Gerhardt’s Hymns

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 6, 1872

Gerhardt’s Hymns.

As might be expected, there is a tone of sorrowfulness in some of Gerhardt’s hymns, but mingled with the sad pathos there is a quiet, happy repose—the heavenly peace that comes from his simple trust, seeing the hand of his Heavenly Father in all his sorrows. In reading his hymns, we find that there is often a pathos, a gentle and refining melancholy, a tender sadness, which does not sadden. In his greatest sorrow there seemed precious intervals, when, by faith, he caught glimpses of a bright future; when, as to Stephen, the heavens were opened above him and he had such visions of Jesus and the coming glory, as made, for the time, existence a joy and an ecstasy.

It was in a dark day he wrote that hymn—

“Commit thou all thy griefs, And ways into His hands.”

On account of some conflict with the king in his religious sentiments, he was ordered to leave the Nicholas church at Berlin, where he had preached for ten years, and quit the country. With his helpless family he turned his steps toward Saxony, his native land. The journey, performed on foot, was long and weary. As they turned aside to spend the night in a little village inn, his wife, overcome with sorrow, gave way to tears of anguish. Gerhardt, concealing his own sadness, quoted the beautiful promise—“Trust in the Lord; in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” His own mind was so impressed by these words, that he turned aside and composed the hymn just referred to.

Late that evening, as Gerhardt and his wife sat in the little parlor, two gentlemen came in, and after some general conversation, said they were going to Berlin, to Gerhardt, the deposed minister. Madame Gerhardt turned pale with alarm, fearing some new calamity. Her husband, however, with entire self-possession, told the strangers that he was the man. One of the gentlemen then handed him an autograph letter from Duke Christian, of Meresburg, informing him that in view of his unjust deposition from the church in Berlin, he had settled a pension on him. Gerhardt, in the joy of that moment, quietly turned to his wife and gave her the hymn he had composed in the early part of the evening, when all was so dark and seemingly so hopeless. “See,” said Gerhardt, as he handed his wife the hymn, “see how God provides! Did I not bid you confide in him, and all would be well?”

This incident gives new interest to the hymn we so often sing. We can take up the strain with a livelier trust and a sweeter hope, and sing with Gerhardt, as we never sang before:

“Give to the winds thy fears, Hope and be undismayed; God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears, He shall lift up thy head. “Through waves, and clouds, and storms He gently clears thy way; Wait thou his time; the darkest night Shall end in brightest day.”