O love, how deep, how broad, how high

This hymn is attributed to Thomas à Kempis, aka Thomas of Kempen (1380-1471), a German canon and author of Imitatio Christi (The Imitation of Christ).

Benjamin Webb (1819-1885) translated the text of eight stanzas into English. Webb was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, England. He was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1843. Webb wrote music and hymns, as well as translating the hymns of others. With William Cooke, he was editor of The Hymnary: a Book of Church Song (1872). This hymn appears there as No. 177, in eight stanzas, in Long Meter, with the heading “The love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.”

1. O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
How passing thought and phantasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortals’ sake!
 
2. He sent no angel to our race,
Of higher or of lower place,
But to this world himself he came,
And wore the robe of human frame.
 
3. Nor willed he only to appear;
His pleasure was to tarry here;
And God and Man with man would be
The space of thirty years and three.
 
4. For us baptized, for us he bore
His holy fast, and hungered sore;
For us temptation sharp he knew,
For us the tempter overthrew.
 
5. For us he preaches and he prays,
Would do all things, would try all ways;
By words and signs and actions, thus
Still seeking not himself, but us.
 
6. For us to wicked men betrayed,
Scourged, mocked, in crown of thorns arrayed,
For us he bore the cross’s death;
For us he gave his dying breath.
 
7. For us he rose from death again,
For us he went on high to reign;
For us he sent his Spirit here
To guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.
 
8. All honour, laud, and glory be,
O Jesu, Virgin-born, to Thee;
Whom with the Father we adore,
And Holy Ghost for evermore.