By Gideon Edward Macomber
The author of this hymn is Martin Rinkart, born on April 23, 1586, in Eilenberg, Saxony, Germany, as the son of a poor coppersmith. He was for a time a boy chorister in the famous St. Thomas Church of Leipzig, Germany, where J.S. Bach was later Musical director. There Rinkart worked his way though the University of Leipzig and was ordained to the ministry of the Lutheran Church.
At the age of thirty-one he was called to be the pastor in his native town of Eilenberg. He arrived there just when the war was starting. Because Eilenberg was a walled city, it became a frightfully overcrowded refuge for political and military fugitives from far and near. Throughout these war years several waves of deadly pestilence and famine swept the city as the various armies marched through the town, leaving death and destruction in their tracks. The Rinkart Home served as a refuge for the afflicted victims, even though it is said that Martin Rinkart often had difficulty in providing food and clothing for his own family. The plague of 1637 was particularly severe. At its height Rinkart was the only remaining minister, often conducting as many as forty to fifty funeral services daily. Yet, amazingly enough, He was a prolific writer of seven different dramatic productions on the event of the Reformation as will as a total of sixty-six hymns.
During the closing years of the war invading armies overran Eilenberg on three different occasions, once by the Austrian army and twice by the Swedish army. During one of the occupations by the Swedish army, there came the demand that a large tribute payment be made by the people. Rinkart interceded with the leaders of the army with such purpose, supported by the prayers of his people, that the tribute demand was finally reduced to a much smaller amount. It is said that when the Swedish commander would not at first consider Rinkart’s request for a lowering of the levy, the pastor turned to his congregation and said, “Come, My children, we can find no Mercy with man; but us take refuge with God.” On his knees Rinkart led his congregation in prayer and in the singing of a familiar hymn. This demonstration of spiritual fervency moved the Swedish commander so much that he reconsidered and finally lowered the demands of the tribute payment.
Germany is the home of protestant church music, and no hymn, with the exception of Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” has been used more widely in German churches than has this hymn. The English translation by Catherine Winkworth in 1858 has helped make it more popular in the English countries as well as in Germany. Mrs. Winkworth is also the translator of another well-known German hymn, “Praise Ye the Lord, The Almighty.”
The tune for this text was written by on of Germany’s finest and most prolific composers, Johann Cruger, whose hymnal, published in 1644, was the outstanding German hymnal of the seventeenth century. It had forty-four editions from 1644 to 1731. This tune with Rinkart’s text first appeared in the 147 edition of that publication.
Source
Osbeck, K.W. 101 Hymn Stories. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1982) p. 173.
