God’s green Earth: the origin of the phrase appears to be a sacred poem, “The Spirit of The Seasons,” by the Reverend W. M. Hetherington, available on Google Book Search. It begins:
Он ! beautiful is God’s green earth I
When in the gentle Spring
Its flowery beauties leap to birth,And wild-wood echoes ring.
Instructive with melodious joy,
Glad Nature’s anthem pure and high,
To Him whose goodness gave them birth :—
Oh ! beautiful ia God’s green earth!
I’d like to see one of today’s pastors knock out something like this!
In the original, “earth” is lower-cased, but modern style is to capitalize “Earth.”
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