Seriously, o human beings
Seriously, O human children is a chant that focuses on the Advent aspect of penance . The text comes from Valentin Thilo (1607–1662), a member of the Königsberg poet circle .
Lore
The song first appeared in 1642 with Johann Stobäus in the Prussian festival songs , who created a melody intended for art singing. In East Prussia the song was sung to a tune by Johannes Eccard . The melody that has been in use today and for a long time goes back to the French song Une Jeune Pucelle (Lyon 1557). In 1563, Ludwig Helmbold initially included it in the chorale Von Gott I won't give up .
The song puts his words in the mouth of John the Baptist , as can be seen from his fourth original stanza, which was superseded by the new version of the Hanoverian hymn book in 1657:
That was Johanni's voice, that was Johanni's teaching;
God punishes with anger those who do not give him a hearing.
O Lord God, make me your child's cribs
too, and my lips will lift up you with glory.
In stanzas 1 and 3 there is a hint of a mystical-spiritualizing piety of the heart. These form, as it were, the framework for the central statement in the second stanza, the penance of John the Baptist , who thus emphatically refers to the coming Messiah ( Jesus Christ ).
This invitation is based in turn on the prophet Isaiah's prophecy :
- “Prepare the way for the LORD in the desert, make a level path for our God in the steppe! Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the rough shall be made straight, and what is hilly, to just be. "( Isaiah 40.3-4 LUT ).
text
1. With seriousness, O
children of men, the heart in you, soon the salvation of sinners, the miraculous hero
whom God by grace alone
has promised to give the world to light and life , will come to everyone.
2. Prepare your great guest carefully;
make his crate right, leave everything he hates;
makes all the tracks right, the valley rises,
makes low what is high, what is crooked, equal and simple.
3. A heart that loves humility, stands highest with God;
a heart that exercises arrogance perishes with fear;
a heart that is right and that follows God's guidance,
that can prepare itself right, to which comes Jesus Christ.
4. Oh
, Lord Jesus, prepare me myself for the poor at this holy time out of goodness and mercy.
Pull into my heart from the stable and from the crib, and my heart
and lips will always be grateful to you.
The chorale can be found in the Evangelical Hymnbook (EG 10) to this day . It is also included in the hymn book Fieren & Loben (FL 192) and the Mennonite hymn book (MG 241). The old praise of God from 1975 offered a three-stanza version under number 113, consisting of the first, second (revised) and fourth stanza of the EC text. It is no longer included in the main part of the new praise of God introduced on the 1st Sunday in Advent 2013 . However, the song was taken over into some of its own regional parts, for example, in the common part of the dioceses of Rottenburg-Stuttgart and Freiburg, all four stanzas are printed under number 752, whereby the revised second stanza from the old praise of God has also been taken over here.
literature
- Klaus Danzeglocke: 10 - With seriousness, o human beings . In: Gerhard Hahn , Jürgen Henkys (Hrsg.): Liederkunde zum Evangelisches Gesangbuch . No. 12 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-525-50335-0 , p. 12–15 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- Johannes Kulp (edited by Arno Büchner and Siegfried Fornaçon): The songs of our church. A handout for the Evangelical Church Hymn book (= Handbook for the Evangelical Church Hymn book. Special volume). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1958, pp. 27–28.
