Christian Ludwig Scheidt

Christian Ludwig Scheidt was born on September 26, 1709, at Waldenburg in Württemberg and died on October 25, 1761, in Hanover. A German jurist, historian, librarian, and hymn writer, he studied at Altdorf and Strasbourg, continued his work at Halle and Göttingen, and earned a doctorate in law in 1737. He then taught at Göttingen before joining the University of Copenhagen, where he served as rector in 1746–47.

In 1748 Scheidt returned to German lands as court councillor, librarian, and historiographer in Hanover. His historical work included editing materials left by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and he helped produce volumes of Origines Guelficae. He became an external member of the Göttingen academy in 1751 and of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1760. These appointments place his principal career in scholarship and public service rather than parish ministry.

Scheidt's enduring contribution to hymnody is Aus Gnaden soll ich selig werden. Its earliest located printing is the 1742 Evangelisches Gesang-Buch prepared for the congregation at Ebersdorf, where it appeared in ten stanzas. No reliable first-person account explaining the circumstances of its composition has been located; the publication itself is firmer evidence than later devotional stories.