The Love of God

The love of God is greater far,
Than tongue or pen could 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 pardon from His sin.


When years of time shall pass away
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills on 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.


Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill
And ev’ry 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.

The Love of God

The love of God is greater far,
Than tongue or pen could 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 pardon from His sin.


When years of time shall pass away
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills on 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.


Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill
And ev’ry 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.

Once to Every Man and Nation

Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide
In the strife of truth with falsehood
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever
‘Twixt that darkness and that light

Then to side with truth is noble,
When we share her wretched crust’
Ere her cause bring fame and profit,
And ‘tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses
While the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude make virtue
Of the faith they had denied

Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above His own. Amen.
© James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)