Now The Sighs and The Sorrows

For The Annunciation
"Morning Hymn for the Annunciation."

Words: Humani generis.
Translated by John Mason Neale, Alt.

Music: J. Barnby

Source: Joseph Barnby, ed., The Hymnary, A Book of Church Song. 2nd Edition (London: Novello, 1875), #353, p. 235.

Psalm xxx., 5. — " His wrath endureth but the twinkling of an eye, and in his pleasure is life : heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

1. Now the sighs and the sorrows
    Of this world may cease;
This happy day bringeth
    Glad tidings of peace
        For suffering mortals.

2. Since through one man's transgression
    We all of us fell;
From heavenly mansions,
    To save us from hell,
        He came, the Most Highest.

3. To the one chosen Virgin
    Who God was to bear,
The Angel descendeth
    The tale to declare,
        Salvation's high herald.

4. Lo! the Word of the FATHER,
    Eternally born,
Assumeth man's body
    On this blessed morn,
        That He may redeem us.

5. He shall offer this Body
    Our ransom to be;
His Blood He shall pour forth
    His servants to free,
        And pour every life-drop.

6. From our country, poor exiles,
    We wandered in vain,
And knew not the pathway
    By which to regain
        True joy everlasting.

7. To the place of our exile
    God deigns to descend;
Our way He becometh
    Himself, and our end;
        We walk here in safety. Amen.

Sheet Music from  Joseph Barnby, ed., The Hymnary, A Book of Church Song. 2nd Edition (London: Novello, 1875), #353, p. 235.

Notes:

This note is from John Julian, ed., The Dictionary of Hymnology (1892, 1907):

    Humani generis cessent suspiria. Annunciation. Appeared in the revised Paris Missal, 1738, for the "Feast of the Annunciation, and the Incarnation of Our Lord" (March 25). The Latin text is reproduced in Cardinal Newman’s Hymni Ecclesiae, 1838 and 1865, in 12 stanzas of 5 lines, Humani generis - Missali Parisiensi. Translation by Dr. Neale in the Hymnal Noted, 1854, as "The Sighs and The Sorrows,” and repeated in the Hymnary, altered to, “Now the sighs and the sorrows." [W. A. S.]

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