The Son of God has come.
1 John 5:20
Words: Francis Bottome, Songs from the Parsonage (Cambridge, Massachusetts: University Press, 1894), pages 108–10.
Music: Better Land William F. Sherwin, in Christian Songs (New York and Chicago, Illinois: Biglow & Main, 1872), page 111 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Alternate Tune:
Christ is come, is come to earth!
Low the manger, mean His birth;
Son of David, royal seed,
None of David’s children heed:
Only shepherds wondering gaze,
Only strangers seek His face.
Yet He comes of Heaven adored,
Hosts of angels chant Him Lord!
Heaven’s high arches swell the strain,
Jesus comes on earth to reign:
Wake ye, mortals, wake and see
Love’s divinest mystery!
Lo! above, the wondrous star,
Guiding earnest feet afar,
Shining clear, with cold, pale beams,
O’er the humble stable gleams;
Only wise men see its light
Struggling through the murky night.
Gay and worldly see no sign
In the infant face divine;
Child of way-bound traveler there,
Why should gay and courtly care?
Yet the wise men bend the knee,
In the babe Messiah see.
Haughty soul and lofty brow
May not at the manger bow;
Insentient pleasure may not wait
Upon the Stranger’s mean estate;
Yet to waiting souls the morn
Joyful hails the Savior born.
So He cometh, ever comes,
To our hearts and to our homes,
Unobserved of pomp and pride,
To the contrite sinner’s side;
Smiles on those who eager seek,
Makes His advent to the meek.