Scripture Verse

The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. Revelation 11:15

Introduction

Words: Re­bec­ca P. Coe, in Echo to Hap­py Voic­es (New York: Am­eri­can Tract So­ci­ety, 1869), num­ber 88. Note: Orig­in­al­ly writ­ten as a mis­sion­ary hymn, lat­er hym­nals adapt­ed this text for Christ­mas by omit­ting the last two stan­zas.

Music: Ab­ney (Treat) Charles C. Treat, in Hymns of Chris­tian En­dea­vor, ed­it­ed by Sam­uel W. Adri­ance (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Unit­ed So­ci­ety of Chris­tian En­dea­vor, 1888), num­ber 37 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

  • Asker Stan­ley L. Krebs, in The Sun­day School Hym­nal, ed­it­ed by Cal­vin S. Ger­hard, Ru­fus W. Mill­er & Lew­is Robb (Phi­la­del­phia Penn­syl­van­ia: Hei­del­berg Press, 1902), num­ber 37 (🔊 pdf nwc)
  • Nuevo Le­ón How­ard Kings­bu­ry, in Echo to Hap­py Voic­es (New York: Am­eri­can Tract So­ci­ety, 1869), num­ber 88 (🔊 pdf nwc)

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Coe or Treat (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Hark! the sound of an­gel voic­es
Over Beth­le­hem’s star­lit plain;
Hark! the heav­en­ly host re­joic­es,
Jesus comes on earth to reign.
See ce­les­ti­al ra­di­ance beam­ing,
Lighting up the mid­night sky;
’Tis the pro­mised day star gleam­ing,
’Tis the day spring from on high.

Westward, all along the ag­es,
Trace its path­way clear and bright;
Star of hope to east­ern sag­es,
Radiant now with Gos­pel light.
Angels from the realms of glo­ry,
Peace on earth de­light to sing;
Christian, tell the won­drous sto­ry,
Go pro­claim the Sav­ior King.

Where the wood­man’s axe is ring­ing,
Where the hunt­er roams alone,
Where the prair­ie flow­ers are spring­ing,
Make the great Re­deem­er known.
While from Ca­li­for­nia mount­ains
Pure and sweet the an­them swells,
Ore­gon’s dark wilds and fount­ains
Hail the sound of Sab­bath bells.

Like an arm­èd host with ban­ners,
Terrible in war ar­ray,
Zion comes with glad ho­san­nas
To pre­pare her mon­arch’s way.
Unto Him all pow­er is giv­en,
All the world His sway shall own,
And on earth, as now in Hea­ven,
Shall His will be done alone.