My Father’s World

This is my Father’s world.
On the day of its wonderous birth
The stars of light in phalanx bright
Sang out in Heavenly mirth.

This is my Father’s world.
E’en yet to my listening ears
All nature sings, and around me rings
The music of the spheres.

This is my Father’s world.
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world.
The birds that their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.

This is my Father’s world.
He shines in all that’s fair.
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father’s world.
From His eternal throne,
He watch doth keep when I’m asleep,
And I am not alone.

This is my Father’s world
Dreaming, I see His face.
I ope my eyes, and in glad surprise
Cry, “The Lord is in this place.”

This is my Father’s world.
I walk a desert lone.
In a bush ablaze to my wondering gaze
God makes His glory known.

This is my Father’s world.
Among the mountains drear,
‘Mid rending rocks and earthquake shocks,
The still, small voice I hear.

This is my Father’s world.
From the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His only Son,
Came—a pledge of deathless love.

This is my Father’s world.
Now closer to Heaven bound,
For dear to god is the earth Christ trod,
No place but is holy ground.

This is my Father’s world.
His love has filled my breast,
I am reconciled, I am His child,
My soul has found His rest.

This is my Father’s world.
A wanderer I may roam,
Whate’er my lot, it matters not,
My heart is still at home.

This is my Father’s world.
O let me ne’er forget
That tho’ the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.

This is my Father’s world
The battle is not done.
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heaven be one.

This is my Father’s world.
Should my heart be ever sad?
The Lord is King—let the Heavens ring
God reigns—let the earth be glad.

Maltbie Davenport Babcock (1868-1901) was a prominent Presbyterian pastor who led Baltimore’s Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church and Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City. Known for “a remarkable personal magnetism” and for having “lived, or sung his thoughts,” Babcock also struggled with depression and died of suicide amid a brucellosis infection. After his death, his wife published “This Is My Father’s World” along with his sermons and writings in Thoughts for Every-day Living from the Spoken and Written Words of Maltbie Davenport Babcock (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901). Six stanzas first appeared as a hymn in the 1915 Presbyterian hymnal Alleluia.

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