Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.
Matthew 2:1–2
Words: Carrie Cheyney, in The Ohio Educational Monthly (Akron, Ohio: Samuel Findley), Volume 33, April 1884, pages 168–69, alt.
Music: Ernan Lowell Mason, 1850 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Cheyney (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
The following [hymn] was suggested by reading in The Ohio Educational Monthly that astronomers predicted the return of the
Star of Bethlehem,which appeared to the wise men of the East at the birth of Christ. It is said that the long-looked-for star will appear before the end of the year 1885.
Will that bright star again appear,
Which o’er Judea’s plains beamed clear,
To guide the wise men on their way
To where the infant Savior lay?
That star which shed its silvery rays
On Christ the Lord, in solemn praise,
Will it repeat to all the earth
The story of Messiah’s birth?
Did lowly shepherds that lone night,
And angels from their home of light
Proclaiming loud the dawn of peace,
Behold the beauty of thy face?
Did swelling sounds of golden lyre,
With voices of that angel choir,
Convey to thee the glad refrain,
Peace on earth, good will to men
?
Didst thou the trembling Herod see?
And witness too his cruelty?
Or in deep sorrow veil thy face,
And onward rush through realms of space?
Brightest of Cassiopeia’s train,
O wondrous star, shine out again!
Shine out, O glory-beaming gem,
That stood of old o’er Bethlehem!
Listen, O star, to our appeal,
And thy mysterious lore reveal;
Shed o’er the world celestial light,
And put the skeptic’s doubts to flight.
And ever may thy radiant rays
Turn sinners from their evil ways;
And may our eyes behold the light,
Which led those men of old aright.