Philip Heinrich Weissensee › Hymnals

Weissensee, Philipp Heinrich, was born Feb. 6, 1673, at Vichberg, near Gaildorf, Württemberg, where his father was pastor and consistorialrath. He studied at the University of Tubingen, and, after acting as assistant to several clergymen, became, in 1697, a tutor to the court pages at Stuttgart. In 1703 he was appointed a tutor in the clergy training school at Maulbronn, and in 1708 in that at Blaubeuren. He was then appointed, in 1722, prelate at Blaubeuren, and in 1727 took up residence at Stuttgart as prelate of Hirsau and member of the Württemberg consistory. For political reasons he was removed, in 1740, to Denkendorf near Esslingen, as Probst and General Superintendent. He died at Denkendorf, Jan. 6, 1767, being then the Father and Senior of the Lutheran Church in Württemberg.

Weissensee was one of the earliest friends of Foreign Missions, being specially interested in that to Malabar. He was a good poet, and in. The most important of his hymns were contributed to the 2nd edition of J. A. Grammlich's Viertzig Betrachtungen von Christi Leiden und Tod, auf die Viertzig Tagen in den Fasten, Stuttgart, 1727 [Berlin Library. The 1st ed., 1722, has no hymns].

Those of Weissensee's hymns which have passed into English are:—
i. Der Tod kommt an: da soil ich ringen. For the Dying. First published 1727, as above, p. 144, in 4 stanzas of 6 lines, as the companion to Meditation on St. Luke xxii. 44. Included in Knapp's Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz, 1837 and 1865. In Bunsen's Versuch.
When the last agony draws nigh. This is a good translation of stanza i., iv., by Miss Winkworth in her Lyra Germanica, 1st Ser., 1855, p. 239; repeated as No. 548 in the Pennsylvania Lutheran Church Book, 1868.
ii. Jesu, hilf beten! und bete du Treuer. Prayer. First published 1727 as above, p. 124, in 4 stanzas of 6 lines, as the companion to Meditation x. on St. Luke xxii. 40. Included in the Württemberg Gesang-Buch, 1742, No. 94 (1842, No. 265). Translated as “Help me to pray, Lord! and make supplication," by J. D. Burns in his Memoir and Remains, 1869, p. 232. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

-- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)