Writing While Working

Frederick M. Lehman was born in Germany but began to follow Christ in Iowa, where he spent most of his childhood.

Lehman’s career spanned from being a pastor and businessman to working at a California packing house.

One day while packing oranges and lemons, he began to write a hymn in his mind beginning with the words, "The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell . . ."

After two stanzas and a refrain, he was at a loss for words until he returned home to compose the melody.

Remembering a poem he had previously written on a small card he was using as a bookmark, he pulled the card out and realized the poem fit perfectly as a third stanza.

It began, "Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the sky of parchment made . . . "

Then he saw the note written beneath the poem:

“These words were found written on a cell wall in a prison some 200 years ago. It is not known why the prisoner was incarcerated; neither is it known if the words were original or if he had heard them somewhere and had decided to put them in a place where he could be reminded of the greatness of God’s love.

Whatever the circumstances, he wrote them on the wall of his prison cell. In due time, he died and the men who had the job of repainting his cell were impressed by the words.

Before their paint brushes had obliterated them, one of the men jotted them down and thus they were preserved.”

The name of the prisoner was never discovered, but historians later found that it was originally a Hebrew poem composed by a Jewish rabbi living in Germany around the year 1,000 A.D.