Scripture Verse

Who is he who will devote himself to be close to Me? Jeremiah 30:21

Introduction

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John Wesley (1703–1791)

Words: Jo­hann Scheff­ler, Hei­li­ge Seel­en­lust (Bres­lau [now Wro­cław, Po­land]: 1668) (Du un­ver­gleich­lich’s Gut). Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by John Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems, 1739.

Music: St. Pe­ters­burg at­trib­ut­ed to Dmi­tri S. Bort­ni­an­sky, 1825 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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Dmitri S. Bortniansky (1752–1825)

A migh­ty host will be found be­fore the throne of God, ga­thered in­to the fold as the re­sult of the min­is­try of the Rev. Ro­bert New­ton, and amongst them, Ben­ja­min Ward, of Old­ham, who was so im­pressed by the man­ner of the preach­er in giv­ing out the verse com­menc­ing, O God, of good the unfathom’d Sea! &c., that he was en­abled to give his heart to the Lord af­ter the sing­ing of that first verse.

He joined the Me­tho­dist So­ci­ety at the age of fif­teen, and for for­ty years was ac­tive­ly em­ployed as a class lead­er, as lead­er of the con­gre­ga­tion­al sing­ing, and in the Sun­day School.

Stevenson, p. 50

Lyrics

O God, of good the un­fathomed sea!
Who would not give his heart to Thee?
Who would not love Thee with his might?
O Je­sus, lover of man­kind,
Who would not his whole soul and mind,
With all his strength, to Thee unite?

Thou shin’st with ev­er­last­ing rays;
Before the in­suf­fer­able blaze
Angels with both wings veil their eyes;
Yet free as air Thy boun­ty streams
On all thy works; Thy mer­cy’s beams
Diffusive as Thy sun’s arise.

Astonished at Thy frown­ing brow,
Earth, hell, and Hea­ven’s strong pil­lars bow;
Terrible ma­jes­ty is Thine!
Who then can that vast love ex­press
Which bows Thee down to me, who less
Than no­thing am, till Thou art mine?

High throned upon Hea­ven’s eter­nal hill,
In num­ber, weight, and mea­sure still
Thou sweet­ly or­der­est all that is:
And yet Thou deign’st to come to me,
And guide my steps, that I, with Thee
Enthroned, may reign in end­less bliss.

Fountain of good, all bless­ing flows
From Thee; no want Thy full­ness knows;
What but Thy­self canst Thou de­sire?
Yet, self-suf­fi­cient as Thou art,
Thou dost de­sire my worth­less heart;
This, on­ly this, dost Thou re­quire.

Primeval beau­ty! in Thy sight
The first-born, fair­est sons of light
See all their bright­est glo­ries fade:
What then to me Thine eyes could turn,
In sin con­ceived, of wo­man born,
A worm, a leaf, a blast, a shade?

Hell’s ar­mies trem­ble at Thy nod,
And trem­bling own the al­migh­ty God,
Sovereign of earth, hell, air, and sky:
But who is this that comes from far,
Whose gar­ments rolled in blood ap­pear?
’Tis God made man, for man to die!

O God, of good the un­fa­thomed sea!
Who would not give his heart to Thee?
Who would not love Thee with his might?
O Je­sus, lov­er of man­kind,
Who would not his whole soul and mind,
With all his strength, to Thee unite?