Grundtvig, I cherish above all his conception of the spiritual as the reality besides which all other things are nothing but shadows, and of the spirit inspired word as the mightiest power in human life. And he gave that to me not as a theory but as a living truth, a spiritual reality about which there could be not even a shadow of doubt.”

Grundtvig found the spiritual in many things, in the myth of the North, in history, literature and, in fact, in all things through which man has to express his god-given nature. He had no patience with the Pietists who looked upon all things not directly religious as evils with which a Christian could have nothing to do. Yet he believed above all in the Holy Spirit as the “Spirit of spirits,” the true agent of God in the world. The work of the Spirit was indispensable to man’s salvation, and the fruit of that work, the regenerated Christian life, the highest expression of the spiritual. Since he believed furthermore, that the Holy Spirit works especially in the church through the word and sacraments, the church was to him the workshop of the Spirit.

In his famous hymn to the church bell, his symbol for the church, he writes “that among all noble voices none could compare with that of the ringing bell.”

Despite the many fields in which he traced the imprint of the spiritual, the church remained throughout his long life his real spiritual home, a fact which he beautifully expresses in the hymn below.

Hallowed Church Bell, not for worldly centers

Wast thou made, but for the village small

Where thy voice, as home and hearth it enters,

Blends with lullabies at evenfall.

When a child and in the country dwelling,

Christmas morning was my heaven on earth,

And thy chimes, like angel voices swelling,

Told with joy of my Redeemer’s birth.

Louder still thy joyful chimes resounded,

When on wings of early morning borne,

They proclaimed: Awake with joy unbounded,

Christ arose this blessed Easter morn.

Sweeter even were thy tolls when blending

With the calm of summer eventide

And, as though from heaven above descending,

Bid me cast all grief and care aside.

Hence when now the day is softly ending,

Shadows fall and birds ascend their nest,

Like the flowers my head in silence bending,

I am chanting with my soul at rest:

When at last, O Church Bell, thou art tolling

O’er my grave while loved grieve and sigh,

Say to them, their troubled heart consoling,

He is resting with his Lord on high.

[11]The printed text is corrupt, but the correction is not obvious. Norway and Finland might have "about as many" or "about half as many".

Other Danish Hymnwriters

Chapter Seventeen

The Danish church has produced a large number of hymnwriters, who, except for the greatness of Kingo, Brorson and Grundtvig, would have commanded general recognition. The present hymnal of the church contains contributions by

about sixty Danish writers. Though the majority of these are represented by only one or two hymns, others have made large contributions.

Kingo, Brorson and Grundtvig, peculiarly enough, had few imitators. A small number of writers did attempt to imitate the great leaders, but they formed no school and their work for the most part was so insignificant that it soon disappeared. Thus even Kingo’s great work inspired no hymnwriter of any consequence, and the fifty years between Kingo and Brorson added almost nothing to the hymnody of the church. Contemporary with Brorson, however, a

few writers appeared whose songs have survived to the present day. Foremost among these is Ambrosius Stub, a unique and sympathetic writer whose work constitutes a distinct contribution to Danish poetry.

Ambrosius Stub was born on the island of Fyn in 1705, the son of a village tailor. Although extremely poor, he managed somehow to enter the University of

Copenhagen, but his poverty compelled him to leave the school without

completing his course. For a number of years, he drifted aimlessly, earning a precarious living by teaching or bookkeeping at the estates of various nobles, always dogged by poverty and a sense of frustration. Although he was gifted and

ambitious, his lack of a degree and his continuous poverty prevented him from

attaining the position in life to which his ability apparently entitled him. During his later years, he conducted a small school for boys at Ribe, a small city on the west coast of Jutland, where he died in abject poverty in 1758, only 53 years old.

Stub’s work remained almost unknown during his lifetime, but a small collection

of his poems, published after his death, gained him a posthumous recognition as

the greatest Danish poet of the 18th century. Stub’s style is extremely noble and expressive, devoid of the excessive bombast and sentimentality that many writers then mistook for poetry. He was of a cheerful disposition with a hopeful

outlook upon life that only occasionally is darkened by the hardships and disappointments of his own existence. Even the poems of his darker moods are

colored by his inborn love of beauty and his belief in the fundamental goodness

of life. Many of his best poems are of a religious nature, and expressive of his warm and trustful Christian faith. In view of the discouraging hardships and disappointments of his own life, the following much favored hymn throws a revealing light upon the spirit of its author.

Undismayed by any fortune

Life may have in store for me,

This, whatever be my portion,

I will always try to be.