The immediate effect of this bold challenge was a stern reprimand from Bishop Frederik Munter, accompanied by a solemn warning that if he ever again ventured to voice a similar judgment upon his fellow pastors, sterner measures would at once be taken against him. Besides this, his enemies raved, some of his few remaining friends broke with him, and H. C. Oersted, the famous discoverer of electro-magnetism, continued an attack upon him that for bitterness has no counterpart in Danish letters. In the midst of this storm Grundtvig remained self-possessed, answering his critic quite calmly and even with a touch of humor. Although relentless in a fight for principles, he was never vindictive toward his personal enemies. In 1815, he published a collection of poems, Kvaedlinger, in which he asks, "Who knoweth of peace who never has fought, whoso has been saved and suffered naught?" And these lines no doubt express his personal attitude toward the battles of life.

Being without a pulpit of his own, Grundtvig, after his return to Copenhagen, frequently accepted invitations to preach for other pastors. But as the opposition against him grew, these invitations decreased and, after the Roskilde affair, only one church, the church of Frederiksberg, was still open to him. Grundtvig felt his exclusion very keenly, but he knew that even friendly pastors hesitated to invite him for fear of incurring the disapproval of superiors or the displeasure of influential parishioners. And so, at the close of a Christmas service in the Frederiksberg church in 1815, he solemnly announced that he would not enter a pulpit again until he had been duly appointed to do so by the proper authorities.

Grundtvig's withdrawal from the church, though pleasing to his active enemies, was a great disappointment to his friends. His services had always been well attended, and his earnest message had brought comfort to many, especially among the distressed Evangelicals. But others, too, felt the power of his word. Thus a man in Copenhagen, after attending one of his services, wrote to a friend, "that he had laughed at the beginning of the sermon and wept at its conclusion" and that "it was the only earnest testimony he had ever heard from a pulpit." And a reporter writing to a Copenhagen newspaper about his last service said, "Our famous Grundtvig preached yesterday at Frederiksberg church to such a crowd of people that the church was much too small to accommodate them. Here were people from all walks of life, and the speaker, we are convinced, stirred them to the bottom of their souls. Here was a Mynster's clarity, a Fallesen's earnestness, and a Balle's appeal united with a Nordahl Brun's manliness and admirable language." And this about a man for whom his church had no room!

Thus Grundtvig instead of the friendly co-operation he had hoped for especially from the spiritual and intellectual leaders of the people found himself virtually shut out from the circle to which he naturally belonged, and from the church he loved, perhaps better than any man of his generation.

But if his hope of enlisting the leaders in a campaign to revive the spiritual life of the common people had been disappointed, his own determination to devote his life to that purpose remained unshaken. If he could look for no help from the recognized leaders of his nation, he must somehow gain a hearing from the common people themselves. His personal contact with these, however, was rather slight. Except for his brief work as a pastor, he had so far spent the greater part of his life in intellectual pursuits quite removed from the interest of the common man. And the question was then how he, a man without any special position and influence, could reach the ears of his countrymen.

In searching for an answer to this question, he remembered the two things that most profoundly had influenced his own spiritual outlook, his study of the traditions and history of his people, and his religious awakening in 1810. Was it not possible then that a like change might be engendered in others by presenting them with a picture of their own glorious past or, as his friend Ingemann later expressed it, by calling forth the generations that died to testify against the generation that lived? In presenting such a picture he would not have to rely on his own inventiveness but could use material already existing, foremost among which were the famous Sagas of Norwegian Kings by Snorra Sturlason, and Denmark's Chronicle by Saxo Grammaticus, the former written in Icelandic, and the latter in Latin.

When Grundtvig presented this plan to his remaining friends, they received it at once with enthusiasm and began the organization of societies both in Denmark and Norway for the purpose of sponsoring its execution, in itself a most herculean task.

The two books contain together about fifteen hundred large and closely printed pages and present a circumstantial account of the early mythological and factual history of the two nations. Even a merely literal translation of them might well consume years of labor. But Grundtvig's plan went much farther than mere literal translation. Wishing to appeal to the common people, he purposed to popularize the books and to transcribe them in a purer and more idiomatic Danish than the accepted literary language of the day, a Danish to be based on the dialects of the common people, the folk-songs, popular proverbs, and the old hymns. It was a bold undertaking, comparable to the work of Luther in modelling the language of the German Bible after the speech of the man in the street and the mother at the cradle, or to the great effort of Norway in our days to supplant the Danish-Norwegian tongue with a language from the various dialects of her people. Nor can it be said that Grundtvig was immediately successful in his attempt. His version of the sagas sounds somewhat stilted and artificial, and it never became popular among the common people for whom it was especially intended. Eventually, however, he did develop his new style into a plain, forceful mode of expression that has greatly enriched the Danish language of today.

For seven years Grundtvig buried himself in "the giant's mount," emerging only occasionally for the pursuit of various studies in connection with his work or to voice his views on certain issues that particularly interested him. He discovered a number of errors in the Icelandic version of Beowulf and made a new Danish translation of that important work; he engaged in a bitter literary battle with Paul Mueller, a leader among the younger academicians, in defence of the celebrated lyric poet, Jens Baggesen, who had aroused the wrath of the students by criticising their revered dramatist, Oehlenschlaeger; and he fought a furious contest with the greatly admired song and comedy writer, John L. Heiberg, in defence of his good friend, Bernhard Severin Ingemann, whose excellent but overly sentimental lyrics had invited the barbed wit of the humorist. But although Grundtvig's contributions to these disputes were both able and pointed, their main effect was to widen the breach between him and the already antagonistic intellectuals.

In 1817 Grundtvig published the second part of World Chronicles, and a few issues of a short-lived periodical entitled "Dannevirke" which among other excellent contributions presented his splendid poem, "The Easter Lily," a poetic dramatization of our Lord's resurrection, about which the poet, Baggesen, said that "it outweighed all Oehlenschlaeger's tragedies and that he himself had moments when he would rather have been the author of this incomparably beautiful poem than of everything he himself had written."

Grundtvig began his translation of the sagas on a wave of high enthusiasm. But as the years multiplied, the interest of his supporters waned and he himself wearied of the task. He began, besides, to doubt his ability to resurrect the heroic dead in such a manner that they could revive the dropping spirit of the living.

In a welcome to Ingemann, on his return from a tour abroad, he expresses the hope that the poet will now devote his gifts to a reincarnation of his country's old heroes. He himself has tried to do this. "He has made armor, shields and swords for them of saga's steel, and borrowed horses for them from the ancient bards, but he has no cloth fit for the coats of such elegant knights nor feathers beautiful enough to adorn their helmets. He can sound a challenge but has no voice for singing; he can ring a bell but can not play the lute." In other words, he can depict the thoughts and ideals of the old heroes but lacks the poetical ability to recreate them as living personalities—a remarkably true estimate of his own limitations.

The discovery that his translation of the sagas was not accomplishing its intended purpose, and a growing apprehension that the written word was, perhaps, impotent to revive the spiritual life of his people, engendered in him an increasing wish to leave "the mount of the dead" and re-enter the world of the living. His economic circumstances also necessitated a change. In 1818 he had married Elizabeth Blicher, the daughter of a brother pastor, and he found it well nigh impossible to support his wife and growing family on the meager returns from his writings and a small pension which the government allowed him for his work with the sagas.

Spurred by these reasons, he applied for almost every vacancy in the church, even the smallest, and, in 1821, succeeded in obtaining an appointment to the pastorate at Prastoe, a small city on the south-eastern shores of Sjaelland.

