The Unspeakable Glory of the Creator 



Dr. Arnold says of Friedrich Rudolf Ludwig Freiherr von Canitz:


Some may know the story of that German nobleman whose life had been dis­tin­guished alike by gen­i­us and world­ly dis­tinct­ion, and by Christian hol­i­ness; and who, in the last morn­ing of his life, when the dawn broke into his sick cham­ber, prayed that he might be sup­port­ed to the win­dow, and might look once again upon the ris­ing sun. Af­ter look­ing stead­i­ly at it for some time, he cried out, “Oh! if the ap­pear­ance of this earth­ly and cre­at­ed thing is so beau­ti­ful and quick­en­ing, how much more shall I be en­rap­tured at the sight of the un­speak­a­ble glo­ry of the Cre­a­tor Him­self.” That was the feel­ing of a man whose sense of earth­ly beau­ty had all the keen­ness of a poet’s en­thu­si­asm, but who, with­al, had in his great­est health and vig­our pre­served the con­scious­ness that his life was hid with Christ in God; that the things seen, how beau­ti­ful soever, were as no­thing to the things which are not seen.


Source:   The Cyberhymnal Website Page for von Canitz's hymn .