Enjoying the Father’s World

Maltbie Davenport Babcock, a minister in upstate New York at the turn of the 20th century, often walked near Niagara Falls to enjoy the view of Lake Ontario and the surrounding scenery. He’d tell his wife he was “going to see the Father’s world.”

     After Babcock’s death in 1901, his wife, Katherine, published a book of his writings, including the 16-verse poem “My Father’s World.” Franklin Sheppard set it to music in 1915, using two verses of text for each hymn stanza.

This is my Father’s world,

and to my listening ears

all nature sings, and round me rings

the music of the spheres.

This is my Father’s world:

I rest me in the thought

of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;

his hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world,

the birds their carols raise,

the morning light, the lily white,

declare their maker’s praise.

This is my Father’s world:

he shines in all that’s fair;

in the rustling grass I hear him pass;

he speaks to me everywhere.