Grundtvig was well satisfied with his new charge. He was kindly received by his congregation; the city was quite close to his beloved Udby, and his mother still lived there. "In the loveliest surroundings my eyes have ever seen and among a friendly people," he writes, "my strength soon revived so that I could continue my literary work and even complete my wearisome translation of the sagas."

An incident is related from his work at Prastoe which throws a somewhat revealing light upon his ability as a pastor. At his only confirmation service there, the confirmants, we are told, wept so that he had to pause several times in his address to them in order to let them regain their composure. Since he was always quite objective in his preaching and heartily disbelieved in the usual revival methods, the incident illustrates his rare ability to profoundly stir even the less mature of his hearers by his objective presentation of the Gospel. Even his bitterest enemies could not deny the evident effectiveness of his ministry in every charge he served.

His work at Prastoe was, however, of brief duration. In 1822, less than two years after his installation, he received and accepted a call as assistant pastor at Our Savior's Church in Copenhagen, thus attaining his long deferred wish for a pulpit in the capital.

—————

[9]The printed text is corrupt here. Saga: A New Year's Gift for 1812 is one work. Possibly the third work referenced is World Chronicles, the first part of which was published in 1812.



Chapter Thirteen The Living Word

Grundtvig began his ministry in the capital with high hopes, but he was soon disappointed. His services as usual attracted large audiences, audiences that frequently overflowed the spacious sanctuary. But these came from all parts of the city, an ever changing throng from which it was quite impossible to create a real congregation. The parish itself was so large that the mere routine duties of his office consumed much of his time. There were mass weddings, mass baptisms, mass funerals for people of whom he knew little and could have no assurance that he was not "giving the holy unto dogs or casting pearls before swine." With the prevailing decay of church-life most pastors accepted these conditions with equanimity, but to Grundtvig they constituted an increasingly heavy burden.

He was still lonely. Awakened Christians were few, and his fellow pastors were nearly all Rationalists who looked upon him as a dangerous fanatic whom it was best to avoid. Grundtvig's opinion about them, though different, was scarcely higher. It provoked him to observe pastors openly repudiating doctrines and ordinances which they had sworn to defend. To his mind such a course was both dishonorable to themselves and unjust toward their congregations which, whether or not they approved of these unlawful acts, had to be served by their parish pastors. The majority, it is true, accepted the new doctrines with indifference. Rationalism then as now promoted apathy rather than heresy. But Grundtvig observed its blighting effect everywhere, even upon himself.

Signs of a new awakening, nevertheless, were appearing here and there, especially in certain rural communities. Influenced by the Haugean movement in Norway and Grundtvig's own earlier work, scattering groups of Evangelicals and Pietists began to evince new life and activity. Peasants in a number of parishes in Jutland refused to accept the Evangelical Christian hymnal and a new rationalistic colored catechism, choosing to go to jail rather than to compromise their faith; and groups of Evangelical laymen on the island of Fyn began to hold private assemblies at which they nourished themselves by reading Luther's sermons and singing Kingo's and Brorson's hymns. Most if not all of these groups admired Grundtvig for his bold defiance of Biblical Christianity and looked hopefully to him for encouragement. If, as his enemies charged, he had wished to make himself the head of a party, he could easily have done so by assuming the leadership of the private assemblies.

But Grundtvig never compromised his views for the sake of attracting a following, and he did not approve of private assemblies. Such groups, he wrote, had frequently disrupted the church, bred contempt for Scripture, and fostered a perverted form of piety. Even as a release from the present deplorable situation, they might easily produce more harm than good.

Although Grundtvig could not approve of the assemblies he, nevertheless, sympathized deeply with the distressed laity. A layman was then bound to his parish, and Grundtvig clearly understood the difficulty of laymen who had to accept the ministry, have their children baptized, instructed and confirmed by pastors denying fundamental doctrines of their faith. With his usual frankness he therefore threw caution to the winds and reminded the pastors that it was their own failure to preach and defend the Lutheran faith that was forcing Evangelical laymen to seek in the assemblies what was arbitrarily withheld from them in the church. "Whether it be good or bad, recommendable or deplorable," Grundtvig wrote, "it is, at any rate, a fact that the spirit of the church service has changed so greatly during the last half century that it is almost impossible for an Evangelical Christian to derive any benefit from it, and it is this situation that has forced earnest laymen to invent such a substitute for the church as the private assemblies evidently are."

For a number of years Grundtvig thought and wrote almost ceaselessly about this problem. With conditions so perverted that the lawbreakers were imprisoning the victims of their own lawlessness, something ought evidently to be done about it. But what could he do?

He tried to attack Rationalism from new angles. In a carefully written article in "The Theological Monthly," a magazine that he published in collaboration with the learned but crusty Dr. G. A. Rudelbach, he argued that any inquiry concerning the nature of Christianity should distinguish between the questions: What is true Christianity? and Is Christianity True? The first was a historical question, and could be answered only by an examination of the original teachings of Christianity; the second was a question of conscience and depended on the attitude of the individual. He was he asserted, perfectly willing to recognize the right of the Rationalists to believe what ever they choose, but as a historian he had to protest against the propagation of any belief under the name of Christianity that clearly denied what Christianity originally affirmed.

His writing, however, produced no evident result. The rationalists either maintained a contemptuous silence or answered him by their favorite cry of ignorance and fanaticism. The true teachings of Christianity, they asserted, could be ascertained only by the trained theologian, able to read the Bible in the original and trained to interpret it in the light of current knowledge. Such men knew, it was claimed, that many of the doctrines formerly held by the church, such as the divinity of Christ, the atonement and the triunity of God, were not found in the Scriptures at all or were based on misread or misinterpreted texts.

Although these contentions were almost as old as Christianity itself, Grundtvig still found that a clear refutation of them was practically impossible. He could not disprove them by Scripture, for the Rationalists would claim their interpretation of the Bible to be as trustworthy as his own; nor could he appeal to the confessions, for his opponents openly repudiated these as antiquated conceptions of a less enlightened age. His only hope of giving any real guidance to the confused and distressed laity of his church thus appeared to depend on the possibility of discovering an expression of Christianity so authoritative that the most learned perverter of the faith could not repudiate it and so plain that the humblest believer could understand it. In his anxiety it even seemed to him that the Lord had failed adequately to provide for His little ones if He had not supplied them with such a shield against the storm of confusing doctrines.

"Being greatly distressed with the thought that all humble Christians must either fall into doubt concerning their only Savior and His Gospel or build their faith on the contradictory teachings of learned theologians," he wrote, "I perceived clearly the pressing need of the church for a simpler, more dependable and authoritative statement of that word of God which shall never pass away than all the book-worms of the world could ever produce. But while my anxiety for the distressed laity of my church grew and I sought night and day for a clear testimony of Jesus that would enable them to try the spirits whether they be of God, a good angel whispered to me: 'Why seekest thou the living among the dead?' Then the scales fell from my eyes, and I saw clearly that the word of God which I so anxiously sought could be no other than that which at all times, in all churches and by all Christians has been accepted as a true expression of their faith and the covenant of their baptism, the Apostolic Creed."

In his search for an effective means of arming the laity against the confusing claims of the Rationalists, Grundtvig thus came to place the Creed above the Bible, or rather to assert that the two should stand side by side, and that all explanations of the latter should agree with the plain articles of the former so that every Christian personally could weigh the truth or error of what was taught by comparing it with his baptismal covenant.

