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AS hymnody added power to Protestant
ism? Coleridge says: “Martin Luther
did as much for the Reformation by his
hymns as by his translation of the Bible.”
History teaches that the hymns of Luther
were the battle-cry and the trumpet-call
of the Reformation. Martin Luther! How
the very name awakens thought! With
what force, through all the ages, come
those words of Luther, when, before the Diet of
Worms —powerful, eloquent, majestic—he rose supe
rior even to himself and said: “What! keep the light of
life away from the people; take away their guide to
heaven; keep them in ignorance of what is most
precious and exalting; deprive them of the blessed
consolation which sustains the soul in trial and in
death; deny the most palpable truths because your
dignitaries put on them a construction to bolster
up their power! What an abomination! What
treachery to heaven! What peril to the souls of
men!”
Then, with even greater resounding echo, comes
rolling through the centuries that brave heroic: “Let
there be private judgment, liberty of conscience, the
right to read the Scriptures in spite of priests—
then shall arise a new creation and Satan shall
be subdued and laid at the foot of His throne, whose
right it is to reign.”
With all his strength of mind and sternness of
character, Luther loved music. In 1522, he publish
ed a small volume of only eight hymns. In 1527 the
book had been enlarged to sixty-three; but Luther’s
own hymns are said to have been thirty-seven.
“Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott,” is the first line
of nis most popular hymn—it is the line inscribed
upon his tomb at Wittenburg. The hymn was writ
ten in that memorable year when the evangelical
Princes delivered their “protest”—from which word
the greater word Protestant was derived
Various translations of this hymn have been made,
the most popular Eng’ish version begins:
“A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing.”
The hymn is really a paraphrase of the forty sixth
Psalm, but it became the watchword of the Reforma
tion! “Little children learned it in the cottage and
martyrs sang it on the scaffold.”
Heine called it the “Marseillaise of the Reforma
tion;” and Carlyle compared it to “a sound of Alpine
avalanches or the first murmur of earthquakes.”
Dr. Lord —that clearest of historians —says Luther
abolished the gloomy monotonous Gregorian chant
and prepared hymns, not for boys and priests to
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OUII HYMNS: By /IISS VUNNIE LOVE
The Golden Age for September 8, 1910.
intone, but for the people to sing. Os a truth,
Luther made worship more heartfelt; and revived
the apostolic usages—preaching, exhorting, instruct
ing from the pulpit.
A hymn that must forever be linked with the
mighty Reformation is the Hymn of Gustavus
Adolphus. As it was Luther who walked in the
way prepared for him by Savanorola in Italy, Huss
and Jerome in Bohemia, Erasmus in Holland, and
Wyclif in England—and who shouted for liberty of
conscience and freedom of religious thought until
the world was aroused; so it was brave and good
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, who, in the Thirty
Years’ War, armed himself for the deliverance of
the Protestant faith from the tyranny of pope and
emperor.
Being convinced that in the subjugation of Ger
many at that time, the religious freedom of the
world would suffer, and deeply persuaded of the
duties laid upon him, Gustavus assembled the depu
ties of his kingdom, and said: “I know the dangers
I am about to encounter; I feel convinced that my
life will terminate on the field of battle.
“Let no one imagine that I am actuated by pri
vate feeling or fondness for war.
“My object is to set bounds to the increasing
power of dangerous empire before all resistance
becomes impossible.
Your chi’dren will not bless your memory if, in
stead of civil and religious freedom, you bequeath
to them the superstitions of monks and the double
tyranny of popes and emperors.
Then, having made plain his purpose, Gustavus
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took his infant daughter, Christiania, in his arms
and gave her to the protection of the nation and
embarked his forces for the deliverance of Germany.
This was just one hundred years after the time
when “Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott” had awak
ened the world.
In the mighty struggles, through the years that
followed, the right prevailed. Victory perched up
on the banner of the Swedish army. The decisive
battle of Lutzen, November 6, 1632, gave power to
the Protestants; but Gustavus Adolphus fell, ex
claiming to the murderous soldiers who demanded
his name and rank; “I am King of Sweden; and I seal
this day, with my blood, the liberties and religion
of the German nation.”
Truly the Thirty Years War proved liberty, not
a dream, nor truth a defeated power.
But the “Hymn of Gustavus Adolphus?” Let a pen
picture present the scene which gave to it the hon
ored name:
Two mighty hosts are encamped over against
each other- —stilled by the awe that falls on brave
hearts when momentous events are about to be
decided. Suddenly there is silence in the Swedish
camp. Solemnly Gustavus Adolphus, soldier of God,
advances to the front of his troops and kneels in
the presence of God. With one accord, to a man,
the entire army blends in prayer with the beloved
leader; then ten thousand voices join in that lead
er’s favorite hymn.
The army moves forward to victory, inspired by
faith in God; but in the hour of triumph a riderless
horse comes flying from the plain of Lutzen, and
the victors know the victory is dearly bought, for
the greatest protector Protestantism has ever known
lies dead on the field of g'ory. Yes, Gustavus died a
martyr to his conviction of duty; but died with his
favorite hymn still lingering in his heart.
The first two stanzas of this grand martial music
are found in the following translation:
“Fear not, O little flock, the foe
Who madly seeks your overthrow;
Dread not his rage or power:
What though your courage sometimes faints,
His seeming triumphs o’er God’s saints,
Lasts but a little hour.
“Be of good cheer, your cause belongs
To Him who can avenge your wrongs;
Leave it to Him —our Lord:
Though hidden, yet, from all our eyes,
He sees the Gideon who shall rise
To save us and His Word.”
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