Words: , “The Dream of Ge­ron­ti­us,” 1865. The ed­it­or of The Month: An Il­lus­trat­ed Mag­a­zine of Lit­er­a­ture, Sci­ence and Art asked New­man if he could con­trib­ute some­thing, and New­man sub­mit­ted this po­em. These lyr­ics ap­peared in hymn­als short­ly there­af­ter.

Music: Ge­ron­ti­us, , in Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1868. Al­ter­nate tune:

  • Rich­mond (Ha­weis), , Car­mi­na Chris­to, 1792

When Will­iam Ew­art Glad­stone, Eng­land’s “Grand Old Man,” lay dy­ing in his home, he fre­quent­ly quot­ed this hymn, find­ing in its no­ble sen­ti­ments a com­fort­ing sol­ace in his last days. Can­on Scott Holl­and in preach­ing at Saint Paul’s Ca­thed­ral pic­tured the dy­ing prime min­is­ter as “spend­ing his life in ben­e­dict­ion to those whom he leaves be­hind in this world and in thanks­giv­ing to God, to whom he re­hears­es over and over, day after day, New­man’s hymn of au­stere and splen­did ador­a­tion.”

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 fail,
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.