F.W. Faber

8.7.8.7.

SOULS of men, why will ye scatter

Like a crowd of frightened sheep?

Foolish hearts, why will ye wander

From a love so true and deep?

2

Was there ever kindest shepherd

Half so gentle, half so sweet,

As the Saviour who would have us

Come and gather round His feet?

3

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy

Like the wideness of the sea,

There’s a kindness in His justice

Which is more than liberty.

4

There is welcome for the sinner,

And more graces for the good;

There is mercy with the Saviour

There is healing in His blood.

5

There is plentiful redemption

In the blood that has been shed;

There is joy for all the members

In the sorrows of the Head.

6

For the love of God is broader

Than the measures of man’s mind;

And the heart of the Eternal

Is most wonderfully kind.

7

But we make His love too narrow

By false limits of our own;

And we magnify its strictness

With a zeal He will not own.

8

If our love were but more simple

We should take Him at His Word:

And our lives would be all sunshine

In the sweetness of our Lord.