404. Immortal Love, for ever full
C.M.
Fingal:
James S. Anderson, 1885
Walsall:
Attr. to Henry Purcell (1658-1695);
Wilkin's Psalmody, 1699
John G. Whittier, 1866
Immortal Love, for ever full, For ever flowing free, For ever shared, for ever whole, A never-ebbing sea! | Our outward lips confess the Name All other names above; Love only knoweth whence it came, And comprehendeth love. | We may not climb the heavenly steeps To bring the Lord Christ down; In vain we search the lowest deeps, For him no depths can drown: | But warm, sweet, tender, even yet A present help is he; And faith has still its Olivet, And love its Galilee. | The healing of his seamless dress Is by our beds of pain; We touch him in life's throng and press, And we are whole again. | Through him the first fond prayers are said Our lips of childhood frame; The last low whispers of our dead Are burdened with his Name. | 368 O Lord, and Master of us all, Whate'er our name or sign, We own thy sway, we hear thy call, We test our lives by thine. | |