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445
Justification By Faith
Strongly did Luther seize the mighty thought,Which the Apostle's mind had first conceived,
And which in him so mightily had wrought,
That he is Justified, who hath believed;
Freed from the observance of the Jewish law,
Which sought by fear man's nature to controul;
From higher motives did his thoughts withdraw,
And bound to forms and rites the aspiring soul.
By faith, and not by works, man lives; he said;
And, by his word, the nation's bondage broke!
From land to land quickly the tidings spread,
To life and thought the slumbering people woke!
From slavish forms, and slavish errors free,
And standing firm in Christian liberty.
Poem No. 448; c. 4 May 1872
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