Let sighing cease and woe

Representative Text

1. Let sighing cease and woe
God from on high hath heard,
Heaven’s gate is opening wide, and lo!
The long expected Word.

2. Peace! through the deep of night
The heavenly choir breaks forth,
Singing, with festal songs and bright,
Our God and Savior’s birth.

3. The cave of Bethlehem
Those wakeful shepherds seek;
Let us too rise and greet with them
That infant pure and meek.

4. We enter—at the door
What marvel meets the eye?
A crib, a mother pale and poor,
A child of poverty.

5. Art Thou the eternal Son,
The eternal Father’s ray?
Whose little hand, Thou infant one,
Doth lift the world alway?

6. Yea—faith through that dim cloud,
Like lightning darts before,
And greets Thee, at whose footstool bowed
Heaven’s trembling hosts adore.

7. Chaste be our love like Thine,
Our swelling souls bring low,
And in our hearts, O Babe divine
Be born, abide and grow.

8. So shall Thy birthday morn,
Lord Christ, our birthday be,
Then greet we all, ourselves newborn,
Our King’s nativity.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #4017

Author: Charles Coffin

Coffin, Charles, born at Buzaney (Ardennes) in 1676, died 1749, was principal of the college at Beauvais, 1712 (succeeding the historian Rollin), and rector of the University of Paris, 1718. He published in 1727 some, of his Latin poems, for which he was already noted, and in 1736 the bulk of his hymns appeared in the Paris Breviary of that year. In the same year he published them as Hymni Sacri Auctore Carolo Coffin, and in 1755 a complete ed. of his Works was issued in 2 vols. To his Hymni Sacri is prefixed an interesting preface. The whole plan of his hymns, and of the Paris Breviary which he so largely influenced, comes out in his words. "In his porro scribendis Hymnis non tam poetico indulgendunv spiritui, quam nitoro et pietate co… Go to person page >

Translator: William John Blew

Blew, William John, M.A., son of William Blew, born April 13, 1808, and educated at Great Ealing School, and Wadham College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1830, and M.A., 1832. On taking Holy Orders, Mr. Blew was Curate of Nuthurst and Cocking, and St. Anne's, Westminster, and for a time Incumbent of St. John's next Gravesend. Besides translations from Homer (Iliad, bks. i., ii., &c.) and Æschylus (Agamemnon the King), and works on the Book of Common Prayer, including a paraphrase on a translation of the same in Latin, he edited the Breviarium Aherdonense, 1854; and published a pamphlet on Hymns and Hymn Books, 1858; and (with Dr. H. J. Gauntlett) The Church Hymn and Tune Book, 1852, 2nd ed. 1855. Tho hymns in this last work are chief… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Let sighing cease and woe
Latin Title: Jam desinant suspiria
Author: Charles Coffin
Translator: William John Blew
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

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The Cyber Hymnal #4017

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