Angels

Verse 1

Angels rejoiced and sweetly sung
At our Redeemer’s birth;
Mortals! awake: let every tongue
Proclaim his matchless worth.

Verse 2

Glory to God, who dwells on high,
And sent his only Son
To take a servant’s form, and die,
For evils we had done!

Verse 3

Good-will to men; ye fallen race!
Arise, and shout for joy;
He comes, with rich abounding grace
To save and not destroy.

Verse 4

Lord! send the gracious tidings forth,
And fill the world with light,
That Jew and Gentile, through the earth,
May know thy saving might.

Verse 5

William Hurn, 1813.

Verse 6

1O3 Salvation Morning, 7s & 6s.

Verse 7

God’s Salvation Morning.

Verse 8

What means this glorious radiance
Across Judea’s plain?
Those white-winged angels singing
In such exultant strain?

Refrain

The King of glory cometh,
Earth’s broken hearts to bind,
And God’s salvation morning
Hath dawned for all mankind.

Verse 9

What means this wondrous story
The holy angels tell?
Of one who reigned in heaven,
And now on earth would dwell?

Verse 10

Why bend these Eastern sages
To one of lowly birth?
What means this heav’nly message
Of love and peace on earth?

Verse 11

Ye wand’rers in earth’s darkness,
On ocean deep and land,
Hail! hail! the joyful tidings,
The morning is at hand.

Verse 1

Angel voices, ever singing
Round Thy throne of light,
Angel harps, for ever ringing,
Rest not day nor night;
Thousands only live to bless Thee,
And confess Thee Lord of might.

Verse 2

Thou who art beyond the farthest
Mortal eye can scan,
Can it be that Thou regardest
Songs of sinful man?
Can we feel that Thou art near us,
And wilt hear us? Yea, we can.

Verse 3

Yea, we know Thy love rejoices
O’er each work of Thine;
Thou didst ears and hands and voices
For Thy praise combine;
Craftsman’s art and music’s measure
For Thy pleasure didst design.

Verse 4

Here, great God, to-day we offer
Of Thine own to Thee;
And for Thine acceptance proffer,
All unworthily,
Hearts and minds, and hands and voices,
In our choicest melody.

Verse 5

Honor, glory, might, and merit,
Thine shall ever be,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Blessed Trinity:
Of the best that Thou hast given
Earth and heaven render Thee.

Verse 1

Around the throne of God
The host angelic throngs;
They spread their palms abroad,
And shout perpetual songs:
Him first they own, Him last and best;
God ever blest, and God alone.

Verse 2

Their golden crowns they fling
Before His throne of light,
And strike the rapturous string,
Unceasing, day and night:
“Earth, heaven, and sea, Thy praise declare;
For Thine they are, and Thine shall be.”

Verse 3

“O Holy, Holy Lord,
Creation’s sovereign King!
Thy majesty adored,
Let all creation sing:
Who wast, and art, and art to be;
Nor time shall see Thy sway depart.”

Verse 4

“Great are Thy works of praise,
O God of boundless might;
All just and true Thy ways,
Thou King of saints, in light:
Let all above, and all below,
Conspire to show Thy power and love.”

Verse 5

“Who shall not fear Thee, Lord,
And magnify Thy Name?
Thy judgments, sent abroad,
Thy holiness proclaim:
Nations shall throng from every shore,
And all adore in one loud song.”

Verse 6

While thus the powers on high
Their swelling chorus raise,
Let earth and man reply,
And echo back the praise:
His glory own, first, last, and best;
God ever blest, and God alone.

Verse 1

A thousand years have come and gone,
And near a thousand more,
Since happier light from heaven shone
Than ever shone before:
And in the hearts of old and young
A joy most joyful stirred,
That sent such news from tongue to tongue
As ears had never heard.

Verse 2

Then angels on their starry way
Felt bliss unfelt before,
For news that men should be as they,
To darkened earth they bore;
So toiling men and spirits bright
A first communion had,
And in meek mercy’s rising light
Were each exceeding glad.

