Hymns and Hymnwriters of Denmark

Holy Spirit, come with light,Break the dark and gloomy nightWith Thy day unending.Help us with a joyful layGreet the Lord’s triumphant dayNow with might ascending.Comforter so wondrous kind,Noble guest of heart and mindFix in us Thy dwelling.Give us peace in storm and strife,Fill each troubled heart and lifeWith Thy joy excelling.Make salvation clear to us,Who despite our sin and drossWould exalt the Spirit.For without Thine aid and loveAll our life and work must proveVain and without merit.Raise or bow us with Thine arm,Break temptation’s evil charm,Clear our clouded vision.Fill our hearts with longing new,Cleanse us with Thy morning dew,Tears of deep contrition.Blessed Fount of life and breath,Let our hope in view of deathBlossom bright and vernal;And above the silent tombLet the Easter lilies bloom,Signs of life eternal.

Many of Grundtvig’s original hymns evince a strong Danish coloring, a fact which is especially evident in a number of his Pentecost hymns. Pentecost comes in Denmark at the first breath of summer when nature, prompted by balmy breezes, begins to unfold her latent life and beauty. This similarity between the life of nature and the work of the Spirit is strikingly expressed in a number of his Pentecost hymns.

The following hymn, together with its beautiful tune, is rated as one of the most beautiful and, lyrically, most perfect hymns in Danish. Because of its strong Danish flavor, however, it may not make an equal appeal to American readers. The main thought of the hymn is that, as in nature, so also in the realm of the Spirit, summer is now at hand. The coming of the Spirit completes God’s plan of salvation and opens the door for the unfolding of a new life. The translation is by Prof. S. D. Rodholm.

The sun now shines in all its splendor,The fount of life and mercy tender;Now bright Whitsunday lilies growAnd summer sparkles high and low;Sweet songsters sing of harvest goldIn Jesus’ name a thousand fold.The peaceful nightingales are fillingThe quiet night with music thrilling.Thus all that to the Lord belongMay rest in peace and wake with song,May dream of life beyond the skies,And with God’s praise at daylight rise.It breathes from heaven on the flowers,It whispers home-like in the bowers,A balmy breeze comes to our coastFrom Paradise, no longer closed,And gently purls a brooklet sweetOf life’s clear water at our feet.This works the Spirit, still descending,And tongues of fire to mortals lending,That broken hearts may now be healed,And life with grace and love revealedIn Him, who came from yonder landAnd has returned to God’s right hand.Awaken then all tongues to honorLord Jesus Christ, our blest Atoner;Let every voice in anthems riseTo praise the Savior’s sacrifice.And thou, His Church, with one accordArise and glorify the Lord.

Of his other numerous hymns on the Spirit, the one given below is, perhaps, one of the most characteristic.

Holy Ghost, our Interceder,Blessed Comforter and PleaderWith the Lord for all we need,Deign to hold with us communionThat with Thee in blessed unionWe may in our life succeed.Heavenly Counsellor and Teacher,Make us through Thy guidance richerIn the grace our Lord hath won.Blest Partaker of God’s fullness,Make us all, despite our dullness,Wiser e’en than Solomon.Helper of the helpless, harkenTo our pleas when shadows darken;Shield us from the beasts of prey.Rouse the careless, help the weary,Bow the prideful, cheer the dreary,Be our guest each passing day.Comforter, whose comfort lightensEvery cross that scars and frightens,Succor us from guilt and shame.Warm our heart, inspire our vision,Add Thy voice to our petitionAs we pray in Jesus’ name.

Believing in the Spirit, Grundtvig also believed in the kingdom of God, not only as a promise of the future but as a reality of the present.

Right among us is God’s kingdomWith His Spirit and His word,With His grace and love abundantAt His font and altar-board.

Among his numerous hymns on the nature and work of God’s kingdom, the following is one of the most favored.

Founded our Lord has upon earth a realm of the SpiritWherein He fosters a people restored by His merit.It shall remainPeople its glory attain,They shall the kingdom inherit.Forward like light of the morning its message is speeding,Millions receive and proclaim it with gladness exceedingFor with His wordGod doth His Spirit accord,Raising all barriers impeding.Jesus, our Savior, with God in the highest residing,And by the Spirit the wants of Thy people providing,Be Thou our life,Shield and defender in strife,Always among us abiding.Then shall Thy people as Lord of the nations restore Thee,Even by us shall a pathway be straightened before TheeTill everywhere,Bending in worship and prayer,All shall as Savior adore Thee.

The kingdom of God is the most wonderful thing on earth.

