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 audiences during the summer and fall of 1838, and were so enthusiastically received that the students, on the evening of the concluding lecture, arranged a splendid banquet for the speaker, at which one of them sang:
Yes, through years of lonely struggle
Did you bravely fight,