Grundtvig supported his "great discovery" with passages from the Bible and the church fathers, especially Irenaeus. He advanced the theory that Jesus had taught the Creed to His disciples during the forty days after His resurrection in which He remained with them, "speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God"; that the Creed through the early centuries had been regarded as too sacred to commit to writing and, therefore had been transmitted orally; and that it constituted, together with the words of institution of the sacraments and the Lord's prayer, in a special sense "the living word of God" by which He builds and vivifies His church. It should be stated, however, that Grundtvig's intention by distinguishing between what he called "the living" and "the written word," was not to belittle the Bible but only to define its proper place, the place of enlightening and guiding those, who through God's living covenant with them in their baptism already have become Christians. A Christian, he believed, is reborn in his baptism, nourished in the Communion and enlightened by the Word.

A critical examination of Grundtvig's theory, about which thousands of pages have been written, lies beyond the scope of this work. Grundtvig himself felt that his "discovery" had given him a solid foundation for his stand against the Rationalists. And his theory unquestionably did enable him, in the midst of an almost hopeless religious confusion, to reassert the essentials of Evangelical Christianity, to refute the contentions of the Rationalists by weighing them on an acknowledged historical basis of faith, and to reemphasize that the Christian church is not a creation of theological speculations but of God's own work in His word and sacraments.

Grundtvig for some time previous to his discovery had felt exceedingly depressed. His long struggle for the reawakening of his people to a richer Christian and national life appeared fruitless. Most of the intellectual and spiritual leaders of his time looked upon the very idea of sharing the richer cultural and spiritual values of life with the common man as a visionary conception of an unstable and erratic mind. One ought naturally, they admitted, to be interested in improving the social and economic conditions of the lower classes, but the higher treasures of mind and spirit belonged in the very nature of things to the cultured few and could not be shared with the common herd.

In spite of these discouragements, Grundtvig somehow experienced a wonderful rebirth of his hope in the spring of 1824, an experience to which he gave eloquent expression in his great poem, "New Year's Morning." He writes in the preface that he has "long enough battled with a witch called indifference, and has discovered that the battle wherein one is most likely to be defeated is the battle against nothing." He therefore urges his friends to ignore the witch and join him in a determined crusade for a reawakening of the Northern spirit to the accomplishment of Christian deed.

Grundtvig's hope for a season of quiet and peaceful cooperation with his friends was, however, soon shattered. In the summer of 1825, a young professor of theology, H. N. Clausen, published a book entitled: The Constitution, Doctrine and Rituals of Catholicism and Protestantism. As Prof. Clausen enjoyed a great popularity among his students and, as a teacher of theology, might influence the course of the Danish church for many years, Grundtvig was very much interested in what he had to say. He obtained the book and read it quickly but thoughtfully, underscoring the points with which he disagreed. And these were numerous. At the very beginning of the book, he found the author asserting that "the Protestant theologian, since he need recognize no restriction of his interpretations by creeds, traditions, or ecclesiastical authorities, is as once infinitely more free and important than his Catholic colleague. For as the Protestant church unlike the Catholic possesses no conclusive and authoritative system of belief either in her creeds or in Scripture, it devolves upon her trained theologians to set forth what the true teachings of Christianity really are. "Why, O why!" the professor exclaims, "should eternal Wisdom have willed revelation to appear in a form so imperfect? What other purpose, I ask you, can an all-wise Providence have had with such a plan than to compel the children of man to recognize that it is only through the exercise of their own, human intelligence that the revelation of God can be comprehended!"

As Grundtvig mused upon these assertions so expressive of all that he had denied and fought against, he felt at once that they constituted a challenge which he could not leave unanswered. He had shortly before written to a friend: "Since the perverters of Christianity have become so self-confident that they will not answer any charge against them except when it is addressed to themselves personally and by name, one may eventually have to employ that form of attack." And that was the form he chose to use in his now famous book. The Reply of the Church to Prof. H. N. Clausen.

"By the publication of this book," he writes, "Prof. Clausen has put himself forward as a leader among the enemies of the church and the perverters of God's word in this country. A church, such as he advocates, that has no determinable form, exists only in the brains of the theologians, and must be construed from theological speculations on the basis of a discredited Bible and according to the changing thoughts and opinions of man, is plainly nothing but a fantastic dream, a comic if it were not so tragic conception of a Christian congregation which claims to confess the same faith, but knows not what it is, and holds that it is instituted by God, but cannot tell for what purpose before the theologians have found it out.

"Against such a church, I place the historical church, that is the church of the Gospel, instituted by Christ Himself, created by His word and vivified by His Spirit. For I contend that the Christian church now as always consists of that body of believers who truly accept the faith of their baptismal covenant, Holy Baptism and the Lord's Supper as the faith and means of salvation."

The Reply of the Church caused a sensation. It was read and discussed everywhere. But if Grundtvig had hoped to force a general discussion of the plight of the church, he was disappointed. Prof. Clausen answered him with a lawsuit "for malicious injury to his professional honor"; his enemies all condemned him, and his friends were silent. If they approved of the substance of his charges, they disapproved of their form. Grundtvig appeared to have thrown away the last remnant of his already tattered reputation, and only the years would reveal that in doing so he had struck a deadlier blow against Rationalism than he had expected, that he had, in fact, for years to come made Rationalism impossible in Denmark as a form of Christianity.

Meanwhile the Danish church was preparing to celebrate its thousandth anniversary in May, 1826. Grundtvig looked forward to the event with almost child-like anticipation, hoping that the celebration might serve to awaken a new appreciation of the old church. To heighten the festivities the authorities had authorized pastors to select the hymns for the services in their own churches, and Grundtvig had written and published a pamphlet of hymns to be used in his church. But shortly before the festival, his bishop informed him that only hymns from the authorized hymnal could be chosen. As no one else had composed hymns for the occasion, Grundtvig could not doubt that this new ruling was aimed solely at him, and this new evidence at the length to which his enemies would go for the sake of humiliating him appeared to him like the last straw. He had long suffered under the difficulty of serving a church which honored the law-breaker and persecuted the law-abiding and thought of resigning. But he had a family to support. And while he himself would gladly bear the poverty his resignation would inevitably bring him, he doubted his right to impose such a burden upon his family. The difficulty was finally solved for him by his wife, who one day came into his study and said: "Father, I know what is troubling you. You wish to resign and hesitate to do so for our sake. But I want you to do whatever you think is right. The Lord will provide for us."

And so it was settled. His resignation was handed to the authorities a few days before the festival, and it was accepted so quickly that he was released from office before the following Sunday. When the festive Sunday came which he had looked forward to with so much pleasure, he sat idly in his study across from the church and watched people come for the service, but another pastor preached the sermon, he had earnestly wished to deliver, and other hymns than his own beloved songs served as vehicles for the people's praise.

Public sentiment regarding Grundtvig's resignation varied. His friends deplored the action, holding that he should have remained in his pastorate both for the sake of his congregation and the cause which he had so ably championed. But his opponents rejoiced, seeing in his resignation just another proof of an erratic mentality. For who had ever heard of a normal person withdrawing from a secure and respectable position without even asking for the pension to which he was entitled?

The six years during which Grundtvig remained without a pulpit were among the busiest and most fruitful of his life. He published his Sunday-Book, a collection of sermons which many still rate among the finest devotional books in Danish; made extended visits to England in 1829-1831, for the purpose of studying the old Anglo Saxon manuscripts kept there, an undertaking that awakened the interest of the English themselves in these great treasures; wrote his splendid Northern Mythology or Picture Language, and The World's History after the Best Sources, works in which he presents the fundamental aspects of his historical, folk and educational views that have made his name known not only in Scandinavia but in almost every country in the world.

