Scripture Verse

The Word was made flesh. John 1:14

Introduction

portrait
Ambrose of Milan (340–397)

Words: Am­brose of Mi­lan (340–397) (Ve­ni, Re­demp­tor gen­ti­um). Trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by Da­vid T. Mor­gan, Hymns and Po­ems of the La­tin Church (Lon­don: Riv­ing­tons, 1880). For an­oth­er trans­la­tion, see Come, Thou Re­deem­er of the Earth.

Music: Re­demp­tor Mun­di Ar­thur H. Brown, in Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1875 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

portrait
Arthur H. Brown (1830–1926)

Lyrics

O come, Re­deem­er of man­kind, ap­pear,
Thee with full hearts the vir­gin born we greet;
Let ev­ery age with rapt amaze­ment hear
That wond­rous birth which for our God is meet.

Not by the will of man, or mor­tal seed,
But by the Spi­rit’s breathed mys­te­ri­ous grace
The Word of God became our flesh in­deed,
And grew a ten­der plant of hu­man race.

Lo! Mary’s vir­gin womb its bur­den bears;
Nor less abides her vir­gin pu­ri­ty;
In the King’s glo­ry see our nature shares;
Here in His tem­ple God vouch­safes to be.

From His bright cham­ber, vir­tue’s ho­ly shrine
The roy­al Bride­groom com­eth to the day;
Of two­fold sub­stance, hu­man and di­vine,
As gi­ant swift, re­joic­ing on His way.

Forth from His Fa­ther to the world He goes,
Back to the Fa­ther’s face His way re­gains,
Far down to souls be­neath His glo­ry shows,
Again at God’s right hand vic­to­ri­ous reigns.

With the eter­nal Fa­ther eq­ual, Thou,
Girt with our flesh dost tri­umph ev­er­more,
Strengthening our fee­ble bo­dies here be­low
With end­less grace from Thine own liv­ing store.

How doth Thy low­ly man­ger ra­di­ant shine!
On the sweet breath of night new splen­dor grows;
So may our spi­rits glow with faith di­vine,
Where no dark cloud of sin shall in­ter­pose.

All praise and glo­ry to the Fa­ther be,
All praise and glo­ry to His on­ly Son,
All praise and glo­ry, Ho­ly Ghost, to Thee,
Both now, and while eter­nal ages run.