26 July 2014

Luther's first hymn

Flung to the heedless winds
Or on the waters cast,
The martyrs' ashes, watched,
Shall gathered be at last.
And from that scattered dust,
Around us and abroad,
Shall spring a plenteous seed
Of witnesses for God.

The Father hath received
Their latest living breath,
And vain is Satan's boast 
Of victory in their death.
Stil, still, tho' dead, they speak,
And, trumpet-tongued, proclaim
To many a wakening land
The one availing Name.

—TLH 259, Martin Luther, upon the death of the young Augustinian martyrs John and Henry, burned at the stake in Brussels. This is only a very small selection of the hymn (really a ballad), but they seemed particularly fitting, thinking of the many who are shedding their blood for Christ in Syria, Iraq, Egypt and elsewhere. 

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