GOD THE FATHER >> GRACE & MERCY OF GOD
SDAH 110
God’s free mercy streameth over all the world,
And His banner gleameth, By His church unfuried;
Broad and deep and glorious, As the heaven above,
Shines in might victorious His eternal love.
Text
1
God’s free mercy streameth over all the world,
And His banner gleameth, By His church unfuried;
Broad and deep and glorious, As the heaven above,
Shines in might victorious His eternal love.
2
Summer suns are glowing over land and sea;
Happy light is flowing, Bountiful and free;
Everything rejoices in the mellow rays;
Earth’s ten thousand voices swell the psalm of praise.
3
Lord, upon our blindness thy pure radiance pour;
For Thy loving kindness we would love Thee more;
And when clouds are drifting dark across the sky,
Then, the veil uplifting, father, be Thou nigh.
4
We will never doubt Thee, tho’ veil Thy light;
Life is dark without Thee, death with Thee is bright.
Light of light, shine o’er us on our pilgrim way,
Go Thou still before us to the endless day.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(a) 1 Pet 1:3 (b) Eccl 11:7 (c) Ps 63:3 (d) Prov 4:18
Author
William W. How (1823-1897)
Year Published
1871
Hymn Tune
RUTH
Metrical Number
6.5.6.5.D.
Composer
Samuel Smith (1821-1917)
Year Composed
1865
Theme
GRACE & MERCY OF GOD
Get the hymn sheet in other keys here
Notes
Get to know the hymns a little deeper with the SDA Hymnal Companion. Use our song leader’s notes to engage your congregation in singing with understanding. Even better, involve kids in learning this hymn with our homeschooling materials.
William Walsham How (1823-1897; see Biographies) wrote a special seasonal hymn entitled “Summer,” which began with the words of the second stanza in SDAH. The original, which appears in Church Hymns, 1871, of which How was one of the original compilers, has eight stanzas of four lines each, now adjusted to four stanzas of eight lines each. The words of the title in SDAH are the first line of How’s third stanza. The poem is based on Ecclesiastes 11:7, “Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.”
How, a humble bishop who took a personal interest in his flock, draws a spiritual lesson from nature, using the beneficent light of the summer sun as a symbol of God’s extensive mercy and love. Then he likens the darkness of the night to man’s spiritual blindness, asking God to shine His light on the spiritual darkness that beclouds our pilgrim journey to endless day.
RUTH was composed in 1865 by Samuel Smith (1821-1917), an organist of Windsor, England, and set to these words in 1874. It maintains a consistent rhythm, each of its eight lines beginning with a dotted quarter note followed by an eighth note. Smith was born August 29, 1821, in Eton, Buckinghamshire, England, right across the river from Windsor Castle. A chorister of the Chapel Royal, he sang at both the coronation and the funeral of King William IV (1830 and 1837). He filled organist posts at Hayes, Middlesex, Eaton, and Egham before his final job for 34 years at the parish church of Windsor. He taught music at Beaumont College and followed Elvey (see SDAH 223) as conductor of the Eton and Windsor Choral Society. He died at Windsor, Berkshire, on January 1, 1917.
-from Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White
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