st was, however, a foregone
conclusion. The new enlightenment triumphed, and thousands of Evangelical
Christians became homeless in their own church.

During the subsequent period of triumphant Rationalism, groups of
Evangelical laymen began to hold private assemblies in their own homes
and to provide for their own spiritual nourishment by reading Luther's
sermons and singing the old hymns. In these assemblies Brorson's hymns
retained their favor until a new Evangelical awakening during the middle
part of the nineteenth century produced a new appreciation of the old
hymns and restored them to their rightful place in the worship of the
church. And the songs of the Sweet Singer of Pietism have, perhaps, never
enjoyed a greater favor in his church than they do today.

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[8]Another translation: "Like thousand mountains brightly crowned" by S.
D. Rodholm in "World of Song".

Nicolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig
the Singer of Pentecost

Chapter Eleven
Grundtvig's Early Years

The latter part of the eighteenth and the earlier part of the nineteenth
century produced a number of great changes in the spiritual, intellectual
and economic life of Denmark. The strong Pietist movement at the time of
Brorson, as we have seen, lost much of its momentum with the death of
King Christian VI, and within a few years was overwhelmed by a wave of
the intellectual and religious Rationalism then engulfing a large part of
Europe. Religion, it was claimed, should be divested of its mysteries and
reason made supreme. Whatever could not justify itself before the bar of
the human intellect should be discarded as outworn conceptions of a less
enlightened age. The movement, however, comprised all shades of opinions
from pure agnosticism to an idealistic belief in God, virtue and
immortality.

Although firmly opposed by some of the most influential Danish leaders of
that day, such as the valiant bishop of Sjaelland, Johan Edinger Balle,
Rationalism swept the country with irresistible force. Invested in the
attractive robe of human enlightenment and appealing to man's natural
intellectual vanity, the movement attracted the majority of the upper
classes and a large proportion of the clergy. Its adherents studied
Rousseau and Voltaire, talked resoundingly of human enlightenment,
organized endless