Christmas Morning (Field)

The an­gel host that sped last night

Bearing the won­drous news afar

Came in their ev­er-glo­ri­ous flight

Unto a slum­ber­ing lit­tle star.

Awake and sing

O star! they cried.

Awake and glo­ri­fy the morn!

Herald the tid­ings far and wide

He that shall lead His flock is born!

The lit­tle star awoke and sung

As on­ly stars in rap­ture may

And pre­sent­ly where church bells hung

The joy­ous tid­ings found their way.

Awake

O bells! ’tis Christ­mas morn—

Awake and let thy mu­sic tell

To all man­kind that now is born

What Shep­herd loves His lamb­kins well!

Then rang the bells as fled the night

O’er dream­ing land and drows­ing deep

And com­ing with the morn­ing light

They called

my child

to you asleep.

Sweetly and ten­der­ly they spoke

And lin­ger­ing round your lit­tle bed

Their music plead­ed till you woke

And this is what their mu­sic said:

Awake and sing! ’tis Christ­mas morn

Whereon all earth sa­lutes her king!

In Beth­le­hem is the Shep­herd born.

Awake

O lit­tle lamb

and sing!

So

dear my child

kneel at my feet

And with those voic­es from above

Share thou this ho­ly time with me

The uni­vers­al hymn of love.