Du unvergleichlich's Gut. J. Scheffler. [Love to God.] Appeared as No. 195 in Bk. v. of his Heilige Seelenlust, Breslau, 1668, p 655 (Werke, 1862, i. p. 323), in 8 stanzas of 6 lines, entitled "She [The Soul] contrasts the Majesty of God with her Nothingness." Included as No. 726 in Freylinghausen's Gesang-Buch1705, and recently, as No. 15, in Knapp's Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz, 1850 (1865, No. 15). The only translation in common use is:—
0 God, of good the unfathom'd sea, a vigorous and full rendering by J. Wesley in Hymns & Sacred Poems, 1739 (Poetical Works, 1868-72, vol. i. p. 141), and thence in full, as No. 36, in the Hymns & Spiritual Songs, 1753, and as No. 5 in the Pocket Hymn Book, 1785. it did not appear in the Wesleyan Hymn Book, 1780, but was added in an edition between 1797 and 1809, and is No. 38 in the revised edition, 1875. Various forms beginning with stanza i. appear in the Leeds Hymn Book, 1853; the Methodist New Connexion, 1863; the Irish Church Hymnal, 1869-73; Baptist Hymnal, 1879; Westminster Abbey Hymn Book, 1883, &c.; and in America in the Methodist Episcopal Collection, 1849; Evangelical Hymnal, N. Y., 1880; Canadian Presbyterian Hymn Book, 1880, &c. In the Methodist Episcopal South Hymn Book, 1847, No. 24, begins with stanza 5, "Fountain of good! all blessing flows."
Another translation is:—"O Good beyond compare," by Miss Winkworth, 1869, p. 249. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
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