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.