Most wonderful of all things isThe kingdom Jesus founded.Its glory, treasure, peace and blissNo tongue has fully sounded.Invisible as mind and soul,And yet of light the fountain,It sheds its light from pole to poleLike beacons from a mountain.Its secret is the word of God,Which works what it proposes,Which lowers mountains high and broadAnd clothes the wastes with roses.Though foes against the kingdom rageWith hatred and derision,God spreads its reign from age to age,And brings it to fruition.Its glory rises like a mornWhen waves at sunrise glitter,Or as in June the golden cornWhile birds above it twitter.It is the glory of the KingWho bore affliction solelyThat he the crown of life might bringTo sinners poor and lowly.And when His advent comes to pass,The Christian’s strife is ended,What now we see as in a glassShall then be comprehended.Then shall the kingdom bright appearIn glory true and vernal,And usher in the golden yearOf peace and joy eternal.

But the kingdom of God here on earth is represented by the Christian church, wherein Christ works by the Spirit through His word and sacraments. Of Grundtvig’s many splendid hymns of the church, the following, in the translation of Pastor Carl Doving, has become widely known in all branches of the Lutheran church in America. Pastor Doving’s translation is not wholly satisfactory, however, to those who know the forceful and yet so appealing language of the original, a fate which, we are fully aware, may also befall the following new version.

Built on a rock the church of GodStands though its towers be falling;Many have crumbled beneath the sod,Bells still are chiming and calling,Calling the young and old to come,But above all the souls that roam,Weary for rest everlasting.God, the most high, abides not inTemples that hands have erected.High above earthly strife and sin,He hath his mansions perfected.Yet He, whom heavens cannot contain,Chose to abide on earth with manMaking their body His temple.We are God’s house of living stones,Built for the Spirit’s indwelling.He at His font and table ownsUs for His glory excelling.Should only two confess His name,He would yet come and dwell with them,Granting His mercy abounding.Even the temples built on earthUnto the praise of the Father,Are like the homes of hallowed worthWhence we as children did gather.Glorious things in them are said,God there with us His covenant made,Making us heirs of His kingdom.There we behold the font at whichGod as His children received us;There stands the altar where His richMercy from hunger relieved us.There His blest word to us proclaim:Jesus is now and e’er the same,So is His way of salvation.Grant then, O Lord, where’er we roam,That, when the church bells are ringing,People in Jesus’ name may come,Praising His glory with singing.“Ye, not the world, my face shall see;I will abide with you,” said He.“My peace I leave with you ever.”

As a believer in objective Christianity, Grundtvig naturally exalts the God-given means of grace, the word and sacraments, through which the Spirit works. In one of the epigrammatic expressions often found in his writings, he says:

We are and remain,We live and attainIn Jesus, God’s living wordWhen His word we embraceAnd live by its grace,Then dwells He within us, our Lord.

This firm belief in the actual presence of Christ in His word and sacraments lends an exceptional realism to many of his hymns on the means of grace. Through the translation by Pastor Doving the following brief hymn has gained wide renown in America.

God’s word is our great heritage,And shall be ours forever.To spread its light from age to age,Shall be our chief endeavor.Through life it guards our way,In death it is our stay.Lord, grant, while worlds endure,We keep its teachings pureThroughout all generations.

Of his numerous hymns on baptism, the following, which an American authority on hymnody calls the finest baptismal hymn ever written, is perhaps the most representative.

O let Thy spirit with us tarry,Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,So that the babes we to Thee carryMay be unto Thy death baptized.Lord, after Thee we humbly name them,O let them in Thy name arise!If they should stumble, Lord, reclaim them,That they may reach Thy paradise.If long their course, let them not falter.Give to Thine aged servants rest.If short their race, let by Thine altarThem like the swallows find a rest.Upon their heart, Thy name be written,And theirs within Thine own right hand,That even when by trials smitten,They in Thy covenant firm may stand.Thine angels sing for children sleeping,May they still sing when death draws nigh.Both cross and crown are in Thy keeping.Lord, lead us all to Thee on high.

His communion hymns are gathered from many sources. Of his originals the following tender hymn is perhaps the most typical.

Savior, whither should we goFrom the truest friend we know,From the Son of God above,From the Fount of saving love,Who in all this world of strifeHath alone the word of life.No, I dare not turn from Thee,Though Thy word oft chasten me,For throughout this world, O Lord,Death is still the cruel word.Whoso saves the soul from deathBrings redemption, life and breath.“Eat my flesh and drink my blood.”Saith our Lord, so kind and good.“Whoso takes the bread and wine,Shall receive my life divine,Be redeemed from all his foesAnd arise as I arose.”Hear Him then, my heart distressed,Beating anxious in my breast.Take Thy Savior at His word,Meet Him at His altar-board,Eat His body, drink His blood,And obtain eternal good.

