To Bethlehem That Night
Words of certain Troparia for Christmas, translated by George Ratcliffe Woodward. Set to the French Psalm XIX. Harmonized by Anon.
Source: Charles Wood and George Ratcliffe Woodward, The Cambridge Carol-Book, Being Fifty-Two Songs For Christmas, Easter, And Other Seasons (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1924), #30.
1. To Bethlehem that night,
Taught by an Angel bright,
While men lay fast a-sleep.
The shepherd party rain
To own Him God and man,
True Shepherd of his sheep.
Babe there they worship Him
That rides the Cherubim:
Where ox and ass be driven,
Incarnate there they find
The Maker of mankind:
To Him be glory given!
2. With strange and wondrous ways
The Magi saw the rays
Of one new-lighted Star.
Star heretofore so sheen
Their eyes had never seen:
It shone from heav'n afar.
And signified the birth
Of Christ a King on earth"
And rightly so they reckon'd;
To save mankind forlorn
This royal Babe was born,
Whose Star to Bethlem beckon'd.
3. 'The new-born Bairn, where may
He be, King Herod, say,
Whose comet was a-glow:
For hither come are we,
To bow to Him the knee.'
This would the wise men know.
But Herod, troubled sore,
And Salem over-more,
Was minded in his fury
To fight with God, and kill,
With semblance of good-will,
The Infant King of Jewry.
4. Then Herod straight would know
What time the star gan show
That led the Princes three
To Bethlehem, that there
With giftes , rich and rare,
The babe might honour'd be.
But, by our Lord's command,
Safe in their native land
By other road they find them.
Thus did the Kings deride
False Herod at that tide,
And left him far behind.
Sheet Music
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