Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1943, Blaðsíða 113

SWEDISH AND DANISH CHRISTIANITY
107
terized the fundamental relation between God and man as a
family relation like that between parents and children and be-
tween sisters and brothers. In Grundtvigian circles congregational
life therefore also is greatly developed, and the clergy attach
particular importance to the creation of active congregations.
These should gather round the living Saviour. When Christ
is alive in a Danish congregation, he is in consequence Danish.
Grundtvig would have none of an Asiatic Christianity. On the
contrary, a Danish Christian first of all was to be a Danish
citizen. He who has not the right love of his native country can-
not understand what the kingdom of God is:
Er os tomme ord og lyde
Eget folk og fædres land,
Ved vi ej hvad de betyde
Mer end mængde, muld og strand,
Tant er og hvert ord vi tale
Om Guds riges bjerg og dale,
Om Guds folk og menighed.
(If our own people and our fathers’ country are empty words
and sounds to us, — If we do not know what they mean more
than mass mould and shore, every word we speak about the
mountains and valleys of God’s kingdom, about God’s people
and congregation is nothing but vanity.)
The extreme form of this idea is found in a poem to his
native country in which it says:
Sort ser det ud,
Men almægtig er Gud.
Dine fjender til lands
Er og fjenderne hans;
De er íjender af sandhed og retten.
(Everything seems black, but God is almighty. Your enemies
by land are also his enemies; they are the enemies of truth and
right.)
As Grundtvig was of the opinion that a true Christian should
first of all be a good citizen, he strained his powers to develop
such citizens. The fact that Denmark probably is that country
in the whole world in which the standard of general education
is highest, is to a great extent due to Grundtvig’s and his suc-
cessors’ work, principally as this has been realized in the Folk
High School. To these schools, which are scattered in a large
number all over the country, particularly the country youth