Meanwhile he again had entered the pulpit. As a compensation for the loss of his ministry, a group of his friends shortly after his resignation began to hold private assemblies. When Grundtvig still firmly refused to take part in these, they decided to organize an independent congregation, petition the government for permission to use an abandoned German Lutheran church and call Grundtvig as their pastor. The petition was promptly refused, though Grundtvig himself pleaded with the authorities to permit the organization of an independent congregation as the best means of relieving the dissatisfied members of the church and declared that he would himself join the assemblies unless some such measure of relief was granted. When the authorities ignored his plea, Grundtvig made good his threat and appeared at the assemblies, drawing such a crowd that no private home could possibly hold it, whereupon it was decided to secure a public hall for future meetings. But when the authorities heard this, they suddenly experienced a change of heart and offered the troublesome preacher and his friends the use of Frederik's church for a vesper service each Sunday.

The eight years Grundtvig served as an independent preacher at the Frederik's church were among the happiest in his life. He rejoiced to know that the large, diversified audience crowding the sanctuary each Sunday came wholly of its own free will. It also pleased the now gray-haired pastor to see an increasing number of students become constant attendants at his services. Even so, his position had its drawbacks. He was permitted neither to administer the sacraments nor to instruct the young people, and the authorities even denied him the right to confirm his own sons. Grundtvig felt especially this refusal so keenly that he again was thinking of resigning his pulpit when the king offered him an appointment as pastor of Vartov, a large institution for the aged.

Thus from 1839 until Grundtvig's death the chapel at Vartov became his home and that of his friends and the center of the fast growing Grundtvigian movement. People from all walks of life, from the Queen to the common laborer, became regular attendants at the unpretentious sanctuary, and the eyes of some old people still shine when they recall the moving spirit of the services there, the venerable appearance and warm monotone voice of the pastor, and, especially, the hearty, soul-stirring singing. Many of Grundtvig's own great hymns were introduced at Vartov. From there they spread throughout the church. And it was to a large extent the hearty, inspiring congregational singing at Vartov which made the Danish church a singing church.



Chapter Fourteen The Hymnwriter

Splendid are the heavens high, Beautiful the radiant sky, Where the golden stars are shining, And their rays, to earth inclining, -: Beckon us to heaven above :-

It was on a Christmas night, Darkness veiled the starry height; But at once the heavens hoary Beamed with radiant light and glory, -: Coming from a wondrous star :-

When this star so bright and clear Should illume the midnight drear, Then, according to tradition, Should a king of matchless vision -: Unto earth from heaven descend :-

Sages from the East afar When they saw this wondrous star, Went to worship and adore Him And to lay their gifts before Him -: Who was born that midnight hour :-

Him they found in Bethlehem Without crown or diadem, They but saw a maiden lowly With an infant pure and holy -: Resting in her loving arms :-

Guided by the star they found Him whose praise the ages sound. We have still a star to guide us Whose unsullied rays provide us -: With the light to find our Lord :-

And this star so fair and bright Which will ever lead aright, Is God's word, divine and holy, Guiding all His children lowly -: Unto Christ, our Lord and King :-

This lovely, childlike hymn, the first to appear from Grundtvig's pen, was written in the fall of 1810 when its author was still battling with despair and his mind faltering on the brink of insanity. Against this background the hymn appears like a ray of sunlight breaking through a clouded sky. And as such it must undoubtedly have come to its author. As an indication of Grundtvig's simple trust in God, it is noteworthy that another of his most childlike hymns, "God's Child, Do Now Rest Thee," was likewise composed during a similar period of distress that beset him many years later.

For a number of years Grundtvig's hymn of the Wise Men represented his sole contribution to hymnody. Other interests engaged his attention and absorbed his energy. During his years of intense work with the sagas he only occasionally broke his "engagement" with the dead to strike the lyre for the living. In 1815 he translated "In Death's Strong Bonds Our Savior Lay" from Luther, and "Christ Is Risen from the Dead" from the Latin. The three hundredth anniversary of the Reformation brought his adaptation of Kingo's "Like the Golden Sun Ascending" and translations of Luther's "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" and "The Bells Ring in the Christmastide." In 1820 he published his now popular "A Babe Is Born at Bethlehem" from an old Latin-Danish text, and 1824 saw his splendid rendering of "The Old Day Song," "With Gladness We Hail the Blessed Day," and his original "On Its Rock the Church of Jesus Stood Mongst Us a Thousand Years."

These songs constitute his whole contribution to hymnody from 1810 to 1825. But the latter year brought a signal increase. In the midst of his fierce battle with the Rationalists he published the first of his really great hymns, a song of comfort to the daughters of Zion, sitting disconsolately at the sickbed of their mother, the church. Her present state may appear so hopeless that her children fear to remember her former glory:

Dares the anxious heart envision Still its morning dream, View, despite the world's derision, Zion's sunlit height and stream? Wields still anyone the power To repeat her anthems strong, And with joyful heart embower, Zion with triumphant song.

Her condition is not hopeless, however, if her children will gather about her.

Zion's sons and daughters rally Now upon her ancient wall! Have her foemen gained the valley, Yet her ramparts did not fall. Were her outer walls forsaken Still her cornerstone remains, Firm, unconquered and unshaken, Making futile all their gains.

Another of his great hymns dates from the same year. Grundtvig was in the habit of remaining up all night when he had to speak on the following day. The Christmas of 1825 was particularly trying to him. He had apparently forfeited his last vestige of honor by publishing his Reply of the Church; the suit started against him by Professor Clausen still dragged its laborious way through the court; and his anxiety over the present state of the church was greatly increased by the weight of his personal troubles. He felt very much like the shepherds watching their flocks at night, except that no angels appeared to help him with the message his people would expect him to deliver in the morning. Perhaps he was unworthy of such a favor. He rose, as was his custom, and made a round into the bedrooms to watch his children. How innocently they slept! If the angels could not come to him, they ought at least to visit the children. If they heard the message, their elders might perchance catch it through them.

Some such thought must have passed through the mind of the lonely pastor as he sat musing upon his sermon throughout the night, for he appeared unusually cheerful as he ascended his pulpit Christmas morning, preached a joyful sermon, and said, at its conclusion, that he had that night begotten a song which he wished to read to them. That song has since become one of the most beloved Christmas songs in the Danish language. To give an adequate reproduction of its simple, childlike spirit in another language is perhaps impossible, but it is hoped that the translation given below will convey at least an impression of its cheerful welcome to the Christmas angels.

Be welcome again, God's angels bright From mansions of light and glory To publish anew this wintry night The wonderful Christmas story. Ye herald to all that yearn for light New year after winter hoary.

With gladness we hear your sweet refrain In praise of God's glory solely; Ye will not this wintry night disdain To enter our dwellings lowly. And bring to each yearning heart again The joy that is pure and holy.

In humble homes as in mansions rare With light in the windows glowing, We harbor the babes as sweet and fair As flowers in meadows growing. Oh, deign with these little ones to share The joy from your message flowing.

Reveal the child in the manger still With angels around Him singing The song of God's glory, peace, good-will That joy to all hearts is bringing, While far over mountain, field and hill, The bells are with gladness ringing.

God's angels with joy to earth descend When hymns to His praise are chanted; His comfort and peace our Lord will lend To all who for peace have panted; The portals of heaven open stand; The Kingdom to us is granted.

In 1826 Grundtvig, as already related, published his hymns for the thousand years' festival of his church. But a few months later he again buried himself in his study, putting aside the lyre, which for a little while he had played so beautifully. Many had already noticed his hymns, however, and continued to plead with him for more. The new Evangelical revival, which he had largely inspired, intensified the general dissatisfaction with the rationalistic Evangelical Christian Hymnal, and called for hymns embodying the spirit of the new movement. And who could better furnish these than Grundtvig? Of those who pleaded with him for new hymns, none was more persistent than his friend, Pastor Gunni Busck. When Grundtvig wrote to him in 1832 that his Northern Mythology was nearing completion, Busck at once answered: "Do not forget your more important work; do not forget our old hymns! I know no one else with your ability to brush the dust off our old songs." But Grundtvig was still too busy with other things to comply with the wish of his most faithful and helpful friend.

