3 O God! O Good beyond compare!
If thus Thy meaner works are fair,
If thus Thy bounties gild the span
Of ruin'd earth and sinful man,
How glorious must the mansion be,
Where Thy redeem'd shall dwell with Thee!

Bishop Reginald Heber [1827].

Bedford.

17.

WILLIAM WEALE, Mus. Bac.

1 THY goodness, Lord, our souls confess,
Thy goodness we adore;

A spring, whose blessings never fail,
A sea without a shore.

2 Sun, moon, and stars, Thy love attest
In every cheerful ray;

Love draws the curtains of the night,
And love restores the day.

3 Thy bounty every season crowns
With all the bliss it yields;
With joyful clusters bend the vines,
With harvests wave the fields.

4 But chiefly Thy compassions, Lord,
Are in the Gospel seen;

There, like the Sun, Thy mercy shines
Without a cloud between.

Thomas Gibbons, 1784.

1

YES, God is good; in earth and sky,

From ocean-depths and spreading wood,
Ten thousand voices seem to cry,

"God made us all, and God is good."
2 The sun that keeps his trackless way,
And downward pours his golden flood,
Night's sparkling hosts, all seem to say
In accents clear, that God is good.

3 The merry birds prolong the strain,
Their song with every spring renewed;
And balmy air, and falling rain,
Each softly whispers, "God is good."

4 I hear it in the rushing breeze;
The hills that have for ages stood,
The echoing sky and roaring seas,
All swell the chorus, "God is good."

5 Yes, God is good, all Nature says,

By God's own hand with speech endued;
And man, in louder notes of praise,
Should sing for joy that God is good.

6 For all Thy gifts we bless Thee, Lord;
But chiefly for our heavenly food,
Thy pardoning grace, Thy quick'ning word;
These prompt our song that God is good.

John Hampden Gurney, 1838-1851.