The monarch's sword, the prelate's pride,
The Church's curse, the empire's ban,
By one poor monk were all defied,

Who never feared the face of man.

Half-battles were the words he said,
Each born of prayer, baptized in tears;
And, routed by them, backward fled
The errors of a thousand years.

With lifted songs and bended knee,
For all Thy gifts we praise Thee, Lord;
But chief for those who made us free,
The champions of Thy holy word.

JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.

Give to the winds thy fears;

Hope and be undismayed:

God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,
God shall lift up thy head.

Through waves, through clouds and storms,

He gently clears thy way:

Wait thou His time; so shall the night
Soon end in joyous day.

PAUL GERHARDT.

XIV.

MARTIN LUTHER,

AND SOME HYMNS FROM THE GERMAN.

The article on German hymnody, in Dr. Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology, was written by that great German-American scholar, Dr. PHILIP SCHAFF. In the study of that subject it is a satisfaction to follow so accomplished, so bright-minded and so great-hearted a man.

"German hymnody," he says, "surpasses all others in wealth. The Church hymn, in the strict sense of the term, as a popular religious lyric in praise of God, to be sung by the congregation in public worship, was born with the German Reformation, and most extensively cultivated ever since by the Evangelical Church in Germany. The Latin hymns and sequences of Hilary, Ambrose, Fortunatus, Gregory the Great, Notker, St. Bernard, Thomas of Aquino, Adam of St. Victor, Thomas of Celano, and others, were indeed used in public worship long before, but only by the priests and choristers, not by the people, who could not understand them any more than the Latin psalms and the Latin mass. The Reformed (as the nonLutheran Protestant Churches are called on the Continent) were long satisfied with metrical translations of the Psalter, and did not feel the necessity of original hymns, and some did not approve of the use of them in public worship.

"The number of German hymns cannot fall short of one hundred thousand. * * * About ten thousand have become more or less popular, and passed into different hymn books. Fischer gives a selection of about five thousand of the best, many of which were overlooked by Von Hardenberg. We may safely say that nearly one thousand of these hymns are classical and immortal. This is a larger number than can be found in any other language.

"To this treasury of German song several hundred men and women of all ranks and conditions-theologians and pastors, princes and princesses, generals and statesmen, physicians and jurists, merchants and travelers, laborers and private persons have made contributions, laying them on the common altar of devotion. Many of these hymns, and just those possessed of the greatest vigor and unction, full of the most exulting faith and the richest comfort, had their origin amid the conflicts and storms of the Reformation, or the fearful devastations and nameless miseries of the Thirty Years' War; others belong to the revival period of the Spenerian Pietism and the Moravian Brotherhood, and reflect its earnest struggle after holiness, the fire of the first love and the sweet enjoyment of the soul's intercourse with her Heavenly Bridegroom; not a few of them sprang up even in the unbelieving age of 'illumination' and rationalism, like flowers from dry ground, or Alpine roses on fields of snow; others again proclaim, in fresh and joyous tones, the dawn of reviving faith in the land where the Reformation had its birth. Thus these hymns constitute a most graphic book of confession for German evangelical Christianity, a sacred band which enriches its various periods, an abiding memorial of its victories, its sorrows and its joys, a clear mirror showing its deepest experiences, and an eloquent witness for the all-conquering and invincible lifepower of the evangelical Christian faith.

* * *

"The leader of the Reformation was also the first evangelical hymnist. To Luther belongs the extraordinary merit of having given to the German people in their own tongue the Bible, the Catechism, and the hymn book, so that God might speak directly to them in His word, and that they might directly answer Him in their songs. He was also a musician, and composed tunes to his best hymns. Some of them are immortal, most of all that triumphant war-cry of the Reformation which has so often been reproduced in other languages (the best English translation is Carlyle's), and which resounds with mighty effects on great occasions: 'Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott.' ***

"Luther is the Ambrose of German hymnody. His

hymns are characterized by simplicity and strength, and a popular churchly tone. They breathe the bold, confident, joyful spirit of justifying faith which was the beating heart of his theology and piety. He had an extraordinary faculty of expressing profound thought in the clearest language. In this gift he is not surpassed by any uninspired writer; and herein lies the secret of his power."

It is not necessary that I should try to tell the story of Luther's life, inasmuch as in its general features it is already known and read of all men; and yet a rapid sketch may be of value. I choose to draw material for this sketch from what Principal Tulloch calls "a remarkable book," entitled "Lectures on Great Men." Concerning its author, Frederic Meyers, Dr. Tulloch adds: "It is strange that a thinker so really wise and powerful should have attracted so little attention.”

Writing of MARTIN LUTHER, Frederic Meyers says:

"After a patient study of his character as a whole, I cannot but honor Luther as one of the greatest of mankind. For to choose Pain, and Shame, and even if need were Death, rather than pleasurable life lacking freedom to pursue and to proclaim the truth; in the midst of the fulness of bodily vigor and with adequate means of gratifying all cravings of the senses and of the mind, to put aside all those things which men naturally seek and live for, and to take up instead with lifelong toil as his work and only the hope of a Better Resurrection as his reward to do this firmly and calmly and consistently throughout the whole vigor and maturity of manhood-not with perpetual self-applause but rather as by an irresistible impulse from within-this is truly great."

In the course of his further characterization he asks questions in part as follows:

First. "What was the work that Luther did?" And this is in part his answer:

"He emancipated half Europe (I trust forever) from the curse of great errors on matters of greatest importance to man's eternal interests, and diffused through the same the light of the knowledge of the way of access to God through Jesus Christ alone. He restored to men a true exhibition of their peculiar

relation to God through Christ, which had been obscured for a thousand years; he so proclaimed the distinguishing and lifegiving doctrines of the Gospel as that they took effect upon the hearts of men then, and have lived in them till now. He saw with a clearness such as none for centuries before him had seen the importance of such truths as these: That we can learn little of God's purposes towards man anywhere but from Christ; that the desire to justify ourselves, and to depend upon our own strength in getting to heaven, is the misery and destruction of man; that by the most earnest striving to fulfil the moral law we cannot obtain peace of heart; that faith in Christ and obedience to Him flowing from that love which such faith must inspire, is the only permanent source of peace of heart and purity of life; that the principle from which anything is done can alone give it worth in God's sight, and that therefore we do not become good by doing good works, but when we are good we do good works. God's sympathy with man, and man's responsibility to God; the necessity of the Holy Spirit's influence, and the efficacy of prayer; the entire absence of merit on the part of man, and the thorough freeness of remission of sin; how strong and happy we may be if united to Christ through faith, and how apart from Him we can be neitherthese things Luther saw and taught when no man about him did so. Now, it was the proclamation of such truths as these that gave Luther his power over the hearts of his fellows. The faithful preaching of the Gospel of God-the earnest, bold, free assertion of the remission of sins through the blood of Christ, and through it alone—his knowing and stating the true answer to the question which every earnest man must answer somehow, What must I do to be saved?—his having and teaching the true doctrine about those things which all men are most interested in, repentance and regeneration, belief and duty, faith, hope and love-this was what gave Luther the lever whereby he moved Europe from its old foundations."

Second. "Was Luther then a perfect character?" And this is in part his answer:

"No, a very imperfect one. but he was not a mature one.

He was a sincere Christian, He was given to see some truths