Dr. Martin Luther's Deutsche Geistliche Lieder. Martin Luther

MELODY, Wittenberg, 1535. Harmony by M. PRAETORIUS, 1610.

      1. Dear Christians, one and all rejoice,

      With exultation springing,

      And with united heart and voice

      And holy rapture singing,

      Proclaim the wonders God hath done,

      How his right arm the victory won;

      Right dearly it hath cost him.

      2. Fast bound in Satan's chains I lay,

      Death brooded darkly o'er me;

      Sin was my torment night and day,

      Therein my mother bore me.

      Deeper and deeper still I fell,

      Life was become a living hell,

      So firmly sin possessed me.

      3. My good works could avail me naught,

      For they with sin were stained;

      Free-will against God's judgment fought,

      And dead to good remained.

      Grief drove me to despair, and I

      Had nothing left me but to die,

      To hell I fast was sinking.

      4. God saw, in his eternal grace,

      My sorrow out of measure;

      He thought upon his tenderness-

      To save was his good pleasure.

      He turn'd to me a Father's heart-

      Not small the cost – to heal my smart

      He have his best and dearest.

      5. He spake to his beloved Son:

      'Tis time to take compassion;

      Then go, bright jewel of my crown,

      And bring to man salvation;

      From sin and sorrow set him free,

      Slay bitter death for him, that he

      1

      Quoted in the Christian Examiner, 1860, p. 240; transcribed Philadelphia, 1875.

      2

      The popular impression that the hymn "Ein' feste Burg" was produced in these circumstances is

1

Quoted in the Christian Examiner, 1860, p. 240; transcribed Philadelphia, 1875.

2

The popular impression that the hymn "Ein' feste Burg" was produced in these circumstances is due, doubtless, to a parallel in the third stanza, to the famous saying imputed to Luther on the eve of the Diet of Worms: "I'll go, be there as many devils in the city as there be tiles on the roofs." The time of its composition was in the year 1529, just before the Diet of Augsburg. If not written in his temporary refuge, the noble "Burg" or "Festung" of Coburg, it must often have been sung there by him; and it was sung, says Merle d'Aubigne, "during the Diet, not only at Augsburg, but in all the churches of Saxony."

3

This much-quoted phrase is from Richter. It is reported as an expression of Melanchthon, looking on Luther's picture, " Fulmina erant singula verba tua."

4

Merle d'Aubigne, History of the Reformation, Vol. III.

5

This interesting and characteristic document was printed first in the Syntagma Musicum of Michael Praetorius, many of whose harmonies are to be found in this volume. It has been repeatedly copied since. I take it from Rambach, "Ueber D. Martin Luthers Verdienst um den Kirchengesang, oder Darstellung desjenigen was er als Liturg, als Liederdichter und Tonsetzer zur Verbesserung des oeffentlichen Gottesdienstes geleistet hat. Hamburg, 1813."

6

Quoted in Rambach, p. 215.

7

In more than one of his cantatas, especially that for the Reformationsfest.

8

Luther's mistake for Michael Weysse, author of a Moravian hymn-book of 1531.