During the ensuing years, however, a few hymns occasionally appeared from his pen. A theological student, L. C. Hagen, secured a few adapted and original hymns from him for a small collection of Historical Hymns and Rhymes for Children, which was published in 1832. But the adaptations were not successful. Despite the good opinion of Gunni Busck, Grundtvig was too independent a spirit to adjust himself to the style and mode of others. His originals were much more successful. Among these we find such gems as "Mongst His Brothers Called the Little," "Move the Signs of Grief and Mourning from the Garden of the Dead," and "O Land of Our King," hymns that rank with the finest he has written.

In 1835 Grundtvig at last wrote to Gunni Busck that he was now ready to commence the long deferred attempt to renew the hymnody of his church. Busck received the information joyfully and at once sent him a thousand dollars to support him during his work. Others contributed their mite, making Grundtvig richer financially than he had been for many years. He rented a small home on the shores of the Sound and began to prepare himself for the work before him by an extensive study of Christian hymnody, both ancient and modern.

"The old hymns sound beautiful to me out here under the sunny sky and with the blue water of the Sound before me," he wrote to Busck. He did not spend his days day-dreaming, however, but worked with such intensity that only a year later he was able to invite subscriptions on the first part of his work. The complete collection was published in 1837 under the title: Songs of the Danish Church. It contains in all 401 hymns and songs composed of originals, translations and adaptations from Greek, Latin, German, Icelandic, Anglo-Saxon, English and Scandinavian sources. The material is of very unequal merit, ranging from the superior to the commonplace. As originally composed, the collection could not be used as a hymnal. But many of the finest hymns now used in the Danish church have been selected or adapted from it.

Although Songs for the Danish Church is now counted among the great books in Danish, its appearance attracted little attention outside the circle of Grundtvig's friends. It was not even reviewed in the press. The literati, both inside and outside the church, still publicly ignored Grundtvig. But privately a few of them expressed their opinion about the work. Thus a Pastor P. Hjort wrote to Bishop Mynster, "Have you read Grundtvig's Songs of the Danish Church? It is a typical Grundtvigian book, wordy, ingenious, mystical, poetical and full of half digested ideas. His language is rich and wonderfully expressive. But he is not humble enough to write hymns."

Meanwhile the demand for a new hymnal or at least for a supplement to the old had become so insistent that something had to be done. J. P. Mynster who, shortly before, had been appointed Bishop of Sjaelland, favored a supplement and obtained an authorization from the king for the appointment of a committee to prepare it. The only logical man to head such a committee was, of course, Grundtvig. But Mynster's dislike of his volcanic relative was so deep-rooted that he was incapable of giving any recognition to him. And so in order to avoid a too obvious slight to his country's best known hymnwriter, he assigned the work to an already existing committee on liturgy, of which he himself was president. Thus Grundtvig was forced to sit idly by while the work naturally belonging to him was being executed by a man with no special ability for the task. The supplement appeared in 1843. It contained thirty-six hymns of which six were written by Kingo, seven by Brorson, and one by Grundtvig, the latter being, as Grundtvig humorously remarked, set to the tune of the hymn, "Lord, I Have Done Wrong."

Mynster's influence was great enough to secure the supplement a wide circulation. The collection, nevertheless, failed to satisfy the need of the church. Dissatisfaction with it was so general that the pastors' conference of Copenhagen appointed a committee consisting of Grundtvig, Prof. Martensen, Mynster's own son-in-law, Rev. Pauli, his successor as Provost of the Church of Our Lady, and two other pastors to prepare and present a proposal for a new hymnal. It was an able committee from which a meritorious work might reasonably be expected.

Grundtvig was assigned to the important work of selecting and revising the old hymns to be included in the collection. He was an inspiring but at times difficult co-worker. Martensen recalls how Grundtvig at times aroused the committee to enthusiasm by an impromptu talk on hymnody or a recitation of one of the old hymns, which he loved so well. But he also recalls how he sometimes flared up and stormed out of the committee room in anger over some proposed change or correction of his work. When his anger subsided, however, he always conscientiously attempted to effect whatever changes the committee agreed on proposing. Yet excellent as much of his own work was, he possessed no particular gift for mending the work of others, and his corrections of one defect often resulted in another.

The committee submitted its work to the judgment of the conference in January 1845. The proposal included 109 hymns of which nineteen were by Kingo, seven by Brorson, ten by Ingemann, twenty-five by Grundtvig and the remainder by various other writers, old and new. It appeared to be a well balanced collection, giving due recognition to such newer writers as Boye, Ingemann, Grundtvig and others. But the conference voted to reject it. Admitting its poetical excellence and its sound Evangelical tenor, some of the pastors complained that it contained too many new and too few old hymns; others held that it bore too clearly the imprint of one man, a complaint which no doubt expressed the sentiment of Mynster and his friends. A petition to allow such churches as should by a majority vote indicate their wish to use the collection was likewise rejected by the Bishop.

Grundtvig was naturally disappointed by the rejection of a work upon which he had spent so much time and energy. The rejection furthermore showed him that he still could expect no consideration from the authorities with Mynster in control. He was soon able, however, to comfort himself with the fact that his hymns were becoming popular in private assemblies throughout the country, and that even a number of churches were beginning to use them at their regular services in defiance of official edicts. The demand for granting more liberty to the laymen in their church life, a demand Grundtvig long had advocated, was in fact becoming so strong that the authorities at times found it advisable to overlook minor infractions of official rulings. Noting this new policy, Grundtvig himself ventured to introduce some of the new hymns into his church. In the fall of 1845, he published a small collection of Christmas hymns to be used at the impending Christmas festival. When the innovation passed without objections, a similar collection of Easter hymns was introduced at the Easter services, after which other collections for the various seasons of the church year appeared quite regularly until all special prints were collected into one volume and used as "the hymnal of Vartov."

The work of preparing a new authorized hymnal was finally given to Grundtvig's closest friend, Ingemann. This hymnal appeared in 1855, under the title, Roskilde Convent's Psalmbook. This book served as the authorized hymnal of the Danish church until 1899, when it was replaced by Hymnal for Church and Home, the hymnal now used in nearly all Danish churches both at home and abroad. It contains in all 675 hymns of which 96 are by Kingo, 107 by Brorson, 29 by Ingemann and 173 by Grundtvig, showing that the latter at last had been recognized as the foremost hymnwriter of the Danish church.



Chapter Fifteen Grundtvig's Hymns

Grundtvig wrote most of his hymns when he was past middle age, a man of extensive learning, proved poetical ability and mature judgment, especially in spiritual things. Years of hard struggles and unjust neglect had sobered and mellowed but not aged or embittered him.

His long study of hymnology together with his exceptional poetical gift enabled him to adopt material from all ages and branches of Christian song, and to wield it into a homogenous hymnody for his own church. His treatment of the material is usually very free, so free that it is often difficult to discover any relationship between his translations and their supposed originals. Instead of endeavoring to transfer the metre, phrasing and sentiment of the original text, he frequently adopts only a single thought or a general idea from its content, and expresses this in his own language and form.

