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