Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/160

 148 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED

He dies ! The heavenly Lover dies !

The tidings strike a doleful sound On my poor heart-strings : deep He lies

In the cold caverns of the ground.

The amended form in The Methodist Hymn- Book is due to Madan (Psalms and Hymns t 1760), from which it passed into the Large Hymn-book in 1 800.

��Hymn 172. Ye humble souls that seek the Lord. PHILIP DODDRIDGE (95).

Easter, published 1755. Ver. 3 omitted.

In ver. I Doddridge wrote pleasure. The change to rapture* lifts the whole stanza into another world of feeling.

Hymn 173. In the bonds of death He lay. MARTIN LUTHER ; translated by Miss WINKWORTH (19).

Christ lag in Todesbanden was published in 1524. Luther headed it The hymn &quot;Christ ist erstanden,&quot; improved, but little trace is retained of that ancient German hymn. Some touches are suggested by two famous Latin hymns, but the working out is entirely original, and the result a hymn second only to his unequalled &quot; Ein feste Burg.&quot;

Miss Winkworth s translation, of which ver. 2 is here omitted, appeared in her Lyra Germantca, 1855.

Luther was born at Eisleben in 1483, and entered the monastery at Erfurt in 1505. A visit to Rome, followed by Tetzel s sale of indulgences, roused Luther to protest against the errors of the Papacy, and in October, 1517, he nailed his theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, burnt the Papal Bull condemning his own writings at Wittenberg in December, 1520, and next April set out for the Diet of Worms. In the Wartburg, where he lay hidden after the Diet, he began his translation of the Bible into German. Besides giving Germany the Word of God in its mother-tongue, he wrote hymns and composed tunes which became battle-songs of the Reformation. They proved the most effective mission aries of the truth which Luther had brought out of bondage. He published his New Testament in 1522. In 1524 he printed the first German hymn-book, with eight hymns. Next year the number grew to forty. At first he translated and

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