# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1911 06 27_S209
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

209

Abroad.

From London. On the Sunday after Easter, Quasimodogeniti, our two congregations in London were granted the privilege of celebrating a delightful mission festival. Missionary A. Hübener used his trip to America to visit us in our isolation and to strengthen and gladden us with God's Word and accounts from his mission life. In the afternoon he gave us an encouraging sermon, and in the evening an instructive lecture on East India. It was the first time that our congregations here had the privilege of having a missionary to the heathen in their midst and of hearing from his own mouth the truths confirmed which are continually told and testified to them in preaching about the wretched state of the natural man and the blessed effect of the Gospel on his heart. The festival assembly showed its gratitude for the word heard and its zeal for the mission with a collection of $48.70, two-thirds of which was designated for our Tamil mission, the remainder to be divided between the Free Church and the Brazilian district. Later the local pastor received a further small gift from a boy and turned it over to the school to be founded for the children of our dear missionaries. The pastor in London had the special joy, on this fine day of the mission festival, of being able to refresh and revive himself at the Lord's Supper.
K. Knippenberg.

On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the English Bible, which we too have noted in this place, an English paper says: "When in the monthly lists of best-selling books a book holds first place for several months, that is regarded as a remarkable event. It hardly ever happens that such a book remains on the list for as long as a year at all. By contrast, even today, three hundred years since the first appearance of the English translation of the Bible, the sale of Holy Scripture continues to increase steadily. In the year 1909 the number of Bibles sold was about 18 million; last year it is said to have been 20 million. The number of copies sold in the past century is reckoned at 341 million. Demand seems always to be greater than supply. Commentaries become dated and are forgotten. Scientific books become useless. Works on scientific and social questions have their day and lose their value. A few classics are still read in later times, but only by a few, educated people. But the most widely distributed book in the world addresses itself to all and finds its readership among all classes of people in all lands, is their guide for life, and its popularity and its sale increase from year to year. And that book is the Bible."
L. F.

Nikolaus Decius and His Hymn.

Nikolaus Decius, also called Nikolaus von Hof, was at first a monk, then provost of the monastery of Steterburg in Wolfenbüttel, but at the beginning of the Reformation joined the evangelical faith and then became a schoolmaster in Braunschweig, where he caused a great stir by performing many-voiced choral pieces. He was a master of music and wrote the melodies to his hymns himself as well. In 1524 he came to Stettin as a preacher, where, as is said, poisoned by the Romanists, he died in 1529 after a short but blessed ministry. The hymns "All Glory Be to God on High" and "O Innocent Lamb of God" are his.

The well-known hymn "All Glory Be to God on High" is a German adaptation of the ancient hymn "Gloria in excelsis Deo." This canticle, which the angels already sang at the birth of our Savior, was among the Greek Christians in the earliest times the regular morning devotion, and was therefore called in the churches of the East simply "The Morning Hymn." It stood in such high regard in the earliest times that it is found in one of the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament as an appendix to Holy Scripture. The original Greek text was translated into Latin by Bishop Hilary of Poitiers around the year 360, and thus introduced into the Western church. Our Lutheran church too adopted this canticle into its liturgy under the name "Great Doxology" (Praise). Since it may not be known to some of our readers, it may follow here:

"Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, good will toward men! We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory: O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father almighty; O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us; thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us - for thou only art holy, thou only art the Lord, thou only art most high, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Ghost, in the glory of God the Father. Amen."

From this Great Doxology our hymn "All Glory Be to God on High" was then formed by Decius. The first stanza is actually the complete hymn and contains the whole song of the angels. The remaining three stanzas are only the doxology which in ancient times was added as a closing appendage to all psalm-hymns. Thus the second stanza praises God the Father, as the almighty Creator and Ruler; the third stanza, God the Son, the only-begotten, as our Reconciler, as the Lamb of God and our Lord and God, who is called upon for mercy; and finally the fourth stanza, God the Holy Spirit, that he may carry out the work of the Son, and it closes in the last stanza with an Amen, paraphrased by the words: "On this we rely."

When in the year 1781 Emperor Joseph II of Austria granted religious freedom to the Protestants in his realm, people sang in every place in the empire: "All Glory Be to God on High." But this hymn resounded especially movingly on the Hellstär Lake on that morning when the newly built evangelical little church on the shores of this lake was to be dedicated, and the Christians now rowed up in boats from every side. One pastor in a boat struck up: "All Glory Be to God on High," and at once all in the next boat joined in, and so on, until the whole assembled choir let its hymn of praise ring out. Indeed, after the emperor's death the old times of oppression returned; the little church was taken away from the Protestants again.

So too it was a very solemn moment when, on April 22, 1709, this hymn was sung by an immense crowd at Hirschberg in Silesia. After the Peace of Westphalia the Protestants in Hirschberg, as in other places, had had to surrender their churches to the Catholics, and were now obliged to travel long distances whenever they wanted to attend worship. Then King Charles XII obtained permission for the building of new churches. Already on April 22 a great crowd went out before the Schildau Gate to mark out the building site, singing with joyful voice: "All Glory Be to God on High." On this site the mighty Church of Grace was then built, whose halls seat 6,000.

In great danger God once let this hymn resound as a testimony for sinful humanity. When he