1 There came a little Child to earth
Long ago;
And the angels of God proclaimed His birth,
High and low.
2 Out in the night so calm and still,
Their song was heard;
For they knew that the Child on Bethleh'm’s hill
Was Christ the Lord.
3 Far away in the goodly land
Fair and bright;
Children with crowns of glory stand,
Robed in white.
4 They sing, the Lord of heaven so fair,
A Child was born;
And that they might His crown of glory share,
Wore crown of thorn.
5 In mortal weakness, want and pain,
He came to die,
That the children of earth might in glory reign
With Him on high.
6 And evermore in robes so fair
And undefiled,
Those ransomed children His praise declare,
Who was a Child.
Source: Wartburg Hymnal: for church, school and home #92
First Line: | There came a little Child to earth |
Author: | Emily E. S. Elliot |
Meter: | Irregular |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
There came a little Child to earth. Emily E. S. Elliott. [Christmas.] First published in 1856 in Matty's Missionary Box (London: T. Nelson & Son), and since included in Miss Elliott's Chimes for Daily Service, 1880, p. 97, in 4 stanzas of 8 lines. It has appeared in the Church Sunday School Hymn Book, 1868, Scottish Presbyterian Hymnal, 1876; Allon's Children's Worship, 1878, &c.; and is included in full and unaltered (save stanzas ii. 1. 8) as No. 373 in the Scottish Free Church Hymn Book, 1882. Its use is extensive. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)