Grundtvig also produced a great number of hymns for the enrichment of other parts of the church service. Few hymns thus strike a more appropriate and festive note for the opening service than the short hymn given below.

Come, Zion, and sing to the Father above;Angels join with youAnd thank Him for Jesus, the gifts of His love.We sing before God in the highest.Strike firmly, O Psalmist, the jubilant chord;Golden be your harpIn praise of Christ Jesus, our Savior and Lord.We sing before God in the highest.Then hear we with rapture the tongues as of fire,The Spirit draws nigh,Whose counsels with comforts our spirits inspire,We sing before God in the highest.

Equally fine is his free rendering of the 84th psalm.

Fair beyond telling,Lord, is Thy dwelling,Filled with Thy peace.Oh how I languishAnd, in my anguish,Wait for releaseThat I may enter Thy temple, O Lord,With Thee communing in deepest accord.With Thy compassion,Lord of Salvation,Naught can compare.Even the sparrowSafe from the arrowRests in Thy care.And as Thou shieldest the bird in its nest,So let my heart in Thy temple find rest.Years full of splendors,Which to offendersEarth may afford,Never can measureOne day of pleasureFound with Thee, Lord,When on the wings of Thy quickening wordSouls are uplifted and Thou art adored.Quicken in spirit,Grow in Thy meritShall now Thy friends.Blessings in showersFilled with Thy powersOn them descendsUntil at home in the city of goldAll shall in wonder Thy presence behold.

Grundtvig’s hymns are for the most part church hymns, presenting the objective rather than the subjective phase of Christian faith. He wrote for the congregation and held that a hymn for congregational singing should express the common faith and hope of the worshippers, rather than the personal feelings and experiences of the individual. Because of this his hymns are frequently criticized for their lack of personal sentiment. The personal note is not wholly lacking in his work, however, as witnessed by the following hymn.

Suffer and languish,Tremble in anguishMust every soul that awakes to its guilt.Sternly from yonder,Sinai doth thunder:Die or achieve what no sinner fulfilled.Tremble with gladness,Smile through their sadnessShall all that rest in the arms of the Lord.Grace beyond measure,Comfort and treasureGathers the heart from His merciful word.Bravely to suffer,Gladly to offerPraises to God ’neath the weight of our cross,This will the SpiritHelp us to meritGranting a breath from God’s heaven to us.

Even stronger is the personal sentiment of this appealing hymn.

With her cruse of alabaster,Filled with ointment rare and sweet,Came the woman to the Master,Knelt contritely at His feet,Feeling with unfeigned contritionHow unfit was her conditionTo approach the Holy One.Like this woman, I contritelyOften must approach the Lord,Knowing that I cannot rightlyAsk a place beside His board.Sinful and devoid of merit,I can only cry in spirit:Lord, be merciful to me.Lord of Grace and Mercy, harkenTo my plea for grace and light.Threatening clouds and tempests darkenNow my soul with gloomy night.Let, despite my guilt and error,My repenting tears still mirrorThy forgiving smile, O Lord.

The following hymn likewise voices the need for personal perseverance.

Hast to the plow thou put thy handLet not thy spirit waver,Heed not the world’s allurements grand,Nor pause for Sodom’s favor.But plow thy furrow, sow the seed,Though tares and thorns thy work impede;For they, who sow with weeping,With joy shall soon be reaping.But should at times thy courage fail —For all may fail and falter —Let not the tempting world prevailOn thee thy course to alter.Each moment lost in faint retreatMay bring disaster and defeat.If foes bid thee defiance,On God be thy reliance.If steadfast in the race we keep,Our course is soon completed.And death itself is but a sleep,Its dreaded might defeated.But those who conquer in the strifeObtain the victor’s crown of lifeAnd shall in constant gladnessForget these days of sadness.

It is, perhaps, in his numerous hymns on Christian trust, comfort and hope that Grundtvig reaches his highest. His contributions to this type of hymns are too numerous to be more than indicated here. But the hymn given below presents a fair example of the simplicity and poetic beauty that characterize many of them.

