tion." Frederick the Great referred to it as "God Almighty's
grenadier march."

The date of the hymn cannot be fixed with any certainty. Much has been
written on the subject, but none of the arguments appear conclusive.
D'Aubigne's unqualified statement that Luther composed it and sang it to
revive the spirits of his friends at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 can
scarcely be accepted, since it appeared at least a year earlier in a
hymn-book published by Joseph Klug.

The magnificent chorale to which the hymn is sung is also Luther's work.
Never have words and music been combined to make so tremendous an appeal.
Great musical composers have turned to its stirring theme again and again
when they have sought to produce a mighty effect. Mendelssohn has used it
in the last movement of his Reformation symphony; Meyerbeer uses it to
good advantage in his masterpiece, "Les Huguenots"; and Wagner's
"Kaisermarsch," written to celebrate the triumphal return of the German
troops in 1870, reaches a great climax with the whole orchestra
thundering forth the sublime chorale. Bach has woven it into a beautiful
cantata, while Raff and Nicolai make use of it in overtures.

After Luther's death, when Melanchthon and his friends were compelled to
flee from Wittenberg by the approach of the Spanish army, they came to
Weimar. As they were entering the city, they heard a little girl singing
Luther's great hymn. "Sing on, my child," exclaimed Melanchthon, "thou
little knowest how thy song cheers our hearts."

When Gustavus Adolphus, the hero king of Sweden, faced Tilly's hosts at
the battlefield of Leipzig, Sept. 7, 1631, he led his army in singing
"Ein feste Burg." Then shouting, "God is with us," he went into battle.
It was a bloody fray. Tilly fell and his army was beaten. When the battle
was over, Gustavus Adolphus knelt upon the ground among his soldiers and
thanked the Lord of Hosts for victory, saying, "He holds the field
forever."

At another time during the Thirty Years' War a Swedish trumpeter captured
the ensign of the Imperial army. Pursued by the enemy he found himself
trapped with a swollen river before him. He paused for a moment and
prayed, "Help me, O my God," and then thrust spurs into his horse and
plunged into the midst of the current. The Imperialists were afraid to
follow him, whereupon he raised his trumpet to his lips and sounded the
defiant notes: "A mighty fortress is our God!"

George N. Anderson, a missionary in