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.
If I but in grace abide,
Undismayed whate’er betide.
Undismayed when others harry
Mind and soul with anxious care;
If the Lord with me will tarry,
All my troubles disappear.
If I but in grace abide,
Undismayed whate’er betide.
Undismayed when others sighing,
Quail before the evil day,
On God’s grace I am relying;
Nothing can me then dismay.
If I but in grace abide,
Undismayed whate’er betide.
Undismayed when others fearing,
See the hour of death draw nigh.
With the victor’s crown appearing,
Why should I repine and sigh.
If I but in grace abide,
Undismayed whate’er betide.
