The Only Son from Heaven

The author of the hymn below – Elisabeth Cruciger (or Elisabethe Creutziger, Elisabet Creutzigerin) – was born around 1500 to the von Meseritz family, a family off Polish nobility. She grew up as a nun in a convent. For some reason Elisabeth left the convent in Pomerania and came to Wittenberg. She heard the gospel from a preacher named Johannes Bugenhagen. It may be that she heard the gospel from Bugenhagen before she left Pomerania, and then came to Wittenberg with this family. In 1524 she married Caspar Cruciger, a student of Martin Luther. Elisabeth Cruciger became a close friend of Luther’s wife Katherina. She is probably the first female Lutheran hymn writer. Her hymn was included on page 20 in the Lutheran hymnal Enchiridion Oder eyn Handbuchlein, published in 1524. Elisabeth died at the young age of 35, at Wittenberg, in May 1535. Her hymn, written in German, begins “Herr Christ der eynig gots son” (Lord Christ, the one Son of God). It bears the title “Eyn Lobgsang von Christo” (“A Song of Praise to Christ,” I think). Later it is credited as “Ein geistlich liedt von Christo, Elisabet Creutzigerin,” in the Geistliche Lieder (Wittenberg, 1531).

The hymn in Enchiridion is made up of five stanzas, with seven lines each. In German its meter appears to me to be 7.6.7.6.7.7.6., and a corresponding tune is given with it. This tune, or at least an adaptation of it, is called Herr Christ Der Einig Gotts Sohn and is used with the hymn in modern hymnals. “The only Son from heaven” is a translation made by Arthur Tozer Russell of stanzas 1-3. Russell follows the original hymn meter. The translation is Hymn No. 41 in Russell’s Psalms and Hymns, Partly Original, Partly Selected, for the Use of the Church of England (Cambridge: John Deighton, 1851).

Arthur Tozer Russell (1806–1874) was born at Northampton, the son of Thomas Russell. He was a Church of England clergyman and theologian, as well as a hymn writer and translator of hymns. He died at Southwick in 1874 and was buried at the St. Michael & All Angels Churchyard there.

1. The only Son from heaven,
By prophets long foretold,
Now by the Father given,
His glory doth unfold.
No bound his light confineth;
No star so brightly shineth,
As he our Morning Star.

2. Lo! In the time appointed,
Christ of a Virgin born,
Our King of God anointed:
Oh bright and holy morn!
The power of death he breaketh;
Man of his heaven partaketh—
An heir of life again.

3. O Lord, our hearts awaken
To know and love you more,—
In faith to stand unshaken,—
In spirit to adore;
That we whilst onward hasting,
O Lord, thy sweetness tasting,
May ever thirst for thee.

The hymn sometimes appears with a sort of doxology as the fourth stanza. That stanza is not part of Russell’s original translation/poetry in Psalms and Hymns. for the Use of the Church of England, neither is it from Cruciger’s original hymn.

O Father, here before you
With God the Holy Ghost
And Jesus, we adore you,
O Pride of angel host.
Before you mortals lowly
Cry, “Holy, holy, holy,
O blessed Trinity!”