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disastrous year 1527 (not 1521, or 1529, or 15380), and appeared first in print in 1528.'
Luther availed himself with his conservative tact of all existing helps for the benefit of public worship and private devotion. Most of his hymns and tunes rest on older foundations partly Latin, partly German. Some of them were inspired by Hebrew Psalms. To these belong, besides “ Ein feste Burg” (Ps. 46), the following : —
“* Aus tiefer Noth schrei ich zu dir’’ (1523). (Out of the depths I cry to Thee. Ps. 130.)
*¢ Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein’’ (1523). (Help, Lord, look down from heaven above. Ps. 12.)
On the second chapter of Luke, which is emphatically the gospel of children, are based his truly childlike Christmas songs, —
‘* Yom Himmel hoch da komm ich her’’ (1535), (From heaven high to earth I come,)
and
‘* Yom Himmel kam der Engel Schaar’’ (1548). (From heaven came the angel hosts. )
1 The hymn appears in Joseph Klug’s Gesangbuch of 1529 (and in a hymn-book of Augsburg, 1529), and to that year it is assigned by Wackernagel (III. 20), Koch, and also by Késtlin in the first ed. of his large biography of M. Luther (1875, vol. II. 127), as a protest against the Diet of Speier held in that year. But since the discovery of an older print apparently from February, 1528, Kostlin has changed his view in favor of 1527, the year of the pestilence and Luther’s severest spiritual and physical trials. He says (l.c. 11. 182, second and third ed.): ‘‘ Aus jener schwersten Zeit, welche Luther bis Ende des Jahres 1527 durchzumachen hatte, ist wohl das gewaltigste seiner Lieder, das ‘Hin feste Burg ist unser Gott,’ hervorgegangen.”’ Schneider (1856) first fixed upon Nov. 1, 1527, as the birthday of this hymn from internal reasons, and Knaake (1881) added new ones. The deepest griefs and highest faith often meet. Justinus Kerner sings:—
“4 Poesie ist tiefes Schmerzen, Und es kommt das schonste Lied Nur aus einem Menschenherzen, Das ein tiefes Leid durchgliht.”’
504 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 τὸ 1580.
Others are free reproductions of Latin hymns, either directly from the original, or on the basis of an older
German version: as, —
“* Herr Gott, dich loben wir’? (1548), (Te Deum laudamus.)
“ Komm, Gott, Schopfer, heiliger Geist’? (1524). (Veni, Creator Spiritus.)
** Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland”’ (1524). (Veni, Redemptor gentium.)
“* Gelobet seist du, Jesus Christ’? (1524), (Grates nunc omnes reddamus. )
‘* Mitten wir im Leben sind’? (1524). (Media vita in morte sumus.)
‘* Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist’ (1524). (Now we pray to the Holy Ghost.)
** Christ lag in Todesbanden’’ (1524). (In the bonds of death He lay.) (‘‘ Surrexit Christus hodie.’’)+
Among his strictly original hymns are, —
“* Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein” (1528). (Rejoice, rejoice, dear flock of Christ.)
1 The third stanza of this resurrection hymn is very striking: —
“ Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg,
Da Tod und Leben rungen:
Das Leben das behielt den Sieg,
Es hat den Tod verschlungen. Die Schrift hat verkindet das, Wie da ein Tod den andern frass, Ein Spott aus dem Tod ist worden.
Hallelujah !”’
(That was a wondrous war, I trow, When Life and Death together fought; But Life hath triumphed o’er his foe. Death is mocked and set at naught. ’?Tis even as the Scripture saith, Christ through death hath conquered Death.)
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Bunsen calls this “the first (?) voice of German churchsong, which flashed with the power of lightning through all German lands, in praise of the eternal decree of redemption of the human race and of the gospel of freedom.”
“* Erhalt uns Herr bei deinem Wort, Und steur des Papsts und Tiirken Mord” (1541).
This is directed against the Pope and the Turk, as the _ chief enemies of Christ and his church in Luther’s days.}
The stirring song of the two evangelical proto-martyrs at Brussels in 1523, —
“ Hin neues Lied wir heben an,’ —
is chronologically his first, and not a hymn in the proper sense of the term, but had an irresistible effect, especially the
tenth stanza, — “‘ Die Asche will nicht lassen ab,
Sie staiibt in allen Landen,
Hie hilft kein Bach, Loch, Grub noch Grab, Sie macht den Feind zu Schanden.
Die er im Leben durch den Mord, Zu schweigen hat gedrungen
Die muss er todt an allem Ort Mit aller Stimm und Zungen Gar frolich lassen singen.’’ 2
(Their ashes will not rest and lie, But scattered far and near,
Stream, dungeon, bolt, and grave defy, Their foeman’s shame and fear.
Those whom alive the tyrant’s wrongs To silence could subdue,
He must, when dead, let sing the songs
And in all languages and tongues Resound the wide world through.)
1 The second line, which was very offensive to the Papists, is changed in most modern hymnbooks into, —
** Und steure aller Feinde Mord.’’
2 See the whole in Wackernagel, III. 3, 4. Thomas Fuller says of the ashes of Wiclif, that the brook Swift, into which they were cast (1428), ‘‘ conveyed them into the Avon, the Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean; and thus the ashes of Wiclif are the emblems of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over.”