THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 19
his works. I do so with respect to my German psalter, and I will do so still more in yours, but giving the praise and glory to God, who is hlessed for ever."
Luther also translated some of the best Latin hymns, improved some of the old German popular hymns, encouraged his friends to write, and wrote some himself, including metrical versions of some parts of the Bible. Some of his hymns were printed on single sheets, with the tunes, and circulated widely. In his own preface to his " Spiritual Songs," published in 1527, after show ing that it is a scriptural practice to sing psalms and hymns, he says, " Accordingly to make a good beginning, and to encourage others who can do it better, I have myself, with some others, put together a few hymns, in order to bring into full play the blessed Gospel which by God s grace hath again risen."
Upon the minds of the people awakening to the new era, and already moved by reading Luther s noble translation of the New Testament, the singing of these evangelical psalms and hymns made a very deep impression. The masses sang Luther s tunes and Luther s words ; and the enemies of the Eeformation said, " Luther has done us more harm by his songs than by his sermons." Coleridge says, " Luther did as much for the Re formation by his hymns as by his translation of the Bible." And another modern writer says, " These hymns made a bond of union among men who knew little of Creeds and Articles : while theologians were disputing about niceties of doctrine, every devout man could understand the blessedness of singing God s praises in good honest German, instead of gazing idly at the mass, or listening to a Latin Litany : the children learnt Luther s hymns in the cottage, and martyrs sang them on the scaffold."
Luther s psalms and hymns are not marked by their refined taste or their splendid imagery ; but we value in them their ful ness of scripture truth, their plainness to the comprehension of all ; their simple beauty and homely strength : and they are not without traces of the boldness and sublimity of the genius of the
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