264 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED
Hymn 418. My God, I love Thee not because.
FRANCIS XAVIER ; translated by E. CASWALL (105).
Caswall s translation appeared in his Lyra Catholica, 1849. The first verse, Must burn eternally, has been altered.
O Deus ego amo Te is a translation of a Spanish sonnet. Both the Latin and the Spanish forms are ascribed to St. Francis Xavier, whose spirit breathes in every line. A translation was published by J. Scheffler in 1668, entitled She (the soul) loves God simply for Himself, with the Holy Xavier. Also from the Latin.
Xavier, the missionary saint, was born near Pampeluna, 1506 ; became acquainted with Ignatius Loyola at the University of Paris, and was one of those first converts who formed the Order of the Jesuits on August 15, 1534. Xavier sailed for Goa on his birthday, April 7, 1541, and died at Sancian, near Canton, in 1552. He visited Travancore, Ceylon, Malacca, Japan.
Canon Ellerton says the translation does not do justice to the original ; but as the only form in which this most striking hymn is known to most English readers, it has gained a wide popularity.
Pope s translation, which he made at the desire of a Romanist priest, appeared in the Gentleman s Magazine, October, 1791.
Hymn 419. I thirst, Thou wounded Lamb of God.
GERMAN ; translated by JOHN WESLEY (36). Appeared in Hymns and Sacred Poems, 174 > Works, i. 265 ; first used in the Moravian Hymn-book, 1742. It is made up (see Dictionary of Hymnology} from four hymns, all of six-line verses, which appeared in the Appendix to the Herrnhut Gesang-Buch, 1735. One of Zinzendorfs hymns suggests verses I, 2, and another ver. 7 ; verses 3-6 are based on a hymn of Johann Nitschmann s. A verse of Anna Nitschmann s Mein Konig deine Liebe, on Christian work, which appeared about 1737, supplies some phrases for Wesley s last verse.
The hymn is really a wonderful gathering up of these scattered thoughts, as Anna Nitschmann s verse will show when compared with Wesley s, ver. 8
Nun, crstgeborner Bruder 1
Nun, Meister an dem Ruder
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