Ere the Blue Heav’ns Were Stretched Abroad

Ere the blue heav’ns were stretched abroad

From ev­er­last­ing was the Word:

With God He was; the Word was God

And must di­vine­ly be ad­ored.

By His own pow­er were all things made;

By Him sup­port­ed all things stand;

He is the whole cre­ation’s head

And an­gels fly at His com­mand.

Ere sin was born

or Sa­tan fell

He led the host of morn­ing stars:

Thy ge­ne­ra­tion who can tell

Or count the num­bers of Thy years?

But lo

He leaves those heav’n­ly forms

The Word des­cends and dwells in clay

That He may hold con­verse with worms

Dressed in such fee­ble flesh as they.

Mortals with joy be­held His face

Th’eter­nal Fa­ther’s on­ly Son;

How full of truth! how full of grace!

When thro’ His eyes the God­head shone.

Archangels leave their high abode

To learn new mys­te­ries here

and tell

The loves of our des­cend­ing God

The glor­ies of Im­ma­nu­el.