O’er Judah’s Plains

O’er Ju­dah’s plains amidst the night

A more than mor­tal si­lence there

The star­ry hosts in squad­rons bright

Glow in the fir­ma­ment of air

While shep­herds watch their sleep­ing fold

Beneath that fret­ted arch of gold.

When lo! a stream of glo­ri­ous light

Bursts in ap­pall­ing splen­dor there

And showed to each as­ton­ished sight

An an­gel swift

and bright

and fair

An agent in the Gos­pel plan

Dispatched from Heav’n to mor­tal man.

With ra­di­ance in­ef­fa­ble

The her­ald an­gel stands con­fessed

And thence in li­quid sweet­ness fall

The ac­cents of the heav’n­ly guest;

Yet terrors now the shep­herds seize

But words of com­fort them ap­pease.

“Fear not! to you and all man­kind

Glad tid­ings of great joy I bring!

In Da­vid’s ci­ty ye shall find

A new born Sav­ior

Christ

the King

Whose sway from pole to pole ex­tends

And mer­cy with His jus­tice blends.

A man­ger is His hum­ble bed

And while the vir­gin mo­ther keeps

Her vi­gils round that ho­ly head

E’en there the world’s Re­deem­er sleeps

Enshrined for us in hu­man clay

To ush­er in the Gos­pel day.

The an­gel spake—his re­tin­ue

Confirm the mis­sion from ab­ove;

And loud and sweet the an­them grew

Of tri­umph and re­deem­ing love!

O what a theme for Heav’n and earth

The great Re­deem­er’s mor­tal birth!

Who

who but they

whose fa­vored eyes

Were blest with this apo­ca­lypse

Could speak an­gel­ic har­mo­nies

With gold­en harps and heav’n­ly lips?

Come

Ho­ly Ghost

and tune my heart

To sing a dy­ing sin­ner’s part.

As at cre­ation’s birth they sang

So now

they ju­bi­lant ex­ult;

Their voic­es then with prais­es rang

In glo­ry now to God re­sult;

And thus the lof­ty pre­lude ran

Glory to God

good will to man.

Unveiled ap­pear the glit­ter­ing throng

While hal­le­lu­jahs fill the sky;

Salvation is their joy­ful song;

All hail the Day-spring from on high;

And truth and mer­cy met

in­spire

The strains of the ce­les­ti­al choir.

As slow­ly now re­cede from earth

The rap­tured vis­it­ants from Heav­en

And die the songs of Je­su’s birth

Which the an­gel­ic host had giv­en

The shep­herds go in faith to see

The God made man for you and me.