Part 2 (1/2)

Thus, the pered and expressive poetry but on the earnest and warh theenerations have experienced their kinshi+p with the poet and found expression for their own hope and faith The following ageless prayer expresses not only the spirit of the poet but that of earnest Christians everywhere and of every age

Print Thine ie pure and holy[4] On h nor lowly Thy blest likeness can efface Let the clear inscription be: Jesus, crucified for e and salvation

[3]Another translation: ”He that believes and is baptized” by G T Rygh in ”Hymnal for Church and Home”

[4]Another translation: ”On e” by P O Stromme in ”Hyo's Later Years

Kingo's ith the hyht him much disappointment and some loss of popularity He felt not without justification that he had been ill treated He did not sulk in his tent, however, but pursued his ith unabated zeal His diocese was large, coe nu periodical visits to all parishes within such a far-flung charge was, considering the then available means of transportation, not only strenuous but hazardous Roads were bad and vessels weak and slow Hardshi+ps and danger beset his ales and journeys A nu the adventures of the traveler are reminiscenses of his own experiences

But his work of visiting the churches constituted, of course, only a part of his duties He had to preach in the cathedral at Odense at least every Wednesday in Lent and on all festival Sundays; examine the work and conduct of all pastors within the diocese; act as an arbiter in disputes between them and their parishi+oners; make sure that the financial affairs of the church and its institutions were honestly conducted; attend to the collection of church taxes; and superintend all schools, hospitals and institutions of charity The efficient accoth and ability of any endered numerous occasions for friction, especially with the civil authorities, whose rights and duties often overlapped his own And he did not escape the danger of such bickerings with their resultant ill-feeling There is nothing to indicate that he was contentious by nature But he was no doubt zealous in defending the prerogatives of his office His temper was quick and soraphers declares, ”envision hie” With the exception of his active eneree, however, that he was cos with others

Kingo was an able administrator, and the institutions and finances of the diocese prospered under his care But it was as an earnest Christian and a tireless worker for the spiritual improvement of his people that he won their respect He was known as an ”eloquent hty in the Scriptures” One of his conte him preach to say with the disciples, 'Did not our hearts burn within us when he opened the Scriptures to us and, like a son of thunder, published the sins of the house of Jacob, or, like Barnabas, the son of comfort, bound up our wounds and comforted us with the comfort hich he had himself been so richly comforted by God'” The few extracts of his sermons that have come down to us verify the truth of this staterounded in his own faith and zealous in i was strictly orthodox and yet fiery and practical The poetical language and forceful eloquence of his sero's writings and frequent travels brought hies of his country in his day His char personality, lively conversation and fine sense of huuest wherever he appeared On the island of Taasinge, he was a frequent and beloved guest in the stately castle of the famous, pious and revered aditte Ulfeldt His friendshi+p with this worthy couple was intio wrote the beautiful epitaph that still adorns his toen On the island of Falster he often visited the proud and do ex-queen, Carolina A estate of the once beautiful and adored daughter of king Christian IV, Leonora Ulfeldt, whoned for twenty-two years to a dark and lonely prison cell Years of suffering, as we learn from her still famous book Meious woed her body, but had neither dulled her brilliantyears in doing good, and she was a great adht him in contact with people of very different stations and conditions in life His position and high personal endowure wherever he went But he had his enemies and detractors as well as his friends It was not everyone who could see why a poor weaver's son should be raised to such a high position Kingo was accused of being greedy, vain, over-a, all of which probably contained at least a grain of truth We should have reatest hymns, if he had been a saint, and not a s and desires, a man who knew fro

Despite certain peculiar coo's private life was quite happy Four years after the death of his first wife, he entered into e with Johanne Lund, ahter froo thus had the exceptional experience of being stepfather to three sets of children, the daughter of his second wife and the children and stepchildren of his first To be the head of such a fa problems to a man who had no children of his own But with the exception of his stepson, all the children appear to have loved hi as he lived

