German Hymnology [pp. 574-602]

German Hymnnology.
must then go about through streets with their wallet." He
then recites the old superstitious ditties which they were
taught to sing, and compares them with the sacred instructions and holy hymns introduced by the reformers.
The diction of Luther's hymns is that common, rugged,
idiomatic High German, which has made itself felt in the
national literature, and has contributed to form the national
thinking. No one man on record has ever laid his hand with
so much power on kie moulding of a great language. Though
some will lament the loss of a certain sweetness which still
lives in the Low German, none can overlook the bone and
muscle of the dialect of Lutlher. It yields more readily to
the sublime and vehemncnt than the beautiful, but it can be
passionate an(d touclhillg. The use of so familiar and homely
a speech in the early h1ymns doubtless gave a precedent, which
no one can mistake in the later compositions of Gerhardt and
Schmolck. A nui-nber of these lhymns r.te still used in German
worship after thel llapse of three centuries; a fact which has
no parallel in British Hylymnolovy.
It was the congrcl:tioal singilg, of the lHussite brethren
which, we are told, suggcste(l to Luther the labLours wlhich he
bestowed on this refoinm. tiis el'orts suceeded(l in spreading
a peculiarity of worship whico has reachled as far as the German tongue. aid hich we would fain emulate, if' ve may not
enrvy "By mealns': sig,le hymn of Luther, cJI,?n freut
eucht liebe COlristegCd{ncin, many hundreds nwereC brought to
the faithl, who otherwise v"oulld never have heard Luther's
name." And it w-as obser ved by the Cardinal Thomas a Jesu,
"that the interests of ] tthlr were furtlhered to an extra)rdinary degree, by tle sin,ingll of his hymniis, by people of every
class, not only in schools and churches, but in dwellings and
shops, in markets, st Leets and fields." They fouud entrance
even among ad-versaries. Selnecker relates that several of
the hymns haviag b ie n introducedd into the clhapel service of
the duke henry of VolfeTbiit,tcl, a priest made complaint.
The dukle asked what ymns thlose were against which he protested. " Mly it pleCase your highness, they are such as' 0
that the Lord Lvottld jPaci,o, be.' " H-old!" repliedl the duke,
1850.]
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