Glorious, Beauteous, Golden-Bright

Glorious

beau­te­ous

gold­en-bright

Shedding soft­est

pur­est light

Shone the stars that Christ­mas night

When the Jew­ish she­pherds kept

Watch be­side their flocks that slept.

But the stars’ sweet gold­en gleam

Faded quick­ly as a dream

’Mid the won­drous glo­ry-stream

That il­lum­ined all the earth

When Christ’s an­gels sang His birth.

Soft and pure and ho­ly glo­ry

Kings and seers and pro­phets hoa­ry

Shed through­out the sac­red sto­ry:

While the priests

like shep­herds true

Watched be­side God’s chos­en few.

But that light no more availèd

And its splen­dor staight­way pal­èd

In His light whom an­gels hail­èd;

Even as the stars of old

’Mid the bright­ness lost their gold.

Now no more on Christ­mas night

Is the sky with an­gels bright

But for ev­er shines the Light;

Even He whose birth they told

To the shep­herds by the fold.

Since that Light then dark­ens nev­er

Let us all

with glad en­deav­or

Sing the song that ech­oes ev­er:

Glory in the high­est Heav­en!

Peace on earth to us for­giv­en.