His original hymns likewise bear the imprint of his ripe knowledge and spiritual understanding. They are for the most part objective in content and sentiment, depicting the great themes of Biblical history, doctrine and life rather than the personal feeling and experiences of the individual. A large number of his hymns are, in fact, faithful but often striking adaptations of Bible stories and texts. For though he was frequently accused of belittling the Book of Books, his hymns to a larger extent than those of any other Danish hymnwriter are directly inspired by the language of the Bible. He possessed an exceptional ability to absorb the essential implications of a text and to present it with the terseness and force of an adage.

Although Grundtvig's hymns at times attain the height of pure poetry, their poetic merit is incidental rather than sought. In the pride of his youth he had striven, as he once complained, to win the laurel wreath, but had found it to be an empty honor. His style is more often forceful than lyrical. When the mood was upon him he could play the lyre with entrancing beauty and gentleness, but he preferred the organ with all stops out.

His style is often rough but expressive and rich in imagery. In this he strove to supplant time-honored similes and illustrations from Biblical lands with native allusions and scenes. Pictures drawn from the Danish landscape, lakes and streams, summer and winter, customs and life abound in his songs, giving them a home-like touch that has endeared them to millions.

His poetry is of very unequal merit. He was a prolific writer, producing, besides many volumes of poetry on various subjects, about three thousand hymns and songs. Among much that is excellent in this vast production there are also dreary stretches of rambling loquacity, hollow rhetoric and unintelligible jumbles of words and phrases. He could be insupportably dull and again express more in a single stanza, couplet or phrase than many have said in a whole book. A study of his poetry is, therefore, not unlike a journey through a vast country, alternating in fertile valleys, barren plains and lofty heights with entrancing views into far, dim vistas.

This inconsistency in the work of a man so eminently gifted as Grundtvig is explainable only by his method of writing. He was an intuitive writer and preferred to be called a "skjald" instead of a poet. The distinction is significant but somewhat difficult to define. As Grundtvig himself understood the term, the "skjald", besides being a poet, must also be a seer, a man able to envision and express what was still hidden to the common mortal. "The skjald is," he says, "the chosen lookout of life who must reveal from his mountain what he sees at life's deep fountain. When gripped by his vision," he says further, the skjald is "neither quiescent nor lifeless but, on the contrary, lifted up into an exceptional state of sensitiveness in which he sees and feels things with peculiar vividness and power. I know of nothing in this material world to which the skjald may more fittingly be likened than a tuned harp with the wind playing upon it."

A skjald in Grundtvig's conception was thus a man endowed with the gift of receiving direct impressions of life and things, of perceiving especially the deeper and more fundamental truths of existence intuitively instead of intellectually. Such perceptions, he admitted, might lack the apparent clarity of reasoned conclusions, but would approach nearer to the truth. For life must be understood from within, must be spiritually discerned. It could never be comprehended by mere intellect or catalogued by supposed science.

He knew, however, that his work was frequently criticized for its ambiguity and lack of consistency. But he claimed that these defects were unavoidable consequences of his way of writing. He had to write what he saw and could not be expected to express that clearly which he himself saw only dimly. "I naturally desire to please my readers," he wrote to Ingemann, "but when I write as my intuition dictates, it works well; ideas and images come to me without effort, and I fly lightly as the gazelle from crag to crag, whereas if I warn myself that there must be a limit to everything and that I must restrain myself and write sensibly, I am stopped right there. And I have thus to choose between writing as the spirit moves me, or not writing at all."

This statement, although it casts a revealing light both upon his genius and its evident limitations, is no doubt extreme. However much Grundtvig may have depended on his momentary inspiration for the poetical development of his ideas, his fundamental views on life were exceptionally clear and comprehensive. He knew what he believed regarding the essential verities of existence, of God and man, of good and evil, of life and death. And all other conceptions of his intuitive and far-reaching spirit were consistently correlated to these basic beliefs.

Bishop H. Martensen, the celebrated theologian, relates an illuminating conversation between Grundtvig and the German theologian, P. K. Marheincke, during a visit which the Bishop had arranged between the two men. Dr. Marheincke commenced a lengthy discourse on the great opposites in life, as for instance between thinking and being, and Grundtvig replied, "My opposites are life and death" (Mein Gegensatz ist Leben und Tod).

"The professor accepted my statement somewhat dubiously," Grundtvig said later, "and admitted that that was indeed a great contrast, but—" The difference between the two men no doubt lay in the fact that Prof. Marheincke, the speculative theologian, was principally interested in the first part of the assumed contrast—thinking, whereas Grundtvig's main concern was with the last—being, existence, life. In real life there could be no more fundamental, no farther reaching contrast than the continuous and irreconcilable difference between life and death. The thought of this contrast lies at the root of all his thinking and colors all his views. From the day of his conversion until the hour of his death, his one consuming interest was to illuminate the contrast between the two irreconcilable enemies and to encourage anything that would strengthen the one and defeat the other.

Grundtvig loved life in all its highest aspects and implications, and he hated death under whatever form he saw it. "Life is from heaven, death is from hell," he says in a characteristic poem. The one is representative of all the good the Creator intended for his creatures, the other of all the evil, frustration and destruction the great destroyer brought into the world. There can be no reconciliation or peace between the two, the one must inevitably destroy or be destroyed by the other. He could see nothing but deception in the attempts of certain philosophical or theological phrasemakers to minimize or explain away the eternal malignity of death, man's most relentless foe. A human being could fall no lower than to accept death as a friend. Thus in a poem:

Yea, hear it, ye heavens, with loathing and grief; The sons of the Highest now look for relief In the ways of damnation And find consolation In hopes of eternal death.

But death is not present only at the hour of our demise. It is present everywhere; it is active in all things. It destroys nations, corrupts society, robs the child of its innocence, wipes the bloom from the cheeks of youth, frustrates the possibilities of manhood and makes pitiful the white hair of the aged. For death, as all must see, is only the wage of sin, the ripe fruit of evil.

I recognize now clearly; Death is the wage of sin, It is the fruitage merely Of evil's growth within.

And its danger is so actual because it is active in every individual in himself as well as in others:

When I view the true condition Of my troubled, restless heart, Naught but sin can I envision Even to its inmost part.

Such then is his fundamental view of the condition of man, a being in the destructive grip of a relentless foe, a creature whose greatest need is "a hero who can break the bonds of death". And there is but one who can do that, the Son of God.

Grundtvig's hymns abound in terms of adoration for the Savior of Man. He names Him the "Joy of Heaven", "The Fortune of Earth", "The Fount of Light", "The Sovereign of Life", "The Fear of Darkness", "The Terror of Death", and speaks of the day when all the "nations of the earth shall offer praise in the offer bowl of His name." But he sees the Christ less as the suffering Lamb of God than as the invincible conqueror of death and the heroic deliverer of man.

Like his other hymns most of his hymns to the Savior are objective rather than subjective. They present the Christ of the Gospels, covering his life so fully that it would be possible to compile from them an almost complete sequence on His life, work and resurrection. The following stately hymn may serve as an appropriate introduction to a necessarily brief survey of the group:

Jesus, the name without compare; Honored on earth and in heaven, Wherein the Father's love and care Are to His children now given. Saviour of all that saved would be, Fount of salvation full and free Is the Lord Jesus forever.

Jesus, the name alone on earth For our salvation afforded. So on His cross of precious worth Is in His blood it recorded. Only in that our prayers are heard, Only in that when hearts are stirred Doth now the Spirit us comfort.

Jesus, the name above the sky Wherein, when seasons are ended, Peoples shall come to God on high, And every knee shall be bended, While all the saved in sweet accord Chorus the praise of Christ, the Lord, Savior beloved by the Father.

Grundtvig sang of Christmas morning "as his heaven on earth", and he wrote some of the finest Christmas hymns in the Danish language. A number of these have already been given. The following simple hymn from an old Latin-Danish text is still very popular.

