Scripture Verse

Let the little children come to Me. Luke 18:16

Introduction

portrait
Christoph von Schmid (1768–1854)

Words: Chris­toph von Schmid, 1798 (Ihr Kin­der­lein, kom­met, o kom­met doch all). His po­em Die Kin­der bei der Krip­pe (The Child­ren at the Man­ger) orig­in­al­ly had eight vers­es and was pub­lished in 1811. Schmid in­clud­ed it in his 1818 col­lect­ion Blü­ten dem blü­hen­den Al­ter ge­wid­met. Trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by El­la M. Ro­bin­son in The Con­cord Hym­nal (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: E. C. Schir­mer Mu­sic, 1920), page 103, alt.

Music: Adapt­ed from Jo­hann A. P. Schulz, 1790 (🔊 pdf nwc). Schulz wrote this mu­sic as a se­cu­lar song, Wie reiz­end, wie won­nig (How charm­ing, how plea­sant). Around 1832, the me­lo­dy was pub­lished with Schmid’s text in Sech­zig deutsche Lied­er für drei­ßig Pfen­nig (Six­ty Ger­man songs for thi­rty pen­nies) by Fried­rich Heinr­ich Eick­hof.

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

portrait
Johann A. P. Schulz (1747–1800)

Lyrics

O come, lit­tle child­ren,
With hur­ry­ing feet;
To Beth­le­hem hast­en,
A ba­by to greet.
God shows His great kind­ness
On this ho­ly night,
By send­ing the Christ-child
To bring us de­light.

He lies in a man­ger,
The beau­ti­ful Boy,
His mo­ther and fa­ther
Bend o’er Him with joy;
Some shep­herds kneel pray­ing,
Their hearts full of love;
The song of the an­gels
Floats down from above.

See, out from the man­ger
There streams a clear light,
That scat­ters the dark­ness
And shines through the night;
The face of the Ba­by
Who lies in that glow
Is fair­er and bright­er
Than an­gels, we know.

O kneel like the shep­herds,
Your hands fold in pray­er,
Give thanks, lit­tle child­ren,
For Je­sus so fair;
We’ll join with the an­gels,
Our voic­es we’ll raise,
And sing to our Fa­ther
A glad song of praise.