speaking, English is the most conspicuous member. Upon these tongues it
will not be necessary to do summary execution.

It is a different matter, however, when we come to High German, or,
properly speaking, New High German, the language of German literature
since the sixteenth century, of which Luther, through his version of the
Bible, may be called the creator. He at least gave it universal
currency. This is a language which we could not lose if we would, and
would not if we could.

Scholars are compelled to learn it because it is the indispensable
medium for scientific and philosophical study. Formerly Latin was this
medium, today it is German.

Lovers of literature learn it because it is the language of Goethe and
Schiller, the particular stars of a galaxy that for the modern world at
least outshines the productions of the ancient classics. Lutherans
enshrine it in their inmost souls because it is the receptacle of
treasures of meditation and devotion with which their forms of worship
have been enriched for four hundred years. To ignore Angelus Silesius,
Paul Gerhardt, Albert Knapp, Philip Spitta and their glorious compeers,
would be to silence a choir that sang the praises of the Lord "in notes
almost divine."

We need the literature in which the ideas of our church have for
centuries been expressed. Language is the medium of ideas. The thirty
denominations that constitute the bulk of Protestantism in this country
derive the spirit of their church life for the most part from
non-Lutheran sources through the medium of English literature. This is
as it should be. But when Lutherans no longer understand the language of