man's direct responsibility to God; but it was equally the
quickening of a true national life. In the light of the new
era, the realization of the promise of the oneness of the
Church was no longer to be sought in the universal dominance
of a hierarchical corporation; nor was the "mystery"
proclaimed by Paul, that "the nations were fellow-heirs and of
one body," to be fulfilled in the subjugation of all nations
to a central potentate. According to the spirit of the
Reformation, the One Church was to be, not a corporation, but
a communion - the communion of saints; and the unity of mankind,
in its many nations, was to be a unity of the spirit in the
bond of mutual peace.

The two great works of Martin Luther were those by which
he gave to the common people a vernacular Bible and vernacular
worship, that through the one, God might speak directly to the
people; and in the other, the people might speak directly to
God. Luther's Bible and Luther's Hymns gave life not only to
the churches of the Reformation, but to German nationality and
the German language.Concerning the hymns of Luther the words of several
notable writers are on record, and are worthy to be prefixed
to the volume of them.

Says Spangenberg, yet in Luther's life-time, in his
Preface to the _Cithara Lutheri_, 1545:
"One must certainly let this be true, and remain true,
that among all Mastersingers from the days of the Apostles
until now, Luther is and always will be the best and most
accomplished; in whose hymns and songs one does not find a
vain or needless word. All flows and falls in the sweetest and