Verse 3

And we are glad, and we will sing,
As in the days of yore;
Come all, and hearts made ready bring,
To welcome back once more
The day when first on wintry earth
A summer change began,
And, dawning in a lowly birth,
Uprose the Light of man.

Verse 4

For trouble such as men must bear
From childhood to fourscore,
He shared with us, that we might share
His joy for evermore;
And twice a thousand years of grief,
Of conflict, and of sin,
May tell how large the harvest sheaf
His patient love shall win.

Verse 1

Calm on the listening ear of night
Come heaven’s melodious strains,
Where wild Judea stretches forth
Her silver-mantled plains;
Celestial choirs from courts above
Shed sacred glories there;
And angels, with their sparkling lyres,
Make music on the air.

Verse 2

The answering hills of Palestine
Send back the glad reply,
And greet from all their holy heights
The Day-spring from on high:
O’er the blue depths of Galilee
There comes a holier calm;
And Sharon waves in solemn praise
Her silent groves of palm.

Verse 3

“Glory to God!” the lofty strain
The realm of ether fills;
How sweeps the song of solemn joy
O’er Judah’s sacred hills!
”Glory to God!” the sounding skies
Loud with their anthems ring:
“Peace on the earth; good-will to men,
From heaven’s eternal King.”

Verse 4

This day shall Christian tongues be mute,
And Christian hearts be cold?
O catch the anthem that from heaven
O’er Judah’s mountains rolled;
When burst upon that listening night
The high and solemn lay,—
“Glory to God; on earth be peace:”
Salvation comes to-day.

Verse 1

Calm on the listening ear of night
Come heaven’s melodious strains,
Where wild Judea stretches far
Her silver-mantled plains.

Verse 2

Celestial choirs, from courts above,
Shed sacred glories there,
And angels, with their sparkling lyres,
Make music on the air.

Verse 3

The answering hills of Palestine
Send back the glad reply,
And greet, from all their holy heights,
The day-spring from on high.

Verse 4

“Glory to God!” the sounding skies
Loud with their anthems ring--
“Peace to the earth, good-will to men,
From heaven’s eternal King.”

Verse 1

Hallelujah! song of gladness;
Song of everlasting joy;
Hallelujah! song the sweetest
That can angel hosts employ.

Refrain

Praise ye the Lord! sing Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord! sing Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord! sing Hallelujah!
Praise ye the Lord!

Verse 2

Hallelujah! Church victorious,
Thou mayst lift this joyful strain;
Hallelujah! songs of triumph,
Well befit the ransomed train.

Verse 3

Hallelujah! let our voices
Rise to heav’n with full accord;
Hallelujah! ev’ry moment
Brings us nearer to the Lord.

Verse 4

But our earnest supplication,
Holy God, we raise to thee;
Bring us to thy blissful presence.
Let us all thy glory see.

Verse 1

Hark! hark, my soul! Angelic songs are swelling
O’er earth’s green fields and ocean’s wave-beat shore:
How sweet the truth those blessed strains are telling
Of that new life when sin shall be no more.
Angels of Jesus, Angels of light,
Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night!

Verse 2

Onward we go, for still we hear them singing,
“Come, weary souls, for Jesus bids you come;”
And through the dark, its echoes sweetly ringing,
The music of the gospel leads us home.
Angels of Jesus, etc.

Verse 3

Far, far away, like bells at evening pealing,
The voice of Jesus sounds o’er land and sea;
And laden souls, by thousands meekly stealing,
Kind Shepherd, turn their weary steps to Thee.
Angels of Jesus, etc.

Verse 4

Rest comes at length: though life be long and dreary,
The day must dawn, and darksome night be past;
Faith’s journeys end in welcomes to the weary,
And heaven, the heart’s true home, will come at last.
Angels of Jesus, etc.

Verse 5

Angels, sing on, your faithful watches keeping;
Sing us sweet fragments of the songs above;
Till morning’s joy shall end the night of weeping,
And life’s long shadows break in cloudless love.
Angels of Jesus, etc.