LUTHER AS A HYMN- WRITER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8062, 1 October 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

LUTHER AS A HYMN- WRITER.

I Thk originality aud power of Luther's bymns depend on a stammering intensity of feeling which breaks into rhythmic chant or cadence. But no heart of modern man has rung so true to that grand note of Hebrew | song, the faith of Israel in his God, as Luther's. In the most celebrated of all his poetical pieces, composed not at this time, ' but a few years hence, "Kin feste Burg Ist linoer Gott," the imagery is derived from the forty-sixth Psalm. Ho applies the Hebrew similitude of God as a high towqr in a way that irresistibly recalls those castellated crags which, during the whole of the feudal time, were places of strength in Europe. .But tho first line, which is from the Hebrew, is the finest in the piece. Tho merit of the rest lies in its panting intensity and clang as of charging squadrons. It may ba said of Luther's hymns generally that they are characterised by a rugged but fundamentally melodious rhythm, a pieroing intensity and expressiveness, with tender, lovoly, picturesque touches hero and there. Above all, they are sincere. They seem to thrill with an intensity of feeling beyond their power of oxpression, like the glistening of stars whose silence speaks of God.— From Dr. Bayne'a "Life of Luther."