Desert Island Hymns

Today’s hymn choice for our Desert Island Hymn series comes from Carolyn Keep and comes from the pen of Frederick W. Fabre. 

Raised in the Church of England, Frederick W. Faber (b. Calverly, Yorkshire, England, 1814; d. Kensington, London, England, 1863) came from a Huguenot and strict Calvinistic family background. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and ordained in the Church of England in 1839. Influenced by the teaching of John Henry Newman, Faber followed Newman into the Roman Catholic Church in 1845 and served under Newman's supervision in the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. Because he believed that Roman Catholics should sing hymns like those written by John Newton, Charles Wesley, and William Cowper, Faber wrote 150 hymns himself.7

Calvinism was distinctive among 16th-century reform movements because of particular ideas about God's plan for the salvation of humanity, about the meaning and celebration of the sacraments, and about the danger posed by idolatry.

There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” celebrates the wideness of God’s mercy––”like the wideness of the sea.”  It celebrates God’s welcome for the sinner and the “good” person alike.  It reminds us that “the love of God is broader than the measure of our mind”––and therefore encourages us to broaden the measure of our own love so that it might be more like God’s love.  And, finally, it calls us to “rest upon God’s word” so that “our lives (may be) illumined by the presence of our Lord.”

1 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,

like the wideness of the sea.

There’s a kindness in God’s justice,

which is more than liberty.

2 There is welcome for the sinner,

and more graces for the good.

There is mercy with the Saviour,

there is healing in his blood.

3 But we make God’s love too narrow

by false limits of our own,

and we magnify its strictness

with a zeal God will not own.

4 For the love of God is broader

than the measures of the mind,

and the heart of the Eternal

is most wonderfully kind.

5 If our love were but more simple,

we should rest upon God’s word,

and our lives would be illumined

by the presence of our Lord.