All Wise, All Good, Almighty Lord

All wise

all good

al­migh­ty Lord

Jesus

by high­est Heav’n ad­ored

Ere time its course be­gan;

How did Thy glo­ri­ous mer­cy stoop

To take Thy fall­en child­ren up

When Thou Thy­self wert man?

Th’eter­nal God from Heav’n came down;

The King of glo­ry dropped His crown

And veiled His ma­jes­ty;

Emptied of all but love He came

Jesus

I call Thee by the name

Thy pi­ty bore for me.

O ho­ly Child

still let Thy birth

Bring peace to us poor worms of earth

And praise to God on high!

Come

Thou who didst my flesh as­sume;

Now to the ab­ject sin­ner come

And in a man­ger lie.

Didst Thou not in per­son join

The na­tures hu­man and di­vine

That God and man might be

Henceforth in­se­pa­ra­bly one?

Haste then and make Thy na­ture known

Incarnated in me.

In my weak

sin­ful flesh ap­pear

O God

be ma­ni­fest­ed here

Peace

right­eous­ness and joy;

Thy king­dom

Lord

set up with­in

My faith­ful heart; and all my sin

The dev­il’s works des­troy.

I long Thy com­ing to con­fess

The mys­tic power of god­li­ness

The life di­vine to prove

The full­ness of Thy life to know

Redeemed from all my sins be­low

And per­fect­ed in love.

O Christ

my hope

make known to me

The great

the glo­ri­ous mys­te­ry

The hid­den life im­part;

Come

Thou De­sire of na­tions

come

Formed in a spot­less vir­gin’s womb

A pure

be­liev­ing heart.

Come quick­ly

dear­est Lord

that I

May own

tho’ An­ti­christ de­ny

Thy in­car­na­tion’s pow­er:

May cry

a wit­ness to my Lord

Come in my flesh is Christ the Word

And I can sin no more!