The New English Hymnal ‎#20a

20a. From east to west, from shore to shore

1 From east to west, from shore to shore,
Let every heart awake and sing
The holy Child whom Mary bore,
The Christ, the everlasting King.

2 Behold, the world's creator wears
The form and fashion of a slave,
Our very flesh our Maker shares,
His fallen creature, man, to save.

3 For this how wondrously he wrought!
A maiden, in her lowly place,
Became, in ways beyond all thought,
The chosen vessel of his grace.

4 She bowed her to the angel's word
Declaring what the Father willed,
And suddenly the promised Lord
That pure and hallowed temple filled.

5 He shrank not from the oxen's stall,
He lay within the manger-bed,
And he whose bounty feedeth all,
At Mary's breast himself was fed.

6 And while the angels in the sky
Sang praise above the silent field,
To shepherds poor, the Lord most high,
The one great Shepherd was revealed.

7 All glory for that blessèd morn
To God the Father ever be,
All praise to thee, O Virgin-born,
All praise, blest Spirit, unto thee. Amen.

Text Information

• First Line: From east to west, from shore to shore
• Latin Title: A solis ortus cardine
• Author: Caelius Sedulius, c. 450
• Translator: John Ellerton, 1826-93
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1986
• Topic: The Christian Year: Christmas; Office Hymn

Tune Information

• Name: A SOLIS ORTUS
• Key: c minor
• Source: Mode III
• Copyright: Arr. by permission of Oxford University Press (from "English Hymnal," 1933)