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