there’s a wideness

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 plentiful redemption

in the blood that has been shed;

there is joy for all the members

in the sorrows of the Head.




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.




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 our own;

and we magnify His strictness

with a zeal He will not own.




If our love were but more simple

we should take Him at His word;

and our lives would be illumined

by the presence of our Lord