1. From lands that see the sun arise,
To earth’s remotest boundaries,
The virgin born today we sing,
The Son of Mary, Christ the King.

2. Blest Author of this earthly frame,
To take a servant’s form he came,
That, liberating flesh by flesh,
Whom He had made might live afresh.

3. In that chaste parent’s holy womb,
Celestial grace hath found its home:
And she, as earthly bride unknown,
Yet call that Offspring blest her own.

4. The mansion of the modest breast
Becomes a shrine where God shall rest:
The pure and undefiled one
Conceived in her womb the Son.¹

5. That Son, that Royal Son she bore,
Whom Gabriel had told afore:²
Whom, in his Mother yet concealed,
The Infant Baptist had revealed.

6. The manger and the straw He bore,
The cradle did He not abhor:
By milk in infant portion fed,
Who gives ev'n fowls their daily bread.³

7. The heavenly chorus fill'd the sky,
The Angels sang to God on high,
What time to shepherds, watching lone
They made creation’s Shepherd known.

8. For that⁴ thine Advent glory be,
O Jesu, Virgin-born, to Thee;
With Father and with Holy Ghost,
From men and from the heav'nly host. Amen.

Notes:

1. Or: She by a word conceived the Son. Return

2. Or: announced before. Return

3. Or:

6. The cradle and the straw He bore,
The manger did He not abhor:
A little milk His infant fare,
Who feedeth e'en each fowl of air. Return

4. Or: this Thine Advent ... Return

Sheet Music "Morning Hymn" 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), #64, p. 97.
Text: "Altered from Hymnal Noted"

"Original Melody of the V^th Century, reduced.
Harmony by Dr. F. Layriz"