A babe is born in Bethlehem, Bethlehem, Rejoice, rejoice Jerusalem; Hallelujah, hallelujah.

A lowly virgin gave Him birth, Gave Him birth, Who rules the heavens and the earth; Hallelujah, hallelujah.

He in a simple manger lay, Manger lay, Whom angels praise with joy for aye; Hallelujah, hallelujah.

And wise men from the East did bring, East did bring, Gold, myrrh and incense to the King; Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Now all our fears have passed away, Passed away, The Savior blest was born today; Hallelujah, hallelujah.

God's blessed children we became, We became, And shall in heaven praise His name; Hallelujah, hallelujah.

There like the angels we shall be, We shall be, And shall the Lord in glory see; Hallelujah, hallelujah.

With gladsome praises we adore, We adore, Our Lord and Savior evermore; Hallelujah, hallelujah.

His hymns on the life and work of our Lord are too numerous to be more than indicated here. The following hymn on the text, "Blessed are the eyes that see what ye see, and the ears that hear what ye hear", is typical of his expository hymns.

Blessed were the eyes that truly Here on earth beheld the Lord; Happy were the ears that duly Listened to His living word. Which proclaimed the wondrous story Of God's mercy, love and glory.

Kings and prophets long with yearning Prayed to see His day appear; Angels with desire were burning To behold the golden year When God's light and grace should quicken All that sin and death had stricken.

He who, light and life revealing, By His Spirit stills our want; He, who broken hearts is healing By His cup and at the font, Jesus, Fount of joy incessant, Is with light and grace now present.

Eyes by sin and darkness blinded May now see His glory bright; Hearts perverse and carnal minded May obtain His Spirit's light. When, contrite and sorely yearning, They in faith to Him are turning.

Blessed are the eyes that truly Now on earth behold the Lord; Happy are the ears that duly Listen to His living word! When His words our spirits nourish Shall the kingdom in us flourish.

Grundtvig reaches his greatest height in his hymns of praise to Christ, the Redeemer. Many of his passion hymns have not been translated into English. In the original, the following hymn undoubtedly ranks with the greatest songs of praise to the suffering Lord.

Hail Thee, Savior and Atoner! Though the world Thy name dishonor, Moved by love my heart proposes To adorn Thy cross with roses And to offer praise to Thee.

O what moved Thee so to love us, When enthroned with God above us, That for us Thou all wouldst offer And in deep compassion suffer Even death that we might live.

Love alone Thy heart was filling When to suffer Thou wert willing. Rather givest Thou than takest, Hence, O Savior, Thou forsakest All to die in sinner's place.

Ah, my heart in deep contrition Now perceives its true condition, Cold and barren like a mountain, How could I deserve the fountain Of Thy love, my Savior dear.

Yet I know that from thy passion Flows a river of salvation Which can bid the mountain vanish, Which can sin and coldness banish, And restore my heart in Thee.

Lord, with tears I pray Thee ever: Lead into my heart that river, Which with grace redeeming cleanses Heart and soul of all offences, Blotting out my guilt and shame.

Lord, Thy life for sinners giving, Let in Thee me find my living So for Thee my heart is beating, All my thoughts in Thee are meeting, Finding there their light and joy.

Though all earthly things I cherish Like the flowers may fade and perish, Thou, I know, wilt stand beside me; And from death and judgment hide me; Thou hast paid the wage of sin.

Yes, my heart believes the wonder Of Thy cross, which ages ponder! Shield me, Lord, when foes assail me, Be my staff when life shall fail me; Take me to Thy Paradise.

Grundtvig's Easter hymns strike the triumphant note, especially such hymns as "Christ Arose in Glory", "Easter Morrow Stills Our Sorrow", and the very popular,

Move the signs of gloom and mourning[10] From the garden of the dead. For the wreaths of grief and yearning, Plant bright lilies in their stead. Carve instead of sighs of grief Angels' wings in bold relief, And for columns, cold and broken, Words of hope by Jesus spoken.

His Easter hymns fail as a whole to reach the height of his songs for other church festivals. In this respect, they resemble the hymnody of the whole church, which contains remarkably few really great hymns on the greatest events in its history. It is as though the theme were too great to be expressed in the language of man.

Grundtvig wrote a number of magnificent hymns on the themes of our Lord's ascension and His return to judge the quick and the dead. Of the latter, the hymn given below is perhaps the most favored of those now available in English.

Lift up thy head, O Christendom! Behold above the blessed home For which thy heart is yearning. There dwells the Lord, thy soul's delight, Who soon with power and glory bright Is for His bride returning.

And when in every land and clime, All shall behold His signs sublime, The guilty world appalling, Then shalt with joy thou lift thine eyes And see Him coming in the skies, While suns and stars are falling.

While for His coming thou dost yearn, Forget not why His last return The Savior is delaying, And ask Him not before His hour To shake the heavens with His power, Nor judge the lost and straying.

O saints of God, for Sodom pray Until your prayers no more can stay The judgment day impending. Then cries the Lord: "Behold, I come!" And ye shall answer: "To Thy home We are with joy ascending!"

Then loud and clear the trumpet calls, The dead awake, death's kingdom falls, And God's elect assemble. The Lord ascends the judgment throne, And calls His ransomed for His own, While hearts in gladness tremble.

Grundtvig is often called the Singer of Pentecost. And his hymns on the nature and work of the Spirit do rank with his very best. He believed in the reality of the Spirit as the living, active agent of Christ in His church. As the church came into being by the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, so our Lord still builds and sanctifies it by the Spirit, working through His words and sacraments. His numerous hymns on the Spirit are drawn from many sources, both ancient and modern. His treatment of the originals is so free, however, that it is difficult in most cases to know whether his versions should be accepted as adaptations or originals. Of mere translations there are none. The following version of the widely known hymn, "Veni Sancte Spiritus," may serve to illustrate his work as a transplanter of hymns.

Holy Spirit, come with light, Break the dark and gloomy night With Thy day unending. Help us with a joyful lay Greet the Lord's triumphant day Now with might ascending.

Comforter so wondrous kind, Noble guest of heart and mind Fix in us Thy dwelling. Give us peace in storm and strife, Fill each troubled heart and life With Thy joy excelling.

Make salvation clear to us, Who despite our sin and dross Would exalt the Spirit. For without Thine aid and love All our life and work must prove Vain 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 death Blossom bright and vernal; And above the silent tomb Let 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 grow And summer sparkles high and low; Sweet songsters sing of harvest gold In Jesus' name a thousand fold.

The peaceful nightingales are filling The quiet night with music thrilling. Thus all that to the Lord belong May 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 coast From Paradise, no longer closed, And gently purls a brooklet sweet Of 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 revealed In Him, who came from yonder land And has returned to God's right hand.

Awaken then all tongues to honor Lord Jesus Christ, our blest Atoner; Let every voice in anthems rise To praise the Savior's sacrifice. And thou, His Church, with one accord Arise 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 Pleader With the Lord for all we need, Deign to hold with us communion That with Thee in blessed union We may in our life succeed.

Heavenly Counsellor and Teacher, Make us through Thy guidance richer In 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, harken To 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 lightens Every cross that scars and frightens, Succor us from guilt and shame. Warm our heart, inspire our vision, Add Thy voice to our petition As 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 kingdom With His Spirit and His word, With His grace and love abundant At 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 Spirit Wherein He fosters a people restored by His merit. It shall remain People 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 exceeding For with His word God 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 Thee Till 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 is The kingdom Jesus founded. Its glory, treasure, peace and bliss No tongue has fully sounded.

Invisible as mind and soul, And yet of light the fountain, It sheds its light from pole to pole Like beacons from a mountain.

