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eternal death. But death is not present only at the hour of our demise. It is present everywhere; it is active in all things. It destroys nations, corrupts society, robs the child of its innocence, wipes the bloom from the cheeks of youth, frustrates the possibilities of manhood and makes pitiful the white hair of the aged. For death, as all must see, is only the wage of sin, the ripe fruit of evil. I recognize now clearly; Death is the wage of sin, It is the fruitage merely Of evil's growth within. And its danger is so actual because it is active in every individual in himself as well as in others: When I view the true condition Of my troubled, restless heart, Naught but sin can I envision Even to its inmost part. Such then is his fundamental view of the condition of man, a being in the destructive grip of a relentless foe, a creature whose greatest need is "a hero who can break the bonds of death". And there is but one who can do that, the Son of God. Grundtvig's hymns abound in terms of adoration for the Savior of Man. He names Him the "Joy of Heaven", "The Fortune of Earth", "The Fount of Light", "The Sovereign of Life", "The Fear of Darkness", "The Terror of Death", and speaks of the day when all the "nations of the earth shall offer praise in the offer bowl of His name." But he sees the Christ less as the suffering Lamb of God than as the invincible conqueror of death and the heroic deliverer of man. Like his other hymns most of his hymns to the Savior are objective rather than subjective. They present the Christ of the Gospels, covering his life so fully that it would be possible to compile from them an almost complete sequence on His life, work and resurrection. The following stately hymn may serve as an appropriate introduction to a necessarily brief survey of the group: Jesus, the name without compare; Honored on earth and in heaven, Wherein the Father's love and care Are to His children now given. Saviour of all that saved would be, Fount of salvation full and free Is the Lord Jesus forever. Jesus, the name alone on earth For our salvation afforded. So on His cross of precious worth Is in His blood it recorded. Only in that our prayers are heard, Only in that when hearts are stirred Doth now the Spirit us comfort. Jesus, the name above the sky Wherein, when seasons are en
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