Scripture Verse

There were…shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:8–11

Introduction

Words: Ca­ro­line L. Shack­lock, in Sab­bath Car­ols, ed­it­ed by R. B. Ma­haf­fey (Alt­oo­na, Penn­syl­van­ia: R. B. Ma­haf­fey, 1881), pag­es 20–21.

Music: Gros­se­to T. Frank All­en (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

With no pomp of earth­ly splen­dor
Comes the Sav­ior, pro­mised long,
Heralded by an­gel voic­es,
Blending in tri­um­phant song;
On the shep­herds’ lone­ly vi­gil
Falls the ra­di­ance from afar;
Seek they now the new­born Mon­arch,
Guided by the east­ern star.

Refrain

Bow be­fore Him, and ad­ore Him;
At His feet your of­fer­ing fling;
Child in form, yet Lord of glo­ry,
Christ of Heav’n and earth the King.

Humbly cra­dled in a man­ger
Helpless lies the slum­ber­ing Child,
Guarded by the vir­gin mo­ther,
Meek and low­ly, un­de­filed.
God with us, oh, bless­èd pro­mise!
Name all oth­er names above;
Human for our sins to suf­fer,
But di­vine in match­less love.

Refrain