The meditation was originally published in De Heraut, no. 762, July 31, 1892, only a few days after the death of Kuyper’s youngest son, Willy (†July 27, 1892).

The translator, the Rev. W. Kolfhaus (1870–1954), was pastor at Radevormwald (later at Elberfeld and then at Vlotho, Germany). He was also a gifted journalist and was, among other things, editor of Der Pilger and the Reformierte Kirchenzeitung. Kolfhaus published studies on Calvin, Kuyper, and Barth. He not only translated Kuyper into German but also wrote a German-language biography of Kuyper. In 1924 Kolfhaus received an honorary doctorate from the University of Münster for his work Dr. Abraham Kuyper 1837–1920: Ein Lebensbericht (Elberfeld, 1924). Mrs. A. Czeglédy published a Hungarian translation of Kolfhaus’s biography (see 1927.09). Kuyper wrote about Kolfhaus in, among other places, De Heraut, no. 1103, February 12, 1899.