But it is not because the Lutheran church hymn is great poetry that it lives. It is because of the life of the Church, the life of souls, the life of the Christian faith, that the church hymn lives. From this it draws its life and becomes an ever fresh source of spiritual life. Looking at the church hymn from this point of view, looking at the content of the church hymn, the outlook widens and goes far beyond the time of four hundred years. If the history of our evangelical church hymn has reference more particularly to the historical evolution of the content and the making of the form, then this history embraces several thousand years of the religious development of our race. This holds good also from the literary point of view. It is obvious that our popular Lutheran church hymns contain material from all classical ages revealed by history, from the first literary days of old Israel down to the present time, and this very often in the most intimate fusion. Take for example one of F. M. Franzen’s greatest hymns, the first stanza of which follows: Prepare the way, O Zion! Ye awful deeps, rise high, Sink low, ye towering mountains; The Lord is drawing nigh: The righteous King of glory, Foretold in sacred story. Oh, blest is He that came In God the Father’s Name! How much there is in that stanza! And it is only the first stanza of a truly great Lutheran church hymn. In all this, which may seem quite commonplace, there really is something truly wonderful; an old, old story about the life of faith and its expression in song and worship—an exceedingly beautiful testimony about the fulness of God’s work in the history of spiritual life on earth. Our hymnological annotations must draw to a close. They may be regarded as observations and reflections during the study of a great subject: Our Lutheran church song. Perhaps they will be of some value to those who have much to do with Lutheran hymn singing as well as to those who teach and instruct our young people in this branch of our ecclesiastical inheritance. Much must be done before we can really claim that the American Lutheran Church has fully taken over this rich legacy. A church hymn sung by a Lutheran congregation as it should be sung—that may at first thought seem to be a very simple and insignificant matter. But taken in its historical and religious connections, the matter is far from simple or insignificant. And taken as a problem—it is not easily solved. Its relations to the facts and conditions of spiritual life extend far and wide. Hymnological study gives us an idea of these things. Our Lutheran hymnody is four hundred years old—many of our best Lutheran hymns are four hundred years old—four hundred years, think of it, full of ups and downs, ecclesiastically and politically—four hundred years of sacred song through all kinds of significant life experiences. Four hundred years—turn to mediaeval and modern history.