Scripture Verse

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Luke 2:14

Introduction

portrait
George Cable (1844–1925)

Words: George W. Ca­ble, 1899. Ca­ble first sub­mit­ted this car­ol to Cen­tu­ry ma­ga­zine, which re­ject­ed it. He then sent it to The La­dies’ Home Jour­nal, which put it in their De­cem­ber 1899 is­sue. It was lat­er pub­lished in Po­pu­lar Hymns No. 2, ed­it­ed by Chris­to­pher C. Cline (St. Lou­is, Mis­sou­ri: Chris­tian Pub­lish­ing, 1901), num­ber 254.

Music: Me­lo­dy by George Ca­ble, har­mo­ny by Har­vey R. Shel­ley (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

Children of Je­sus,
Come lift the chant, re­sound the chord;
Once more is con­firmed all
The pro­phets’ won­drous word.
For gold and myrrh bring pur­ity,
For frank­in­cense bring char­ity,
The gifts of the soul for
The birth­day of the Lord!

Children of Je­sus,
While bells un­num­bered swing and ring,
With an­them and car­ol,
Your sup­pli­ca­tions bring,
That God all hearts may fa­shion,
For every ho­ly pas­sion,
And guide all His child­ren
To Christ, the child­ren’s king.

Tell of the wise men
Who Mary with the young Child found,
And shep­herds up­star­tled
From off the fros­ty ground;
Sing all the an­gels sang to them,
And show the Star of Beth­le­hem,
Ye child­ren of Je­sus,
The wak­ing world around.

Children of Je­sus,
Again this morn let plain and hill
Ring, Glo­ry to God, peace
On earth, to men, good will!
Hosanna in the high­est!

Let Christ­mas bring Christ nigh­est,
Hosanna! Ho­san­na!
Christ Je­sus com­eth still.