The Hymns and Small Cathechism | Page 5

Engel schaar.
A shorter Christmas Song.
TO SHEPHERDS, AS THEY WATCHED BY NIGHT.
TRANSLATION by R. Massie.
MELODY, 1543.
XXXIII. - Erhalt' uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort. "A children's song, to be
sung against the two arch-enemies of Christ and his Holy Church, the
Pope and the Turks."
LORD, KEEP US IN THY WORD AND WORK.
MELODY, 1543. Harmony by W. Sterndale Bennett, 1865.

XXXIV. - Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam.
A Spiritual Song concerning our Holy Baptism.
TO JORDAN CAME OUR LORD THE CHRIST. TRANSLATION by
R. Massie, amended.
MELODY, 1525 first adapted to "Es wollt' uns Gott genaedig sein,"
supposed to be derived from an old secular melody. Harmony by A.
Haupt, 1869.
XXXV. - Was fuercht'st du, Feind Herodes, sehr?
Herodes hostis impie by Sedelius in the 5th century.
WHY, HEROD, UNRELENTING FOE.
TRANSLATION by R. Massie.
HARMONY by M. Praetorius, 1609.
XXXVI. - Der du bist drei in Einigkeit.
An imitation from the Gregorian hymn, _O Lux beata Trinitas._
TRANSLATION adapted from R. Massie.
ORIGINAL LATIN MELODY. Harmony in von Tucher, 18--.
INTRODUCTION A fit motto for the history of the Reformation would
be those words out of the history of the Day of Pentecost, "How hear
we, every man in our own tongue wherein we were born....the
wonderful works of God!" The ruling thought of the pre-reformation
period was not more the maintenance of one Holy Roman Church than
of one Holy Roman Empire, each of which was to comprehend all
Christendom. The language of the Roman Church and Empire was the
sacred language in comparison with which the languages of men's
common speech were reckoned common and unclean. The coming-in
of the Reformation was the awakening of individual life, by enforcing

the sense of each man's direct responsibility to God; but it was equally
the quickening of a true national life. In the light of the new era, the
realization of the promise of the oneness of the Church was no longer
to be sought in the universal dominance of a hierarchical corporation;
nor was the "mystery" proclaimed by Paul, that "the nations were
fellow-heirs and of one body," to be fulfilled in the subjugation of all
nations to a central potentate. According to the spirit of the
Reformation, the One Church was to be, not a corporation, but a
communion - the communion of saints; and the unity of mankind, in its
many nations, was to be a unity of the spirit in the bond of mutual
peace.
The two great works of Martin Luther were those by which he gave to
the common people a vernacular Bible and vernacular worship, that
through the one, God might speak directly to the people; and in the
other, the people might speak directly to God. Luther's Bible and
Luther's Hymns gave life not only to the churches of the Reformation,
but to German nationality and the German language.Concerning the
hymns of Luther the words of several notable writers are on record, and
are worthy to be prefixed to the volume of them.
Says Spangenberg, yet in Luther's life-time, in his Preface to the
Cithara Lutheri, 1545: "One must certainly let this be true, and remain
true, that among all Mastersingers from the days of the Apostles until
now, Luther is and always will be the best and most accomplished; in
whose hymns and songs one does not find a vain or needless word. All
flows and falls in the sweetest and neatest manner, full of spirit and
doctrine, so that his every word gives outright a sermon of his own, or
at least a singular reminiscence. There is nothing forced, nothing
foisted in or patched up, nothing fragmentary. The rhymes are easy and
good, the words choice and proper, the meaning clear and intelligible,
the melodies lovely and hearty, and _in summa_ all is so rare and
majestic, so full of pith and power, so cheering and comforting, that, in
sooth, you will not find his equal, much less his master."1
The following words have often been quoted from Samuel Taylor
Coleridge:

"Luther did as much for the Reformation by his hymns as by his
translation of the Bible. In Germany the hymns are known by heart by
every peasant; they advise, they argue from the hymns, and every soul
in the church praises God like a Christian, with words which are natural
and yet sacred to his mind."
A striking passage in an article by Heine in the _Revue des Deux
Mondes_ for March, 1834, is transcribed by Michelet in his Life of
Luther:
"Not less remarkable, not less significant than his prose works, are
Luther's poems, those stirring songs which, as it were, escaped from
him in the very midst of his combats and his necessities like a flower
making its way from between rough