[2][5] Jane Laurie Borthwick is best known for the Hymns from the Land of Luther; her most famous translation today is Be still, my soul and her most known original text is Come, labor on.
[12][13] It was while Jane Borthwick was residing for a time in Switzerland that her attention was drawn by Baron de Diesbach to the study of German hymns.
[16] A number of the translations and original poems in the Family Treasury were collected and published in the 1857 as Thoughtful Hours.
[14] Jane and Laurie translated hymns of various German poets like Paul Gerhardt (1607–1676), Ernst Lange (1650–1727), Joachim Neander (1650–1680), Laurentius Laurenti (1660–1722), Benjamin Schmolck (1672–1737), Gerhard Tersteegen (1697–1769), Nicolaus Zinzendorf (1700–1760), Ehrenfried Liebich (1713–1780) and Karl Johann Philipp Spitta (1801–1859).
[20] In 1875, while living in Switzerland, Jane Laurie Borthwick produced another book of translations, the Alpine Lyrics.
Besides these books on her missionary activities she also wrote books with religious instruction for children: The story of four centuries, sketches of early Church history for youthful readers (1864), Lessons on the Life of Christ for the Little Ones at Home (1871) and Light by the way: a daily Scripture text-book for little children (1879).
[26][27][2] The translations in the Hymns from the Land of Luther, which represent relatively a larger proportion of hymns for the Christian life, and a smaller for the Christian year than one finds in Catherine Winkworth, have attained a success as translations and their acceptance in hymnals was only second to Catherine Winkworth's.