This night a wondrous revelation

Representative Text

1 This night a wondrous revelation
Makes known to me God’s love and grace;
The Child that merits adoration
Brings light to our benighted race;
And though a thousand suns did shine,
Still brighter were that Light divine.

2 The Sun of Grace for thee is beaming;
Rejoice, my soul, in Jesus’ birth!
The light from yonder manger streaming
Sends forth its rays o’er all the earth.
It drives the night of sin away
And turns our darkness into day.

3 This light, which all thy gloom can banish,
The bliss of heaven glorifies;
When sun and moon and stars shall vanish,
Its rays shall still illume the skies.
This light thro' all eternity
Thy heav'n and all to thee shall be.

4 O Jesus, precious Sun of gladness,
Fill Thou my soul with light, I pray.
Dispel the gloomy night of sadness
And teach Thou me this Christmas Day
How I a child of light may be,
Aglow with light that comes from Thee.

Amen.

Source: The Lutheran Hymnal #88

Translator: Anna B. Hoppe

Anna Hoppe was born on May 7, 1889 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She left school after the eighth grade and worked as a stenographer. She began writing patriotic verses when she was very young and by the age of 25 she was writing spiritual poetry. After some of her poems appeared in the Northwestern Lutheran, a periodical of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, they came to the attention of Dr. Adolf Hult of Augustana Seminary, Rock Island, Illinois. He influenced her to write her Songs for the Church Year (1928). Several hymnals include her work, which was usually set to traditional chorale melodies, although she also made a number of translations. She died on August 2, 1941 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NN, from Cyber Hymnal  Go to person page >

Author: Caspar Friedrich Nachtenhoefer

Nachtenhöfer (Nachtenhoefer), Caspar Friedrich, son of Caspar Nachtenhöfer, advocate at Halle, was born at Halle, March 5, 1624. He entered the University of Leipzig in 1647, as a student of theology (M.A. 1651). He was then for a few months tutor in the house of the Chancellor August Carpzov at Coburg. In the end of 1651 he was appointed diaconus, and in 1655 pastor, at Meeder near Coburg. He was then, in 1671, called to Coburg as pastor of the Holy Cross Church, and diaconus of the St. Moritz Church. He afterwards devoted himself wholly to St. Moritz, and died as second senior in charge Nov. 23, 1685 (Wetzel ii. 203; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie xxiii. 192, &c) He published a metrical history of the Passion under the title of Erkläru… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: This night a wondrous revelation
German Title: Dies ist die Nacht, da mir erschienen
Author: Caspar Friedrich Nachtenhoefer
Translator: Anna B. Hoppe
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

O DASS ICH TAUSEND ZUNGEN HÄTTE (König)

Johann Balthaser König (b. Waltershausen, near Gotha, Germany, 1691; d. Frankfurt, Germany, 1758) composed this tune, which later became associated with Johann Mentzer's hymn "O dass ich tausend Zungen hätte" (Oh, That I Had a Thousand Voices). The harmonization is from the Wurttembergische Choral…

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[Dies ist die Nacht, da mir erschienen] (Muehlhaeuser)


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The Cyber Hymnal #6652
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The Cyber Hymnal #6652

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