God’s little child, what troubles you!Think of your Heavenly Father true.He will uphold you by His hand,None can His might and grace withstand.The Lord be praised!Shelter and food and counsel triedGod for His children will provide.They shall not starve, nor homeless roam,Children may claim their Father’s home.The Lord be praised!Birds with a song toward heaven soar,Neither they reap nor lay in store,But where the hoarder dies from need,Gathers the little bird a seed.The Lord be praised!Clad are the flowers in raiment fair,Wondrous to see on deserts bare.Neither they spin nor weave nor sewYet no king could such beauty show.The Lord be praised!Flowers that bloom at break of dawnOnly to die when day is gone,How can they with the child compareThat shall the Father’s glory share?The Lord be praised!God’s little child, do then fore’erCast on the Lord your every care.Trust in His love, His grace and mightThen shall His peace your soul delight.The Lord be praised!God will your every need allayEven tomorrow as yesterday,And when the sun for you goes downHe will your soul with glory crown.The Lord be praised!

Grundtvig’s friends were sometimes called the “Merry Christians.” There was nothing superficial or lighthearted, however, about the Christianity of their leader. It had been gained through intense struggles and maintained at the cost of worldly position and honor. But he did believe that God is love, and that love is the root and fount of life, as he says in the following splendid hymn. The translation is by the Reverend Doving.

Love, the fount of light from heaven,Is the root and source of life;Therefore God’s decrees are givenWith His lovingkindness rife.As our Savior blest declarethAnd the Spirit witness beareth,As we in God’s service prove;God is light and God is love.Love, the crown of life eternal,Love the brightness is of light;Therefore on His throne supernalJesus sits in glory bright.He the Light and Life of heaven,Who Himself for us hath given,Still abides and reigns aboveIn His Father’s boundless love.Love, alone the law fulfilling,Is the bond of perfectness;Love, who came, a victim willing,Wrought our peace and righteousness.Therefore love and peace in unionEver work in sweet communionThat through love we may abideOne with Him who for us died.

But the fruit of God’s love is peace. As Grundtvig, in the hymn above, sings of God’s love, so in the sweet hymn given below he sings of God’s peace. The translation is by Pastor Doving.

Peace to soothe our bitter woesGod in Christ on us bestows;Jesus wrought our peace with GodThrough His holy, precious blood;Peace in Him for sinners foundIs the Gospel’s joyful sound.Peace to us the church doth tell.’Tis her welcome and farewell.Peace was our baptismal dower;Peace shall bless our dying hour.Peace be with you full and freeNow and in eternity.

In this peace Christians find refuge and rest.

The peace of God protects our heartsAgainst the tempter’s fiery darts.It is as sure when evening fallsAs when the golden morning calls.This peace our Savior wrought for usIn agony upon the cross,And when He up to heaven soared,His peace He left us in His word.His word of peace new strength impartsEach day to faint and troubled hearts,And in His cup and at the fontIt stills our deepest need and want.This blessed peace our Lord will giveTo all who in His Spirit live.And even at their dying breathIts comfort breaks the sting of death.When Christ for us His peace hath wonHe asked for faith and faith alone.By faith and not by merits vain,Our hearts God’s blessed peace obtain.Peace be with you, our Savior saithIn answer to the word of faith.Whoso hath faith, shall find releaseAnd dwell in God’s eternal peace.

Grundtvig’s hymns of comfort for the sick and dying rank with the finest ever written. He hates and fears death, hoping even that Christ may return before his own hour comes; but if He does not, he prays that the Savior will be right with him.

Lord, when my final hours impend,Come in the person of a friendAnd take Thy place beside me,And talk to me as man to manOf where we soon shall meet againAnd all Thy joy betide me.

For though he knows he cannot master the enemy alone, if the Savior is there —

Death is but the last pretenderWe with Christ as our defenderShall engage and put to flight.

And His word will dispel all fear of the struggle:

Like dew upon the meadowSo falls the word of lifeOn Christians in the shadowOf mortal’s final strife.The first fruit of its blessingIs balm for fears distressing,So gone is like a breathThe bitterness of death.Like sun, when night is falling,Sets stilly in the westWhile birds are softly callingEach other from their nest,So when its brief day closesThat soul in peace reposesWhich knows that Christ the LordIs with it in His word.And as we shiver slightlyAn early summer mornWhen blushing heavens brightlyAnnounce a day new-born,So moves the soul immortalWith calmness through death’s portalThat through its final strifeBeholds the Light of Life.

He could therefore exclaim:

Christian! what a morn of splendorFull reward for every fear,When the ransomed host shall renderPraises to its Savior dear,Shall in heaven’s hall of gloryTell salvation’s wondrous story,And with the angelic throngSing the Lamb’s eternal song.

