All wise, all good, al­migh­ty Lord,
Jesus, by high­est Heav’n adored,
Ere time its course be­gan;
How did Thy glo­ri­ous mer­cy stoop,
To take Thy fall­en child­ren up,
When Thou Thy­self wert man?

Th’eter­nal God from Heav’n came down;
The King of glo­ry dropped His crown
And veiled His ma­jes­ty;
Emptied of all but love He came,
Jesus, I call Thee by the name,
Thy pi­ty bore for me.

O ho­ly Child, still let Thy birth
Bring peace to us poor worms of earth,
And praise to God on high!
Come, Thou who didst my flesh as­sume;
Now to the ab­ject sin­ner come,
And in a man­ger lie.

Didst Thou not in per­son join
The na­tures hu­man and di­vine,
That God and man might be
Henceforth in­se­pa­ra­bly one?
Haste then and make Thy na­ture known
Incarnated in me.

In my weak, sin­ful flesh ap­pear,
O God, be ma­ni­fest­ed here,
Peace, right­eous­ness and joy;
Thy king­dom, Lord, set up with­in
My faith­ful heart; and all my sin,
The dev­il’s works des­troy.

I long Thy com­ing to con­fess,
The mys­tic power of god­li­ness,
The life di­vine to prove,
The full­ness of Thy life to know,
Redeemed from all my sins be­low,
And per­fect­ed in love.

O Christ, my hope, make known to me
The great, the glo­ri­ous mys­te­ry
The hid­den life im­part;
Come, Thou De­sire of na­tions, come,
Formed in a spot­less vir­gin’s womb,
A pure, be­liev­ing heart.

Come quick­ly, dear­est Lord, that I
May own, tho’ An­ti­christ de­ny,
Thy in­car­na­tion’s pow­er:
May cry, a wit­ness to my Lord,
Come in my flesh is Christ the Word,
And I can sin no more!