eld.

When His servants stand before Him,
Each receiving his reward--
When His saints in light adore Him,
Giving glory to the Lord--
"Victory!" our song shall be,
Like the thunder of the sea.

Justus Falckner, 1697.

SURVEY OF AMERICAN LUTHERAN HYMNODY

It is a significant fact that the first Lutheran pastor to be ordained in
America was a hymn-writer. He was Justus Falckner, author of the stirring
hymn, "Rise, ye children of salvation."

Falckner, who was born on November 22, 1672, in Langenreinsdorf, Saxony,
was the son of a Lutheran pastor at that place. He entered the University
of Halle in 1693 as a student of theology under Francke, but for
conscientious reasons refused to be ordained upon the completion of his
studies. Together with his brother Daniel he became associated with the
William Penn colony in America and arranged for the sale of 10,000 acres
of land to Rev. Andreas Rudman, who was the spiritual leader of the
Swedish Lutherans along the Delaware.

Through Rudman's influence Falckner was induced to enter the ministry,
and on November 24, 1703, he was ordained in Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
at Wicacoa, Philadelphia. The ordination service was carried out by the
Swedish Lutheran pastors, Rudman, Erik Bjork, and Andreas Sandel.
Falckner was the first German Lutheran pastor in America, and he also had
the distinction of building the first German Lutheran church in the New
World--at Falckner's Swamp, New Hanover, Pa. Later he removed to New
York, where for twenty years he labored faithfully among the German,
Dutch, and Scandinavian settlers in a parish that extended some two
hundred miles from Albany to Long Island.

It seems that Falckner's hymn, "Rise, ye children of salvation," was
written while he was a student at Halle. It appeared as early as 1697 in
"Geistreiches Gesangbuch," and in 1704 it was given a place in
Freylinghausen's hymn-book. There is no evidence that Falckner ever
translated it into English.

Since the Lutheran Church in America to a large extent employed the
German and Scandinavian languages in its worship, it was content for
nearly two hundred years to depend on hymn-books originating in the Old
World. Not until the latter half of the nineteenth century were serious
efforts made to provide Lutheran hymn-books in the English language.
Writers of original hymns were few in number, but a number of exce