31 January 2023 Anno Domini, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 8:35-39; all scripture quoted is from the King James Version)
This is one of the most beautifully expressive hymns in the annals of hymnary. Both lyrics and tune are the authorship of Mr. Frederick M. Lehman around the year 1917. Though there is some dispute concerning the inspiration for the hymn, there is no doubt in the first two stanzas having been written by Lehman, and the third composed on the wall of either a prison or an insane asylum during the 11th century. Mr. Lehman seems to have been spiritually engrossed by a sermon he had heard on Sunday. He could not sleep until had transcribed the hymn on crates of oranges which he was packing. Obviously, a luxurious studio is not required when the Holy Spirit speaks love into the heart of His chosen vessel.
THE LOVE OF GOD
1 The love of God is greater far
than tongue or pen can ever tell;
it goes beyond the highest star,
and reaches to the lowest hell.
The wand’ring child is reconciled
by God’s beloved Son.
The aching soul again made whole,
and priceless pardon won.
Refrain:
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
the saints’ and angels’ song.
2 When ancient time shall pass away,
and human thrones and kingdoms fall;
when those who here refuse to pray
on rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
all measureless and strong;
grace will resound the whole earth round—
the saints’ and angels’ song. [Refrain]
3 Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made;
were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill,
and ev’ryone a scribe by trade;
to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry;
nor could the scroll contain the whole,
though stretched from sky to sky. [Refrain]
1 The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell; it goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell. The wand’ring child is reconciled by God’s beloved Son. The aching soul again made whole, and priceless pardon won. God is the source of ALL love. He is not only the Author of Liberty, but the Author of Love. Had He not loved us first, we could not have loved Him in return. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19We love him, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:18-19) As with all other assets of God, His love is immeasurable and infinite in its dimensions. Our love for Him is merely an echo of His love for us. The human vocabulary, regardless the language, if wholly inadequate to express fully that Love that God has for us and His Creation. It was the force that moved our Lord to create the Universe and all that is in it at the beginning. The wandering sinner, often the least likely to mankind to be granted, by the grace of God, salvation to eternal life, is never worthy of the grant – but is made worthy by the imputed righteousness and shed blood of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The dark and ugly pit of the heart, when filled with its Sovereign, Jesus Christ, is changed into a thing of beauty and grace.
2 When ancient time shall pass away, and human thrones and kingdoms fall; when those who here refuse to pray on rocks and hills and mountains call; God’s love so sure, shall still endure, all measureless and strong; grace will resound the whole earth round— the saints’ and angels’ song. [Refrain] Time is a spectrum created by God. God is outside of time for He is eternally the ‘I AM’ – yesterday, today, and forever. So is His love eternal. Those who possess that love of God shall learn that it is the one quality possession that survives death: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In Christ, there is no darkness, no death, and not absence of love. When nations have fallen into the dust of the ages, and mountains tremble, and the heavenly bodies are shaken, the Love of God will continue as an unabated Fountain of Living Waters. Those who reject God are not destroyed because of their hate, but for lack of their love and their rejection of the God of Heaven. The unrepentant sinner separates himself from God, not the other way around.
3 Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made; were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill, and ev’ryone a scribe by trade; to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. [Refrain]. This is the stanza ascribed to ‘anonymous,’ but I believe it is recorded by the Mind of God through the hands of a prisoner or insane asylum inmate. In this stanza, we find the most poetically beautiful lines of any hymn about which I have written. The fact that these lines reflect spiritual truth only adds to their beauty. The full measure of God’s love is comparable to His willingness to forget the sins of the penitent in such a measure as is expressed in the Psalms: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalms 103:12) It would take quite a time to get to the east while travelling west – in fact, an inifinity of time. Just as the Love of God places our sins as far as the east is from the west, so the ocean seas, if filled with ink, could not contain sufficient resources to write the full measure, nor would the scroll – stretched from sky to sky, be adequate to contain it.
REFRAIN:
O love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure—the saints’ and angels’ song. We are told by John that God is love: “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16 If we are in Christ, as our Ark of Salvation, can we not see how fully we shall not suffer real death. Having our security in Christ, death cannot enter. Living in the love of God, and God living in our hearts as His Temple, how shall our suffer loss at all. Referring back to our introductory text from Romans, we see that LOVE survives death. “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”(Gospel of St. John 11:25-26)
