King, Mes­si­ah, long ex­pect­ed,
Thou art come un­to Thine own!
Promised seed of the elect­ed,
Heir fore­told of Da­vid’s throne!
Long for Thee they watch­ed and heark­ened—
King and pa­tri­arch, priest and seer;
Faith waxed cold, and hope was dark­ened;
When men looked not—Thou wert here.

In the time and place ap­point­ed,
When the or­dered years had sped,
Came the Prince, the true An­oint­ed,
To His throne, the man­ger bed:
There the in­fant King, ful­fill­ing,
All things for His peo­ple’s sake,
Learned to­day obe­di­ence will­ing,
Deigned the co­ve­nant seal to take.

Surely in that hour of won­der,
Faithful Ab­ra­ham in his rest,
Saw the sha­dows part asun­der,
Saw Thy dawn­ing, and was blest!
Surely then the gra­cious vi­sion
Through Thine un­seen king­doms thrilled;
And in Je­su’s cir­cum­ci­sion
Ages saw their hope ful­filled!

Father of the new cre­ation!
Prophet of the lat­ter time!
Leader of the ran­somed na­tion
To the bet­ter Ca­naan’s clime!
Though, from Gen­tile stock aris­ing,
Alien branch­es once were we,
Thou hast said, in our bap­tiz­ing,
We are cir­cum­cised in Thee.

So this day with new thanks­giv­ing
Shall Thy faith­ful seed draw near;
So, ’mid pray­ers for ho­li­er liv­ing,
Praise shall deck our op­en­ing year;
Praise, be­cause our feast day sees us
Built on Thee, the Cor­ner­stone;
And the migh­ty name of Je­sus
Binds to­day the world in one.