Scripture Verse

God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. 1 Timothy 3:16

Introduction

Words: James Fanch, in the Gos­pel Ma­ga­zine, June 1776, page 287, alt. Orig­in­al first line: “Be­yond the glit­t’ring star­ry globes.” The ver­sion be­low was co­py­right­ed in 1889, and a­ppeared in Car­ols Old and Ca­rols New, by Charles L. Hutch­ins (Boston, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Par­ish Choir, 1916), num­ber 161.

Music: Dol­no­śląs­kie Frank O. Mar­vin, 1889 (🔊 pdf nwc) (re­peats last two lines of each stan­za).

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

portrait
Frank Marvin (1852–1915)

Lyrics

Beyond the star­ry skies,
Far as th’eter­nal hills,
There in the bound­less world of light
Our great Re­deem­er dwells.
Around Him an­gels fair
In count­less ar­mies shine;
And eve­r in ex­alt­ed lays—
They of­fer songs di­vine.

Hail, Prince of life! they cry,
Whose un­ex­am­pled love,
Moved Thee to quit these glor­ious realms
And roy­alt­ies ab­ove.
And when He stooped to earth,
And suf­fered rude dis­dain,
They cast their hon­ors at His feet,
And wait­ed in His train.

They saw Him on the cross,
While dark­ness veiled the skies,
And when He burst the gates of death,
They saw the Con­quer­or rise.
They thronged His char­iot wheels,
And bore Him to His throne;
Then swept their gold­en harps and sang,
The glor­ious work is done.