JOY TO THE WORLD! the Lord has come;

Let earth receive her King.

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven and nature sing,

And heaven, and heaven and nature sing!

 

Joy to the earth! the Saviour reigns;

Your sweetest songs employ.

While fields and streams and hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat, repeat the sounding joy!

 

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness,

The wonders of His love,

The wonders of His love,

The wonders, the wonders of His love.

          Isaac Watts.

---

AS WITH GLADNESS men of old

Did the guiding star behold;

As with joy they hailed its light,

Leading onward, beaming bright,

So, most gracious God, may we

Evermore be led by Thee.

 

As with joyful steps they sped,

Saviour, to Thy lowly bed,

There to bend the knee before

Thee whom heaven and earth adore,

So may we with willing feet

Ever seek Thy mercy-seat.

 

As they offered gifts most rare

At Thy cradle rude and bare,

So may we with holy joy,

Pure, and free from sin’s alloy,

All our costliest treasures bring,

Christ, to Thee, our heavenly King.

 

Holy Jesus, every day

Keep us in the narrow way;

And, when earthly things are past,

Bring our ransomed souls at last

Where they need no star to guide,

Where no clouds Thy glory hide.

 

In the heavenly country bright

Need they no created light;

Thou its light, its joy, its crown,

Thou its sun, which goes not down.

There forever may we sing

Hallelujahs to our King.

1. C. Dix.

---

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER,

Frosty wind made moan;

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone.

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow;

In the bleak midwinter,

Long ago.

 

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him,

Nor earth sustain,

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign.

In the bleak midwinter

A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty,

Jesus Christ.

 

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air.

But His mother only,

In her maiden bliss,

Worshipped the Belovèd

With a kiss.

 

What can I give Him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd,

I would bring a lamb.

If I were a wise man,

I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him—

Give my heart.

      Christina G. Rossetti.

---

IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR,

That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth

To touch their harps of gold:

‘Peace on the earth, goodwill to men

From heaven’s all gracious King!’

The world in solemn stillness lay

To hear the angels sing.

 

Still through the cloven skies they come,

With peaceful wings unfurled,

And still their heavenly music floats

O’er all the weary world:

Above its sad and lowly plains

They bend on hovering wing,

And ever o’er its Babel sounds

The blessèd angels sing.

 

Yet with woes of sin and strife

The world has suffered long,

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not

The love-song which they bring:

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing.

 

For lo! the days are hastening on,

By prophet bards foretold,

When with the ever-circling years

Comes round the age of gold;

When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendours fling,

And all the world send back the song

Which now the angels sing

1. H. Sears.

Contributors:   Revd Mike Bisset, Revd Graham Summers, Jean Stables, Marie Knight, Roger Edwards

Production:   David Carter