Its secret is the word of God, Which works what it proposes, Which lowers mountains high and broad And clothes the wastes with roses.

Though foes against the kingdom rage With hatred and derision, God spreads its reign from age to age, And brings it to fruition.

Its glory rises like a morn When waves at sunrise glitter, Or as in June the golden corn While birds above it twitter.

It is the glory of the King Who bore affliction solely That he the crown of life might bring To sinners poor and lowly.

And when His advent comes to pass, The Christian's strife is ended, What now we see as in a glass Shall then be comprehended.

Then shall the kingdom bright appear In glory true and vernal, And usher in the golden year Of 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 God Stands 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 in Temples 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 man Making their body His temple.

We are God's house of living stones, Built for the Spirit's indwelling. He at His font and table owns Us 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 earth Unto the praise of the Father, Are like the homes of hallowed worth Whence 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 which God as His children received us; There stands the altar where His rich Mercy 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 attain In Jesus, God's living word When His word we embrace And 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 pure Throughout 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 carry May 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 altar Them 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 go From the truest friend we know, From the Son of God above, From the Fount of saving love, Who in all this world of strife Hath 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 death Brings 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 foes And 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 you And 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 harp In 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 languish And, in my anguish, Wait for release That I may enter Thy temple, O Lord, With Thee communing in deepest accord.

With Thy compassion, Lord of Salvation, Naught can compare. Even the sparrow Safe from the arrow Rests 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 offenders Earth may afford, Never can measure One day of pleasure Found with Thee, Lord, When on the wings of Thy quickening word Souls are uplifted and Thou art adored.

Quicken in spirit, Grow in Thy merit Shall now Thy friends. Blessings in showers Filled with Thy powers On them descends Until at home in the city of gold All 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 anguish Must 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 sadness Shall all that rest in the arms of the Lord. Grace beyond measure, Comfort and treasure Gathers the heart from His merciful word.

Bravely to suffer, Gladly to offer Praises to God 'neath the weight of our cross, This will the Spirit Help us to merit Granting 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 contrition How unfit was her condition To approach the Holy One.

Like this woman, I contritely Often must approach the Lord, Knowing that I cannot rightly Ask 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, harken To my plea for grace and light. Threatening clouds and tempests darken Now my soul with gloomy night. Let, despite my guilt and error, My repenting tears still mirror Thy forgiving smile, O Lord.

The following hymn likewise voices the need for personal perseverance.

Hast to the plow thou put thy hand Let 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 prevail On thee thy course to alter. Each moment lost in faint retreat May 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 strife Obtain the victor's crown of life And shall in constant gladness Forget 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 tried God 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 sew Yet no king could such beauty show. The Lord be praised!

Flowers that bloom at break of dawn Only to die when day is gone, How can they with the child compare That shall the Father's glory share? The Lord be praised!

God's little child, do then fore'er Cast on the Lord your every care. Trust in His love, His grace and might Then shall His peace your soul delight. The Lord be praised!

God will your every need allay Even tomorrow as yesterday, And when the sun for you goes down He 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 given With His lovingkindness rife. As our Savior blest declareth And 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 supernal Jesus sits in glory bright. He the Light and Life of heaven, Who Himself for us hath given, Still abides and reigns above In 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 union Ever work in sweet communion That through love we may abide One 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 woes God in Christ on us bestows; Jesus wrought our peace with God Through His holy, precious blood; Peace in Him for sinners found Is 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 free Now and in eternity.

In this peace Christians find refuge and rest.

The peace of God protects our hearts Against the tempter's fiery darts. It is as sure when evening falls As when the golden morning calls.

This peace our Savior wrought for us In 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 imparts Each day to faint and troubled hearts, And in His cup and at the font It stills our deepest need and want.

This blessed peace our Lord will give To all who in His Spirit live. And even at their dying breath Its comfort breaks the sting of death.

When Christ for us His peace hath won He 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 saith In answer to the word of faith. Whoso hath faith, shall find release And 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 friend And take Thy place beside me, And talk to me as man to man Of where we soon shall meet again And 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 pretender We with Christ as our defender Shall engage and put to flight.

And His word will dispel all fear of the struggle:

Like dew upon the meadow So falls the word of life On Christians in the shadow Of mortal's final strife. The first fruit of its blessing Is balm for fears distressing, So gone is like a breath The bitterness of death.

Like sun, when night is falling, Sets stilly in the west While birds are softly calling Each other from their nest, So when its brief day closes That soul in peace reposes Which knows that Christ the Lord Is with it in His word.

And as we shiver slightly An early summer morn When blushing heavens brightly Announce a day new-born, So moves the soul immortal With calmness through death's portal That through its final strife Beholds the Light of Life.

He could therefore exclaim:

Christian! what a morn of splendor Full reward for every fear, When the ransomed host shall render Praises to its Savior dear, Shall in heaven's hall of glory Tell salvation's wondrous story, And with the angelic throng Sing the Lamb's eternal song.

—————

[10]Another translation: "Take away the signs of mourning" by P. C. Paulsen in "Hymnal for Church and Home".



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 struggle Did you bravely fight, Bearing scorn without complaining Till 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 Roedding, 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.

In the practical application of these educational theories, Grundtvig took no active part. Aside from his conception of the idea and the development of much of the material used in the folk-school, his greatest contributions to their work are probably, his innumerable Biblical, historical and folk songs that were and are used in the schools.

Meanwhile he by no means neglected his religious work. Rationalism had been defeated, a sound Evangelical movement was fast revitalizing the church, and he could therefore concentrate his energy on a further development of the view that had come to him during his years of struggle. Among innumerable other works, he produced during his later years the splendid Enlightenment of the Church, published 1840-1844; Teachings of Our Christian Childhood, published 1855-1862; The Seven Stars of the Churches, published 1854-1855; and The Church Mirror, a series of lectures on the main currents of church history, published 1861-1863.

Although Grundtvig's views, and especially his distinction between the "living" and the "written" word, were strongly opposed by many, his profoundly spiritual conception of the church, as the body of Christ, and of the sacraments, as its true means of life, has greatly influenced all branches of the Danish church. In emphasizing the true indwelling of Christ in the creed and sacraments, he visualized the real presence of Him in the church and underscored the vital center of congregational worship with a realism that no theological dissertation can ever convey. Nor did he feel that in so doing he was in any sense diverging from true Lutheranism. The fact that Luther himself chose the creed and the words of institution of the sacrament as a basis for his catechism, showed, he contended, that the great Reformer also had recognized their distinction.

Despite frequent charges to the contrary, Grundtvig had no desire to engender a separatist movement in the church. He constantly warned his followers against any such tendency. In a closing speech to the Meeting of Friends in 1863, he said, "You can no more forbid the world to call you Grundtvigians than those whom Luther called to the Lord could forbid anyone to call them Lutherans, but do not yourself adopt that name. For history shows that some have let themselves be called Lutherans until they have almost lost the name of Christians. If anyone wishes to name us after any other than Christ, we ought to tell them that we accept nothing unto salvation except what the Christian church has taught and confessed from generation to generation. To or from that we neither add nor detract. We acknowledge without reservation that word of faith which Paul says is believed to righteousness and confessed unto salvation. The manner of teaching and believing that faith so that the Old Adam may be put off and the new put on, we hold to be a matter of enlightenment in which we shall be guided by Grundtvig, as we are guided by Luther, only in so far as we are convinced that he has been guided by Scripture and the Spirit. We also disclaim any intention of making our conception of Scripture an article of faith which must be accepted by the church." Grundtvig's followers would, no doubt, have profited greatly by remembering this truly liberal view of their leader.