Wach auf du Geist der ersten Zeugen. [Missions.] First published 1750, as above, No. 133, in 14 stanzas of 6 lines, entitled, "For faithful labourers in the Harvest of the Lord, for the blessed spread of the Word to all the world." Included in the Berlin Geistliche Liedersegen>, ed., 1863, No. 1383. Translated as:—-
Awake, Thou Spirit, Who of old. A good translation of stanzas i.-iii., v.-viii. by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 1st series, 1855, p. 41, and thence, omitting st. ii., altered in metre, and beginning, "Awake, Thou Spirit, Who didst fire," as No. 290 in the Pennsylvania Lutheran Church Book, 1868. In Miss Winkworth's Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 87, it is altered in metre to "Wake, Spirit, Who in times now olden," stanza vii. being omitted, and this form is No. 190 in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880.
Another translation is "O spirit of the early martyrs, wake," in the British Herald, Oct. 1865, p. 151. Not in common use.
[Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
