Scripture Verse

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

Introduction

portrait
Fanny Crosby (1820–1915)

Words: Fan­ny Cros­by, in Bright Me­lo­dies, ed­it­ed by John R. Swe­ney & How­ard Ent­wisle (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: John J. Hood, 1899), num­ber 188. Some hym­nals give the au­thor as Ida Scott Tay­lor, one of Fan­ny’s pseu­do­nyms. This song was ac­com­pa­nied by sug­gest­ed mo­tions for child­ren to make while sing­ing, shown in the foot­notes af­ter the text.

Music: Port­land J. How­ard Ent­wisle (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

Little bells of East­er, 1we will gent­ly sway,
Ringing chimes for Je­sus on this hap­py day;
2Nodding, gai­ly nod­ding, like the flow­ers we love,
Singing praise all our days for the King above.

Refrain

Bells of East­er gai­ly swing­ing to and fro,
Pealing out a glad­some lay as forth we go;
Jesus lives for­ev­er is the news we bring,
Blessèd tid­ings of sal­va­tion, Christ is king.

Little bells of East­er, 3swing­ing all in time,
4Round about to­ge­ther hear our ec­hoes chime;
Giving out the sun­shine as we pass you by,
Singing praise all our days to the King on high.

Refrain

Little bells of East­er, hap­py hearts have we,
In our master’s ser­vice faith­ful let us be;
Ever 5mov­ing on­ward step by step we’ll go,
Singing praise all our days while on earth be­low.

Refrain

1Swaying mo­tion

2Bowing

3Swinging arms

4Turning around

5Marching