674, No. 85 (1846, p. 58), and in most later hymn-books generally in the original 6 stanzas, as in the Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851, No 762.
It is modelled on a Song in H. Alberti's Arien, pt. iv., Königsberg, 1641, No. 24, which begins, “Flora meine Freude; Meiner Seelenweide." When the hymn began to be extensively used many of the older Lutherans objected that its depth of spiritual experience unfitted it for use in public worship; just as in our days Bishop C. Wordsworth, in the preface to his Holy Year, objected on similar grounds to the use of "Jesus, lover of my soul," by an ordinary congregation. Lauxmann, in Koch, viii. 279-286, relates many instances in which the use of this hymn was blessed. He adds that it was translation into Esthonian in 1667; into Russian in 1724, by command of Peter the Great; and about the same time into Latin.
Translations in common use:—
1. Jesus, my chief pleasure. A good translation, omitting stanza iii., contributed by R. Massie, as No. 436, to the 1857 edition of Mercer's Church Psalter & Hymn Book (Ox. edition, 1864, No. 339, omitting the translation of stanza iv.). Mr. Massie included the translation in his Lyra Domestica, 1864, p. 132, and it is also in Reid's Praise Book 1872; Schaff’s Christ in Song, &c.
2. Jesu, priceless treasure. A good translation, omitting stanza iii., by Miss Winkworth, as No. 151, in her Chorale Book for England, 1863, repeated, adding a translation of stanza iii., in her Christian Singers , 1869, p. 228. Included in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880, No. 280, with a translation of stanza iii. not by Miss Winkworth.
3. Jesus, Thou art nearest. A translation of stanzas i., ii., v., vi., by M. W. Stryker, as No. 119 in his Christian Chorals, 1885.
Other translations are, (1) "Jesu! Source of gladness," by J. C. Jacobi, 1722, p. 74. Slightly altered in his 2nd edition, 1732, p. 128, and repeated in the Moravian Hymn Book, 1754. In the Moravian Hymn Book, 1789, No. 453 (1849, No. 655), the three opening lines of this version and little else are from Jacobi. (2) "Jesus, my chief pleasure, Comfort," by Dr. H. Mills, 1845 (1856, p. 90). (3) "Jesu, my Joy-giving," by N. L. Frothingham, 1870, p. 150. (4) "Jesu, Fount of Pleasure," by J. H. Hopkins, in his Carols, &c, 3rd edition, 1882. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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Jesu meine Freude, p. 591, ii. This is in Crüger's Praxis, Berlin, 1653.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)
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Johann Franck (b. Guben, Brandenburg, Germany, 1618; d. Guben, 1677) was a law student at the University of Köningsberg and practiced law during the Thirty Years' War. He held several positions in civil service, including councillor and mayor of Guben. A significant poet, second only to Paul Gerhardt in his day, Franck wrote some 110 hymns, many of which were published by his friend Johann Crüger in various editions of the Praxis Pietatis melica. All were included in the first part of Franck’s Teutsche Gedichte bestehend im geistliche Sion (1672).
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