Such is the title of a hymn, written by F. M. Lehman in 1945, which I have in my “Old Fashioned Revival Hour Songs”, published in 1950. There’s a very good reason for printing the words of this song. Please read along with me –
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 guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure – the saints’, and angels’ song.When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race –
The saints’ and angels’ song.Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure – the saints’, and angels’ song.
These are wonderful and heart-warming words of utter truth, a reflection of the author’s own experience to be sure. I had no personal knowledge of Lehman. Maybe some of our older American friends had. I’d be glad to know. But one more verse was added to this song with an amazing tale behind it. The footnote on the page says, “The last stanza of this song was pencilled on the wall of a narrow room of an asylum by a man said to have been demented. The profound lines were discovered after his death.” Here are the words –
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill,
And ev’ry man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Tho‘ stretched from sky to sky.
If that is the outpouring of a demented mind, we can but marvel. May God rest his soul, and reward him for his “magnum opus” of life.
