Here is love, vast as the ocean

Until the late 20th c this hymn seems to have been confined largely to Welsh and Pentecostal circles. It was one of William Rees’ posthumous contributions to the 1904 revival, since his Welsh text Dyma gariad fel y moroedd dates from the mid-19th c. He published it in 1847 as an addendum to a selection of hymns by Wm Williams Pantycelyn. The translation by William Edwards was enormously popular in the early 1900s, and nearly a century later has had its own small revival. For the Prince of life, cf 413; for the fountain, see Zechariah 13:1.

While the joint Calvinist and Wesleyan Methodist book of 1927–29 used only stz 1, hymnals of the Church in Wales have 3 stzs including one by Williams. Making Melody (1983) and The New Redemption Hymnal (1986) print 4, without ascription or ‘Anon’; the 3rd and 4th, ‘Let me all thy love accepting’ and ‘In thy truth thou dost direct me’, are a personal response to the 1st and 2nd. In Sing Glory (1999) two stzs by Richard Bewes are added to the original two; ‘Through the years of human darkness’ and ‘When the stars shall fall from heaven’ introduce these recently-written lines, which extend the theme to include the second coming and make the hymn even more appropriate for use at the Lord’s Supper. In 2002, a similar pair of stzs was sometimes added from a longer hymn by Simoney Girard: ‘Now restored to heaven’s splendour’ and ‘Though we walked in death’s dark shadow’. Alternatively, the hymn conductor Rhidian Griffiths of Aberystwyth is among those who repeat stz 1 (after 2) ‘because I feel that the close of the first stanza makes a better climax to the whole.’ See also HSB Vol 17 no. 1 (Jan 2003).

The tune DIM OND JESU (‘Only Jesus’), also a 19th-c product, was composed by the American Robert Lowry; but has been slower to make its way on that continent than in Britain. It has also been set to the much more recent 664, where Christopher Norton’s arrangement in the key of G is used. EBENEZER (325) and Smart’s BETHANY (115) have also been set to these words.

b Pembrokeshire, SW Wales 1848, d 1929. Pontypool Baptist Coll, Wales; Regents Pk Baptist Coll. He became a tutor at the Baptist Coll in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, and later returned to Pontypool as Principal and tutor in NT Gk. There he made a new Welsh translation of the NT. He championed the founding of Univ College in Cardiff, where his Pontypool Coll moved in 1893. A staunch Liberal in politics whose career overlapped with that of David Lloyd George, he became a well-known public speaker for this cause. No.424.

b Llansannan nr Denbigh (Clwyd) 1802, d 1883. He briefly attended the local school while also working on the family farm, largely teaching himself as he grew up from the Welsh literature available to him. While still farming as labourer and shepherd he began a preaching ministry in independent churches at the age of 27, and soon became an accredited Congregational minister. He served at Mostyn on the Flintshire coast (1831–37), Denbigh (1837–43) and Liverpool (his longest pastorate, 1843–75), and together with his brother Henry was widely recognised for his powerful preaching gifts. His writing featured in some politically radical newspaper articles, and in Liverpool he edited the Welsh journal Yr Amserau. He urged the abolition of American slavery. His popular lectures included a decisive address on Wm Williams Pantycelyn (qv) which alerted a new generation to the greatness of his preaching compatriot and hymnwriting predecessor. He also wrote under the name of Gwilym Hiraethog, by which he is sometimes best known in Wales. No.424.