#60 - Wellesley

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• Composer:
  • Lizzie Shove Tourjee Estabrook (1858-1913) (1815-1867), 1878
• Also known as:
  • There's a Wideness in God's Mercy
• MIDI | show
  
• Incipit: 51217523216543245
• Condensed Incipit: 51217523216543245
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• Dutton's Handbook
• Lyrics:
  There's a wideness in God’s mercy,
  Like the wideness of the sea;
  There's a kindness in His justice,
  Which is more than liberty.
  
  There is no place where earth’s sorrows
  Are more felt than up in Heaven;
  There is no place where earth’s failings
  Have such kindly judgment given.
  
  There is welcome for the sinner,
  And more graces for the good;
  There is mercy with the Savior;
  There is healing in His blood.
  
  There is grace enough for thousands
  Of new worlds as great as this;
  There is room for fresh creations
  In that upper home of bliss.
  
  For the love of God is broader
  Than the measure of our mind;
  And the heart of the Eternal
  Is most wonderfully kind.
  
  There is plentiful redemption
  In the blood that has been shed;
  There is joy for all the members
  In the sorrows of the Head.
  
  'Tis not all we owe to Jesus;
  It is something more than all;
  Greater good because of evil,
  Larger mercy through the fall.
  
  If our love were but more simple,
  We should take Him at His word;
  And our lives would be all sunshine
  In the sweetness of our Lord.
  
  Souls of men! why will ye scatter
  Like a crowd of frightened sheep?
  Foolish hearts! why will ye wander
  From a love so true and deep?
  
  It is God: His love looks mighty,
  But is mightier than it seems;
  'Tis our Father: and His fondness
  Goes far out beyond our dreams.
  
  But we make His love too narrow
  By false limits of our own;
  And we magnify His strictness
  With a zeal He will not own.
  
  Was there ever kinder shepherd
  Half so gentle, half so sweet,
  As the Savior who would have us
  Come and gather at His feet?
  
  
  • Frederick William Faber (1814-1863), 1854