Du Morgenstern, du Licht vom Licht

Du Morgenstern, du Licht vom Licht. Johann Gottfried Herder* (1744-1803), altered by Richard Adelbert Lipsius (1830-1892). Herder’s hymn began ‘Du aller Sterne Schöpfer, Licht’. It dates from before 1800, and is found in his Gesammelte Werke (‘Collected Works’), ed. Bernhard Suphan, XXIX. 632), entitled ‘Christus’. It first appeared, altered as above, in a hymn in a book designed to reform hymnody for the church in Saxony, Entwurf eines Gesangbuches für die Evangelische Landeskirche im Großherzogtum Sachsen (Weimar, 1878). The alteration was by Lipsius, an eminent professor of New Testament studies in (successively) Vienna, Kiel and Jena. A comparison of the first stanzas will give an...