Sacer, Gottfried Wilhelm

Sacer, Gottfried Wilhelm, a German hymnist, was born at Naumberg July 11, 1635, and died Sept. 8, 1699. He was an excellent lawyer, and in his official duties distinguished himself by a strict conscientiousness and the most unbounded benevolence. He is the author of a number of very fine hymns; the greater part he composed while a student at the University of Greifswalde. When these hymns were collected and published in 1714, they immediately procured him the reputation of a distinguished poet. Two of them were also translated into English by Miss E. Cox: Gott fdhrt auf gen' Himmel (Hymns from the German, p. 62), "Lo! God to heaven ascendeth," and So hab' ich obgesieget (p. 86), "My race is now completed." See Koch, Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenliedes, 3, 398 sq.; Gul. Saceri Memoria, auctore Joanne Arnold Ballenstedt (Helmst. 1745). (B.P.)