German Hymnology [pp. 574-602]

German liymnology.
eral and popular use of lively gospel hymns in England does
not date mnuch further back, than the labours of Watts and
Doddridge, and the great revival of religious feeling under
Hervey, Whitefield and the Wesleys: and it is remarkable
how large a portion of the hymns now current among ourselves
is derived from these very collections. In the Anglican Church,
which best represented the English mind, the prevalent psalmody was first that of Sternhold and Hopkins, and then that of
Tate and Brady. There are thousands of Presbyterian worshippers who to this very day content themselves with the
rough, bald and scarcely metrical prose of Rous; and some,
though their number is happily decreasing, who think it a sin
against God to use any praises in his worship which contain
the name of Jesus.
How greatly in contrast with this has been the state of things
in Germany, we have sufficiently shown, Long before the
Reformation, German Christians possessed a store of spiritual
songs, partly from the Latin hymns of the Breviary, and partly
the product of original pious feeling; since that time, we have
attempted to trace the progress. We have seen in Luther
himself a prince among Christian poets; and none can tell
how much the great religious movement of the sixteenth century owed to those strains of his, of which one might say, as
did Sir Philip Sydney, concerning Chevy Chace, that they
"stir up the soul like the sound of a trumpet." There has
been no time for three hundred years, in which German Christians have not been praising God in the words of original
hymns. These have passed from mouth to mouth, and from
father to son, and being connected with the freshness and
dearest experiences of a most vital Christianity, as yet untainted by rationalism, have become part and parcel of the
national inheritance. In this respect, they possess all the
traits and influence of the English or the Spanish ballad.
Indeed they bear a close resemblance to those popular and
soul-stirring compositions, in vigour of thought, simplicity of
structure, and homely raciness of diction.*
* In addition to the works named at the head of the article, and others noted
in the margin, there are two to which our debt is so great that we cannot omit
their titles; viz. ffagenbach'#' Kirchengeschichte des 18 u. 19, Jahrh, and.it's
4 Christlicher Cultus.'
[OCTOBF,R
602