WE MAY NOT CLIMB THE HEAVENLY STEEPS
"No one has ever gone into heaven except the one Who came from
heaven--the Son of Man." John 3:13
Words: John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892). This hymn, and Immortal
Love, Forever Full, come from Whittier's poem "The Master," in The
Panorama, and other Poems, 1856.
Music: "Serenity," Uzziah Christopher Burnap, 1856.
We may not climb the heavenly steeps
To bring the Lord Christ down;
In vain we search the lowest deeps,
For Him no depths can drown.
But warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is He;
And faith has still its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.
The healing of the seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;
We touch Him in life's throng and press,
And we are whole again.
Through Him the first fond prayers are said
Our lips of childhood frame;
The last low whispers of our dead
Are burdened with His Name.
O Lord and Master of us all,
Whate'er our name or sign,
We own Thy sway, we hear Thy call,
We test our lives by Thine!