Come Ye Thankful People

Compare: Irish Carol (Alternate Title: Christmas Day Is Come)

Words: Irish folk carol, possibly by Fr. Willian Devereaux (ca. 1728);
translator Anne Scott.
Attribution to Bishop Luke Wadding is probably incorrect.
See: Compare Ye Thankful People (translation by Anne Scott)

Music: Irish folk carol, 16th or 17th Century
See #163, New Oxford Book of Carols, 1992
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / PDF

1. Come, ye thankful people, and welcome Christ to earth
With songs of joy and gladness at this amazing birth.
For now within the manger the new-born Baby lies;
For him the angels' music is ringing through the skies,

They hail with adoration the one eternal Word
That has to earth descended to be by all men heard.
They hail with adoration the one eternal Word
That has to earth descended to be by all men heard.

2. A maiden and a baby, a stable cold and bare,
Yet never was there palace that could with this compare,
For here the Queen of angels her son and God adores
While he his heavenly Father for all mankind implores.

He comes from highest heaven to end our woe and strife,
That we may live for ever with his celestial life.
He comes from highest heaven to end our woe and strife,
That we may live for ever with his celestial life.

3. "Holy, Holy, Holy" the glorious angels cry,
And "Holy, Holy, Holy" let Christians now reply.
Gold and myrrh and incense are gifts from Eastern kings,
But prayer and adoration the poorest of us brings,

As singing with the angels "Nowell, nowell, nowell",
We worship the manger our Lord, Emmanuel.
As singing with the angels "Nowell, nowell, nowell",
We worship the manger our Lord, Emmanuel.

 

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