The World Has Waited Long

For Christmas

Words: Written for this Dutch melody by the Rev. Canon John Gray.

Music: Popular Dutch melody of the seventeenth century.

Source: Richard Runciman Terry, Two Hundred Folk Carols (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, 1933), Carol #126, pp. 28-29.

The world has waited long
    To hear the heavenly story;
So tune a merry song
    To tell the Saviour's glory.
When ev'rything was still,
    So nestling and so tender
This Baby came to fill
    A stable with His splendour.

Chorus:
Sing Alleluia!
Sing Alleluia!

2. The shepherds came to seek
    The Babe unlike another;
They never saw so meek
    A maiden and a mother;
For Mary never stirred,
    So still her vigil keeping
While God's eternal Word
    Was in a manger sleeping. Chorus.

3. While men and beasts and birds
    Were sunk in sleep or drowsing,
And while the flocks and herds
    Were on the mountains browsing,
In heaven and on earth
    Were choirs and angels singing
The noble Saviour's birth,
    All peace and blessing bringing. Chorus.

Sheet Music from Richard Runciman Terry, Two Hundred Folk Carols (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, 1933), Carol #126, pp. 28-29.

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