Love of Jesus

The author of this hymn, William Edensor Littlewood, was the son of George Littlewood and Catherine Stothart, born August 2, 1831, and died September 3, 1886. He married Laetitia Thornton and they had several children. According to John Julian in his Dictionary of Hymnology, Littlewood was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and served as Vicar of St. James, Bath, from 1872 to 1881, resigning because of his wife’s ill health.
 
The hymn first appeared in A Garland from the Parables in 1858. It is Hymn XXVI on page 56, with the heading from the text of John 10:11 - “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”
 
1. There is no love like the love of Jesus,
Never to fade or fall
’Till into the rest of the house of God
He has gathered us all!
 
2. There is no heart like the heart of Jesus,
Filled with a tender lore;
No throb nor throe that our hearts can know;
But he suffered before!
 
3. There is no eye like the eye of Jesus,
Piercing far away;
Never out of the sight of its tender light
Can the wanderer stray!
 
4. There is no voice like the voice of Jesus,
Ah! how sweet its chime;
Like musical ring of some rushing spring
In the bright summer-time!
 
5. O might we listen to the voice of Jesus!
O might we never roam;
’Till our souls should rest in peace on his breast,
In the heavenly home!

The following chorus or refrain appears with the hymn in Songs of Salvation by Theodore E. Perkins and Alfred Taylor, but not in A Garland from the Parables. Perkins, who wrote the tune, likely wrote or added the chorus. In Songs of Salvation, the song is titled Love of Jesus and associated with John 15:13a, “Greater love hath no man than this...”

Jesus’ love, precious love,
Boundless, and pure, and free;
Oh, turn to that love, weary wand’ring soul;
Jesus pleadeth for thee.