Scripture Verse

God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24

Introduction

Words: John Need­ham, Hymns De­vo­tion­al and Mo­ral on Va­ri­ous Sub­jects (Bris­tol, Eng­land: S. Far­ley, 1768), num­ber 8.

Music: De­Pauw Ro­bert G. Mc­Cutch­an, 1930 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

portrait
Robert G. McCutchan (1877–1958)

Lyrics

Thou art, O God! a Spi­rit pure,
Invisible to mor­tal eyes;
Th’immortal, and th’eter­nal King,
The great, the good, the only wise.

Whilst na­ture ­, and her works
Corrupt, de­cay, dis­solve and die,
Thy es­sence pure no change shall see,
Secure of im­mor­ta­li­ty.

Thou great in­vi­si­ble! what hand
Can draw Thy im­age spot­less fair?
To what in Hea­ven, to what on earth
Can men th’im­mor­tal King com­pare?

Let stu­pid hea­thens frame their gods
Of gold and sil­ver, wood and stone;
Ours is the God that made the hea­vens,
Jehovah He, and God alone.

My soul, Thy pur­est hom­age pay,
In truth and spi­rit Him adore;
More shall this please than sac­ri­fice,
Than out­ward forms de­light Him more.