1604 - 1640 Person Name: J. Wegelin, 1604-40 Author of "On Christ's Ascension I Now Build" in Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary Wegelin, Josua, D.D., son of Johann Wegelin, or Wegelein, then superintendent (Ephorus) of the Evangelical college at Augsburg, was born at Augsburg Jan. 11, 1604. After studying at the University of Tübingen (M.A. 1626), he was for a short time pastor at Budweiler, and was appointed in 1627 fourth diaconus of the Franciscan (Barfüsser) church at Augsburg. In 1629, along with 13 other Evangelical pastors, he was compelled to leave Augsburg by the decree of Restitution enacted by the Emperor Ferdinand III. After Gustavus Adolphus had become master of the city, in 1632, Wegelin was recalled to the Barfüsser Kirche as archidiaconus. In 1633 he was appointed preacher at the Hospital Church of the Holy Ghost, but in 1635, as a result of the battle of Nordlingen (Sept., 1634), he was again forced to flee from Augsburg. He found refuge at Pressburg, in Hungary, where he became pastor, and afterwards Senior, Inspector, and Doctor of Theology. He died at Pressburg, Sept. 14, 1640 (Koch, iii. 169; Goedeke's Grundriss, vol. iii. 1887, p 161, &c).
Wegelin's hymns are simple and natural, and are the productions of an earnest, true-hearted and good pastor rather than of a skilful poet. Goedeke, as above, gives lists of their first lines from his (1) Augspurger Bet Büchlein, Nürnberg, 1636, and from his (2) Hand-Land-un Stand-Büchlein, Nürnberg, 1637 [Gottingen Library]. Some 20 of his hymns were included in J. M. Dilherr's Gesang-Buch, Nürnberg, 1654, and other collections of the 17th century.
The only hymn by Wegelin which has passed into English is:—
Allein auf Christi Himmelfahrt. Ascension. This is his most popular hymn. First published 1636 in 3 stanzas of 7 lines entitled, "iv. Short Psalm of Praise on the Ascension of Christ; " repeated in Dilherr's Gesang-Buch, 1654, p. 394. In the Lüneburg Gesang-Buch, 1661, No. 112, it is recast and begins, "Auf Christi Himmel-Fart allein.” Translated as:—
1. Raise your Devotion, mortal Tongues. By J. C. Jacobi, in his Psalt. Germanica, 1722, p. 24; repeated, altered, in his 2nd ed., 1732, p. 41.
2. Since Christ is gone to heaven, His home. This is a good translation from the second form, by Miss Winkworth, in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd ser., 1858, p. 47; and in Schaff s Christ in Song, 1869, p. 314. In her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 64, it is altered in metre. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
-- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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