Anthem
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy Maurice Bevan
(1921-2006)
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in God’s 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 judgment given.
For the love of God is broader than the measure of one’s mind;
And the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.
But we make God’s love too narrow by false limits of our own;
And we magnify God’s strictness with a zeal God 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 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 God at God’s word;
And our lives would be all gladness in the joy of Christ our Lord.
Frederick William Faber
