Jesus soll die Losung sein

Jesus soll die Losung sein. Benjamin Schmolck* (1672-1737). First published in Schmolck’s Mara und Manna, oder: Neue Sammlung von Creutz- Trost- Klag- und Freuden-Liedern (Breslau and Liegnitz, 1726). It had nine 6-line stanzas, and was entitled ‘Jesus Name zum neuen Jahre’ (‘Jesu’s Name for the New Year, 1725’). It is in EG in the ‘Jahreswende’ (‘turn of the year’) section, in five verses (EG 62). The omitted verses were 5 (‘Unsers Kaysers Majestät’), 6 (‘Jesus Name, Jesus Kraft’), 7 (‘Jesus Name sey das Licht’) and 8 (‘Jesus Name, Rath und That’). The English translation, by James Drummond Burns*, ‘Jesus shall the watchword be’, misses the force of ‘Jesus soll’ (‘Jesus should be our...