JESUS CHRIST >> GLORY & PRAISE
SDAH 240
Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son!
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.
Text
1
Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son!
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.
2
Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer
who makes the woeful heart to sing.
3
Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,
and all the twinkling starry host:
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
than all the angels heaven can boast.
4
Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
now and forevermore be thine!
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) Mark 1:1; Mark 2:10; Phil 4:1 (b) Ps 45:26 (c) Heb 1:9
Translator
Joseph A. Seiss (1823-1904)
Text Source
Gesangbuch, Munster, 1677
Hymn Tune
CRUSADER’S HYMN
Metrical Number
5.6.8.5.5.8.
Arranged
Richard S. Willis (1819-1900)
Tune Source
from Schleische Volkslieder, 1842
Get the hymn sheet in other keys here
Notes
Get to know the hymns a little deeper with the SDA Hymnal Companion. Use our song leader’s notes to engage your congregation in singing with understanding. Even better, involve kids in learning this hymn with our homeschooling materials.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” Isaiah 60:1. God’s magnificent beauty may shine in all of us as we behold His glory. (Lesson 12, 1st Quarter 2021 -Tuesday, Universal Appeal, 3/16/2021)
What makes Jesus the fairest? What makes you sing glory, honor, praise and adoration to Him? Could anything be fairer than our fairest Lord Jesus? (Lesson 11, 2nd Quarter 2021 -Sunday, Yahweh and the Abrahamic Covenant, 4/18/2021)
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.
-from Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White
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