Another stanza, reflecting something of Claudius’ own spiritual groping and, at the same time, confessing the futility of all human efforts to attain moral perfection, reads:
We, poor, frail mortals, groping,
Half fearing and half hoping,
In darkness seek our way;
Our airy cobwebs spinning
With erring and with sinning,
Far from the mark we sadly stray.
In the lyrics of Claudius we may observe a transition from the spiritually impoverished hymn production of the rationalistic period to a new type of hymnody, giving expression to the old rugged faith in a more elegant form. Men’s souls could no longer be satisfied with the dry husks of philosophical speculation and were turning again to the Bread of God which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.
Balthasar Münter was another faithful witness to the truth in this unhappy age of widespread skepticism and unbelief. Born at Lübeck in 1735, he became Lutheran court pastor at Gotha and afterwards of the German Church of St. Peter in Copenhagen. He was the writer of about 100 hymns, many of which were set to tunes composed for them by the greatest musicians of the day. Among the best known hymns of Münter are “Lord, Thou Source of all perfection,” “Full of reverence, at Thy Word,” “Behold the man! how heavy lay,” and “Woe unto him who says, There is no God.”