Lo! He Comes! Let All Adore Him

For Christmas

Words: Thomas Kelly, ca. 1805

Music: Unknown
Meter: 87 87 77

Source: Thomas Kelly, Hymns on Various Passages of Scripture. A New Edition. (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1836), #578, p. 578.

“Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” Isaiah xl. 3.

1. Lo! He comes! let all adore Him!
    'Tis the God of grace and truth!
Go! prepare the way before Him,
    Make the rugged places smooth!
Lo! he comes, the mighty Lord!
Great His work, and His reward.

2. Let the valleys all be raised;
    Go, make the crooked straight;
Let the mountains be abased;
    Let all nature change its state;
Through the desert mark a road,
Make a highway for our God.

3. Through the desert God is going,
    Through the desert waste and wild,
Where no goodly plant is growing,
    Where no verdure ever smiled;
But the desert shall be glad,
And with venture soon be clad.

4. Where the thorn and brief flourished,
    Trees shall there be seen to grow,
Planted by the Lord and nourished,
    Stately, fair, and fruitful too;
They shall rise on every side,
They shall spread their branches wide.

5. From the hills and lofty mountains
    Rivers shall be seen to flow,
There the Lord will open fountains,
    Thence supply the plains below;
As He passes, every land
Shall confess His powerful hand.

Notes:

Also occurs in The Book of Christmas Hymns (London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1868), pp. 68-69, and Roundell Palmer, ed., The Book of Praise. Boston: Sever, Francis, & Co., 1870, # XLIII, pp. 49-50.

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