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,