The Lord at first had Ad­am made
Out of the dust and clay,
And in his nos­trils breath­èd life,
E’en as the Scrip­tures say.
And then in Ed­en’s pa­ra­dise
He plac­èd him to dwell,
That he with­in it should re­main,
To dress and keep it well.

Refrain

Now let good Chris­tians all be­gin
A ho­li­er life to live,
And to re­joice and mer­ry be,
For this is Christ­mas Eve.

And thus with­in the gar­den he
Was set, there­in to stay;
And in com­mand­ment un­to him
These words the Lord did say:
The fruit which in the gar­den grows
To thee shall be for meat,
Except the tree in midst there­of,
Of which thou shalt not eat.

Refrain

For in the day thou shalt it touch
Or dost to it come nigh,
If so thou do but eat there­of,
Then thou shalt sure­ly die.
But Ad­am he did take no heed
Unto that on­ly thing,
But did tran­sgress God’s ho­ly Law,
And so was wrapt in sin.

Refrain

Now mark the good­ness of the Lord,
Which He to man­kind bore;
His mer­cy soon He did ex­tend,
Lost man for to re­store;
And there­fore to re­deem our souls
From death and hell and thrall,
He said His own dear Son should be
The Sav­ior of us all.

Refrain

Which pro­mise now is brought to pass:
Christians, be­lieve it well:
And by the death of God’s dear Son,
We are re­deemed from hell.
So if we tru­ly do be­lieve,
And do the thing that’s right,
Then by His mer­its we at last
Shall live in Hea­ven bright.

Refrain

And now the tide is nigh at hand,
In which our Sav­ior came;
Let us re­joice and mer­ry be
In keep­ing of the same;
Let’s feed the poor and hung­ry souls,
And such as do it crave;
And when we die, in Hea­ven we
Our sure re­ward shall have.

Refrain