Choir for 4 voices
Soprano solo
Alto solo
Tenor solo
Bass solo
Travers flute I + II
Oboe I + II
Violin I + II
Viola
Basso continuo

Ye who the name of Christ have taken,
Where bideth now your sense of mercy,
Whereby one Christ's true members knoweth?
It is from you, ah, all too far.
Your hearts should be with kindness filled,
And yet they're harder than a stone.

We've heard, indeed, what love itself doth say:
All those with mercy who have here received their neighbor,
These shall before the court
Have mercy for their judgment. (1.)
And yet we give no heed to this!
We listen to our neighbor's sighs unmoved!
He knocks upon our heart; but opened is it not! (2.)
We see him wring his hands despairing,
His eye, too, which with tears o'erflows;
But still the heart will not to love be prompted.
The Levite and the priest
Who here now step aside
The image make of loveless Christians;
They act as if they knew of others' suff'ring nothing,
And they pour neither oil nor wine
Into their neighbor's wounds. (3.)

Just through love and through compassion
Will we be like God himself.
Hearts Samaritan in kindness
Find the stranger's pain as painful
And are in compassion rich.

Ah, melt indeed with thine own radiant love
This frigid heart of steel,
That I the true love of the Christian,
My Savior, daily practise;
And that my neighbor's mis'ry,
No matter who he is,
Friend or a foe, heath'n or Christian,
E'er strike me to the heart as much as mine own suff'ring!
My heart, be loving, soft and mild,
Then will in me thine image be revealed.

To hands which are ever open
Heaven's doors will open wide.
Eyes which flow with tears' compassion
By the Savior's grace are seen.
To hearts which for love are striving
God himself his heart will offer.


Now slay us through thy kindness,
Arouse us through thy grace;
The former man now weaken,
So that the new may live
And, here on earth now dwelling,
His mind and ev'ry yearning
And thought may raise to thee.

Galatians 3: 15-22

Luke 10: 23-37