take to his bed. He recovered somewhat and was able to return home. But
it was now clear to all that the days of the great bishop were numbered.
Early in the new year he became bedfast and suffered excruciatingly at
times. "But he submitted himself wholly to God's will and bore his
terrible suffering with true Christian patience," one of his biographers
tells us. To those who asked about his condition, his invariable answer
was, that all was well with him. If anyone expressed sympathy with him,
he usually smiled and said that "it could not be expected that the two
old friends, soul and body, should part from each other without pain."
When someone prayed or sang for him he followed him eagerly, expressing
his interest with his eyes, hands and whole being.

A week before his death he called the members of his family to his bed,
shared the Holy Communion with them and thanked them and especially his
wife, for their great kindness to him during his illness. On October 13,
a Saturday, he slept throughout the day, but awoke in the evening and
exclaimed: "Lord God, tomorrow we shall hear wonderful music!" And on the
morning of October 14, 1703, just as the great bells of the cathedral of
St. Knud called people to the service, his soul departed peacefully to
join the Church above. God had heard at last the earnest prayer of his
own great hymns:

But, O Jesus, I am crying:
Help that faith, on Thee relying,
Over sin and sorrow may
Ever rise and win the day.

His body was laid to rest in a small village church a few miles outside
of Odense. There one still may see the stone of his tomb, bearing an
inscription that likens him to a sun which, although it has set, still
lights the way for all true lovers of virtue. Other monuments to his
memory have been raised at Slangerup, Odense and other places. But his
finest and most lasting memorials are his own great hymns. In these his
warm, passionate spirit still speaks to a larger audience than he ever
reached in his own day. The years have served only to emphasize the truth
of Grundtvig's beautiful epitaph to him on his monument at Odense:

Thomas Kingo is the psalmist
Of the Danish temple choir.
This his people will remember
Long as song their hearts inspire.

Hans Adolph Brorson, the Christmas Singer of Denmark

Chapter Eight
Brorson's Ch