His second wife died in 1694, when she was seventy-six and he sixty years old During the later years of her life she had been a helpless invalid, dereat deal of patience and care of her busy husband Conteood-hu his wife about like a helpless child Less than a year after her death, Kingo entered into a newlady of the nobility, Birgitte Balslev, his junior by reat deal of gossip and reat disparity in years of the contracting parties But the predictions proved wholly unfounded, and the itte, a contemporary tells us, were ”inseparable as heart and soul” She was an accoo found in her, perhaps for the first time in his life, a woman hom he could share fully the rich treasure of his own heart and mind He is credited with the reht to do:days, who woe

But Kingo did not show the effect of his years He was still as energetic and vigorous as ever in the prosecution of his e, he even continued his strenuous visits to all parts of his see, noays accompanied by his wife His leisure hours were usually spent on a beautiful estate a few ed to his wife At this favored retreat and in the company of friends, he still could relax and become the liveliest of them all

The years, however, would not be denied At the turn of the century, he suffered a first attack of the illness, a bladder coht of it and refused to ease his strenuous activity But the attack returned with increasing frequency and, on a visit to Copenhagen in the fall of 1702, he was compelled to take to his bed He recovered somewhat and was able to return horeat bishop were numbered Early in the new year he becaly at times ”But he submitted hi with true Christian patience,” one of his biographers tells us To those who asked about his condition, his invariable ansas, that all ith him If anyone expressed sympathy with him, he usually smiled and said that ”it could not be expected that the two old friends, soul and body, should part fro for hi his interest with his eyes, hands and whole being

A week before his death he called the members of his family to his bed, shared the Holy Communion with thereat kindness to hi his illness On October 13, a Saturday, he slept throughout the day, but awoke in the evening and exclaimed: ”Lord God, to of October 14, 1703, just as the great bells of the cathedral of St Knud called people to the service, his soul departed peacefully to join the Church above God had heard at last the earnest prayer of his own great hy: Help that faith, on Thee relying, Over sin and sorrow may Ever rise and win the day

His body was laid to rest in a se church a few miles outside of Odense There one stillan inscription that likens hihts the way for all true lovers of virtue Other erup, Odense and other places But his finest and reat hymns In these his warer audience than he ever reached in his own day The years have served only to e's beautiful epitaph to hio is the psalmist Of the Danish te their hearts inspire

Hans Adolph Brorson, the Christht

Brorson's Childhood and Youth

Hans Adolph Brorson ca, the border province between Denmark and Gerround between the two countries and cost the Danes so much in blood and tears His family was old in the district and presented an unbroken line of substantial farrandfather, Broder Pedersen, broke it by studying for thepastor at Randrup, a small country parish on the west coast of the province

Broder Pedersen remained at Randrup till his death in 1646, and was then succeeded by his son, Broder Brodersen, a young man only twenty-three years old, who shortly before his installation had er of Trojborg ed Catherine Clausen bore her husband three sons, Nicolaj Brodersen, born July 23, 1690, Broder Brodersen, born September 12, 1692, and Hans Adolph Brodersen--or Brorson--as his name was later written--born June 20, 1694

Broder Brodersen was a quiet, serious-ive his boys the best possible training for life Although his incoed somehow to provide private tutors for them Both he and his ere earnest Christians, and the fine exareater value to their boys than the formal instruction they received frorapher of the Brorsons writes: ”Their good parents earnestly instructed their boys in all that was good, but especially in the fear and knowledge of God Knowing that a good exaood than the best precept, they were not content with ood, but strove earnestly to live so that their own daily lives ht present a worthy pattern for their sons to follow”

Broder Brodersen was not granted the privilege of seeing his sons attain their honored manhood He died in 1704, when the eldest of theest only ten years old Upon realizing that he must leave theo: If for my children I Would weep and sorrow And every moment cry: Who shall tomorrow With needful counsel, hons above, He ith changeless love Sustain and guide the pastor put to shame A year after his death, hismarried his successor in the pastorate, Pastor Ole Holbeck, who proved himself a most excellent stepfather to his adopted sons

