Von Kindern hat man grosse Lust

Von Kindern hat man grosse Lust. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676). This 18-stanza poem comes from the 1663 funeral booklet (Kasualdruck) for Hendrina Magdalena Seidel, the daughter of Berlin court preacher Johann Seidel, who died at the age of five in 1662. These are the tender words of a pastor recognising the grief and loss suffered by the parents, and seeking to console them with a vision of the child in heaven, and the transitory nature of all life compared with the eternal joy of God’s presence. The piece expresses pastoral tenderness and empathy, whilst gently leading the sorrowing family, and perhaps indirectly the reader representing all his flock, to the thought that whilst the death of...