Scripture Verse

Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Micah 5:2

Introduction

Words & Mu­sic: Em­ma F. Smith, in Car­ols of Hope, ed­ited by Clar­ence M. Sea­mans, Fred­er­ick S. Stan­ton & Fran­cis A. Black­mer (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Ad­vent Christ­ian Pub­li­ca­tion So­ci­ety, 1906), num­ber 166 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

illustration

Repeat the dear old sto­ry
Of the ro­yal Babe who came,
His throne a low­ly man­ger,
In far off Beth­le­hem.
Tell how the sweet girl mo­ther
Watched ov­er the sin­less One,
And in her pure heart pon­dered
The strange things that were done.

Refrain

Oh! tell the sto­ry over,
Its charm grows nev­er, nev­er dim;
The sto­ry of the Christ child,
The Babe of Beth­le­hem.

Tell how the shep­herds watch­ing,
As Da­vid watched of yore,
Heard won­drous song of an­gels,
Men nev­er heard be­fore.
Tell how they hast­ened quick­ly
To see the Babe whose birth
Could bring from Heav­en the an­gels
To sing of peace on earth.

Refrain

Tell how the wise men fol­lowed
The beau­te­ous guid­ing star
Which led them to the man­ger,
From coun­tries strange and far.
Tell of their low­ly wor­ship,
The roy­al gifts they brought,
Thereby to fit­ly ho­nor
The king­ly Babe they sought.

Refrain

The Babe soon left the man­ger,
The shep­herds might not stay,
The wise men to their coun­try
Returned an­oth­er way.
’Tis ag­es since the Christ child
Slept in the man­ger low,
But still we love its sto­ry:
That Christ­mas long ago.

Refrain