God Who Touches Earth with Beauty

DESCRIPTION: "God who touches earth with beauty, Make my heart anew. With your Spirit recreate me Pure and strong and true." The singer asks to share the virtues of nature, e.g. "Like the arching of the heavens, lift my thoughts above....."
AUTHOR: Words: Mary S. Edgar (1889-1973)
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Abingdon Song Book; Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad campsong
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 332, "God Who Touches Earth with Beauty" (notes only)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 53, "Camp Hymn" (1 text)
SongsOfManyNations, "God Who Touchest Earth with Beauty" (1 text) (CC edition, p. 84)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "For the Beauty of the Earth" (theme)
NOTES [114 words]: Hymnary.org shows this being sung to at least four different tunes, none of them dominant; the most common is "Geneva," by C. Harold Lowden, but it appears that less than half the hymnals which include it use that tune. I can't help but wonder if it was inspired by "For the Beauty of the Earth," which strikes me as being both more direct and as having a stronger melody. I can see why a nature camp would like this, but without a better tune, I doubt it has actually gone into tradition. I've included it from Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs because it meets my criteria (she says she found nine versions) -- but I wouldn't be surprised if every one of those nine was a print version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: ACSF332G

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