", and
the very popular,

Move the signs of gloom and mourning[10]
From the garden of the dead.
For the wreaths of grief and yearning,
Plant bright lilies in their stead.
Carve instead of sighs of grief
Angels' wings in bold relief,
And for columns, cold and broken,
Words of hope by Jesus spoken.

His Easter hymns fail as a whole to reach the height of his songs for
other church festivals. In this respect, they resemble the hymnody of the
whole church, which contains remarkably few really great hymns on the
greatest events in its history. It is as though the theme were too great
to be expressed in the language of man.

Grundtvig wrote a number of magnificent hymns on the themes of our Lord's
ascension and His return to judge the quick and the dead. Of the latter,
the hymn given below is perhaps the most favored of those now available
in English.

Lift up thy head, O Christendom!
Behold above the blessed home
For which thy heart is yearning.
There dwells the Lord, thy soul's delight,
Who soon with power and glory bright
Is for His bride returning.

And when in every land and clime,
All shall behold His signs sublime,
The guilty world appalling,
Then shalt with joy thou lift thine eyes
And see Him coming in the skies,
While suns and stars are falling.

While for His coming thou dost yearn,
Forget not why His last return
The Savior is delaying,
And ask Him not before His hour
To shake the heavens with His power,
Nor judge the lost and straying.

O saints of God, for Sodom pray
Until your prayers no more can stay
The judgment day impending.
Then cries the Lord: "Behold, I come!"
And ye shall answer: "To Thy home
We are with joy ascending!"

Then loud and clear the trumpet calls,
The dead awake, death's kingdom falls,
And God's elect assemble.
The Lord ascends the judgment throne,
And calls His ransomed for His own,
While hearts in gladness tremble.

Grundtvig is often called the Singer of Pentecost. And his hymns on the
nature and work of the Spirit do rank with his very best. He believed in
the reality of the Spirit as the living, active agent of Christ in His
church. As the church came into being by the outpouring of the Holy Ghost
on the day of Pentecost, so our Lord still builds and sanctifies it by
the Spirit, working through His words