# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 11 12_S43
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

43

In the Pennsylvania Hymn-Book there is also found the hymn (under No. 241):

"Preserve to us thy doctrine:"

In the old hymn-books — as also in the St. Louis one — this hymn has 7 verses, in the new Pennsylvania one only 5, which moreover are altered. And I will here first quote the 3rd verse as altered in the Pennsylvania book, and afterward the same verse as it reads unaltered, and you will at once find a considerable difference.

It reads altered:

"Preserve what thou hast builded,
And bought with thy blood;
What thou hast thyself entrusted,
And what is baptized unto thee.
So many foes are storming
To bring thy Church to fall:
But thou wouldst shield her
As Guard and rock-wall!

The same verse reads unaltered:

"Preserve, what thou hast builded
And bought with thy blood,
What Thou hast entrusted to Thee,
The Church, on which there rushes
The raging storm of the Dragon:
Be thou her shield and wall,
That, though the world should crash,
She nevermore may fall."

It appears that the expressions "The raging storm of the Dragon" were once again merely too old-fashioned for the editors of the Pennsylvania book, since they have thus struck out these words. Yet if that were so, one would have to take out of the Bible much of this kind, for you heard recently at the Feast of St. Michael from the lesson, Rev. John ch. 12, 7-12., that there the devil is also called "The great dragon; that old serpent, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world:" thus this verse agrees entirely with the Bible; why then alter it? Perhaps merely for the sake of the so-called "cultured," who deny the existence of the devil? However, I will quote the following two verses, which are quite thrown out of the said hymn in the Pennsylvania book; they read as follows:

"Preserve, Lord! Thy sheep,
The raging wolf comes on;
Awake from thy sleep,
For no one can rescue
Without thee, thou great Shepherd!
Lead us to good pasture,
Drive, nourish, cheer, entertain
Us in the desert waste.

Preserve to us, Lord! thine inheritance,
Thy precious sanctuary,
Rend, smash, destroy,
What is against thy glory;
Let thy law guide us,
Grant us Thy heavenly bread,
Let Thy adornment deck us,
Heal us by thy death."

That these verses contain pure, sound Scriptural understanding no orthodox person will doubt; St. Paul also speaks of the false apostles: "I would they were even cut off which trouble you;" and the Psalms of David, in which the condition of the Christian Church is painted as with living color, are full of it; and I think indeed that the Christian Church would have cause enough in these last times to sing such glorious psalm-hymns, and to pray that Satan's kingdom be shattered, and the wolves in sheep's clothing be restrained! Why then does one seek to banish such hymn-verses from the Church? —

Dear Andreas! I said in my last letter: "one like us does not always find everything out at once;" that this is so you may see from what follows. — In the Pennsylvania Hymn-Book there is also found the hymn by Paul Gerhardt:

"Thou people, that art baptized."

This hymn has in the original, as I also find it in the St. Louis Hymn-Book, 12 glorious verses forming a beautiful whole, so that if one were to take even a single verse out of this hymn, it would appear in a very badly mutilated form; and yet this is the case in the Pennsylvania Hymn-Book; there are found only seven verses, and even in these considerable alterations are to be found, and the five mightiest verses, which contain namely the teachings of the important articles of "original sin" and "the effect of Baptism, are quite thrown out; but because they are such exceedingly glorious verses, from which alone a Christian man might recognize both his unclean, damned Adam's birth and his new birth through holy Baptism, I will quote them here, they read as follows:

"Thou wast, ere thou wert yet born
And brought forth to the light,
Damned, cast out and lost,
Because thou didst draw
From thy parents' flesh and blood
A nature that from the highest good,
From the eternal God, ever turns away.

Thy body and soul were with sin,
As with a poison, crept through,
And thou wast no more God's child,
After the covenant was broken
Which our Creator set up,
When he imparted to us the light of his image
And glorious garment.

All this removes at once,
And strikes and presses it down,
The water-bath of holy Baptism;
It restores again
What Adam made corrupt,
And what we ourselves squandered
Through our wicked being.

This bath looseth from sins,"
And giveth true beauty.
Those whom Satan's prison once shut in
Become free and sons
Of him who wears the highest crown,
Who lets them inherit with him
What his only Son hath inherited.

What by nature is accursed
And enfolded in the curse,
That is here renewed in Baptism,
To obtain the blessing.
Here death dies, and strangles no more,
Here hell breaks, and all its host
Must lie at our feet."

Why now the editors of the Pennsylvania Hymn-Book have left out these 5 glorious verses, I have already explained sufficiently in my first letter, so that it is not necessary to repeat it here. — In the New Year's hymn No. 581, the chief verse is again omitted in the Pennsylvania Hymn-Book; it reads:

"Comfort me with thy love,
Take, O God, my supplication,
Since I am so sorely troubled
And full of anguish and cares.
Whether I sleep or wake,
Behold, Thou Lord, my cause,
Strengthen me in my troubles,
That sin and death may not kill me."

I think indeed that this verse contains nothing unchristian, but glorious thoughts of a New Year's prayer; so also let no one say here that the hymn was too long, it contains according to the original only five verses. — Under No. 602 in the Pennsylvania Hymn-Book there is found the hymn:

"How brightly shines the Morning Star."

In old hymn-books — as also in the St. Louis one — this hymn has eight verses, and in the "new" Pennsylvania one only 3 altered ones. — These 5 verses also, which are missing in the Pennsylvania Hymn-Book, may be quoted here. They read:

"I lay in proud security,
Saw not with what peril
This night I was surrounded;
The devil's craft and knavery,
Hell, the tyranny of death,
Stood against my body and life,
So that I hardly
Had escaped
And been delivered
From these bonds,
Hadst Thou not stood by me.

But, O Jesus! my joy
In all anguish and sorrow,
Thou hast freed me today;
Thou hast withstood the power of the foes,
Hast granted me protection and gentle rest,
Be blessed therefor.
My courage,
My blood
Shall now sing,
Shall now leap,
All my life
Shall give thee songs of thanks.

Ah, my Lord, sweet refuge of life!
Let still thy gate of grace
Remain open to me today also;
Be my fortress and firm castle
And let no hostile missile
Drive me out from there;
Stand
For me
To fight
And to quench
Arrow and iron,
When the foe would show his might.

Turn away misfortune, if it may be;
If not, I resign myself to it,
I will not resist;
Yet come, O sweet morning dew!
Refresh my heart,
That I may trust Thee,
And remain submissive in the cross,
Until I
At last
After the sufferings
To the joys
Be exalted,
Where I can praise thee eternally.

Meanwhile, my heart! sing and leap,
In every cross be of good cheer;
Heaven stands open to thee.
Let not melancholy take thee in,
Think that the dearest little children
Have always been struck by misfortune.
Therefore
Be glad,
Believe firmly,
That the best,
Which brings the godly,
We shall receive in yonder world."

It is in truth remarkable how precisely this hymn also appears so greatly abbreviated in the Pennsylvania book, since it is known that the said hymn is almost everywhere among the German people still well known from the old prayer-books, so that it is a general Bürger-