Reverend Holbeck personally taught the boys until Nicolaj, and a year later, Broder and Hans Adolph were prepared to enter the Latin school at Ribe This old and once famous school was then in a state of decay The town itself had declined fros and nobles, to an insignificant village of about fifteen hundred inhabitants Of its fors and, especially, the beautiful cathedral still remained And the Latin school had shared the fate of the city Its once fine buildings were decaying; its faculty, which in former times included some of the best known savants of the country, was poorly paid and poorly equipped; and the number of its students had shrunk from about 1200 to less than a score Only the course of study reion were still the main subjects of instruction It mattered little if the student could neither speak nor write Danish correctly, but he raious services was co little attraction to an adolescent youth

The boys completed their course at Ribe and entered the university of Copenhagen, Nicolaj in the fall of 1710 and the younger brothers a year later But the change offered them little improvement The whole country suffered fro were here and there, but not at the university where Lutheran orthodoxy still n of h it had now become more dry and spiritless than ever

The brothers all intended to prepare for the ministry But after two years Nicolaj for various reasons left the University of Copenhagen to complete his course at the University of Kiel Broder re his course there in the spring of 1715 Hans Adolph studied for three years more and, even then, failed to complete his course

Hans Adolph Brorson

It was a period of transition and spiritual unrest The spiritual revival now clearly discernible throughout the country had at last reached the university For the first ti orthodoxy with its settled answers to every question of faith and conduct was e Many turned definitely away fro in other fields such as history, philosophy and especially the natural sciences for a ion appeared to offer Others searched for a solution of their difficulty in new approaches to the old faith The result was a spiritual confusion such as often precedes the dawn of a neakening And Brorson appears to have been caught in it His failure to complete his course was by no means caused by indolence He had, on the contrary, broadened his studies to include a nun to his course, and he had worked so hard that he had seriously impaired his health But he had lost his direction, and also, for the tiy

It was, therefore, as a so ave up his studies and returned to his home at Randrup His brothers were already well started upon their conspicuously successful careers, while he was still drifting, confused and uncertain, a failure, as soood stepfather, nevertheless, received him with the utmost kindness If he harbored any disappointment in him, he does not appear to have shown it His stepson re him hatever he could, and had then so far recovered that he was able to accept a position as tutor in the faue and powerful institution and a center of great historic events Theof the cloister itself had been turned into a county courthouse, at which Nicolaj Clausen served as county president, but the splendid old church of the cloister still re surroundings and in the quiet faress toward normal health But his full recovery ca in 1720

The strong revivalthe old orthodoxy, was engendered by the Ger The two conceptions of Christianity differed, it has been said, only in their emphasis Orthodoxy emphasized doctrine and Pietism, life Both conceptions were one-sided If orthodoxy had resulted in a lifeless formalism, Pietism soon lost its effectiveness in a sentilect of sound doctrine eventually gave birth to Rationalism But for the moent call to Christians to live what they professed to believe

A number of the early leaders of the um Kloster, and were personally known to Brorson But whether or not any of these leaders was instru is now unknown One of his conteht to employ his solitude in a closer ith God in Christ and, in so doing, received a perfect assurance of the Lord's faithfulness to those that trust in Hi Pietists e in his life, the change itself seegle with God And it was a cos, he henceforth evinced but one desire to know Christ and to be known by Hier desire to enter the ministry He was offered a position as rector of a Latin school, but his stepfather's death, just as he was considering the offer, caused him to refuse the appointment and instead to apply for the pastorate at Randrup His application granted, he at once hastened back to the university to finish his for accomplished this in the fall of the saether with his brother, Broder Brorson, who had resigned a position as rector of a Latin school to beco Randrup As his brother, Nicolaj Brorson, shortly before had accepted the pastorate of another adjoining parish, the three brothers thus enjoyed the unusual privilege of living and working together in the saht years that Brorson spent at Randrup where his father and grandfather had worked before him were probably the happiest in his life The parish is located in a low, treeless plain bordering the North Sea Its climate, except for a few months of summer, is raw and blustery In stor severe losses in crops, stocks and even in huht during a flight froe The severe climate and constant threat of the sea, however, fosters a hardy race Froles and Saxons, once set out to conquer and settle the British Isles And the hardihood of the old sea-rovers was not wholly lost in their descendants when Brorson settled a been directed into other and e in which the Brorsons lived stood on a low ridge, rising gently above its surroundings and affording a splendid view over far reaches of fields,sea The vieas especially beautiful in early summer ild flowers carpeted the meadows in a profusion of colors, countless birds soared and sang above the meadows and shoals of fish played in the reed bordered streams It ithout doubt this scene that inspired the splendid hys that God Hath Made”

