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
