Gerhard Wolter Molanus published this text in a 1673 hymnal from Rinteln, Germany, originally in eleven stanzas under the title Ich trete frisch zu Gottes Tisch. The English translation was provided by Matthias Loy for the Ohio Synod’s 1880 hymnal, where it was left entirely unattributed—whether by accident or design remains unknown. Loy also changed the original German meter in translating. Two alterations reward attention: the word “sacrament” in stanza 5 was not in Molanus’s German; Loy added it. And in stanza 6, where the German referred only to the “precious blood poured out,” the English explicitly names “true body and true blood,” strengthening the confession of Christ’s real presence. The Lutheran Service Book also made one careful editorial change from older hymnals: the earlier petition “let no unrepented sin prove hurtful to me there” was updated to “let not an unrepentant heart prove hurtful to me there.”
Sung at Our Saviour
2026