Scripture Verse

Lo, these are parts of His ways. Job 26:14

Introduction

Words: Sam­uel Wes­ley, Jr., Po­ems on Se­ver­al Oc­ca­sions (Lon­don: E. Say, 1736), pag­es 1–3.

Music: Sem­per As­pec­te­mus John H. Cas­son, in Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1875 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Cas­son (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Samuel Wesley, Jr.
(1690–1739)

Lyrics

Hail, Fa­ther, whose cre­at­ing call
Unnumbered worlds at­tend;
Jehovah, com­pre­hend­ing all,
Whom none can com­pre­hend!

In light un­search­able en­throned,
Whom an­gels dim­ly see,
The fount­ain of the God­head owned,
And fore­most of the Three.

From Thee, through an eter­nal now,
The Son, Thine off­spring, flowed;
An ev­er­last­ing fa­ther Thou,
An ev­er­last­ing God.

Nor quite dis­played to worlds above,
Nor quite on earth con­cealed;
By won­drous, un­ex­haust­ed love,
To mor­tal man re­vealed.

Supreme and all-suf­fi­cient God,
When na­ture shall ex­pire,
And worlds cre­at­ed by Thy nod
Shall per­ish by Thy fire.

Thy name, Je­ho­vah, be ad­ored
By crea­tures with­out end,
Whom none but Thy es­sen­tial Word
And Spir­it com­pre­hend.