When one thinks of hymns written by Martin Luther, one probably thinks of “A Mighty Fortress” (TLH #262) or “Dear Christians One and All Rejoice” (TLH #387), or “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come” (TLH #85). The popularity of these hymns seems to have drawn attention away from a small but veritable gem from Luther’s early days as a reformer. That gem is “Flung to the Heedless Winds” (TLH #259) The hymn in TLH is brief, consisting of two stanzas.
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.
Still, still, though dead, they speak,
And, trumpet-tongued, proclaim
To many a wakening land
The one availing Name.
W.G.
Pollack, writing in The Handbook to the
Lutheran Hymnal, records that Luther penned this hymn “in 1523 to
commemorate the martyrdom of two young Augustinian monks, Heinrich Voes and
Johann Esch, who had been condemned to death and burned at the stake in
Brussels on June 30th, 1523, because of their Lutheran faith.” In
our day we may not think of ‘Lutheran martyrs’ for the faith, but many did
exist in the first years of the reformation. Another example is Henry of
Zutphen, who was martyred in December of 1524 for preaching the Gospel of
justification by faith.
After
Henry’s death, Luther wrote a tract of comfort to Henry’s congregation entitled
The Burning of Brother Henry. (LW
32:263-286) For Luther it was important to commemorate these martyrs for the
faith to teach us all that the pure doctrine of the gospel is worth more than
everything, even “goods, fame, child and wife.”
While
this hymn is brief in our hymnal, originally it consisted of twelve verses
which told the entire tale of the duo’s martyrdom. Here is the entire hymn:
By help of
God I fain would tell
A new and
wondrous story
And sing a
marvel that befell
To His great
praise and glory.
At Brussels,
in the Netherlands,
He hath His
banner lifted,
To show His
wonders by the hands
Of two
youths highly gifted
With rich
and heavenly graces.
One of these
youths was called John,
And Henry
was the other,
Rich in the
grace of God was one,
A Christian
true his brother.
For God’s
Word they shed their blood
And from the
world departed
Like bold
and pious sons of God;
Faithful and
lion-hearted,
The won the
crown of martyrs.
The old
Arch-fiend did them immure,
To terrify
them seeking;
They bade
them God’s dear Word abjure
And fain
would stop their speaking.
From Louvain
many Sophists came,
Versed
deeply in the schools,
And met
together at the game.
The Spirit
made them fools;
They could
not but be losers.
Now sweet,
now harsher tones they tried
In artifice
abounding;
The youths
did firm as rocks abide,
The Sophists
all confounding.
The enemy
waved fierce in hate,
And for
their life-blood thirsted;
He fumed and
chafed that one so great
Should by
two babes be worsted
And
straightway sought to burn them.
Their
monkish garb from them they take
And gown of
ordination;
The youths a
cheerful Amen spake
And showed
no hesitation.
They thanked
their God that by His aid
They now had
been denuded
Of Satan’s
mock and masquerade,
Whereby he
had deluded
The world
with false pretenses.
Thus by the
power of grace they were
True priests
of God’s own making
Who offered
up themselves e’en there,
Christ’s
holy orders taking.
Dead to the
world, they cast aside
Hypocrisy’s
sour leaven,
That,
penitent and justified,
They might go
clean to heaven
And leave
all monkish follies.
They then
were told that they must read
A note which
was dictated;
They
straightway wrote their faith and creed
And not one
jot abated.
Now mark
their heresy! “We must
In God be
firm believers,
In mortal
men not put our trust,
For they are
all deceivers”;
For this
they must be burned.
Two fires
were lit, the youths were brought,
But all were
seized with wonder
To see them
set the flames at naught
And stood as
struck with thunder.
With joy
they came in sight of all
And sang
aloud God’s praises;
The
Sophist’s courage waxed small
Before such
wondrous traces
Of God’s
almighty finger.
The scandal
they repent and would
Right gladly
gloss it over,
They dare
not boast their deed of blood,
But seek the
stain to cover;
They feel
the shame within their breast
And charge
therewith each other;
But now the
Spirit cannot rest,
For Abel
‘gainst his brother
Doth cry
aloud for vengeance.
For their
ashes never cease to cry,
The fires
are ever flaming,
Their dust
throughout the world doth fly,
Their
murderers’ shame proclaiming.
The voices,
which with cruel hands
They put to
silence living,
Are heard,
though dead, throughout all lands
Their
testimony giving
And loud hosannas
singing.
From lies to
lies they still proceed
And feign
forthwith a story
To color
o’er the murderous deed;
Their
conscience pricks them sorely
These saints
of God e’en after death
They
slandered and asserted
The youths
had with their latest breath
Confessed
and been converted,
Their heresy
renouncing.
Then let
them still go on and lie,
They cannot
win a blessing;
And let us
thank God heartily,
His Word
again possessing.
Summer is
even at our door,
The winter
now hath vanished,
The tender
flowerets spring once more,
And He who winter
banished
Will send a happy summer.
Luther
praised the martyrs for their faithfulness and their willingness to be
consigned to the flames for the sake of Christ, who Himself had gladly followed
the heavenly Father’s will though it led to the cross. They were willing to
suffer all and die for the sake of the pure Gospel. Let us give thanks for
their witness in Luther’s day because it strengthened the church. May their
witness strengthen our faith as well, so that if we are called upon to suffer
for the sake of the Gospel, we may join them in their praise of God. Ad Finem
Illum!
