The Wondering Sages Trace From Far

For Epiphany

Words: “Im Abend blinkt der Morgenstern”

Author: Ernst Lange (1650-1727)

Translation by Frances Elizabeth Cox, 1841

Source: Frances Elizabeth Cox, Sacred Hymns from the German (London: William Pickering, 1841), p. 22.

I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and Morning Star.
Rev. 22:16

1. The wondering sages trace from far
Bright in the west the Morning-star;
A light illumes the western skies,
Seen never in the east to rise.

2. Eternity produced its blaze,
Time's fulness hails its nearer rays;
Its brightness chases night away,
And kindles darkness into day.

3. O Jesu ! brightest Morning-star !
Shed forth thy beams both near and far,
That all, in these our later days,
May know Thee, and proclaim thy praise.

Note:

Also occurs in the second, revised edition of this work, Hymns from the German (1864), p. 43, without change.