The Love of GodFederick M.LehmanThe love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
Refrain
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.
When years of time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Refrain
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
One day, during short intervals of inattention to our work, we picked up a scrap of paper and, seated upon an empty lemon box pushed against the wall, with a stub pencil, added the (first) two stanzas and chorus of the song…Since the lines (3rd stanza from the Jewish poem) had been found penciled on the wall of a patient’s room in an insane asylum after he had been carried to his grave, the general opinion was that this inmate had written the epic in moments of sanity.
Loved one, farewellMary B. SladeBirds are rejoicing,
O’er hill and dell;
Hushed is thy voicing,
Sweeter that fell.
Friend of our happy days,
Brother of prayer and praise,
Thine own sweet music says,
Loved one, farewell!
Thou hast ascended,
Where angels dwell;
Where, earth songs ended,
Heav’n’s anthems swell.
Safe, all the saints among,
Blest with the praising throng,
Singing the new made songs,
Loved one, farewell!
Salvation’s story
Then thou wilt tell;
Triumphs of glory,
Thy voice shall swell.
Rest thou, oh, friend so dear,
Thy precious Savior near,
Where God shall wipe each tear,
Loved one, farewell!
Safe from thee turning,
Grief’s tones will knell;
Hard, hard the learning,
God doeth well!
Till, be it soon or late,
Up, at the pearly gate,
We meet, oh watch and wait,
Loved one, farewell!
IN MEMORIAM—TUESDAY MORNING, NOV. 23, 1875
This is one of several beautiful “songs without words” that my true and well tried friend, Dr. A. Brooks Everett, contributed for these pages only a short time before his death; and to me, it was as sweet as anything Schumann ever wrote. The words are Mrs. Slade’s, and I thank her for them. The dedication is mine.
R. M. McIntosh
Romans 8:35
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"Romans 8:39
"neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."