There's a wideness in God's mercy

[ancientandmodern]

If my church had a signature tune, this would be it. Or perhaps it already does, and it is. 'Tune' is the operative word here; we sing it to Corvedale, as in the video below:

There's a wideness in God's mercy
like the wideness of the sea;
there's a kindness in his justice
which is more than liberty.

There is no place where earth's sorrows
are more felt than up in heaven;
there is no place where earth's failings
have such kindly judgement given.

For the love of God is broader
than the measures of man's mind;
and the heart of the Eternal
is most wonderfully kind.

But we make his love too narrow
by false limits of his own;
and we magnify his strictness
with a zeal he will not own.

There is plentiful redemption
in the blood that has been shed;
there is joy for all the members
in the sorrows of the Head.

There is welcome for the sinner,
and more graces for the good;
there is mercy with the Saviour;
there is healing in his blood.

There is grace enough for thousands
of new worlds as great as this;
there is room for fresh creations
in that upper home of bliss.

If our love were but more simple,
we should take him at his word;
and our lives would be all gladness
in the joy of Christ our Lord.

This is perhaps the best expression of the all-encompassing nature of divine love that I've ever come across. This is God inviting everyone into a house with many mansions. This is where justice and mercy have met together, where righteousness and peace have kissed each other, and where there is no room for anything that is not love.

This hymn tries to show that divine love is beyond human comprehension, and stretches beyond the limits of human love, that it is not our business to attempt to determine who is out and who is in. There is love, salvation, redemption, room, for everyone; the limits are our own invention. God calls everybody to him. There is room for everyone on this earth - and, the penultimate verse implies, beyond. We are all members of one body, and it is futile to pretend otherwise.

The verses that make up this hymn are excerpted from a longer work, 'Souls of men! why will ye scatter?. I was extremely surprised to learn today that the author, F. W. Faber, was, firstly not American, and secondly was an Anglican rector for two years before being received into the Roman Catholic Church at around the same time as some of the other Tractarians. I'd always assumed that this was a non-conformist number, and probably from the other side of the Atlantic, but there you go. It's by no means the first time I've been wrong, and it rather proves my point: this hymn tells us that there is room for everybody.

As with all popular hymns, the words, and the choice of verses, vary. The penultimate line in particular seems to be susceptible to alteration. I've seen 'would be all gladness', 'would be all sunshine', 'would be more loving', and 'would find assurance', and there are almost certainly more out there.

I've already found this sung to five different tunes on YouTube, and my musical director would be most disappointed to learn that only one of them is Maurice Bevan's 'Corvedale', which is admittedly brilliant. The tune I first sang this to was 'Daily, Daily', from the Paderborn Gesangbuch. Just for the heck of it, here it is in Swedish:

Here's another good one, 'Wellesley', written in 1878 by Lizzie Tourj&ecacute;e, and named after the college she attended:

Take him at his word.