Scripture Verse

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

Introduction

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Thomas A. Lacey (1853–1931)

Words: Em­per­or Jus­ti­ni­an (483–565) (Ὁ μονογενὴς ϒιός). Trans­lat­ed from Greek to Eng­lish by Tho­mas A. La­cey in The Eng­lish Hym­nal (Lon­don: Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 1906), num­ber 325.

Music: Song 24 (Gib­bons) Or­lan­do Gib­bons, 1623 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)

Lyrics

O Word im­mor­tal of eter­nal God,
Only be­got­ten of the on­ly source,
For our sal­va­tion stoop­ing to the course
Of hu­man life, and born of Ma­ry’s blood.
In eq­ual ho­nor with the Ho­ly Ghost,
And with th’eter­nal Fa­ther glo­ri­fied.

Sprung from the ev­er vir­gin wo­man­hood
Of her who bare Thee, God im­mut­able,
Incarnate, made as man with man to dwell,
And con­des­cend­ing to the bit­ter rood;
In eq­ual ho­nor with the Holy Ghost,
And with th’eter­nal Fa­ther glo­ri­fied.

Save us, O Christ, our God, for Thou hast died
To save Thy peo­ple to the ut­ter­most,
And dy­ing tramp­lest death in vic­to­ry;
One of the ev­er bless­èd Tri­ni­ty,
In eq­ual ho­nor with the Ho­ly Ghost,
And with th’eter­nal Fa­ther glo­ri­fied.