emy alone, if the Savior is
there--

Death is but the last pretender
We with Christ as our defender
Shall engage and put to flight.

And His word will dispel all fear of the struggle:

Like dew upon the meadow
So falls the word of life
On Christians in the shadow
Of mortal's final strife.
The first fruit of its blessing
Is balm for fears distressing,
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 a