The Hymnal 1982 127
Earth has many a noble city
- Tune
- stuttgart
- Author(s)
- Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, 348-401?
- Composer(s)
- William Henry Havergal; K. D. Smith, 1928-
- Meter
- 8.7.8.7
- Text Source(s)
- Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861, alt. (tr.)
More information available on ritesong or Hymnary.org.
1. Earth has many a noble city; Bethlehem, thou dost all excel: out of thee the Lord from heaven came to rule his Israel.
2. Fairer than the sun at morning was the star that told his birth, to the world its God announcing seen in fleshly form on earth.
3. Eastern sages at his cradle make oblations rich and rare; see them give, in deep devotion, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
4 Sacred gifts of mystic meaning: incense doth their God disclose, gold the King of kings proclaimeth, myrrh his sepulcher foreshows.
5 Jesus, whom the Gentiles worshiped at thy glad epiphany, unto thee, with God the Father and the Spirit, glory be.