Ye People, Cease From Tears

For Christmas and Circumcision

Words: Jam desinant suspiria by C Coffin, The Paris Breviary

Translation:  Robert Campbell, of Sherrington

Source: Orby Shipley, Annus Sanctus: Hymns of the Church for the Ecclesiastical Year. Vol. 1. (London and New York: Burns and Oates, 1884), pp. 30-31.

	Ye people, cease from tears, 
	Your prayers are heard above ; 
And from his throne in heaven appears 
	The God of peace and love. 

	O'er Bethlehem's silent plains, 
	Hark, heavenly voices sing, 
Announcing in triumphant strains 
	The birth-day of our king. 

	The faithful shepherds hear, 
	And haste the Babe to greet ; 
Let us like them with joy draw near, 
	And worship at his feet 

	But say — oh, strange surprise — 
	What spectacle is seen ; 
An Infant in the manger laid, 
	His parents poor and mean ? 

	Say — do we here behold 
	The Son of God most high, 
Who doth within his hand infold 
	The earth and sea and sky ? 

	Faith penetrates the veil, 
	And through the cloud drawn o'er, 
Sees him whom angels trembling hail, 
	The God whom they adore. 

	O Babe, thy birth despised 
	And lowly manger tell, 
To flee from all below that's prized, 
	And with the meek to dwell. 

	From sinful shame and pride 
	Guard us, thou Child divine ; 
Then wilt thou in our hearts abide, 
	Thy cradle and thy shrine. 

Note from Shipley:

Jam desinant suspiria. Matins Hymn from the Paris Breviary, by C Coffin.

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