Scripture Verse

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise. Matthew 21:16

Introduction

Words: F. E. Pett­in­gell, 1890. Ap­peared in Fair as the Morn­ing, ed­it­ed by John Kurz­en­kna­be & Will­iam W. Bent­ley (Har­ris­burg, Penn­syl­van­ia: J. H. Kurz­en­kna­be & Sons, 1891), num­ber 95.

Music: Far­ring­don John H. Kurz­en­kna­be (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know Pet­tin­gell’s full name, or where to get a good pho­to of her (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
John H. Kurzenknabe (1840–1927)

Lyrics

Above earth’s din and tur­moil
The Christ­mas mu­sic rings,
And back to Hea­ven’s por­tals
The an­gel cho­rus wings.

Refrain

And in that joy­ous cho­ral
The child­ren’s notes must blend,
For Je­sus came to bless them,
He is the child­ren’s friend.

A Babe of low­ly ad­vent,
A well be­lov­èd son,
He knows the needs of child­ren,
He loves each lit­tle one.

Refrain

A life sub­lime, un­self­ish,
A life of love He knew,
That He might be our pat­tern,
Might be the child­ren’s, too.

Refrain