| |
| FOR the sole edification | |
| Of this decent congregation, | |
| Goodly people, by your grant | |
| I will sing a holy chant, | |
| I will sing a holy chant. | 5 |
| If the ditty sound but oddly, | |
| ’Twas a father, wise and godly, | |
| Sang it so long ago. | |
| Then sing as Martin Luther sang: | |
| “Who loves not woman, wine, and song, | 10 |
| Remains a fool his whole life long!” | |
| |
| He, by custom patriarchal, | |
| Loved to see the beaker sparkle; | |
| And he thought the wine improved, | |
| Tasted by the lips he loved, | 15 |
|
| Friends, I wish this custom pious | |
| Duly were observed by us, | |
| To combine love, song, wine, | |
| And sing as Martin Luther sang, | 20 |
|
| “Who loves not woman, wine, and song, | |
| Remains a fool his whole life long!” | |
| |
| Who refuses this our Credo, | |
| And who will not sing as we do, | 25 |
|
| I’d pronounce him heterodox, | |
| I’d pronounce him heterodox, | |
| And from out this congregation, | |
| With a solemn commination, | 30 |
|
| Who’ll not sing as Luther sang, | |
| As Doctor Martin Luther sang: | |
| “Who loves not woman, wine, and song, | |
| Remains a fool his whole life long!” | 35 |
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