The history of hymnody in the American Lutheran Church is in many respects discouraging. A prominent American Lutheran theologian recently made the following statement: “Few of our ministers have ever had an appreciation of the treasures of Lutheran church song” The training of the clergy in hymnology and church music is not what it ought to be. The education of the church organist and choir director is woefully deficient. More serious study in liturgics, hymnology and church music is needed. Yet some very good work has been done by American Lutheran hymnists, hymnologists and church musicians. The Memoirs of the Lutheran Liturgical Association contain much valuable information concerning American Lutheran church song; so also the Essays on Church Music, volumes which contain papers read at Lutheran church music conventions held chiefly in Pennsylvania. Other sources of information are: “The English Hymn” by Dr. Louis F. Benson, pages 410-420 and 560-563. “The Lutheran Cyclopedia” by Jacobs and Haas, pages 235-238 and 96-97. “A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States” by Henry Eyster Jacobs, the references to hymn books and hymns. History of the Liturgical Development of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, vol. XVII, page 93, Lutheran Church Review. The Common Service Book and Hymnal, vol. XXXVII, page 289, Lutheran Church Review. CONCLUSION How old is Lutheran church song? Four hundred years—the historical age of the most vigorous production in the realm of sacred song. We must not forget that one thousand popular evangelical Lutheran church hymns are a selection from perhaps one hundred thousand church hymns. What a great vital power! Is there any reason to believe that this vitality is about to cease? Is Lutheran hymn writing a thing of the past? The power to create is not yet extinct. The hymnody of the Church is steadily conquering new ground. In the Episcopal Church the church hymn has taken on greater and greater significance. Wherever evangelical missionary work is gaining ground, the church hymns find favor. So long as the Lutheran Church lives, Lutheran church song will flourish. Even from the literary point of view, this Lutheran hymnic vitality ought to be appreciated. Is it not strange that poets whose work will be forgotten after a few decades, are treated at length in our histories of literature, while this body of song, which has stood the test of centuries, scarcely receives mention? Yet our Lutheran church hymn has perhaps very few literary competitors. As a representation of life, does it not fitly take its place beside the many legends that have delighted the children of old India, or Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, or the metrical romances of the Middle Ages, or Dante’s Divine Comedy, or a great Shakespearean drama, or the songs of the Israelites?