Valentine's Day III
This will definitely be the last in this series I have inadvertently fallen into. I do think Valentine's Day is a silly phenomenon, but it's one that it is difficult to ignore.
I have been listening to my Celtic Source CD at work today. I grew up in the Tamworth Reformed Church wherein we used a hymn book published by the Evangelical Movement of Wales. I still maintain that it is the best hymn book I have come across, though hymn books now seem to be a thing of the past. When I was in Cardiff I went along to Heath Evangelical Church, with about one thousand other people jammed into an old stone building, and heard Vernon Higham preach, and such a sermon it was, scattered with phrases from his own hymns and those of others. I felt that I had had a taste of the Welsh revival and the preaching of the likes of Charles Wesley all rolled into one.
Anyway, one of my personal favourite hymns from this book, which is also on my CD, was O the deep, deep love of Jesus. It was also a favourite of the church in Tamworth as a whole. I was on the music team for some time and we were mad about anything in a minor key, which we sang with a rousing melancholy.
Here it is, as a fitting end to Valentine's Day:
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me!
Underneath me, all around me,
Is the current of Thy love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Thy glorious rest above!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Spread His praise from shore to shore!
How He loveth, ever loveth,
Changeth never, nevermore!
How He watches o’er His loved ones,
Died to call them all His own;
How for them He intercedeth,
Watcheth o’er them from the throne!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Love of every love the best!
’Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
’Tis a haven sweet of rest!
O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
’Tis a heaven of heavens to me;
And it lifts me up to glory,
For it lifts me up to Thee!
Words: Samuel Trevor Francis
Music: Welsh Melody