Scripture Verse

The whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah 6:3

Introduction

portrait
William Havergal (1793–1870)

Words: Ann T. Gil­bert, 1827 (orig­in­al­ly, Spared to An­oth­er Spring). This hymn ap­peared, un­at­trib­ut­ed, in the Am­eri­can School Hymn Book, by Asa Fitz, 1854, & is some­times in­cor­rect­ly cred­it­ed to Fitz. The ver­sion be­low was pub­lished in the 1882 Col­lect­ion by God­frey Thring.

Music: Swa­bia Jo­hann M. Spiess, in Da­vids Harpf­fen-Spiel (Hei­del­berg, Ger­ma­ny: 1745). Ar­ranged by Will­iam H. Ha­ver­gal, 1847 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Gil­bert (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Great Giv­er of all good,
To Thee our thanks we yield
For all the beau­ties of the wood,
Of hill, and dale, and field.

Ten thou­sand var­ious flow­ers
To Thee sweet of­fer­ings bear,
And joy­ous birds in wood­lands bow­ers
Sing forth Thy ten­der care.

The fields on ev­ery side
The trees on ev­ery hill,
The glo­ri­ous sun, the roll­ing tide,
Proclaim Thy won­ders still.

But trees, and fields, and skies
Still praise a God un­known;
For gra­ti­tude and love can rise
From liv­ing hearts alone.

These liv­ing hearts of ours
Thy ho­ly name would bless;
The blos­soms of the thou­sand flow­ers
Would please the Sav­ior less.

While earth it­self de­cays,
Our souls can nev­er die;
O tune them all to sing Thy praise
In bet­ter songs on high.