New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-11-11

Hath risen with purpose fell .
Strong mall of craft and power
He weareth In this hour,
On earth Il not his fellow.
With force Of arms we nothing can.
Pull soon were we down-ridden;
But for Us gGs i, the s PT0 rope b MAJ
Ask ye, Who Is this same
The Lord ZebaOth's Son,
He, and no other one
Shall conquer In the battle
And we're this world all devils DER,
And watching to devOur us,
We lay IL not to heart so Sore
Not they can oyerpower u.s.
And let the Prince OF Ill
Look grim as e'er he will,
He harms US nOt Wht
For why His doom is writ
word shall quickly slay him.
Gods word, for all their craft and force
One moment will not hnger,
But spite OF Hell shall have It's course,
'Tis written by His finger;
And though they take our life,
Goods, honor, children, wife,
These things shall vanish all,
The City Of God remaineth.
One of the knotty points in the history of the
hymn has long been the date of its origin. One
theory that found defenders placed its origin dur
ing Luther's stay in Oppenheim while journeylng
to Worms to appear before the Diet IN 1921.
This theory had no basis in fact, but
had a fascinating picturesqueness 1t was
when the Reforner was making that
famous Journey that he was warned not to enter
Worms, and replied in his letter TO Spalatfn And
If there were az many devils in Worms as tiles on
the roofs would go in' The picture OF clty mi
hymn. and this coincidence led enthusiastic adj
mirers of Luther to jump TO the conclusion that he
had written the hymn in 1921.
The theory which was longest held, and which If
still maintained by perhaps the majority Of writer's,
s that it was written In the castle at Coburg dur
ing the session of the Reichstag at Augsburg, in
1880. 1t is known that from that safe retreat
1vhi oh ba hu franGnOginn letters m
called "Gruboc," he sent number of hymns,
for composition to SEMI and others. And
there rs. the explicit testimony of his
servant Veit Dietrich, contained in letter written
to MelanChthOn, that during Luthers sojourn In tho
castle he sang the hymn to his own accompaniment
on the lutte every day for the purpose of inspiring
himself with the great courage which he needed in
those stormy and perilous times. The character of
the protection he was enjOping may have suggested
the fundamental idea of the hymn, which is "A par
aphrase of the XLVIth Psalm, Deus noster Reftgium
Both Of these theories it will be SEEM had piCt-
uresque anecdotes to commend them but the rest
less spirit of German investigation refused TO accept
anecdote as concl usive proof, and so IL has come
that the latest Investigations have led to the
belief that the hymn was composed in 1929
after the Rcichstag at Speyer, and during the
for the ReiChstag at Augsburg.
THIS belief is based the accepted idea that il
first printed in a hymn-bOOk published at Witten-
berg in 1929. No copy of tins book is now known
to be in existence but il reprinted entire in a
German Journal in 1888. Reformed bymn-book
has, however, been discovered dating back to 1929,
which contains the words of the hymn. So that it
Is now quite conclusively proved that the hymn
was in existence before 1880 fact which was es-
sential TO the genuineness of the Luther Codex of
Herr Klemm.