Scripture Verse

Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise Him in the heights. Psalm 148:1

Introduction

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John B. Dykes (1823–1876)

Words: John H. New­man, The Dream of Ge­ron­ti­us, 1865. The ed­it­or of The Month: An Il­lus­trat­ed Ma­ga­zine of Li­te­ra­ture, Sci­ence and Art asked New­man if he could con­trib­ute some­thing, and New­man sub­mit­ted this po­em. These lyr­ics ap­peared in hym­nals short­ly there­af­ter.

Music: Ge­ron­ti­us John B. Dykes, in Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1868 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tune:

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John H. Newman (1801–1890)
National Portrait Gallery

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Anecdote

When Will­iam Ew­art Glad­stone, Eng­land’s Grand Old Man, lay dy­ing in his home, he fre­quent­ly quot­ed this hymn, find­ing in its no­ble sen­ti­ments a com­for­ting sol­ace in his last days.

Canon Scott Hol­land, in preach­ing at Saint Paul’s Ca­thed­ral pic­tured the dy­ing prime min­is­ter as spend­ing his life in bene­dic­tion to those whom he leaves be­hind in this world and in thanks­giv­ing to God, to whom he re­hears­es ov­er and ov­er, day af­ter day, New­man’s hymn of au­stere and splen­did ado­ra­tion.

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Lyrics

Praise to the Ho­li­est in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most won­der­ful,
Most sure in all His ways.

O lov­ing wis­dom of our God!
When all was sin and shame,
A se­cond Ad­am to the fight
And to the res­cue came.

O wis­est love! that flesh and blood,
Which did in Ad­am fail,
Should strive afresh against the foe,
Should strive and should pre­vail.

And that a high­er gift than grace
Should flesh and blood re­fine,
God’s Pre­sence and His ve­ry Self,
And Es­sence all di­vine.

O ge­ne­rous love! that He, who smote,
In Man for man the foe,
The dou­ble ago­ny in Man
For man should un­der­go.

And in the gar­den se­cret­ly,
And on the cross on high,
Should teach His breth­ren, and in­spire
To suf­fer and to die.

Praise to the Ho­li­est in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most won­der­ful,
Most sure in all His ways.