Gabriel's Message Does Away
Version 2; Compare Version 1
Words: Piae Cantiones, 1582; translated by John Mason Neale (1818-1866)
Music: Angelus Emittitur
Meter: 777 with refrain
1. Gabriel's message does away
Satan's curse and Satan's sway,
This was wrought by Christmas Day:
Chorus:
Therefore sing,
Glory to the Infant King!
2. He that comes despis'd shall reign;
He that cannot die, be slain;
Death by death its death shall gain: Chorus
3. Like its like shall overthrow:
By a Tree prevail's the foe;
From a Tree shall healing grow: Chorus
4. Man was lost a garden in;
In a garden man shall win;
Woman's faith end woman's sin: Chorus
5. Weakness shall the strong confound;
By the hands, in babe-clothes wound,
Adam's sin shall be unbound. Chorus
6. By the sword that was his own,
By that sword, and that alone,
Shall Goliath be o'erthrown: Chorus
7. Art by art shall be assail'd;
To the cross shall Life be nail'd;
From the grave shall hope be hail'd: Chorus
8. Gabriel's message does away
Satan's curse and Satan's sway;
This was wrought by Christmas Day. Chorus
Sheet Music from George Ratcliffe Woodward, The Cowley Carol Book, First Series (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd., 1902, Revised and Expanded Edition 1929), Carol #8
