The first two stanzas are Lehman's own work. The third, by his own account, he heard in a camp meeting sermon. They were apparently lines "found written by a demented man on the wall of his narrow room in the asylum where he died"; those words are a translation of an Aramaic poem, "Haddamut", written ca. 1050 by Rabbi Meir of Worms, Germany. From the Qur'an (31st Sura) from the early 7th century there are these lines:
The first two stanzas are Lehman's own work. The third, by his own account, he heard in a camp meeting sermon. They were apparently lines "found written by a demented man on the wall of his narrow room in the asylum where he died"; those words are a translation of an Aramaic poem, "Haddamut", written ca. 1050 by Rabbi Meir of Worms, Germany. From the Qur'an (31st Sura) from the early 7th century there are these lines:
If all the trees on earth were pens,
and the ocean were ink,
replenished by seven more oceans,
the writing of God's wonderful signs and creations
would not be exhausted;
surely God is All-Mighty, All-Wise.
--based on The Hymn, vol. 64, no. 3, p. 42, in an article on Mennonite hymnody by Ken Nafziger, Professor of Music at Eastern Mennonite University and 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985