Listen to the won­drous sto­ry,
How upon the Christ­mas morn
Jesus left the realms of glo­ry,
As a lit­tle babe was born;
Left those bright and hap­py re­gions
Of His Fa­ther’s home above,
And the glo­ri­ous an­gel le­gions,
In His great and bound­less love!

Came into a low­ly man­ger,
Dwelt be­neath a hum­ble shed,
And among His own a stran­ger
Knew not where to lay His head;
Went from ci­ty un­to ci­ty,
All His life was do­ing good,
Weeping o’er His friend with pi­ty,
When be­side the grave He stood.

Love all hu­man love ex­ceed­ing
Brought Him to a cru­el death,
Even then, though hang­ing, bleed­ing
On the cross, His lat­est breath
Spent He for His mur­der­ers, pray­ing
To His Fa­ther to for­give;
To the thief re­pent­ant say­ing,
Thou in pa­ra­dise shalt live!

Oh! what love in God the Fa­ther
To be­stow His on­ly Son;
Oh! what love in Christ, who ra­ther
Than the world should be un­done,
Came Him­self to seek and save us,
Came to claim us for His own;
Freely all our sins for­gave us,
Raised us to His glo­ri­ous throne!