1 Most wondrous is of all on earth
The kingdom Jesus founded,
Its glory, peace, and precious worth
No tongue has fully sounded.
2 Invisible as mind and soul,
And yet of light the fountain,
Its brightness shines from pole to pole
Like lights from lofty mountain.
3 Its secret is the Word of God,
Which does what it proposes.
Which lowers mountains high and broad
And clothes the waste with roses.
4 Let foes against the kingdom rage
With hatred and derision,
God crowns its reign from age to age,
And brings it to fruition.
5 Its glory rises like the morn
When waves at sunrise glitter,
Or like in May the verdant corn
As birds above it twitter.
6 It is the glory of the King
Who bore affliction solely
That He the crown of life might bring
To sinners poor and lowly.
7 And when His advent comes to pass
The Christian's strife is ended,
What here we see as in a glass
Shall then be comprehended.
8 Then shall the kingdom bright appear
With glory true an vernal
And bring His saved a golden year
Of peace and joy eternal.
Source: Hymnal for Church and Home (2nd ed.) #137
Jens Christian Aaberg (b. Moberg, Denmark, 1877; d. Minneapolis, MN, 1970) immigrated to the United States in 1901. Educated at Grand View College and Seminary in Des Moines, Iowa, he entered the ministry of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and served congregations in Marinette, Wisconsin; Dwight, Illinois; and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Aaberg wrote Hymns and Hymnwriters of Denmark (1945), translated at least eighty hymns from Danish into English, and served on four hymnal committees. In 1947 King Frederick of Denmark awarded him the Knight Cross of Denmark.
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1987
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Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig was the son of a pastor, and was born at Udby, in Seeland, in 1783. He studied in the University of Copenhagen from 1800-1805; and, like some other eminent men, did not greatly distinguish himself; his mind was too active and his imagination too versatile to bear the restraint of the academic course. After leaving the university he took to teaching; first in Langeland, then (1808) in Copenhagen. Here he devoted his attention to poetry, literature, and Northern antiquities. In 1810 he became assistant to his father in a parish in Jutland. The sermon he preached at his ordination, on the subject "Why has the Lord's word disappeared from His house," attracted much attention, which is rarely the case with "pro… Go to person page >
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