These words are a translation of a German hymn appearing in a manuscript dated 1662 from Munster, Germany, and were printed as a new hymn in 1677 in the Roman Catholic Munster Gesangbuch (hymnbook). It was entitled “Schonster Herr Jesu, herrscher aller Erden” (Most Beautiful Lord Jesus, Ruler of all the Earth). There have been several translations; this one, by Joseph August Seiss, formerly Seuss was published in the Sunday School Book for the use of Evangelical Lutheran Congregations, 1873.

CRUSADER’S HYMN is a Silesian folk song discovered in 1836 by Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (1798-1874) , who with his friend Earnst Friedrich Richter (1808-1879), director of the church school  of St. Thomas in Leipzig, collected country songs. They heard it sung by haymakers in the Glatz district of Silesia in the summer of 1836 and jotted down  the music, which appeared with the words  of this hymn in Schlesische Volkslieder (Selisian Folksongs) in 1842. It was harmonized by Richard Storrs Willis (1819-1900; see SDAH 130) and published in 1850 in Church Chorales and Choir Studies. It is named CRUSADER’S HYMN because of a mistaken idea that it was sung by crudasers in the twelfth century as they made their way to the Holy Land. The association has been perpetuated by its use by Franz Liszt in his oratorio The Legend of St. Elizabeth, 1862, for part of the “Crusaders’ March.” Willis also composed tune SDAH 130, CAROL. Seiss was born at Graceham, Maryland, on March 18, 1823, and was confirmed as a Moravian at the age of 16. He wanted to study for the ministry but was discouraged by both his Moravian father and his bishop. However, he studied theology with his Moravian pastor and in 1839 attended the Pennsylvania College in Gettysburg, studying mainly in private. He was licensed to preach by the Lutheran Synod in 1842 and served in Virginia from 1847 to 1858, then in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1858 to 1874. With some of the members of his church he established the Church of the Holy Communion in Philadelphia. He was prolific editor of theological works, hymn collections and Lutheran liturgy. He died in Philadelphia on June 20, 1904.

📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.