THE STRONGHOLD. A sure stronghold our God is he,
A trusty shield and weapon ; Our help he'll be, and set us free, Whatever ill may happen. That old malicious foe Intends us deadly woe ; Armed with the strength of hell, And deepest craft as well. On earth is not his fellow. Through our own force we nothing can,
Straight were we lost foie'i'er, But for us fights the proper Man, By God sent to deliver.
HYMNOLOGY 439
HYMNOLOGY
Ask ye who this may be ?
C'hi-ist Jesus named is he,
Of Sabaoth the Lord,
Sole God to be adored ;
'Tis he must wiu the battle.
Aud were the world with devils filled.
All eager to devour us, Our souls to fear should little yield ; They caiiuot overpower us.
Their dreaded prince no more
Can harm us as of yore ;
Look grim as e'er he maj',
Doomed is his ancient sway,
A word can overthrow him.
Still shall they leave that world its might,
And yet no thanks shall merit; Still is he with us in the fight By his good gifts aud Spirit.
E'en should they take our life. Goods, honor, children, wife, Though all of these were gone. Yet nothing have they won— God's kingdom ours abideth !
Another hymn of Luther's which lias gained a world- wide circulation is the one that was written by him on the burning of two martyrs for their faith at Brussels in 1523, and which was translated, or, rather, transformed by D'Aubigiie in his History of the liefurmation, begin- ning,
" Flung to the heedless winds.
Or on the waters cast, Their ashes shall be watched.
And gathered at the last," etc.
As an example of the songs he transformed most suc- cessfully, we quote the old ilitty,
" O thou naughty Judas ! What hast thou done. To betray our Master,
God's only Son ! Therefore must thou suffer Hell's agon}', Lucifer's companion Must forever be.
Kijrie, Eleison !" This Luther changed to the following : " 'Twas our great transgression And our sore misdeed Made the Lord our Saviour
On the cross to bleed. Not then on thee, poor Judas,
Nor on that Jewish crew. Our vengeance dare we visit — We are to blame, not you. Kijrie, Eleison ! " All hail to thee, Christ Jesus, Who hungest on the tree. And bor'st for our transgressions
Both shame and agony. Now beside thy Father
Reignest thou on high ;
Bless lis all our lifetime,
Take us when we die !
Kyrie, Eleisoii !" {Christian Examiner, 1860, p. 239 sq.)
Of the friends whom Luther was successful in enlist- ing as Avriters for his new hymn-books we have space here to mention only the most prominent names. One of them, Justus Jonas, was a colleague of Luther and ]\Ielancthon at the University of Wittenberg. His spe- cial service was the transformation of the Psalms into metrical German versions, "choosing, as one can well understand, those which speak of David's sufferings from his enemies, and his trust in God's deliverance." One of his best is on the 124th Psalm, beginning thus : " If God were not upon our side. When foes around us rage; Were not Himself our Help aud Guide,
When bitter war thev wage : Were He not Israel's mighty Shield, To whom their utmost crafts must yield, We surely must have perished." Another of Luther's colaborers was Paul Eber, whose hymns have " a tone of tenderness and pathos which is much less characteristic of this period than the grave, manly trustfulness of Luther and Jonas." But they be- came very extensively knowi, and during the trying period of the Thirty-years' War they were constantly heard both in public and aromid the family hearth-
stone. A special favorite at that time was the one, com-' posed when the imperial armies were besieging Witten- berg (1547), beginning:
" When, iu the hour of utmost need. We know not where to look for aid, When days aud nights of anxious thought Nor help nor comlort yet have brought. Then this our comfort is alone. That we may meet before Thy throne, Aud cry, O faithful God, to Thee, For rescue from our misery." Two of Ebcr's hymns for the dying have been great fa- vorites by the side of death-beds and at funerals, not only among the German Protestants, but also among the lio- man Catholics. The one is //en- Jesu Christ, ivahr Mensch unci Gott (Lord Jesus Christ, true man and God) ; the other is the following childlike expression of perfect trust, beautifully rendered by Mrs. Winkwortli (p. 121) : DEATH IN THE LORD. " I fall asleep in Jesu's arms. Sin washed away, hushed all alarms. For his dear blood, his righteousness, My jewels are, my glorious dress, Wherein before my God I stand When I shall reach the heavenly land. With peace and joy I now depart, God's child I am with all my heart : I thank thee, Death ; thou leadest me To that true life where I would be. So cleansed by Christ I fear not Death, Lord Jesu, strengthen thou my faith !" But Luther and his associates were only the founders of the new German hymnologj-, which soon spread over a much more extended held. Hj'mn-writers became common all over the land, and their number is legion, so that it is almost impossible for us, in our limited space, to give more than a brief account of the most dis- tinguished, and the names only of those of lesser note. Thus Nicholas Decius, a converted monk, jjroduced a translation of the Gloria in Excelsis (" Allein Gott in der II<ih', sei Ehr.," All (jlory he to God on hif/h), which, with its noble chorale, soon came into use all over Ger- many. Paul Speratus (von Spretten), the chaplain of the duke of Prussia, is perhaps the most noted of all the hymnologists of this period, and is best known as the author of the hymn on the doctrine of Justification by faith :