To wea­ry shep­herds sleep­ing,
A blind­ing light ap­peared;
And from their couch­es sleep­ing,
They scat­tered, all afeared;
But Ga­bri­el spake to calm them
From all that did alarm them.

With sil­ver wings and gold­en
A migh­ty host they saw;
Ne’er had their eyes be­hold­en
Such ma­jes­ty before.
Said Ga­bri­el that ev­en,
I come from God in Hea­ven.

And while his words they pon­der
The an­gel host around
Cried: In a man­ger yon­der
The King of kings is found!
Go shep­herds, do not tar­ry;
Your lov­ing hom­age car­ry.

In joy they turned their fac­es
To where they heard He lay,
And mer­ry were their pac­es
And songs up­on the way.
And when the dawn was creep­ing
They found Him sweet­ly sleep­ing.

Their gifts they laid around Him
With shy and hum­ble word,
And—hap­py to have found Him—
They lin­gered and adored.
While Ga­bri­el—up­ward wing­ing—
Now peace on earth! was sing­ing.