Lord of our life, and God of our salvation

Lord of our life, and God of our salvation. Matthäus Apelles von Löwenstern* (1594-1648), freely translated by Philip Pusey* (1799-1855). This hymn, ‘Christe, du Beistand deiner Kreuzgemeine’ (literally, ‘Christ, thou support of thy people of the Cross’) is found in Geistliche Kirchen- und Haus-Musik (Breslau, 1644), in which Löwenstern’s hymns were bound in with others. The date of their first publication is uncertain, but was probably 1643. It is a hymn that speaks for its time, praying for help during the terrors of the Thirty Years’ War. Pusey’s free translation, done in 1834, transferred the prayer to his own time. He sent it to his brother, the Tractarian E.B. Pusey, telling him that...