The Universal Bond of Love

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The glorious universe around

Author: James Montgomery
Published in 65 hymnals

Representative Text

1 The glorious universe around,
The heavens with all their train,
Sun, moon, and stars, are firmly bound
In one mysterious chain.

2 The earth, the ocean, and the sky
To form one world agree;
Where all that walk, or swim or fly,
Compose one family.

3 God in creation thus displays
His wisdom and his might,
While all his works with all his ways
Harmoniously unite.

4 In one fraternal bond of love,
One fellowship of mind,
The saints below and saints above
Their bliss and glory find.

5 Here, in their house of pilgrimage,
Thy statutes are their song;
There, through one bright, eternal age,
Thy praises they prolong.

6 Lord, may our union form a part
Of that thrice happy whole;
Derive its pulse from thee, the heart,
Its life from thee, the soul.

Source: The Voice of Praise: a collection of hymns for the use of the Methodist Church #513

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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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First Line:	The glorious universe around
Title:	The Universal Bond of Love
Author:	James Montgomery
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

The glorious universe around. J. Montgomery. [Communion of Saints.] This hymn appeared in the Leeds Selection of Hymns, Compiled and Original, &c, by E. Parsons and others, 1822, No. 829, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. In Montgomery's Christian Psalmist, 1825, No. 476, it was given with a slight revision and the addition of the stanza "The earth, the ocean, and the sky" as stanzas ii. in its revised form of 6 stanzas. The same text was repeated in his Original Hymns, 1853. In Spurgeon's Our Own Hymn Book, 1866, stanzas iv.-vi. of the 1825 text are given as "In one fraternal bond of love."

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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