Ah this heart is void and chill

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Ah this heart is void and chill

Translator: Jane Borthwick (1853); Author: Karl Johann Philipp Spitta (c. 1828)
Tune: LOOKING HOME
Published in 45 hymnals

Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1 Ah, this heart is void and chill,
'Mid earth's noisy thronging;
For the Father's mansions still
Earnestly is longing.

2 O to be at home, and gain
All for which we're sighing;
From all earthly want and pain
To be swiftly flying!

3 With this load of sin and care
Then no longer bending,
But with waiting angels there
On our Lord attending!

4 Ah, how blessed, blessed they
Who have rightly striven,
And rejoin eternally
With their Lord in heaven!

Source: Church Book: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran congregations #455

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Translator: Jane Borthwick

Miss Jane Borthwick, the translator of this hymn and many others, is of Scottish family. Her sister (Mrs. Eric Findlater) and herself edited "Hymns from the Land of Luther" (1854). She also wrote "Thoughts for Thoughtful Hours (1859), and has contributed numerous poetical pieces to the "Family Treasury," under the signature "H.L.L." --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872.… Go to person page >

Author: Karl Johann Philipp Spitta

Spitta, Carl Johann Philipp, D.D., was born Aug. 1, 1801, at Hannover, where his father, Lebrecht Wilhelm Gottfried Spitta, was then living, as bookkeeper and teacher of the French language. In his eleventh year Spitta fell into a severe illness, which lasted for four years, and so threw him back that his mother (the father died in 1805) abandoned the idea of a professional career, and apprenticed him to a watchmaker. This occupation did not prove at all congenial to him, but he would not confess his dislike, and his family were ignorant of it till an old friend, who was trying to comfort him after the death of a younger brother, discovered his true feelings. The younger brother had been preparing for ordination, and so Carl was now invited… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Ah this heart is void and chill
German Title:	Ach, uns wird das Herz so leer
Author:	Karl Johann Philipp Spitta (c. 1828)
Translator:	Jane Borthwick (1853)
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	Looking home
Copyright:	Public Domain

John 14:2
(hymns)

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Notes

Ach, uns wird das Herz so leer . C. J. P. Spitta. [Longing for Heaven .] First published in the First Series, 1833, of his Psalter und Harfe , p. 134, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, entitled "Homesickness." Translated as:—
Ah! this heart is void and chill. A good translation, omitting stanza v., by Mrs. Findlater in the 2nd Ser., 1855, of the Hymns from the Land of Luther (ed. 1862, p. 110, 1884, p. 86). Included, slightly altered, and omitting stanza ii., as No. 455, in the Pennsylvania Lutheran Church Book, 1868. In W. B. Bradbury's Golden Shower , N. Y. 1860 (ed. 1870, p. 158) the translations of stanzas ii., vi., are rewritten, and a chorus added. Stanzas i., ii., iv. of this form, with the chorus, were included as No. 1279, in Robinson's Songs for the Sanctuary , 1865, and, as No. 1048, in the Baptist Praise Book. 1871. [Rev. James Mearns, M. A.]

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

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