Death of a Child

Representative Text

1 Wherefore should I make my moan,
Now the darling child is dead?
He to early rest is gone,
He to paradise is fled:
I shall go to him, but he
Never shall return to me.

2 God forbids his longer stay;
God recalls the precious loan;
God hath taken him away
From my bosom to His own:
Surely what He wills is best:
Happy in His will I rest.

3 Faith cries out, It is the Lord,
Let Him do as seems Him good!
Be Thy holy Name adored;
Take the gift awhile bestowed;
Take the child no longer mine;
Thine he is, for ever Thine.

Source: Church Book: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran congregations #559

Author: Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, M.A. was the great hymn-writer of the Wesley family, perhaps, taking quantity and quality into consideration, the great hymn-writer of all ages. Charles Wesley was the youngest son and 18th child of Samuel and Susanna Wesley, and was born at Epworth Rectory, Dec. 18, 1707. In 1716 he went to Westminster School, being provided with a home and board by his elder brother Samuel, then usher at the school, until 1721, when he was elected King's Scholar, and as such received his board and education free. In 1726 Charles Wesley was elected to a Westminster studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his degree in 1729, and became a college tutor. In the early part of the same year his religious impressions were much deepene… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Wherefore should I make my moan
Title: Death of a Child
Author: Charles Wesley
Meter: 7.7.7.7.7.7
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

REDHEAD NO. 76

REDHEAD 76 is named for its composer, who published it as number 76 in his influential Church Hymn Tunes, Ancient and Modern (1853) as a setting for the hymn text "Rock of Ages." It has been associated with Psalm 51 since the 1912 Psalter, where the tune was named AJALON. The tune is also known as P…

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DIX (Kocher)

An early form of the tune DIX was composed by Conrad Kocher (b. Ditzingen, Wurttemberg, Germany, 1786; d. Stuttgart, Germany, 1872). Trained as a teacher, Kocher moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, to work as a tutor at the age of seventeen. But his love for the music of Haydn and Mozart impelled him t…

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HALLE (Haydn 11112)


Timeline

Media

The Cyber Hymnal #9211
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Instances

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The Cyber Hymnal #9211

Include 31 pre-1979 instances
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