O How Blest Are Ye Whose Toils Are Ended

O how blest are ye whose toils are ended

Author: Simon Dach; Translator: Henry W. Longfellow
Tune: O WIE SELIG
Published in 16 hymnals

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Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Oh, how blest are they whose toils are ended,
Who through death have unto God ascended!
They have arisen
From the cares which keep us still in prison.

2 We are still as in a dungeon living,
Still oppressed with sorrow and misgiving;
Our undertakings
Are but toils and troubles and heartbreakings.

3 They meanwhile are in their chambers sleeping,
Quiet and set free from all our weeping;
No cross or sadness
There can hinder their untroubled gladness.

4 Christ has wiped away their tears forever;
They have that for which we still endeavor,
By them are chanted
Songs that ne'er to mortal ears were granted.

5 Come, 0 Christ, and loose the chains that bind us;
Lead us forth and cast this world behind us.
With You, the Anointed,
Finds the soul its joy and rest appointed.



Source: Lutheran Service Book #679

Author: Simon Dach

Dach, Simon, son of Simon Dach, interpreter to the Court of Justice at Memel, Prussia, was born at Memel, July 29,1605. He attended the Cathedral school at Königsberg, the Town school at Wittenberg, and the Gymnasium at Magdeburg. In 1626 he returned to Königsberg, where, after studying philosophy and theology at the University, he for some time acted as a private tutor. In 1633 he was appointed assistant in the Cathedral school, and in 1636 Conrector. He then, in 1639, became Professor of Poetry in the University, was five times Dean of the Philosophical Faculty, and in 1656-57 Rector of the University. He died at Königsberg, April 15, 1659 (Koch , iii. 182-191; Allg. Deutsche Biog. , iv. 685-688, &c). Dach was much of an invalid, and… Go to person page >

Translator: Henry W. Longfellow

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth , D.C.L. was born at Portland, Maine, Feb. 27, 1807, and graduated at Bowdoin College, 1825. After residing in Europe for four years to qualify for the Chair of Modern Languages in that College, he entered upon the duties of the same. In 1835 he removed to Harvard, on his election as Professor of Modern Languages and Belles-Lettres. He retained that Professorship to 1854. His literary reputation is great, and his writings are numerous and well known. His poems, many of which are as household words in all English-speaking countries, display much learning and great poetic power. A few of these poems and portions of others have come into common use as hymns, but a hymn-writer in the strict sense of that term he… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: O how blest are ye whose toils are ended
Title: O How Blest Are Ye Whose Toils Are Ended
German Title: O wie selig seid ihr doch, ihr Frommen
Author: Simon Dach
Translator: Henry W. Longfellow
Meter: 10.10.5.10
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #4948
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Instances

Instances (1 - 4 of 4)
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The Cyber Hymnal #4948

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Lutheran Service Book #679

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Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #526

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Christian Worship (1993) #554

Include 12 pre-1979 instances
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