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 and sacraments. His numerous hymns on the Spirit are drawn from many sources, both ancient and modern. His treatment of the originals is so free, however, that it is difficult in most cases to know whether his versions should be accepted as adaptations or originals. Of mere translations there are none. The following version of the widely known hymn, "Veni Sancte Spiritus," may serve to illustrate his work as a transplanter of hymns.