O joy of earth! A Sav­ior’s birth
To fall­en man is grant­ed;
The song of love is sung above,
And shep­herds hear it chant­ed.

Their wake­ful eyes with glad sur­prise
See white-robed an­gels shin­ing;
The rav­ished ear a song can hear,
All me­lo­dy com­bin­ing:

Be glo­ry give­n in high­est Hea­ven,
To God through years un­end­ing;
On earth may peace and love in­crease
God will to men des­cend­ing.

In haste they seek that In­fant meek,
Whose cradle is a man­ger,
And at His feet with hom­age meet
They hail the Hea­ven-born stran­ger.

And we with them in Beth­le­hem
Will seek the Lord of glo­ry,
Will sing His praise through end­less days
And tell His won­drous st­ory.

Sweet Babe, so frail! The thorn, the nail
Shall cause Thee bit­ter sor­row;
But soon Thy night shall end in light,
And bring an East­er mor­row.

Thy star di­vine shall ev­er shine
To guide the pil­grim stran­ger;
While faith shall own Thy love alone,
And wor­ship at Thy man­ger!