Luther on Music

I truly desire that all Christians would love and regard as worthy the lovely gift of music, which is a precious, worthy, and costly treasure given to mankind by God.

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits.

The precious gift has been given to man alone that he might thereby remind himself that God has created man for the express purpose of praising and extolling God.

I found these quotes of Martin Luther's interesting recently. The mysteries of music intruige me greatly. It's amazing how music speaks to us as human beings. A song carries memories, provokes emotions, fixes thoughts. Some of my darkest moments have been lightened by a song that comes to mind. I have memorized so much Scripture because it was put to song. Fascinating . . .

Of course, I love how Luther sums up his point. A bit, uh, passionate?

A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.

Well, that's that settled.