supply the newly-felt deficiency. This led to a long and vigorous discussion of all the principles of sacred song. Vol. ume after volume was written, hymn book after hymn book, and singing book after singing book, was published; some contended for the unconditional restoration of the old orthodox hymns entire, which sang the creeds and catechisms almost straight through from title-page to finis; others affirmed that such sins against all the laws of harmony and poetic taste are quite as bad in church music as a little technical heterodoxy ; while others, with equal zeal, insisted that religious hymns should be simply expressions of devotional feeling, without reference to doctrinal speculations.

On music, too, opinions were equally divided; nor is the controversy yet at an end. The hymn-book difficulty is still a source of great agitation among the churches of Germany. We seem to be getting into very much the same kind of difficulty here in the United States.

The result of the controversy in Germany has been a careful and critical examination of the religious poetry and music of the reformation period, and particularly a thorough investigation of the services and merits of Luther in this very important department of the religious life. At the head of this article I have written the titles of a few of the most useful and instructive works on the topic which I propose to discuss, that the reader, who wishes to pursue the subject further, may know where to look for the best sources of information. Subjoined is a brief account of these works.

No. 1 was for a long time the best, and indeed the only readable book on Luther's merits as a hymnologist and composer of church music. The author, Rev. A. J. Rambach, has been for many years senior pastor of the Great St. Michael's Church in Hamburg, and is highly respected among his associates for his learning and virtues. My first introduction to him was so odd, and gave me so vivid an idea of the difference of customs in different nations, that I will here recount it for the amusement of the reader. The first Sunday after my arrival in Hamburg, which was the first German town I had ever visited, I bent my steps in the morning toward the

Great St. Michael's church, to attend public worship. Scarcely had I passed the Little St. Michael's, a Roman Catholic church from which I heard the tones of a most beautiful organ, when two or three withered old women approached from the Great St. Michael's with little pamphlets in their hands for sale. "Buy the sermon, sir?" said they all in a breath. "What sermon?" said I. Why, the sermon Dr. Rambach preaches this morning," was the reply. The matter seemed to me so singular, that I paid a Hamburg shilling and took a pamphlet, which proved to be a printed sermon of eight pages, for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity-text, Luke 10: 23-37-subject, der Freund in der noth, (the Friend in need)-three hymns to be sung with it designated at the close, and paged 289 to 296; as if it were the fragment of a large volume. I wondered within myself whether Dr. Rambach was in the habit of printing his sermons from week to week, till he got enough to make a volume, and then having them bound for the benefit of posterity. I had no time to make inquiry, but entered the immense church, which was crowded to overflowing, and the whole congregation were singing at the top of their voices. In the pulpit, near a corner, there sat Dr. Rambach, a venerable old man, robed in the Lutheran black gown, with an enormous muslin ruff or vandyke around his neck, somewhat the size and form of the forward wheel of a railroad car, but white as the driven snow, and most beautifully plaited and crimped. At first I could scarcely persuade myself that it was not a nice old picture on the wall, instead of a living man in the pulpit. The singing over, the old gentleman arose and began to preach, and I found that most of the congregation had furnished themselves with the printed sermon as well as myself; and while the good Dr. was preaching, we all looked over to see if he preached it right. He had no notes himself, but he hit it pretty nearly word for word, though now and then he deviated a little from the printed form. I still have the sermon in my possession, and I carefully preserve it as a memento of a most curious custom which I never witnessed any where else.

Dr. Rambach's work on Luther's merits in respect to

church psalmody, has four principal divisions. First, he gives a detail of the various reforms which Luther introduced into the method of conducting public worship; second, he gives an account of all the hymns which Luther wrote, or translated, or adapted to public worship, with the historical circumstances attending the publication of each; third, he gives a like account of all the tunes which Luther composed or adapted; and fourth, he gives the prefaces which Luther wrote to the various editions of his hymn books, and publishes in full his hymns with the music originally set to them, and concludes the work with various extracts from the writings of Luther on the general subject of music and psalmody.

No. 2. The work of Wachernagel is a splendid one in its mechanical execution, and indicates great labour and research on the part of its author. It has been received with general approbation by the writers of Germany, and is probably the most complete work that has ever been published on the topic of which it treats. It consists of five parts. First, the old Latin hymns in use before the Reformation, sixty-five in number; second, the old German hymns preceding the Reformation; third, the hymns of Luther and his associates; fourth, the hymns of the oldest Roman Catholic hymn books; and fifth, an appendix of miscellaneous matter, the most important of which are, descriptions of the old psalm books and singing sheets, the prefaces of the old hymn books, and the old secular songs which were remodelled into religious hymns by the sacred poets.

