The martyrs of Jesus.
Revelation 17:6
Words: Martin Luther, 1523 (Ein Neues Lied Wir Heben An). This English version appeared in a translation of D’Aubignés History of the Reformation (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: 1843), where it was said to have been translated for that work by John A. Messenger.
Music: Ibstone Maria Tiddeman, 1875 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good picture of Messenger or Tiddeman (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
On June 23, 1523, two young Augustinian monks, Heinrich Voes and Johann Esch, from Antwerp, had been, after examination by the Cologne Inquisitor, Jacob von Hogstraten, and at the instigation of the Louvain professors, condemned to death and burnt at the stake in Brussels.
On receipt of the news of this first martyrdom for the Evangelical cause Luther’s spirit was fired, and he wrote this spirited narrative, ending with the prophetic words [translated by Richard Massie, 1854]:
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.Julian, p. 326
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.