Christ My Song - 379
O Friend of souls! how blessed the time
(Wolfgang Christoph Deßler/Philip Schaff/
Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
O Friend of souls! how blessed the time.
1. O Friend of souls! how blessed the time
when in thy love I rest,
when from the weariness I climb
e'en to thy tender breast!
The night of sorrow endeth there,
thy rays outshine the sun,
and in thy pardon and thy care
the heaven of heavens is won.
2. The world may call itself my foe,
or flatter and allure:
I care not for the world, – I go
to this tried Friend and sure.
And when life's fiercest storms are sent
upon life's wildest sea.
my little bark is confident.
because it holdeth thee.
3. The law may threaten endless death
upon the dreadful hill;
straightway from its consuming breath
my soul mounts higher still.
She hastes to Jesus, wounded, slain,
and finds in him her home,
whence she shall not go forth again,
and where no death can come.
4. I do not fear the wilderness
where thou hast been before:
nay! rather would I daily press
after thee, near thee, more!
Thou art my strength, on thee I lean;
my heart thou makest sing,
and to thy pastures green at length
thy chosen flock wilt bring.
5. To others, death seems dark and grim,
but not, O Lord! to me:
I know thou ne'er forsakest him
who puts his trust in thee.
Nay, rather, with a joyful heart
I welcome the release
from this dark desert, and depart
to thy eternal peace.
Philip Schaff? – In: Philip Schaff: Christ in Song, 1870, 391-392,
after the German Wie wohl ist mir, o Freund der Seele of Wolfgang Christoph Deßler.