The work of Wachernagel does not by any means supercede that of Rambach; in fact, the two are mutually supplementary to each other, and from both can be obtained a tolerably complete view of the whole subject.

Dr. Wachernagel is still a young man. He was formerly a teacher in Berlin, and is now in Stettin.

Nos. 1, 3, 4, and 5. The object of these works is sufficiently indicated by their titles. Taking them together, the reader will find all the Latin hymns in use in the Papal churches, which had any influence on the psalmody of the

Reformation, with all the historical illustrations that are needed for their full elucidation; all the hymns and tunes of Luther in their original form; and the most successful efforts which have been made to adapt these ancient songs and music to the use of the churches at the present day.

We now proceed to a historical development of the services which Luther rendered as a hymnologist and composer of church music, following principally the lead of Rambach and Wachernagel, with the aid of Luther's Letters, edited by De Wette, the Memoirs of Luther by Mathesius, by Audin, and by Pfitzer, Lomler's edition of Luther's German Writings, Tholuck's Anzeiger, and Hengstenberg's Kirchenzeitung.

We shall not scrupulously follow any particular arrangement, but give the facts in rather a miscellaneous manner, as they have occurred to us in our reading.

Church psalmody before the time of Luther was exceedingly meagre. The whole of it that is worth noticing is given in the first 128 pages of the splendid work of Wachernagel. Except the chanting of the Vulgate Latin translation of the Psalms, and other Scriptural hymns, there were scarcely a dozen decent pieces for public worship. Some few are most admirable, both as it respects the words and the music, and will be admired as long as psalmody exists on earth. Among these are the Te Deum Laudamus, the Aeterne rerum Conditor, the Veni Redemptor Gentium, and some other pieces by St. Ambrose; the Rex Christe, Factor omnium, by Gregory I.; the Jesu dulcis memoria, by St. Bernard; the Veni Creator Spiritus, said to be by Charlemagne; the Veni Sancte Spiritus, by Robert, King of France; the Jam mæsta quiesce querela, by A. P. Clemens; the Dies Ira, of Thomas de Celano; the Stabat Mater, of Jaroponus; and some few others. Some hymns of various degrees of merit had also been published by Thomas Aquinas, Peter Abaelard, Coelius Sedulius, and John Huss and his followers, the latter mostly of a very evangelical character.

The qualifications of Luther for improving, and to no inconsiderable extent, for creating, the church psalmody of the

Reformation, and of all subsequent time, were by no means the least among the gifts of that most extraordinary man. He had by nature a most exquisite sensibility to the power of music. A manuscript biography of him by Matthew Ratzeberger, surgeon to John Frederic, Elector of Saxony, which is preserved in the ducal library at Gotha, has a section entitled, On Dr. Luther's weakness, and his being quickened and exhilarated by means of Music; in which the following anecdote is related: "Once came Master Lucas Edenberger, preceptor of John Ernst, Duke of Saxony, with certain of his associates, all good musicians, and George Rhau, (a famous composer of music,) to visit him. It was told them that Luther had shut himself up in his cell, and had kept himself there for some time, and had eaten and drunk nothing to speak of, and would let no one in to him. Then Master Lucas thought it could not be well with him, and knocked at the door, but got no answer; whereupon, he looked in at the keyhole through the door, and seeth that Luther is lying. upon the ground on his face, with outstretched arms, in a swoon. He then forced open the door, and shook him, and lifted him up, and prepared for him some refreshment; and then he and his companions began to sing, and to play upon. their instruments. Hereupon, Luther began gradually to come to himself, and his melancholy and distress began to leave him, and he soon began to sing, and became right joyous thereby, and entertained Master Lucas and his companions most pleasantly. So they would often visit him when they had a desire for music, and would not be turned away, whatever work he had to do. So soon as he heard good music, his temptations and his gloom flew away. So he said, the devil specially hates music, because thereby men are made. joyful; for he loveth nothing better than to make men unbelieving and cowardly, by means of melancholy and gloominess."

Luther's natural capabilities for music were of the highest order. He had given great attention to the theory of music, and much time to the practice; and his taste was formed on the very best models, those of the ancient Greeks.

This