In the beginning, God said Be

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In the beginning, God said Be

Author: James Montgomery
Published in 1 hymnal

Representative Text

In the beginning, God said "Be!"
And all things were,--heaven, earth, and sea:
God, in the end, once more will say,
"Perish!" and all shall pass away.

But Thou, O Lord! for ever art:
The orb of Thine eternity
Is one great whole, without a part;
Past, present, future, meet in Thee.

Convinced of sin, my soul would bend
Before Thee in the lowest dust;
Yet to Thy Throne by prayer ascend,
With trembling awe and childlike trust.

O look in loving-kindness down
On a frail worm with Thee at strife;
Eternal death were in Thy frown,
Thy smile will be eternal life!

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Author: James Montgomery

James Montgomery (b. Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 1771; d. Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, 1854), the son of Moravian parents who died on a West Indies mission field while he was in boarding school, Montgomery inherited a strong religious bent, a passion for missions, and an independent mind. He was editor of the Sheffield Iris (1796-1827), a newspaper that sometimes espoused radical causes. Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries. Associated with Christians of various persuasions, Montgomery supported missio… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	In the beginning, God said Be
Author:	James Montgomery
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Language:	English

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Notes

In the beginning God said "Be!" J. Montgomery. [Creation.] This hymn is dated in the original manuscript "Written at Dinsdale, Sep. 22, 1835." In 1853 it was included in Montgomery's Original Hymns, No. 2, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled "The Creation and Dissolution of all Things." Its use is limited.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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