Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld.--(Goed. 68.)

[Passiontide.]

Appeared in Crü. Praxis, 1648; thence in Wackernagel: no. 13; Bachmann: no. 7. Lauxmann in Koch VIII, 40, designates it as "the masterpiece of all Passion hymns." It is commonly sung in Germany and was included in the Unv. L. S.: 1851, no. 95, but because of the complexity and variety of figures it has not come into extensive English or American use.

English Versions:

1. A Lamb goes forth: the sins he bears
      Of every generation.

A translation of stanzas I and II and part of IV by A. T. Russell in his Psalms and Hymns, 1851.

2. A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth.

Mrs. Charles' translation (combining Gerhardt's stanzas II and III as 2) appears in her Voice of Christian Life in Song, 1858, p. 232. The second part of her version, beginning, "Gate of my heart, fly open wide" (stanza VII), appears in the following: (a) Bishop Ryle's Collection, 1860; (b) Reid's Praise Book, 1872; (c) Christian Hymns, Adelaide, 1872.

3. A Lamb bears all its guilt away
      The world thus to deliver.

A full translation by J. Kelly, 1867, p. 49. The Ohio Luth. Hymnal, 1880, reduces it to 4 stanzas.

4. A Lamb goes forth and bears the Guilt
      Of all the world together.

J. Gambold, as no. 24, in part III, 1746, of the Moravian H. Book. In part II of the 1754 edition it begins "A Lamb goes forth and on him bears." In the ed. of 1801 it 105 begins "A Lamb went forth," etc. Stanzas V, IX, X, of this version, beginning, "Jesus, I never can forget," are included in E. P. Hood's Our Hymn Book, 1868.

5. A Lamb goes forth and bears the Guilt
      Of Adam's Generations.

A translation in the Suppl. to Ger. Psal., ed. 1765, and also Select Hymns from Ger. Psal., Tranquebar, 1754.

6. See, bowed beneath a fearful weight.

Miss Dunn, 1857, p. 32.

7. A Holy, Pure and Spotless Lamb.

Miss Cox, in Lyra Messianica, 1864, p. 230, and also in her Hymns from the German, 1864, p. 107.

8. Forth goes a dear devoted Lamb.

Dr. J. Guthrie, in his Sacred Lyrics, 1869, p. 82.

9. Behold a Lamb! so tired and faint.

Mrs. E. J. Carr, in Songs of the Inner Life, 1871. This version appeared also in Reid's Praise Book, 1872, with slight alterations.

10. A Lamb goes forth--for all the dues.

Catharine Macrea, in Reid's Praise Book, 1872, no. 990.