The classic hymn “There is a Wideness in God’s Mercy” expresses the magnitude of God’s mercy toward us and how His grace abounds in our Christian journey. As Kaitlin Wernet wrote in her She Read Truth blog on this hymn’s topic, in Christ, she found “space for God’s grace, space to be found, space to be known, space to be welcomed, space to be home. Christ Himself was the spacious refuge I’d been looking for all along.” Wideness is a trait of our merciful God, who accepts and gently leads us as His children.
Frederick William Faber (1814–1863), an English minister and Catholic priest, was born into a strict Calvinistic family, but that did not diminish his creative spirit. Before he wrote hymn lyrics, Faber wrote prose and poetry as a minister of the Church of England. He published several theological works, a retelling of the Sir Lancelot legend in poetic form, and a large volume of poetry. His poem “Come to Jesus” contains the lyrics to “There is a Wideness in God’s Mercy.”
Faber left the Church of England when he was 30 to become a Roman Catholic priest. As a priest, Faber wrote lyrics for about 150 hymn tunes in the style and spirit of Protestant hymns. “There is a Wideness in God’s Mercy” and “Faith of Our Fathers” are two of his more popular hymns. His poems were first published in 1849 when 11 were published for the School at St. Wilfrid’s in Staffordshire to perform. A hundred and fifty of his hymns were printed in the 1862 collection Faber’s Hymns.
While some have argued that Faber’s work lacked sophistication, he made up for any stylistic limits with his enthusiasm and adoration. John Julian wrote in his 1907 book Dictionary of Hymnology that though Faber had an “ignorance of music” and wrote with “very glaring literary defects,” these hymns became popular with a “. . . country congregation . . . They excel in directness, simplicity, and pathos.” Rural Catholics, Faber found, were hungry for hymns they could sing.
Lizzie Tourjee Estabroock (1858–1913) set Frederick Faber’s “Come to Jesus” poem to music for her high school graduation ceremony. Tourjee was the daughter of a renowned musician—the founder of the New England Conservatory of Music—who encouraged her to compose music. Her father included his daughter’s composition of “There is a Wideness in God’s Mercy” in the 1878 edition of the Methodist hymnal. He named his daughter’s melody after her college alma mater—Wellesley. After she married Franklin Estabrook in 1883, Lizzie Tourjee Estabrook taught music and was an organist in Massachusetts.
Calvin Hampton (1938-1984) gave “There is a Wideness in God’s Mercy” a second incarnation in 1977. Hampton reset the hymn lyrics to the St. Helena melody composed by Benjamin Milgrove (1731-1810). A blurb on a website for purchasing the music states, “Faber’s familiar text has been robed in a modern tune with a flowing accompaniment.”
Calvin Hampton, who was once called “the greatest living writer of hymn tunes,” wrote organ music and hymn tunes in the second half of the twentieth century. In 2020, St. Gregory Episcopal Church of San Francisco performed an online acapella rendition of “There is a Wideness in God’s Mercy” to inspire a pandemic-weary audience.
In his obituary in the New York Times, Calvin Hampton is described as a “prolific and eclectic composer, utilizing such diverse elements as rock, gospel hymns, synthesizers and quarter tones in his works.” For 20 years, he was the organist and choirmaster in Manhattan at the Parish of Calvary, Holy Communion, and St. George's. From 1972 until 1982, he offered free midnight concerts every Friday at Calvary Episcopal Church.
The complete lyrics to the original poem “Come to Jesus” are:
Souls of men! why will ye scatter
Like a crowd of frightened sheep?
Foolish hearts! why will ye wander
From a love so true and deep?Was there ever kindest shepherd
Half so gentle, half so sweet,
As the Saviour who would have us
Come and gather round his feet?There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in his justice
Which is more than liberty.There is welcome for the sinner,
And more graces for the good;
There is mercy with the Saviour;
There is healing in his blood.But we make his love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we lose the tender shepherd
In the judge upon the throne.For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of man’s mind;
And the heart of the eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
The first stanza is usually left out of hymn performances.
The prophet who wrote the poetry of the book of Psalms addresses God’s wideness and space: “He brought me out to a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me” Psalm 18:19). In one of the most beautiful passages in Psalms, the prophet writes, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” (Psalm 139:7-9). God’s wideness enables Him to be omnipresent—He knows what is happening in all parts of His creation. This includes observing all human behavior. He is a watchful parent as we travel through life.
The last stanza of “There is a Wideness in God’s Mercy” describes our understanding of mercy as part of attaining human wisdom: “For the love of God is broader/Than the measure of our mind.” As I Corinthians 13:12 says, “Your understanding is not my understanding/Now we see through a glass, darkly.” Faber echoed this idea in his fourth stanza lyrics when he wrote, “And the heart of the Eternal/Is most wonderfully kind./If our love were but more simple,/We should take Him at His word.” God’s love and understanding is often beyond our comprehension.
The wideness of God’s mercy is evident to all Christians, however, in His sacrifice of His only Son Jesus (John 3:16). And Jesus himself, though of God, was “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Jesus understood and endured the worst of earthly troubles. I imagine He mourns with us still. As the second stanza lyrics to “There is a Wideness in God Mercy” claim, “There is plentiful redemption/In the blood that has been shed;/There is joy for all the members/In the sorrows of the Head.”
Our God is a big and wide God, welcoming us to Him with open arms and lots of space to grow. He is bigger than any problem we might have. As is written in Psalms 86:15, “But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
It is as refreshing as a spring rain to read how big God’s love is, how it “surpasses knowledge” and fills the empty places in our souls. Ephesians 3:17-19 says, “. . . I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Faber echoes this sentiment in the first stanza of the lyrics: “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,/Like the wideness of the sea” and in the second stanza: “There is no place where earth’s failings/Have such kindly judgment given.” Indeed, the hymn joyfully reminds us of God’s mercy in every circumstance.
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