Calm on the listening ear of night

Come heaven's melodious strains

Where wild Judea stretches forth

Her silver mantled plains.



Celestial choirs from courts above

Shed sacred glories there

And angels, with their sparkling lyres

Make music on the air.



The answering hills of Palestine

Send back the glad reply

And greet, from all their holy heights

The Day-Spring from on high.



O'er the blue depths of Galilee

There comes a holier calm

And Sharon waves, in solemn praise

Her silent groves of palm.



“Glory to God!” the lofty strain

The realm of ether fills;

How sweeps the song of solemn joy

O'er Judah's sacred hills!



“Glory to God!” the sounding skies

Loud with their anthems ring

“Peace to the earth; good will to men

From heaven's eternal King!”



Light on thy hills, Jerusalem!

The Savior now is born

And bright on Bethlehem's joyous plains

Breaks the first Christmas morn.



And brightly on Moriah's brow

Crowned with her temple spires

Which first proclaim the newborn light

Clothed with its orient fires.



This day shall Christian tongues be mute

And Christian hearts be cold

Oh, catch the anthem that from heaven

O'er Judah's mountains rolled.



When burst upon that listening night

The high and solemn lay

“Glory to God, on earth be peace,”

Salvation comes today!...