Great Source of Being

Great source of be­ing and of love

Thou wa­ter­est all the worlds ab­ove

And all the joys we mor­tals know

From Thine ex­haust­less fount­ain flow.

A sac­red spring at Thy com­mand

From Zio­n’s mount

in Ca­naan’s land

Beside Thy tem­ple

cleaves the ground

And pours its lim­pid stream around.

The lim­pid stream with sud­den force

Swells to a riv­er in its course;

Through de­sert realms its wind­ings play

And scat­ter bless­ings all the way.

Close by its banks in or­der fair

The bloom­ing trees of life ap­pear;

Their blos­soms frag­rant od­ors give

And on their fruit the na­tions live.

To the dead sea the wa­ters flow

And car­ry heal­ing as they go;

Its poi­son­ous dregs their pow­er con­fess

And all its shores the fount­ain bless.

Flow

won­drous stream with glo­ry crowned

Flow on to earth’s re­mot­est bound;

And bear us on thy gen­tle wave

To Him

who all thy vir­tues gave.