of his own later work.

One's first impression of the booklet that so greatly has enriched the
Christmas festival of Denmark and Norway, is likely to be disappointing.
At the time of Brorson the festival was frequently desecrated by a
ceaseless round of worldly amusements. People attended the festival
services of the church and spent the remainder of the season in a whirl
of secular and far from innocent pleasures. With his Pietistic views
Brorson naturally deplored such a misuse of the season. And his first
hymn, therefore, sounds an earnest call to cease these unseemly pleasures
and to use the festival in a Christian way.

Cast out all worldly pleasure
This blessed Christmastide,
And seek the boundless treasure
That Jesus doth provide.

But although such a warning may have been timely, then as now, it hardly
expresses the real Christmas spirit. In the next hymn, however, he at
once strikes the true festival note in one of the most triumphant
Christmas anthems in the Danish or any other language.

This blessed Christmastide we will,
With heart and mind rejoicing,
Employ our every thought and skill,
God's grace and honor voicing.
In Him that in the manger lay
We will with all our might today
Exult in heart and spirit,
And hail Him as our Lord and King
Till earth's remotest bounds shall ring
With praises of His merit.

A little Child of Jesse's stem,
And Son of God in heaven,
To earth from heaven's glory came
And was for sinners given.
It so distressed His loving heart
To see the world from God depart
And in transgression languish,
That He forsook His home above
And came to earth in tender love
To bear our grief and anguish.

Therefore we hymn His praises here
And though we are but lowly,
Our loud hosannas everywhere
Shall voice His mercy holy.
The tent of God is now with man,
And He will dwell with us again
When in His name assembling.
And we shall shout His name anew
Till hell itself must listen to
Our Christmas song with trembling.

And though our song of joy be fraught
With strains of lamentation,
The burden of our cross shall not
Subdue our jubilation.
For when the heart is most distressed,
The harp of joy is tuned so best
Its chords of joy are ringing,
And broken hearts best comprehend
The boundless joy our Lord a