VIII. HYMNS OF PIETISTIC TYPE
In the reaction from Rationalism, Pietism again came into its own and a noble roster of sacred lyrists have given it expression. This includes Ernst Moritz Arndt, professor of history at the University of Bonn, whose “Wahres Christentum” was as necessary to every Christian home as the Bible itself, a patriot who won the hatred and persecution of Napoleon Bonaparte by his patriotic songs, and whose hymns are no small part of the treasury of later German hymnody. Among them are “Ich weiss, an wen ich glaube” (“I know in whom I put my trust”), which is one of the German classics.
Friedrich Adolf Krummacher (1767-1845) is best remembered by his hymn “Mag auch die Liebe weinen” (“Though love may weep with breaking heart”) and his missionary hymn, “Eine Herde und ein Hirt” (“One shepherd and one fold to be”). Still others are Friedrich Ruckert (1789-1866) whom Dr. Schaff calls “one of the greatest masters of lyric poetry,” Albert Knapp (1798-1864), editor of the outstanding critical collection of German hymns, “Der Liederschatz,” and writer of many widely used hymns, and Meta Heusser-Schweizer (1797-1876), of Switzerland, “the most eminent and noble among all the female poets of our whole evangelical Church.”[1]
The primate of them all is Karl Johann Philipp Spitta (1801-1859), “the most popular hymnist of the nineteenth century.” The fifty-fifth edition of his Psalter und Harfe appeared in 1889. He was an Hanoverian pastor. He had been under rationalistic teachers at the University of Goettingen, but toward the end of his university course had a profound religious experience that affected all his future life; he wrote no secular verse after that time. He was recognized as a mystic and pietist and his promotion was antagonized on that ground.
Many of his hymns have been translated into English. Among the most successful are “O Jesu, meine Sonne” (“I know no life divided”), “Es kennt der Herr die Seinen” (“He knoweth all His people”), “O selig Haus, wo man dich aufgenommen” (“O happy home, where thou art loved the dearest”), “O treuer Heiland, Jesu Christ” (“We praise and bless thee, gracious Lord”).
Spitta may be called “the Gerhardt of the nineteenth century,” for he has many of that great hymn writer’s qualities as well as his popularity. He was sincerely devout, a man of an abiding sense of God’s care and nearness; his style is smooth and melodious as well as poetical.
Spitta’s hymns are very practical in length and form of stanza, and his themes grow out of the common needs and experiences of general humanity. For this reason they have been very largely translated into English—no less than thirty-three of them—and, what is more significant, selected by editors of hymnals, especially in England.
Karl von Gerok (1815-?) is another exceedingly popular religious lyrist of the nineteenth century, hardly second to Spitta. His “Palm-blaetter,” issued in 1857, reached its fifty-sixth edition in 1886. By this time it has likely reached the century mark. But his verses are religious poetry, not hymns, and but a few centos have been admitted to German hymnbooks.
Recently the new rationalism and sensual materialism have again submerged the religious life of Germany and the impulse to write hymns has lost its urgency. Whether the shattering of the illusion of world-wide power, and the sobering effect of its terrible losses of men and of wealth, will bring Germany back to her religious senses must be patiently awaited by those eager for her highest welfare. The recrudescence of paganism and its threat of renewed striving after world dominance need not blast this pious hope. God’s hand is still on the tiller of the German national bark, and the heart of the German people is not represented by the bulletins on the surface of its current events, caused by the pride of nationalism in the shallow vocal stratum that stridently claims the world’s attention.
In this hurried review of the development of the German hymn from Luther to Spitta much that is interesting and profitable has been omitted. But it is manifest that this German hymnody holds the supreme place in the hymnody of the Christian Church in all ages and nations. The reasons for this lie on the surface: the German people are a singing people, and the instinct to sing their thoughts and feelings is stronger than in any other race. Again, they did not lose two centuries under the spell of Calvin’s devotion to the Hebrew Psalms, as did Great Britain and America. In contrast with the Latin and Greek hymnodies, it is the voice of the people, not the restrained liturgical voice of the clergy.
The German hymnody is often ponderous and heavy, often tediously prolix and dull, but at the heart of it is a profound realization of the actualities of the Christian faith, and a responsiveness to its appeals to the hearts of men, that one cannot find elsewhere to the same extent.