The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Isaiah 40:3Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Words: Translated from Latin to English by John Brownlie, Hymns from East and West (London: James Nisbet, 1898), pages 37–38.
Music: Stuttgart in Psalmodia Sacra, by Christian F. Witt (Gotha, Germany: 1715). Adapted by Henry J. Gauntlett (1805–1876) (🔊 pdf nwc).
Translated from a recast of the fifth century hymn beginning
Vox clara, ecce, intonat,in the Roman Breviary of 1632. The original is by some assigned to St. Ambrose, not without adequate reason.John Brownlie
Hark! a voice is loudly ringing
Through the mists that cloud the night;
Banish hence your idle dreaming—
Christ descendeth from the height.
Soul of mine, bestir! awaken!
Prone on earth no longer lie;
Every dismal cloud shall vanish—
See, His star is in the sky!
Lo! the Lamb to earth descendeth,
Bearing pardon to our race;
Come with tears and seek forgiveness
From the fullness of His grace.
When He comes again in brightness,
Filling earth with woeful dread,
May the shield of His protection
O’er our trusting souls be spread.
Virtue, honor, praise, and glory
To the Father and the Son,
With the Paraclete most holy,
Now, and while the ages run.