Thanks for being a Hymnary.org user. You are one of more than 10 million people from 200-plus countries around the world who have benefitted from the Hymnary website in 2024! If you feel moved to support our work today with a gift of any amount and a word of encouragement, we would be grateful.

You can donate online at our secure giving site.

Or, if you'd like to make a gift by check, please make it out to CCEL and mail it to:
Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 3201 Burton Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546
And may the promise of Advent be yours this day and always.

Click here to donate to Hymnary.org I have already donated. Please don't show this to me again

God Is Love

Representative Text

1 God is love, His mercy brightens
all the path in which we rove;
bliss He wakes and woe He lightens:
God is wisdom, God is love.

2 Chance and change are busy ever,
man decays, and ages move;
but His mercy waning never:
God is wisdom, God is love.

3 Even the hour that darkest seeming,
will His changeless goodness prove;
from the mist His brightness streaming:
God is wisdom, God is love.

4 He with earthly cares entwining
hope and comfort from above;
everywhere His glory shining:
God is wisdom, God is love.

Source: The Irish Presbyterian Hymnbook #115

All representative texts • Compare texts^ top

Author: John Bowring

James Bowring was born at Exeter, in 1792. He possessed at an early age a remarkable power of attaining languages, and acquired some reputation by his metrical translations of foreign poems. He became editor of "The Westminster Review" in 1825, and was elected to Parliament in 1835. In 1849, he was appointed Consul at Canton, and in 1854, was made Governor of Hong Kong, and received the honour of knighthood. He is the author of some important works on politics and travel, and is the recipient of several testimonials from foreign governments and societies. His poems and hymns have also added to his reputation. His "Matins and Vespers" have passed through many editions. In religion he is a Unitarian. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charl… Go to person page >

^ top

Text Information

First Line: God is Love: His mercy brightens
Title: God Is Love
Author: John Bowring (1825)
Meter: 8.7.8.7
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain
^ top

Notes

God is love, His mercy brightens. Sir J. Bowring. [The Love of God.] This hymn is sometimes attributed in error to his Matins and Vespers, 1823. It actually appeared in his Hymns in 1825, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, stanza i. being repeated as stanza v. In 1853 it was given without the repetition of the first stanza, in the Leeds Hymn Book, from whence it passed into numerous collections. Its use in English-speaking countries is very extensive, and it has become one of the most popular of the author's hymns. Original text, Turing's Collection, No. 292, with “the mist," altered to "the gloom," and the omission of the repetition of stanza v. This is the generally accepted form of the hymn.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

^ top

Timeline

^ top

Instances

Instances (1 - 9 of 9)

AGO Founders Hymnal #53

AGO Founders Hymnal #53

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #43

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #43

Great Songs of the Church (Revised) #119

Great Songs of the Church (Revised) #119
Page Scan

Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition) #181

Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition) #181
Page Scan

Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition) #182

Praise for the Lord (Expanded Edition) #182
TextPage Scan

The A.M.E. Zion Hymnal #72

The A.M.E. Zion Hymnal #72

The Baptist Hymnal #74

The Baptist Hymnal #74
TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #1784

The Cyber Hymnal #1784
Text

The Irish Presbyterian Hymnbook #115

The Irish Presbyterian Hymnbook #115
Include 722 pre-1979 instances
All instances^ top
Suggestions or corrections? Contact us
It looks like you are using an ad-blocker. Ad revenue helps keep us running. Please consider white-listing Hymnary.org or getting Hymnary Pro to eliminate ads entirely and help support Hymnary.org.