Christ My Song - 96
Oh how could I forget him - The Remembrance
(Gottlob Christian Kern/Catherine Winkworth/
Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
The Remembrance.
1. Oh how could I forget him
who ne'er forgetteth me?
Or tell the love that let him
come down to set me free?
I lay in darkest sadness,
till he made all things new;
and still fresh love and gladness
flow from that heart so true. PDF - Midi
2. How could I ever leave him
who is so kind a Friend?
How could I ever grieve him
who thus to me doth bend?
Have I not seen him dying
for us on yonder tree?
Do I not hear him crying,
Arise and follow me!
3. For ever will I love him
who saw my hopeless plight,
who felt my sorrows move him,
and brought me life and light;
whose arm shall be around me
when my last hour is come,
and suffer none to wound me,
though dark the passage home.
4. He gives me pledges holy,
his body and his blood,
he lifts the scorned, the lowly,
he makes my courage good,
for he will reign within me,
and shed his graces there;
the heaven he died to win me
can I then fail to share?
5. In joy and sorrow ever
shine through me, Blessed Heart,
who bleeding for us never
didst shrink from sorest smart!
Whate'er I've loved or striven
or borne, I bring to thee;
now let thy heart and heaven
stand open, Lord, to me!
Catherine Winkworth, Lyra Germanica: The Christian Life, 1868, 109-110.
Translation of Gottlob Christian Kern's "Wie könnt ich sein vergessen".