O Jesus Christ, grow thou in me

O Jesus Christ, grow thou in me. Johann Kaspar Lavater* (1741-1801) translated by Elizabeth Lee Smith* (1817-1898). This is a translation of Lavater’s ‘O Jesus Christus, wachs’ in mir’*, published in his Christliche Lieder… Zweytes Hundert (1780) and in the collection of Lavater’s works, Zweihundert Christliche Lieder (Zürich, 1844). Smith’s translation was published in the British Messenger (November 1860) and then in Christ in Song (1869), edited by Philip Schaff*. In Schaff’s book the translation is of eight of Lavater’s ten stanzas (see the entry under the German first line). The hymn has been included in many British hymnbooks. Most shorten Smith’s eight stanzas to make a six- or...