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1 Eternal Son of God, O Thou,
Before whom earth and heaven bow,
Regard Thy people as they raise
To Thee their songs of pray'r and praise.
2 This house they dedicate to Thee,
That here they may Thy glory see;
Thy body and Thy blood they here
Receive, their fainting souls to cheer.
3 Here in baptismal water pure
They find for sins a gracious cure;
Their children here to Thee they bring,
O Thou,our death-subduing King.
4 Here sin's diseases healing find,
The weak grow strong, light cheers the blind;
The troubled heart with peace is blest,
And weariness finds heav'nly rest.
5 When tempests shake the world around,
The rock-built Church secure is found;
The gates of hell may here assail
Whom Christ defends, but not prevail.
6 Praise to the Father, and the Son,
And Holy Spirit, Three in One;
Blest Trinity, whom we adore,
Teach us to praise Thee evermore.
Source: Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary #68
First Line: | Eternal Son of God, O Thou |
Title: | Eternal Son of God |
Latin Title: | Christe cunctorum dominator alme |
Author: | J. J. Rambach |
Translator: | Anonymous (1880) |
Meter: | 8.8.8.8 |
Source: | Latin, 11th century |
Language: | English |
Notes: | Hymn text, suggested tune HERR JESU CHRIST, DICH |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Christe cunctorum dominator alme. [Consecration of a Church.] This hymn of unknown date and authorship, is found in three manuscripts of the 11th century, in the British Museum (Jul. A. vi. f. 68 b; Vesp. D. xii. f. 112 b; Harl. 2961, f. 250), in the Latin Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, 1851, p. 141, and in an 11th century Mozarabic Breviary in the British Museum. The oldest manuscript in which it is now found is one of the 9th century, in the Library at Bern. Daniel, i., No. 96, and iv. pp. 110 and 364, has the full text with various readings from the Bern manuscript, and other sources.
It has also been rendered into English through the German as follows:—
Du, dem der Himmel und die Erd' sich beuget, by A. J. Rambach, in his Anthologie, i. p. 176, in 9 stanzas. Thence altered and beginning "0 Herr, vor dem sich Erd' und Himmel beuget," in Knapp's Evangelischer Lieder-Schatz, 1837, No. 1129 (1865, No. 1286). The only translation in common use is —
Eternal Son of God, 0 Thou, a translation in L. M. of stanzas i.—iv., vi., ix. as No. 131 in the Ohio Lutheran Hymnal, 1880. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)