It happened to me once to enter a crowded church, where presently a distinguished German divine arose to speak. Others had addressed the audience in English; but he, turning to his fellow-countrymen, began to pour forth a trumpet-strain of lofty eloquence in his native tongue. He spoke of the “better valley,” of a happy and peaceful land. He seemed to see its broad and gentle river and to hear the chiming of its Sabbath bells. He peopled the air with its lovely citizens and created about us the presence of its glorious joy. Faintly and brokenly, as now and then he uttered some familiar words, I could catch glimpses of that _besseres Thal_, and its brightness and beauty, and the awe of its holy calmness came upon me—upon me, the stranger and the foreigner, in whose speech no word was said.
But they who were of the lip and lineage of the land, they whose country was brought so near and whose hopes were raised on such strong and familiar wings—they truly were moved to the soul. I saw tears in their eyes; I heard their suppressed and laboring breath; I beheld their eager faces; and the glory of that land fell on them even as I gazed. So, though we cannot here perceive the fulness of the Franciscan’s hymn, yet do we discern the stately splendor of Messiah’s throne, and
“Catch betimes, with wakeful eyes and clear Some radiant vista of the realm before us.”
This alone can justify another attempt—the resultant of four previous versions—to express something of the grandeur of this majestic hymn:
1. Dies irae, dies illa Solvet saeclum in favilla, Teste David cum Sybilla.
2. Quantus tremor est futurus, Quando judex est venturus, Cuncta stricte discussurus!
3. Tuba mirum sparget sonum Per sepulcra regionum, Coget omnes ante thronum.
4. Mors stupebit et natura, Quum resurget creatura, Judicanti responsura.
5. Liber scriptus proferetur, In quo totum continetur, Unde mundus judicetur.
6. Judex ergo cum sedebit, Quidquid latet, apparebit, Nil inultum remanebit.
7. Quid sum miser tunc dicturus, Que, patronum rogaturus, Dum vix justus sit securus?
8. Rex tremendae majestatis, Qui salvandos salvas gratis, Salva me, fons pietatis!
9. Recordare, Jesu pie, Quod sum causa tuae viae; Ne me perdas illâ die!