God is love.@1 John 4:16
portrait
John Bowring (1792-1872)
© National Portrait Gallery

John Bow­ring, Hymns, 1825.

Sus­sex, En­glish mel­o­dy, adapt­ed by Ralph Vaugh­an Will­iams in The Eng­lish Hym­nal (Lon­don: Ox­ford Un­i­ver­si­ty Press, 1906), num­ber 239 (MIDI, NWC, PDF).

portrait
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

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.

Chance and change are busy ever;
Man decays and ages move;
But His mercy waneth never:
God is wisdom, God is love.

E’en the hour that darkest seemeth
Will His changeless goodness prove;
From the mist His brightness streameth:
God is wisdom, God is love.

He with earthly cares entwineth
Hope and comfort from above;
Everywhere His glory shineth:
God is wisdom, God is love.