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,