A GREAT AND MIGHTY WONDER

For Christmas

Version 2
Compare: A Great and Mighty Wonder - Version 2

Words: Words: St. Germanus  (A.D. 634--A.D. 734)¹
Translation: Rev. John Mason Neale, D.D., Hymns of the Eastern Church (1862), alt.

Music: "Rejoicing," J. J. Wolder;
"Abide in Grace," Melchoir Vulpius, 1609 (Meter: 7 6 4L);
"St. Alphege," Henry John Gauntlett, 1805-1876 (Meter: 7 6, 7 6)

Source: O. Hardwig, ed., The Wartburg Hymnal (Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House, 1918), #121.

1. A great and mighty wonder
    Our Christmas festal brings:
On earth a lowly infant,
    Behold the King of kings!²

2. The Word is made incarnate,
    Descending from on high;³
And cherubim sing anthems
    To shepherds from the sky.

3. And we with them, triumphant,
    Repeat the hymn again:
"To God on high be glory,
    And peace on earth to men!"

4. While thus they sing your Monarch,
    Those bright angelic bands,
Rejoice, ye vales and mountains!
    Ye oceans, clap your hands!

5. Since all He comes to ransom,
    By all be He adored;
The Infant born in Bethlehem,
    The Savior and the Lord!

6. And⁴ idol forms shall perish,
    And error shall decay,
And Christ shall wield His scepter,
    Our Lord and God for aye.

Notes:

1. Hardwig gives attribution to Anatolius, following Rev. John Mason Neale in Hymns of the Eastern Church (First Edition of 1862). Other sources however, give attribution to St. Germanus, presumably following the lead of Very Rev. Stephen Georgeson Hatherly, Mus. B., Archpriest of the Patriarchal Æcumenical Throne, in the Fourth Edition of Neale's Hymns:

• The Concordia Hymnal gives the following attribution: "St. Germanus, 634-734, translated to English by Joseph M. Neale, 1862."
• The Service Book and Hymnal of the Lutheran Church of America (1958) gives the following attribution: "St. Germanus, cir. 634-734, Tr., John Mason Neale, 1818-66, a."
• The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) cites "St. Germanus, 734, Tr., John M. Neale, 1862, ab."
• The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church (1940) gives "St. Germanus, 634-734; … after J. M. Neale." 

Return

2. Or:

1. A great and mighty wonder,
    Of sin and death the cure;
The Virgin bears the Infant
    With Virgin-honour pure. Return

3. Or: And yet remains on high: Return

4. Or: Now Return

Sheet Music "Rejoicing" by J. J. Wolder from O. Hardwig, ed., The Wartburg Hymnal (Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House, 1918), #121

Sheet Music "Abide in Grace" by Melchoir Vulpius from Andreas Bersagel, et al, eds., The Concordia Hymnal (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1932), #128

Sheet Music from J. H. Hopkins, ed., Great Hymns of the Church Compiled by the Late Right Reverend John Freeman Young (New York: James Pott & Company, 1887), #59, p. 92.

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