Scripture Verse

The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Job 38:7

Introduction

Words: Reg­in­ald He­ber, 1811. Heber orig­in­al­ly wrote this hymn for the Feast of the Epi­pha­ny. It was first pub­lished in the Chris­tian Ob­serv­er in 1811, but did not ap­pear in hymn­als un­til af­ter He­ber’s death.

Music: Morn­ing Star James P. Hard­ing, 1892 (🔊 pdf nwc). The tune was writ­ten to be used at the Gif­ford Hall Mis­sion in Lon­don.

Alternate Tunes:

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Hard­ing (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Reginald Heber (1783–1826)

Lyrics

Brightest and best of the sons of the morn­ing,
Dawn on our dark­ness and lend us Thine aid;
Star of the East, the ho­ri­zon adorn­ing,
Guide where our in­fant Re­deem­er is laid.

Cold on His cra­dle the dew­drops are shin­ing;
Low lies His head with the beasts of the stall;
Angels adore Him in slum­ber re­clin­ing,
Maker and Mon­arch and Sav­ior of all!

Say, shall we yield Him, in cost­ly de­vo­tion,
Odors of Ed­om and of­fer­ings di­vine?
Gems of the mount­ain and pearls of the ocean,
Myrrh from the for­est, or gold from the mine?

Vainly we of­fer each am­ple obla­tion,
Vainly with gifts would His fa­vor se­cure;
Richer by far is the heart’s ado­ra­tion,
Dearer to God are the pray­ers of the poor.

Hail the blest morn when the great Me­di­at­or
Down from the re­gions of glo­ry des­cends.
Shepherds, go wor­ship the Babe in the man­ger;
Lo! for His guard the bright an­gels attend.