The four songs which are presented today include lyrics by Timothy Dudley-Smith, an Anglican bishop who writes one new Christmas carol a year. These lyrics are of particularly high quality. Dudley-Smith is a biographer and former associate of John Stott. All of these are copyright in the US by Hope Publishing Company.]
Secret Birth
Child of the stable’s secret birth
The Lord by right of the lords of earth
Let angels sing of a king newborn
The world is weaving a crown of thorn
A crown of thorn for that infant head
Cradled soft in a manger bed.
Infant hands in a mother’s hand,
For none but Mary can understand
Whose are the hands and the fingers curled
But his who fashioned and made our world:
And through those hands in the hour of death
Nails shall strike to the wood beneath.
Holy Child
Holy Child, what gift of grace
From the Father freely willed!
In your infant form we trace
All God’s promises fulfilled.
Holy Child, before whose Name.
Powers of darkness faint and fall;
Conquered, death and sin and shame,
Jesus Christ is Lord of all!
Tell Out, My Soul (based on the Magnificat, Mary’s prayer in Luke 1:46-55)
Tell out, my soul, the greatness of the Lord:
Unnumbered blessings, give my spirit voice;
Tender to me the promise of his word;
In God my Saviour shall my heart rejoice.
Tell out, my soul, the greatness of his name:
Make known his might, the deeds his arm has done;
His mercy sure, from age to age the same;
His holy name, the Lord, the mighty one.
Exult, O Morning Stars Aflame
Exult, O morning stars aflame!
With all the works of God proclaim
The Child of Bethlehem who came
For love and love alone.
Come earth and air and sky and sea,
Bear witness to his deity
Who lived, the Man of Galilee,
For love and love alone.