PRAISE TO THE HOLIEST IN THE HEIGHT
"Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise Him in the heights." Psalms
148:1
Words: John Henry Newman, 1865. The lyrics are from Newman's poem,
"The Dream of Gerontius." The editor of the Catholic magazine The Month:
An Illustrated Magazine of Literature, Science and Art asked
Newman if he could contribute something, and Newman submitted the poem.
These lyrics appeared in hymnals shortly thereafter.
Music: "Gerontius," John Bacchus Dykes, 1868.
Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways.
O loving wisdom of our God!
When all was sin and shame,
A second Adam to the fight
And to the rescue came.
O wisest love! that flesh and blood,
Which did in Adam fall,
Should strive afresh against the foe,
Should strive and should prevail.
And that a higher gift than grace
Should flesh and blood refine,
God's Presence and His very Self,
And Essence all divine.
O generous love! that He, Who smote,
In Man for man the foe,
The double agony in Man
For man should undergo.
And in the garden secretly,
And on the Cross on high,
Should teach His brethren, and inspire
To suffer and to die.
Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways.