his work which makes each
part of it merely a branch of the whole. This underlying unity is his
clear conception of the spiritual and of man as a spiritual being who can
attain his fullest development only through the widest possible
realization of the spiritual in all his divine and human relationships.
In every part of his work Grundtvig, therefore, invariably seeks to
discover the spiritual realities. The mere form of a thing, the form of
religion, of knowledge, of education, of government, of all human
institutions and endeavors have no intrinsic value, are only skeletons
and dead bones until they become imbued and vivified by the spirit. Thus
Professor Martensen, who by no means belonged to the Grundtvigian party,
writes, "But among the many things I owe to Grundtvig, I cherish above
all his conception of the spiritual as the reality besides which all
other things are nothing but shadows, and of the spirit inspired word as
the mightiest power in human life. And he gave that to me not as a theory
but as a living truth, a spiritual reality about which there could be not
even a shadow of doubt."

Grundtvig found the spiritual in many things, in the myth of the North,
in history, literature and, in fact, in all things through which man has
to express his god-given nature. He had no patience with the Pietists who
looked upon all things not directly religious as evils with which a
Christian could have nothing to do. Yet he believed above all in the Holy
Spirit as the "Spirit of spirits," the true agent of God in the world.
The work of the Spirit was indispensable to man's salvation, and the
fruit of that work, the regenerated Christian life, the highest
expression of the spiritual. Since he believed furthermore, that the Holy
Spirit works especially in the church through the word and sacraments,
the church was to him the workshop of the Spirit.

In his famous hymn to the church bell, his symbol for the church, he
writes "that among all noble voices none could compare with that of the
ringing bell." Despite the many fields in which he traced the imprint of
the spiritual, the church remained throughout his long life his real
spiritual home, a fact which he beautifully expresses in the hymn below.

Hallowed Church Bell, not for worldly centers
Wast thou made, but for the village small
Where thy voice, as home and hearth it enters,
Blends with lullabies at evenfall.

When a child and in the country