Scripture Verse

I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me. Malachi 3:1

Introduction

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John M. Neale (1818–1866)
Wikipedia

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Words: The Ve­ne­ra­ble Bede (673–735) (Prae­cur­sor al­tus lum­in­is). Trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by John M. Neale in The Hym­nal Not­ed, 1854.

Music: Bec­cles Chris­tian Gall, As Hym­no­dus Sa­cer (Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny, 1625) (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Gall (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

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The Venerable Bede (673–735)

Lyrics

The great fore­run­ner of the morn,
The her­ald of the Word, is born:
And faith­ful hearts shall ne­ver fail
With thanks and praise his light to hail.

With hea­ven­ly mes­sage Ga­bri­el came,
That John should be that her­ald’s name,
And with pro­phet­ic ut­ter­ance told
His ac­tions great and ma­ni­fold.

John, still un­born, yet gave aright
His wit­ness to the com­ing light;
And Christ, the sun of all the earth,
Fulfilled that wit­ness at His birth.

Of wo­man born shall ne­ver be
A great­er pro­phet than was he,
Whose migh­ty deeds ex­alt his fame
To great­er than a pro­phet’s name.

But why should mor­tal ac­cents raise
The hymn of John the Bap­tist’s praise?
Of whom, or e’er his course was run,
Thus spake the Fa­ther to the Son?

Behold, My her­ald, who shall go
Before Thy face Thy way to show,
And shine, as with the day-star’s gleam,
Before Thine own eter­nal beam.

All praise to God the Fa­ther be,
All praise, eter­nal Son, to Thee,
Whom with the Spir­it we adore
Forever and for­ev­er­more.