THE LUTHERAN HYMN BOOK OR THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE HYMNS IN THE HYMNAL
Two different hymnological methods of disposition have arisen
historically within the Church, namely, the _dogmatic_ or the
_dogmatic-ethical_ method, and the _liturgical_ method. The former
method came into existence in the eighteenth century. By this method the
hymns in the hymnal are arranged according to the usual order of
dogmatics. For an illustration of this method of arranging the hymns,
look into almost any good hymnal of the Reformed Church; The Methodist
Hymnal, for example. The liturgical method is the original, the
standard, and the correct method of disposition. In support of this
assertion, it may be well to observe that since the Lutheran hymnal is a
liturgical book, a book intended for the needs of the worshipping
congregation, the succession of the hymns as well as their content and
character should reflect the spirit of the Church, as it finds immediate
expression in the cultus and its various acts, and as it seeks
indirectly to exert a hallowing influence on social life in larger or
smaller circles.
It may be well to take a general view of the main factors or stages of
this liturgical work of the Church, so as to see more clearly what
subjects may be considered in the hymn book and in what order the
various subjects or rubrics may follow each other.
The reason and the vital basis for the existence of the Church is God’s
revelation of salvation through Jesus Christ, i. e., the incarnation and
the work of redemption of the Son of God and the sending of the Holy
Spirit; and these divine works of salvation are the great objectives of
the three great church festivals, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost,
around which the cycles and days of the church year are grouped. The
Church is the result of this revelation. Therefore our attention turns
towards the Church, her nature, her establishment, and her extension in
this world through missionary activity; further, toward her inner
growth, by which she gives expression to her religious and harmonious
life as a communion in solemn divine worship, and through her sacred
acts and order consecrates human life unto a vessel for divine life. But
this self-edification is brought about in the Church only through the
Holy Spirit who dwells and lives within the Church and in and through
the Church and her institutions of grace produces in the hearts of the
redeemed personal conversion, sanctification, and salvation. Thus the
Church grows both outwardly and inwardly and proceeds towards her
eternal perfection. But the Church has to do not only with purely
spiritual conditions, things divine and eternal. By her life she seeks
to permeate, sanctify, and glorify all conditions, even the temporal.
The Church seeks to penetrate, in a highly beneficial way, the civic
community, to ennoble its affairs and impart support and exhortation
both to the governing and the governed, in times of prosperity and in
times of trouble. The Church is deeply interested in her educational
institutions, these nurseries of time and eternity; the Christian school
is not only a creation of the Church, but it needs the whole-hearted
support of the Church. The Church is also deeply interested in the
welfare of domestic life—she seeks to make the home a happy Christian
home. The Church also desires to support and accompany the individual
member throughout his course of life, especially in its more difficult
stages, so that this temporal life may lead to eternal life.
If these are the most important factors in ecclesiastical-liturgical
activity, and if the church hymnal is to be in perfect harmony with the
life of the Church, then the hymns in the hymnal may be arranged as
follows: 1. _Festival Hymns_, arranged according to the festivals,
cycles and holy-days of the church year—Advent, Christmas, New Year,
Epiphany, etc. 2. _Hymns about the Church and ecclesiastical acts_: the
Word, the Church, Missions, ecclesiastical acts (worship, Holy Baptism,
Holy Communion, confirmation, ordination and installation, dedication of
churches, etc., also marriage and burial). 3. _Hymns about the Christian
life_: repentance, faith, justification and state of grace,
sanctification (the fruits of regeneration, prayer, cross and
consolation), the completion (the resurrection, judgment, eternity). 4.
_Hymns for certain people, times and circumstances_: the Christian
community (fatherland, the authorities and the subjects, judges and
those suing for justice, temporal necessities, war and peace, plagues
and calamities, etc.), the Christian school or Christian education, the
Christian home (husband and wife, parents and children, master and
servant, morning and evening hymns, etc.), conditions in the life of an
individual (health, sickness, death, etc.).
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH HYMNS