Scripture Verse

Am I only a God nearby, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?…Do not I fill heaven and earth? Jeremiah 23:23-24

Introduction

Words: James C. Wall­ace, in Se­lect­ion of Psalms and Hymns for Uni­tar­ian Wor­ship, by Ro­bert Asp­land, 4th edi­tion (Lon­don: Row­land Hunt­er, 1825).

The orig­in­al first line read There’s not a star whose twink­ling light, but the hymn has been re­pub­lished in al­tered form a num­ber of times. The stan­zas be­low come from “…J. R. Beard’s Uni­tar­ian Collect­ion of Hymns &c., Lond., 1837, to which Mr. Wallace con­trib­ut­ed more than six­ty hymns” (Ju­li­an, p. 1162).

Music: Dun­dee Scot­tish Psal­ter, 1615 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

There’s not a place in earth’s vast round,
In ocean deep, or air,
Where skill and wis­dom are not found,
For God is ev­ery­where.

Around, with­in, be­low, ab­ove,
Wherever space ex­tends,
There God di­splays His bound­less love,
And pow­er with mer­cy blends.

Where’er thine earth­ly lot is cast,
His power and love de­clare,
Nor think the migh­ty theme too vast;
For God is ev­ery­where.