There's Not a Bird with Lonely Nest

Representative Text

1 There’s not a bird with lonely nest,
In pathless wood or mountain crest,
Nor meaner thing, which does not share,
O God, in Thy paternal care.

2 Each barren crag, each desert rude,
Holds Thee within its solitude;
And Thou dost bless the wanderer there,
Who makes his solitary prayer.

3 In busy mart and crowded street,
No less than in the still retreat,
Thou, Lord, art near, our souls to bless
With all a parent’s tenderness!

4 And every moment still doth bring
Thy blessings on its loaded wing;
Widely they spread through earth and sky,
And last through all eternity!

Amen.

Source: Book of Worship with Hymns and Tunes #487

All representative texts • Compare texts • Text size: Regular | Large ^ top

Author: Baptist W. Noel

Noel, Hon. Baptist Wriothesley, M.A., younger son of Sir Gerard Noel Noel, Bart., and brother of the Earl of Gainsborough, was born at Leithmont, near Leith, July 10, 1799, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. Taking Holy Orders he was for some time Incumbent of St. John's Episcopal Chapel, Bedford Row, London, and Chaplain to the Queen; but in 1848 he seceded from the Church of England, and subsequently became a Baptist Minister. He was pastor of St. John's Street Chapel, Bedford Row, until 1868. He died Jan. 19, 1873. His prose works, about twelve in all, were published between 1847 and 1863. His association with hymnology is through:— (1) A Selection of Psalms and Hymns adapted chiefly for Congregational and Social Worship by… Go to person page >

^ top

Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	There's not a bird with lonely nest
Title:	There's Not a Bird with Lonely Nest
Author:	Baptist W. Noel (1832)
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

^ top

There's not a bird with lonely nest. W. B. Noel. [God the Divine Father of All.] This hymn was given anonymously in common with the rest of the hymns, in W. B. Noel’s Selection of Psalms and Hymns 1832 (ed. 1853, No. 561), in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. It is commonly attributed to W. B. Noel, and we see no reason to doubt the authorship. It is in several collections, but usually in an abbreviated form. In Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody, 1833, No. 37, it is given in its full form. In R. Bingham's Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1871, stanzas i., iii.-v., are rendered into Latin as, "Non avis est, nidum quae sola ponit eremo."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Notes

There's not a bird with lonely nest. W. B. Noel. [God the Divine Father of All.] This hymn was given anonymously in common with the rest of the hymns, in W. B. Noel’s Selection of Psalms and Hymns 1832 (ed. 1853, No. 561), in 7 stanzas of 4 lines. It is commonly attributed to W. B. Noel, and we see no reason to doubt the authorship. It is in several collections, but usually in an abbreviated form. In Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody, 1833, No. 37, it is given in its full form. In R. Bingham's Hymnologia Christiana Latina, 1871, stanzas i., iii.-v., are rendered into Latin as, "Non avis est, nidum quae sola ponit eremo."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Hymnary Pro Subscribers
Access an additional article on the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:

There's not a bird with lonely nest

Hymnary Pro subscribers have full access to the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Subscribe now

^ top

Tune

FAITHFULNESS (Macfarren)

WILMAR (Minns)

FESTUS

FESTUS is an abridgement of a tune published in Johann A. Freylinghausen's (PHH 34) Geistreiches Gesangbuch (1704)* as a setting for "O du Hüter Israel." The shortened tune was first published in the Bristol Tune Book (1863). The tune title presumably honors Festus, the Roman procurator of Judea (A…

Go to tune page >

All tunes published with 'There's Not a Bird with Lonely Nest'^ top