This Is My Father’s World

This Is My Father’s World

In Baltimore, Maryland, there is a large and unusually beautiful stained glass window that shines colored light into one of the nations most historical churches, the Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church. The window was designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany himself.

It honors a man who pastored the church for 13 years. Maltbie Babcock was quite an amazing person. He had a quick and bright intellect which allowed him to excel in his studies. He was an accomplished musician and poet and, as a baseball player, he was gifted with a strong and agile body. As a speaker, he had an exquisite ability with words that made him extraordinarily popular with his congregation and his peers. He soon became known far beyond the walls of his own church. He was, in every sense of the word, a pastor’s pastor.

When he lived near Lake Ontario, earlier in his ministry, he would often venture out on long walks up to an overlook where he could see the beautiful scenery, stretching out to the lake. He would tell his wife, “I am going out to see my Father’s World.”

Tragedy struck young Maltbie on a trip to the holy land. On his return, he contracted Mediterranean Fever. He would not survive. He died in Naples, Italy, in May of 1901.

His death, at the age of 42, was a shock to the nation. Reverend Babcock had become something of a national treasure. It wasn’t until after his death that his wife uncovered an unpublished poem in his private papers that would become his lasting legacy. It was a poem describing the long walks he enjoyed in those early years of his life.

Once it was set to music, that poem would become one of the most popular hymns ever written. You and I know it today as, “This Is My Father’s World.”