Would Drain The Ocean Dry

From The Love of God
By Fred­er­ick M. Leh­man, 1917:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man 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.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.

8 Responses to this post.

  1. That’s very pretty.

    at 1:17 pm on January 21st, 2007

  2. Sometimes I wish we still talked like that.

    Oh friend of mine with wife that’s dear
    our eyes with longing for you tear,
    and look back to a sweet good day
    when in our abode you came to pray.

    at 1:38 pm on January 21st, 2007

  3. it took me like 2 minutes just to read the first line…and I still don’t get it!!!

    at 3:28 pm on January 21st, 2007

  4. A lot of the time I don’t sing hymns in church any more, just because I need to agree with what it says before I sing it - but I sang that gladly. Incredible song! And that verse was my favorite.

    at 8:03 pm on January 21st, 2007

  5. We used to sing this at school. Lehman found this verse written on the wall in an insane asylum, and used it in the hymn. It’s actually an old Jewish poem.

    Beautiful hymn.

    at 10:54 am on January 22nd, 2007

  6. For better or for worse, this has been one of my favorite hymns for three or four years now.

    at 11:09 am on January 22nd, 2007

  7. Thats old school for sure.

    at 5:29 pm on January 22nd, 2007

  8. I wish Jamie would write like that about me…

    at 1:32 pm on January 25th, 2007

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