Give to the winds thy fears

Give to the winds thy fears. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676), translated by John Wesley* (1703-1791). This is a free translation of part of Gerhardt’s ‘Befiehl du deine Wege’*, beginning at stanza 9 of Wesley’s text. It is a companion piece to ‘Commit thou all thy griefs’*. The two hymns are sometimes printed separately, and sometimes as two parts of the same hymn, as in HP. They were not included in A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (1780), but appeared in the Supplement of 1831; they have remained in Methodist books until the omission of both hymns, or both parts, in Singing the Faith (2011). Wesley’s original text, entitled ‘Trust in Providence. From the...