wers did not bear
Fruits that could with yours compare:
By the blood your petals staining,
I am now salvation gaining.

When I like the flower must wither,
When I wilt and fade like grass,
When the hour of death draws hither,
When I from this world shall pass,
When my heart has ceased to beat
When I face God's judgment seat,
Then His blood, which stained the garden,
Shall procure my lasting pardon.

Kingo's hymns on the pericopes have proved less resistant to time than
most of his other work. They are in reality brief commentaries,
presenting a practical rather than a poetical exposition and application
of their texts. But even so, the singular freshness of their thought and
style has preserved many of them until our day. The following hymn on
Matthew 8, 23-27, the stilling of the storm, furnishes a characteristic
example of this group of hymns.

What vessel is that passing
Across the boundless deep,
On which the billows massing
In foaming fury sweep?
She seems in sore distress
As though she soon would founder
Upon the shoals around her
And sink without redress.

It is the storm-tossed vessel
Of God's own church on earth,
With which the world doth wrestle,
And send its fury forth,
While Jesus oft appears
As though He still were sleeping,
With His disciples weeping
And crying out in fears.

But let the world with fury
Against the church but rave,
And spend its might to bury
Her in the roaring wave!
It only takes a word
To hush the wild commotion
And show the mighty ocean
Her Lord is still aboard.

Kingo is often called the singer of orthodoxy. His hymns faithfully
present the accepted doctrines of his church. No hymnwriter is more
staunchly Lutheran than he. But he was too vital to become a mere
doctrinaire. With him orthodoxy was only a means to an end, a more
vigorous Christian life. Many of his hymns present a forceful and
straightforward appeal for a real personal life with God. The following
hymn may be called an orthodox revival hymn. It was a favorite with the
great Norwegian lay preacher, Hans Nielsen Hauge.

The power of sin no longer
Within my heart shall reign;
Faith must grow ever stronger
And carnal lust be slain;
For when I was baptized,
The bonds of sin were severed
And I by grace delivered
To live for