All the world this day is cry­ing
To the Lord of all the earth;
All Thy church­es, Lord, are plead­ing,
As they wait the glo­ri­ous birth—
Making new the earth and hea­ven,
Long de­ferred, but pro­mised long;
Birth of na­tions to the glo­ry
That shall fill all lands with song.

Never was the world more needy,
Human hearts more sad and poor;
Crying blind­ly for a heal­er,
Seeking not the heav’n­ly cure:
Never was the har­vest great­er,
Yet the reap­ers, where are they?
Far and few, where need is great­est,
Fainting in the heat of day.

Never did the Word shine bright­er,
With its beau­ty and its love,
Drawing souls with­in its cir­cle
From the joys and songs above.
Never did the great en­snar­er
Spread his spells with wis­er skill,
Turning light to dark­ness, ming­ling
Sweet and bit­ter, good and ill.

Father, in this day of weak­ness,
Weary hand, and faint­ing knee,
In this hour of fear and dark­ness,
Now for help we turn to Thee!
Let the sigh­ing of the needy
Come into Thy list­en­ing ear;
Let Thy peo­ple, in their plead­ing,
Know Thee gra­cious, find Thee near!

These our cries of sin and weak­ness
On Thy mer­cy seat we lay,
To Thy heav’n­ly love ap­peal­ing,
There we leave them, Lord, this day.
There the sprin­kled blood shall own them
As we lay them at Thy feet,
Perfumed with the priest­ly frag­rance,
Incense ev­er pure and sweet.

Golden vi­als full of od­ors,
Sending up their frag­rant breath,
Bear in­to Thy heav’n­ly tem­ple
These our brok­en cries be­neath.
From that tem­ple where He dwell­eth,
He our priest and king above,
Let the ne­ver end­ing an­swer
Daily come in joy and love.

For the earth, with all its king­doms
Far and near, this day we cry;
Light of light, dis­pel the dark­ness
With the Day­spring from on high!
For Thy Church of ev­ery na­tion,
For each saint on earth we plead,
Give the full­ness of Thy Spir­it,
Give the life and light we need.

Unto Him, then, who is able
Thus to do for us this day
Far be­yond what we can ask for,
Unto Him be praise for aye;
Praise to the eter­nal Fa­ther,
Praise to the eter­nal Son,
Praise to the eter­nal Spir­it,
Praises to the Three in One!