all branches of the Lutheran church in America. Pastor Doving's
translation is not wholly satisfactory, however, to those who know the
forceful and yet so appealing language of the original, a fate which, we
are fully aware, may also befall the following new version.

Built on a rock the church of God
Stands though its towers be falling;
Many have crumbled beneath the sod,
Bells still are chiming and calling,
Calling the young and old to come,
But above all the souls that roam,
Weary for rest everlasting.

God, the most high, abides not in
Temples that hands have erected.
High above earthly strife and sin,
He hath his mansions perfected.
Yet He, whom heavens cannot contain,
Chose to abide on earth with man
Making their body His temple.

We are God's house of living stones,
Built for the Spirit's indwelling.
He at His font and table owns
Us for His glory excelling.
Should only two confess His name,
He would yet come and dwell with them,
Granting His mercy abounding.

Even the temples built on earth
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 g