Wearily my spirit sinketh

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Wearily my spirit sinketh

Author: Johann Joseph Winckler; Translator: Frances Bevan (1899)
Tune: HIMMEL
Published in 3 hymnals

Representative Text

Wearily my spirit sinketh
Into Jesu’s Heart and Hands,
Calmly trusting, though the journey
Lie through strange untrodden lands.
All my spirit is at rest
On the loving Father’s breast.

There my spirit cannot murmur,
Pleased with all that may betide—
What the will of Self would cherish
Is already crucified—
Buried is each murmuring word
In the grave of Christ my Lord.

There my spirit cannot question,
Little doth she think or say;
All the thorns of life around her
Cannot take her peace away—
He who made me guideth best,
And my heart is left at rest.

There my spirit knows no darkness,
Love remains when all is gone—
Sorrows crushing soul and body
Do the heathens know alone—
Resting in Christ’s blessed light,
Fears she not the earthly night.

There my spirit is not careful,
For she knoweth of no ill;
Hanging still upon her Father,
Though He slay her, trusting still;
How shall flesh and blood repine
Where the chastening is divine?

Thus on God my spirit waiteth,
Even so doth overcome;
Silently enduring all things,
Mockery and martyrdom;
Like a still sea doth she lie,
Full of praise to God most high.

Source: Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series) #111

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Author: Johann Joseph Winckler

Winckler, John Joseph, a German Pietist, was born at Luckau, in Saxony, December 23, 1670. He was at first a pastor at Magdeburg, then a chaplain in the Protestant army, accompanying the troops to Holland and Italy, and at length returned to Magdeburg and became chief minister of the cathedral. He was no less eminent for his mental culture than for his piety. He was a preacher and writer who had the courage of his convictions, and this quality is notably manifest in the hymn by him found in this collection. He died August 11, 1722. Shall I, for fear of feeble man 225 Hymn Writers of the Church Nutter… Go to person page >

Translator: Frances Bevan

Bevan, Emma Frances, née Shuttleworth, daughter of the Rev. Philip Nicholas Shuttleworth, Warden of New Coll., Oxford, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, was born at Oxford, Sept. 25, 1827, and was married to Mr. R. C. L. Bevan, of the Lombard Street banking firm, in 1856. Mrs. Bevan published in 1858 a series of translations from the German as Songs of Eternal Life (Lond., Hamilton, Adams, & Co.), in a volume which, from its unusual size and comparative costliness, has received less attention than it deserves, for the trs. are decidedly above the average in merit. A number have come into common use, but almost always without her name, the best known being those noted under “O Gott, O Geist, O Licht dea Lebens," and "Jedes Herz will etwas… Go to person page >

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