Man of Sorrows and acquainted. C. Gregor and C. I. Latrobe. [Passiontide.] This hymn is marked by the Rev. J. A. Eberle in his notes in the Moravian Messenger for June, 1868, as C. Gregor, 1759, and C. I. Latrobe, 1802. Mr. Miller (Singers and Songs, p. 231) quotes Mr. Latrobe as saying:—
"The late venerable Bishop of the Brethren's Church, Christian Gregor, was the principal author and compiler of the following cantata, of which he kindly furnished me with a copy. It has been my desire and study to preserve all the ideas contained in the original, and I hope, on comparison, it will be found that I have omitted few, if any, that are essential; but I did not always confine myself to words, or to the same number of verses."
The original German has not been traced. In English the hymn was given as No. 1011 in the 1808 Supplement to the Moravian Hymn Book of 1801 (1886, No. 72), in 6 stanzas of 8 lines. It was adopted by Montgomery in his Christian Psalmist, 1825, and has since appeared in the Congregational Hymn Book, 1836; N. Cong. , 1859; Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858; Alton's Congregational Psalmist Hymnal, 1886, and others. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
