There is a God, all Nature cries

Representative Text

"There is a God," all Nature cries,
All Knowledge proves "there is a God:"
"There is no God," the Fool replies,
Whose heart is duller than the clod.

The grateful clod, refresh'd with rains,
Pours flowers along its Maker's path;
But the Fool's heart a Fool's remains,
Untouch'd by love, unmoved by wrath.

And yet the wretch himself deceives;
While fiends believe, and trembling fly,
He trembles though he disbelieves;
And conscience gives his life the lie.

Can guilt, can madness further go?
Yes, his who God in works denies,
Whose creed saith "Yes," whose life says "No:"
Am I more holy, just, and wise?

My soul, sink down in shame and grief;
So fair without, so foul within;
Thy faith is specious unbelief,
Thy righteousness, self-righteous sin.

7
O God! Thou art, Thou surely art,
And those who truly seek Thee find;
Put Thou Thy laws into my heart,
In mercy write them on my mind.

Light in Thy light I long to see,
Thy glory in Thy goodness trace;
Ah! then reveal Thy Son in me,
Through faith may I be saved by grace.

Source: Sacred Poems and Hymns #6

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Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	There is a God, all Nature cries
Author:	James Montgomery
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

There is a God, all nature cries. J. Montgomery. [Nature's witness to the Existence of God.] The manuscript of this hymn is dated "January 8, 1838." It was included in Montgomery's Original Hymns, 1853, No. 6, in 7 stanzas of 4 lines, and headed "The Guilt and Folly of denying God." It must be distinguished from Miss Steele's "There is a God, all nature speaks," which is also in common use.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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