The hymn was thought by
some to be created as a German folk hymn around 1662 by German Jesuits who had
traveled to Jerusalem singing it. There
is evidence that it was sung by John Huss’ followers on their departure from
Bohemia to Silesia to escape further persecution around 1620 after Huss was
burned at the stake by the Catholic Church in 1415. (Huss lived before Luther, Calvin or
Zwingli.) The exact origin of the words
has been lost, and the text has gone through several variations. The music, called CRUSADER’S HYMN by some or
ST. ELIZABETH by others, was made from a Silesian folk song composed by Henrich
von Fallersleben (full name was August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben) in his
Schlesische Volkslieder (meaning Silesian
Folk Songs) in Leipzig, Germany in 1842.
The lyrics were almost lost, but it was discovered in Westphalia,
Germany in 1850 among other papers. The
song was translated and arranged into the hymn we have today, except for the
fourth verse, by Richard S. Willis and published in his Church Chorals and Choir Studies in 1850. Joseph A. Seiss added the fourth verse in
1873. The song has a meter of
5.6.8.5.5.8 which can be seen in counting the syllables in the phrases of the
song.
August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798-1874), Poet
Fallersleben was born
April 2, 1798 in what is modern day Wolfsburg, Germany during the days of the
Holy Roman Empire. His first interest
was to study theology; however, he opted to pursue literature. Some of his writings got him into political
trouble resulting in him having to flee his homeland to travel to neighboring
countries until the political landscape of the day changed. He wrote "Das Lied der Deutschen"
which the third stanza was taken and set to music to Hayden’s The Kaiser-Quartet, Op. 76/ and is now
Germany’s national anthem, Das
Deutschlandlied. His last official
positon was librarian for the Duke of Corvey Castle. It was a monastery castle in the day. The library takes up 15 rooms today, and it
was one of the most extensive libraries in the area in its day. He died on January 19, 1874 and was buried in
the cemetery at Corvey.
Richard Storrs Willis (1819-1900), Translator & Arranger
Richard Willis was born
February 10, 1819 in Boston, MA. He
attended school at Yale College.
Interestingly, he was part of the Skull and Bones secret society in
1841. He did go to Germany to study, and
even became friends with Felix Mendelssohn.
He was a popular music critic for several newspapers. He wrote several musical works including the
melody to “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear” in 1850. We sing his arrangement of the melody today. He published a copy of this hymn, three
verses, with German and English translation in 1850. Some credit Willis’ work on this hymn as one
of the main reasons we have it to sing today.
Willis was careful to be sure people understood he was not the one
solely responsible for this hymn, as one historian noted: “For a time Mr.
Willis’s name was attached to the hymn, the impression given being that he had
either written or translated it. He,
however, disclaimed any literary connection with it and stated that he did not
know where he had found it.” (Our
Hymnody, p. 142.) He died May 7,
1900 in Detroit, MI and was buried there in Woodlawn Cemetery.
Joseph Augustus Seiss (1823-1904), Translator
Seiss was born March 18,
1823 in Graceham, Maryland. He was a
Lutheran preacher and part of the Moravian Church. He did located work in Martinsburg, WV;
Shepherdstown, WV; Cumberland, MD and others.
He was also known for his writings on pyramids and dispensational
premillennialism. His writings were
among those who influenced Charles Taze Russell whose teachings led to the formation
of the Jehovah Witnesses. He also wrote
several commentaries, plus a biography on Martin Luther. He translated and added the fourth stanza in
1873. The original poem has probably
been lost, but an old version had five verses; however, the fifth verse
includes the concept of transubstantiation made popular by the Catholic Church but
rejected by the Protestant Reformation. He
married Elizabeth S. Barnitz and they had five children. He died June 20, 1904 and is buried in Laurel
Hill Cemetery of Philadelphia, PA.
Fairest Lord Jesus
Perhaps we should being
with a clear explanation of the term “fair”.
The usage of the term “fair” means different things to different people
in different contexts. One of the
definitions for our English word “fair” today includes being neither excellent nor
poor. The German title for the song was Schönster Herr Jesu. The
term schönster is a superlative form
of the German schon, which means beautiful,
lovely, pretty, handsome, good, great, splendid, nice or pleasant.
We certainly do not know
much about the physical appearance of Jesus; however, there is an interesting
prophecy about his appearance—“For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And
as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2, NKJV.) If there was no comeliness (or physical
attraction) to his appearance, that what was His drawing power? One of his drawing powers was his teaching. When soldiers were sent to arrest him, they
returned without him to the chagrin of their superiors. When asked why they had not arrested him,
they replied, “No
man ever spoke like this Man!” (John
7:46, NKJV) Perhaps these words better
summarize why Jesus is the fairest, than anything I could add: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in
time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us
by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made
the worlds; who being the brightness of
His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the
word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at
the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the
angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they” (Hebrews 1:1-4, NKJV.)
It is interesting to
notice by how many hands these thoughts have passed on to us. We do not know the exact origin of the words,
but we certainly appreciate the thoughts of Lord Jesus being both beautiful and
great, both handsome and splendid, both lovely and pleasant to the superlative
degree!
--------------------------------------------
SOURCES:
Eddy Craft, “Fairest Lord
Jesus,” Curtis A. Cates, Editor, Lessons
in Lyrics, Memphis, TN: Memphis
School of Preaching, 1998, pp. 458-472.
http://drhamrick.blogspot.com/2013/11/fairest-lord-jesus.html
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=90442006
http://www.hymnary.org/person/Willis_Richard
http://www.hymnary.org/text/fairest_lord_jesus_ruler_of_all_nature
http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/f/a/l/faljesus.htm
http://www.schloss-corvey.de/en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Heinrich_Hoffmann_von_Fallersleben
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Seiss
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Storrs_Willis
John P. Wiegand, Editor, Praise for the Lord, Nashville, TN: Praise Press, 1997.
Richard Storrs Willis, Church Chorals and Choir Studies, New
York, NY: Clark, Austin and Smith, 1850.
Robert Guy McCutchan, Our Hymnody, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1937.
V. E. Howard, Editor, and Broadus E. Smith, Associate
Editor, Church Gospel Songs & Hymns,
Texarkana, TX: Central Printers & Publishers, 1983.
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