All were to take part in worship, and the chanting of the clergy was
to be succeeded by the psalmody of the people. Luther, accordingly,
in translating the psalms, thought of adapting them to be sung
by the church. Thus a taste for music was diffused throughout
the nation. From Luther's time, the people sang; the Bible
inspired their songs. Poetry received the same impulse. In
celebrating the praises of God, the people could not confine
themselves to mere translations of ancient anthems. The souls
of Luther and of several of his contemporaries, elevated by
their faith to thoughts the most sublime, excited to
enthusiasm by the struggles and dangers by which the church at
its birth was unceasingly threatened, inspired by the poetic
genius of the Old Testament and by the faith of the New, ere
long gave vent to their feelings in hymns, in which all that
is most heavenly in poetry and music was combined and blended.
Hence the revival, in the sixteenth century, of _hymns_ such
as in the first century used to cheer the martyrs in their
sufferings. We have seen Luther, in 1523, employing it to
celebrate the martyrs at Brussels; other children of the
Reformation followed his footsteps; hymns were multiplied;
they spread rapidly among the people, and powerfully
contributed to rouse it from sleep.
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