Arise, And Hail The Sacred Day

For Christmas

Alternate Title: "Old Christmas Hymn"

Words: Attribution is to "A Good Christmas Box"

Music: Arthur Henry Brown
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF

Source: Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer, Christmas Carols New and Old (London: Novello, Ewer & Co., ca 1878), Carol# 58.

1. Arise, and hail the Sacred Day,
Cast all low cares of life away,
And thoughts of meaner things;
This day to cure our deadly woes,
The Sun of Righteousness arose
With healing in His wings.

2. If Angels, on that happy morn
The Saviour of the world was born,
Poured forth seraphic songs;
Much more should we of human race
Adore the wonders of His grace,
To whom that grace belongs.

3. How wonderful, how vast His love,
Who left the shining realms above,
Those happy seats of rest;
How much for lost mankind He bore,
Their peace and pardon to restore,
Can never be exprest.

4. While we adore His boundless grace,
And pious joy and mirth take place
Of sorrow, grief, and pain,
Give glory to our God on high,
And not among the general joy
Forget good-will to men.

5. O then let Heaven and earth rejoice,
Creation's whole united voice,
And hymn the Sacred1 Day,
When sin and Satan vanquished fell,
And all the powers of death and hell,
Before His sovereign sway.

Footnote:

1. Or: "And hymn the happy day." A Good Christmas Box. Return

Sheet Music from Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer, Christmas Carols New and Old (London: Novello, Ewer & Co., ca 1878).

Sheet Music from Arthur Henry Brown, ed., In Excelsis Gloria-Carols for Christmastide (London: Thomas Bosworth & Co., 1885), Carol #15, pp. 30-31.

Note: There is also a musical setting by Joseph Stephenson, 1723 - 1810, clerk at the Unitarian Church in Poole, Dorset.

Also found in G. Walters, A Good Christmas Box (Dudley: G. Walters, 1847, Reprinted by Michael Raven, 2007), pp. 38-39.

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