Chapter Sixteen

Grundtvig’s Later Years

Grundtvig’s later years present a striking contrast to the years of his earlier manhood. The lonely Defender of the Bible became a respected sage and the acknowledged leader of a fast growing religious and folk movement, both in Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries. His long years of continuous struggles were followed by years of fruitful work and an extensive growth of his religious and educational ideals until he was generally recognized as one of the most vital spiritual leaders of Scandinavia.

The first break in the wall of isolation that surrounded him came with an invitation from a group of students to “the excellent historian, N. F. S. Grundtvig, who has never asked for a reward but only for a chance to do good,” to deliver a series of historical lectures at Borch’s Collegium in Copenhagen. These lectures – seventy-one in all – were delivered before packed audiences during the summer and fall of 1838, and were so enthusiastically received that the students, on the evening of the concluding lecture, arranged a splendid banquet for the speaker, at which one of them sang:

Yes, through years of lonely struggleDid you bravely fight,Bearing scorn without complainingTill your hair turned white.

During his most lonely years Grundtvig once comforted himself with the words of a Greek sage: “Speak to the people of yesterday, and you will be heard by the people of tomorrow.” Thus it was, no doubt, a great satisfaction to him that the first public honor bestowed upon him should be accorded him by his nation’s youth.

From that day his reputation and influence grew steadily. He became an honored member of several influential societies, such as the Society for Northern Studies, and the Scandinavian Society, an association of academicians from all the Scandinavian countries for the purpose of effecting a closer spiritual and cultural union between them. He also received frequent invitations to lecture both on outstanding occasions and before special groups. His work as a lecturer probably reached its culmination at a public meeting on the Skamlingsbanke, a wooded hill on the borders of Slesvig, where he spoke to thousands of profoundly stirred listeners, and at a great meeting of Scandinavian students at Oslo, Norway, in 1851, to which he was invited as the guest of honor and acclaimed both by the students and the Norwegian people. When Denmark became a constitutional kingdom in 1848, he was a member of the constitutional assembly and was elected several times to the Riksdag.

Meanwhile he worked ceaselessly for the development of his folk and educational ideals. After his conversion, he felt for a time that his new outlook was incompatible with his previous enthusiasm for the heroic life and ideals of the old North, and that he must now devote himself solely to the preaching of the Gospel. But the formerly mentioned decline of all phases of Danish life during the early part of the nineteenth century and the failure of his preaching to evoke any response from an indifferent people caused him to suspect a closer relationship between a people’s religious and national or folk-life than he had hitherto recognized. Was not the folk life of a people, after all, the soil in which the Word of God must be sown, and could the Word bear fruit in a soil completely hardened and unprepared to receive it? If it could not, was not a folk awakening a necessary preparation for a Christian?

Under the spur of this question he undertook the translation of the sagas and developed his now widely recognized ideas of folk life and folk education, which later were embodied in the Grundtvigian folk schools. The first of these schools was opened at Rødding, Slesvig in 1844. The war between Denmark and Germany from 1848 to 1850 delayed the establishment of other similar schools. But in 1851, Christian Kold, the man who more than any other realized Grundtvig’s idea of a school for life – as the folk schools were frequently called – opened his first school at Ryslinge, Fyn. From there the movement spread rapidly not only to all parts of Denmark but also to Norway, Finland and Sweden. The latter country now has more schools of the Grundtvigian type than Denmark, and Norway and Finland have about have as many.[11]

To extend the influence of the movement lecture societies, reading circles, gymnastic societies, choral groups and the like were organized in almost every parish of Denmark. Thus before Grundtvig died, he had the satisfaction of seeing his work bear fruit in one of the most vital folk and educational movements of Scandinavia, a movement which has made a tremendous imprint upon all phases of life in the Northern countries and which today is spreading to many other parts of the world.

Grundtvig held that the life of a nation, Christian as well as national, never rose above the real culture of its common people. To be real, a culture had to be national, had to be based on a people’s natural characteristics and developed in accordance with native history and traditions. The aim of all true folk-education was the awakening and enrichment of life and not a mere mental or practical training. The natural means for the attainment of this aim was a living presentation of a people’s own cultural heritage, their native tradition, history, literature and folk life. But in all cases the medium of this presentation was the living, that is the spoken word by men and women who were themselves spiritually alive. Christianity, in his opinion, had not come to destroy but to cleanse and vivify the folk life of a people, and, since the latter was the soil in which the former had to grow, the fruitfulness of both demanded a living inter-action so that national life might become Christian and Christianity national.