  How old is Lutheran church song? Four hundred years—the historical age of the most vigorous production in the realm of sacred song. We must not forget that one thousand popular evangelical Lutheran church hymns are a selection from perhaps one hundred thousand church hymns. What a great vital power! Is there any reason to believe that this vitality is about to cease? Is Lutheran hymn writing a thing of the past? The power to create is not yet extinct. The hymnody of the Church is steadily conquering new ground. In the Episcopal Church the church hymn has taken on greater and greater significance. Wherever evangelical missionary work is gaining ground, the church hymns find favor. So long as the Lutheran Church lives, Lutheran church song will flourish. Even from the literary point of view, this Lutheran hymnic vitality ought to be appreciated. Is it not strange that poets whose work will be forgotten after a few decades, are treated at length in our histories of literature, while this body of song, which has stood the test of centuries, scarcely receives mention? Yet our Lutheran church hymn has perhaps very few literary competitors. As a representation of life, does it not fitly take its place beside the many legends that have delighted the children of old India, or Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, or the metrical romances of the Middle Ages, or Dante’s Divine Comedy, or a great Shakespearean drama, or the songs of the Israelites? But it is not because the Lutheran church hymn is great poetry that it lives. It is because of the life of the Church, the life of souls, the life of the Christian faith, that the church hymn lives. From this it draws its life and becomes an ever fresh source of spiritual life. Looking at the church hymn from this point of view, looking at the content of the church hymn, the outlook widens and goes far beyond the time of four hundred years. If the history of our evangelical church hymn has reference more particularly to the historical evolution of the content and the making of the form, then this history embraces several thousand years of the religious development of our race. This holds good also from the literary point of view. It is obvious that our popular Lutheran church hymns contain material from all classical ages revealed by history, from the first literary days of old Israel down to the present time, and this very often in the most intimate fusion. Take for example one of F. M. Franzen’s greatest hymns, the first stanza of which follows: Prepare the way, O Zion! Ye awful deeps, rise high, Sink low, ye towering mountains; The Lord is drawing nigh: The righteous King of glory, Foretold in sacred story. Oh, blest is He that came In God the Father’s Name! How much there is in that stanza! And it is only the first stanza of a truly great Lutheran church hymn. Our hymnological annotations must draw to a close. They may be regarded as observations and reflections during the study of a great subject: Our Lutheran church song. Perhaps they will be of some value to those who have much to do with Lutheran hymn singing as well as to those who teach and instruct our young people in this branch of our ecclesiastical inheritance. Much must be done before we can really claim that the American Lutheran Church has fully taken over this rich legacy. A church hymn sung by a Lutheran congregation as it should be sung—that may at first thought seem to be a very simple and insignificant matter. But taken in its historical and religious connections, the matter is far from simple or insignificant. And taken as a problem—it is not easily solved. Its relations to the facts and conditions of spiritual life extend far and wide. Hymnological study gives us an idea of these things. Our Lutheran hymnody is four hundred years old—many of our best Lutheran hymns are four hundred years old—four hundred years, think of it, full of ups and downs, ecclesiastically and politically—four hundred years of sacred song through all kinds of significant life experiences. Four hundred years—turn to mediaeval and modern history. Looking at the history of the church hymn, we may lay down as a fundamental principle that the church The correctness of this principle may be confirmed from actual experience. In the history of languishing and dying church song, we can read about languishing and dying Christian nations—nations in deplorable condition both ecclesiastically and nationally—nations of emigration, non-patriotism, and of little or no sense of duty—nations of imported religious thinking and poorly translated songs. The question has often been raised: Does the American Lutheran Church really sing? Yes and No—for the most part No. Most of our American Lutheran country congregations do not sing. How about the city churches? A sad affair! In most cases the situation is far from ideal. A church hymn, a Lutheran church hymn, cannot be sung properly by those who forget God, Bible, history, etc., in order to practise a little general culture and enjoy a little tasty personal aesthetics. If a noble Lutheran church hymn is sung, it is usually sung by the choir, perhaps as a concert number, disconnected from its vital connection. And detached from its connection, the noble Lutheran church hymn becomes, like everything else that has vital significance, nothing. That which does not really hang together, becomes patchwork, bandages, finery, rags—we may praise it enthusiastically. Very much like American culture—sorry to say. Uniting, cementing, productive LIFE is lacking. Many American Lutheran churches do not sing Lutheran church hymns at all. How deplorable! We often attend Lutheran church services where not a single Lutheran church hymn or Lutheran chorale is sung. Here is a serious flaw in American Lutheran education and leadership. How about the hymn singing in our American Lutheran Sunday schools? Would it not be well to sing at least one Lutheran church hymn each Sunday? Or shall we permit Lutheran hymnody to die? Is great Lutheran hymnody a thing of the past? But what is the most serious thing that our American Lutheran congregational hymn singing lacks? One thing—LIFE. That is our great problem—life in our church song—new life—LIFE. With this go all the difficulties of the problem of life. Since it is the business of the Church to sing the church hymn, the question becomes very complicated. So many factors must co-operate in this matter, if we are to get anywhere—to sing a Lutheran church hymn as it should be sung. Our American Lutheran colleges and theological seminaries will have to undertake more serious educational work in the important field of hymnology and church music. A strong summer school of Lutheran church music, liturgics and hymnology would be very valuable. Take the familiar situation: The great festival hymn of the Reformation is sung. We have before us altar, pulpit, pipe organ; we have before us minister, organist, choir, congregation. The ideal of the problem is a harmonious co-operation between all if we are to have VITAL worship and VITAL song. The good pastor of a large Lutheran church in Connecticut thanked his organist and choirmaster in a In our thousands of Lutheran churches throughout the United States of America, the American Lutheran Church is to be built up and built together into ONE great Church, into ONE people that really sings—a people of God. But when here devoutly soareth High the temple-anthem sweet, Grief grows calm, no plaint outpoureth— Hearts with holy rapture beat: Free from earthly clouds the soul Presses toward a higher goal, Takes from hope the comfort given, Speaks e’en now the tongue of heaven. O my soul, thy wing ascending, Yet on Salem’s mount shall rest; There where cherub-harps are blending With the singing of the blest; Let thy note of praise and prayer To thy God precede thee there, While e’en yet a care-worn mortal, Still without thy Father’s portal. Let us, Christians, here that wander, As our fathers in their day, Piously together ponder, Gladly sing and meekly pray; Be the children’s voices raised To the God their fathers praised. Let Thy bounty failing never Be on us and all forever. (From J. O. Wallin) |
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