Clear Rings A Voice; It Chides The World

For Advent

Words: Vox clara ecce intonat. Original of En clara vox redarguit

Translation:  Alfred, Lord Braye, 1883.

Source: Orby Shipley, Annus Sanctus: Hymns of the Church for the Ecclesiastical Year. Vol. 1. (London and New York: Burns and Oates, 1884), pp. 4-5.

Clear rings a voice ; it chides the world 
In clouds of nightly dimness furled ; 
Darkness away, begone, vain dreams, 
Tis Christ from highest heaven gleams. 

Awake, ye souls, benumbed and chill, 
Stained, wounded, by your sinful will ; 
Lift up your eyes and see the star 
Whose rays are balm for every scar. 

Sent from above, the Lamb is nigh, 
To pay our debts he deigns to die ; 
Therefore forgiveness brought so near 
Make we our own by prayer and tear : 

So that hereafter, when he come 
To strike the world with judgment dumb, 
Our guilt may not provoke his arm, 
But mercy keep us from the harm. 

Praise, honour, power, glorious praise 
To Father and to Son upraise ; 
To Paraclete like tribute be, 
A triple praise eternally. 

Note from Shipley: 

4. Vox clara ecce intonat. Original of En, clara vox redarguit. Amkrosian Lauds Hymn from the Salisbury Breviary. Alfred, Lord Braye, 1883. 

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