Scripture Verse

The Lord blesses His people with peace. Psalm 29:11

Introduction

Words: War­ren D. Cor­nell, Au­gust 1889. The words to this song are en­graved on Cor­nell’s tomb­stone in Fond du Lac, Wis­con­sin.

Music: Will­iam G. Coop­er (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Cor­nell (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els), or a bet­ter one of Coo­per,

portrait
William Cooper (1861–1938)

Origin of the Song

Cor­nell and Coop­er wrote this song at a camp meet­ing near West Bend, Wis­con­sin.

One day while seat­ed in the tent, Mr. Cor­nell, fol­low­ing a pe­ri­od of deep in­tro­spect­ion, wrote down the thoughts with which his mind had been bu­sied.

They lat­er proved to be parts of this hymn, Won­de­rful Peace. Sink­ing again in­to in­tro­spect­ive ru­mi­na­tion, he arose, un­wit­ting­ly dropped the writ­ten vers­es on the tent floor and went out.

When Mr. Coop­er en­tered the tent an hour or two lat­er he dis­cov­ered the pa­per. He was fas­ci­nat­ed by the theme and the ac­com­pa­ny­ing vers­es. It so fit­ted his own think­ing that he filled in and com­plet­ed the po­em. Then, sit­ting down at the or­gan, he com­posed the me­lo­dy as it has since been sung.

Sanville, p. 58

Lyrics

Far away in the depths
Of my spir­it to­night
Rolls a me­lo­dy sweet­er than psalm;
In ce­les­ti­al-like strains
It un­ceas­ing­ly falls
O’er my soul like an in­fi­nite calm.

Refrain

Peace, peace, won­der­ful peace,
Coming down from the Fa­ther above!
Sweep ov­er my spir­it for­ev­er, I pray
In fa­thom­less bil­lows of love!

What a trea­sure I have
In this won­der­ful peace,
Buried deep in the heart of my soul,
So se­cure that no pow­er
Can mine it away,
While the years of eter­ni­ty roll!

Refrain

I am rest­ing to­night
In this won­der­ful peace,
Resting sweet­ly in Je­sus’ con­trol;
For I’m kept from all dan­ger
By night and by day,
And His glo­ry is flood­ing my soul!

Refrain

And I think when I rise
To that ci­ty of peace,
Where the an­chor of peace I shall see,
That one strain of the song
Which the ran­somed will sing
In that hea­ven­ly king­dom will be:

Refrain

Ah, soul! are you here
Without com­fort and rest,
Marching down the rough path­way of time?
Make Je­sus your friend
Ere the sha­dows grow dark;
O ac­cept this sweet peace so sub­lime!

Refrain