Penciled on an Asylum Wall

In 1917 Frederick Lehman wrote The Love of God, a favorite hymn for many Christians. He didn’t actually write the whole hymn, however, but only the first two verses and the chorus. The second verse, which inspired the hymn, he had found penciled on the walls of a room in an insane asylum — the unknown author long passed away and buried. Here is what he read:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade.
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

God’s love for man is truly vast. He loved us so much that he sent his only Son to die for us — the greatest demonstration of love in the Universe — that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).