I had the chance to take a hike with a good friend today. We went to Catoctin State Park and took the trail that led to Chimney Rock, where I took this picture. As you can see, it was a glorious fall day here in Maryland. It was good to get out, and it was great getting some strenuous exercise.
The trip reminded me of the adventures of Maltbie Babcock, a man I learned about a couple of years ago while making my annual retreat.
Maltbie Babcock was a Protestant minister in the 1800’s. You have to love an old fashioned name (unless it’s your’s) like Maltbie. I wonder where it came from? Anyway, Babcock lived in Lockport, New York, which was somewhere near Niagra Falls. It was beautiful country, and Babcock loved to take hikes around the area called the Niagra Escarpment. Each time he left his house for one of his adventures, he told his wife he was “going out to see his Father’s world.”
After Babcock died, his wife published one of his poems, “This is my Father’s World” which was later turned into a hymn. I hope you’ll have a chance to venture out to some park in your area this fall, so that you too can realize that we truly live in our Father’s world, a place which He created and proclaimed to be good. I hope old Maltbie’s words touch you as deeply as they did me. I’m going to be writing more about him and this poem in an upcoming blog.
Here’s “This is My Father’s World” by Maltbie Babcock. I’m glad his wife shared it with us:
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.
This is my Father’s world.
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
The battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.
This is my Father’s world,
Dreaming, I see His face.
I open my eyes, and in glad surprise
Cry, “The Lord is in this place!”
This is my Father’s world,
From the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His Only Son,
Came—a pledge of deathless love.
This is my Father’s world;
Should my heart be ever sad?
The Lord is King—let the heavens ring!
God reigns—let the earth be glad!
This is my Father’s world.
Now closer to Heaven bound,
For dear to God is the earth Christ trod,
No place but is holy ground.
This is my Father’s world.
I walk a desert lone.
In a bush ablaze to my wondering gaze
God makes His glory known.
This is my Father’s world;
A wanderer I may roam
Whate’er my lot, it matters not,
My heart is still at home.