Brorson was happy to return to Randrup The parish was just then the center of all that was dearest to him in this world His beloved hbors, and he brought with hi wife, Catherine Clausen, whom he had married a few days before his installation

Nicolaj and Broder Brorson had, like him, joined the Pietist ether in complete harmony for the spiritual revival of their parishes And they did not spare themselves Both separately and cooperatively, they labored zealously to increase church attendance, revive fa, and minimize the many worldly and doubtful amusements that, then as now, caused an to hold private assemblies in the homes, a work for which they were bitterly condemned by many and severely reprimanded by the authorities It could not be expected, of course, that a work so devoted to the furtherance of a new conception of the Christian life would be tolerated without opposition But their work, nevertheless, was blest with abundant fruit, both in their own parishes and throughout neighboring districts Churches were refilled orshi+ppers, fa was born in thousands of homes People expressed their love for the three brothers by na them ”The Rare Three-Leafed Clover from Randrup” It is said that the revival inspired by the Brorsons even now, more than two hundred years later, is plainly evident in the spiritual life of the district

Thus the years passed fruitfully for the young pastor at Randrup He rejoiced in his home, his work and the warnal disappointment to all that he was the first to break the happy circle by accepting a call as assistant pastor at Christ church in Tonder, a small city a few er of Pietism

The city of Tonder, when Brorson located there, had about two thousand inhabitants At one tied to the Ger Its splendid church had three pastors, two of whom preached in German and the third, Brorson, in Danish

The parish Pastor, Johan Herhly respected er days served as a tutor for the children of King Frederick IV, Princess Charlotte A Christian VI

Pastor Schraeder was a zealous Pietist and a leader of the Pietistterritory Like the Brorsons he sought to encourage fa People are said to have becoht their hy fro lunch hours He himself was a noted hymnwriter and hymn collector, who, shortly after Brorson beca no less than 1157 hymns

Schraeder, we are told, had been personally active in inducing Brorson to leave his beloved Randrup and accept the call to Tonder As Brorson was known as an ardent Pietist, Schraeder's interest in bringing hiinated in a natural wish to secure a congenial co-worker, but itfroh there is no direct evidence that any of Brorson's hymns ritten at Randrup, a nuhly probable that some of them were composed there and that Schraeder was acquainted with them Such a mutual interest also helps to explain why Brorson should leave his fruitful work at Randrup for an inferior position in a new field It is certain that the change brought hies, and his position as a Danish pastor in a largely Ger community must have presented certain unavoidable difficulties

Although Brorson to our knowledge took no part in the endless contest between German and Danish, his personal preference was, no doubt, for the latter It is thus significant that, although he es, he did not write a single hy compatriots, however, and worked harly Ger for one of the greatest hyation at Tonder had for in German--even at the Danish service It is self-evident, however, that such a custom could not be satisfactory to Brorson He was a Pietist with the fervent longing of that movement for a real spiritual communion with his fellow Christians But a custoation to speak in different tongues was, of necessity, a hindrance to the consu near, that joyful season which Brorson, as his hymns prove, loved so well and must heartily have desired to share with his hearers, a desire which this ues to a certain extent, uage before they could wholly be one in spirit