Beyond, beyond that boundless sea, Above that dome of sky

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Beyond, beyond that boundless sea, Above that dome of sky

Author: Josiah Conder
Published in 80 hymnals

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1. Beyond, beyond that boundless sea,
Above the dome of sky,
Farther than thought itself can flee,
Thy dwelling is on high;
Yet dear the awful thought to me,
That Thou, my God, art nigh.

2. Art nigh, and yet my laboring mind
Feels after Thee in vain,
Thee in these works of power to find,
Or to Thy seat attain;
Thy messenger, the stormy wind;
Thy path, the trackless main;

3. These speak of Thee with loud acclaim:
They thunder forth Thy praise,
The glorious honor of Thy name,
The wonders of Thy ways;
But Thou art not in tempest-flame,
Nor in day’s glorious blaze.

4. We hear Thy voice, when thunders roll
Through the wide fields of air:
The waves obey Thy dread control;
Yet still Thou art not there.
Where shall I find Him, O my soul,
Who yet is everywhere?

5. O! not in circling depth or height,
But in the conscious breast,
Present to faith, though veiled from sight,
There doth His Spirit rest.
O come, Thou Presence infinite!
And make Thy creature blest.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #494

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Author: Josiah Conder

Josiah Conder was born in London, in 1789. He became a publisher, and in 1814 became proprietor of "The Eclectic Review." Subsequently to 1824, he composed a series of descriptive works, called the "Modern Traveller," which appeared in thirty volumes. He also published several volumes of poems and hymns. He was the author of the first "Congregational Hymn Book" (1836). He died in 1855. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872.… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Beyond, beyond that boundless sea, Above that dome of sky
Author:	Josiah Conder
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Notes

Beyond, beyond the [that] boundless sea. J. Conder. [Omnipresence of the Holy Spirit.] Appeared in his Star in the East with Other Poems, 1824, pp. 74, 75, in 5 stanzas of 6 lines, headed, "A Thought on the Sea Shore, “Though He be not far from every one of us, Acts xvii. 27;" and dated, "Happisburgh, June, 1822." In 1856 it was repeated in his Hymns of Praise, Prayer, &c, p. 53, with slight changes in stanzas iv. and v. The congregational use of this hymnbook with Curtis's Union Collection, 1827, No. 21, and extended to Conder's Congregational Hymn Book, 1836; the Leeds Hymn Book 1853; the Baptist Psalms & Hymns, 1858; the New Congregational Hymn Book, 1859, and others. Its use is fairly extensive, both in Great Britain and in America. In Martineau's Hymns, 1840, and Hymns of Praise and Prayer, 1873, it leads—- "O God, beyond that boundless sea," and stanza iii. is also omitted.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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