Bethlehem, of noblest cities None can once with thee compare: Thou alone the Lord from heaven Didst for us Incarnate bear. Fairer than the sun at morning Was the star that told his birth To the lands their God announcing, Hid beneath a form of earth. By its lambent beauty guided, See, the Eastern Kings appear See them bend, their gifts to offer— Gifts of incense, gold and myrrh. Solemn things of mystick meaning— Incense doth the God disclose: Gold a Royal child proclaimeth: Myrrh a future tomb foreshows, Holy Jesu, in thy brightness To the Gentile world display’d, With the Father and the Spirit Praise eterne to thee be paid. Amen.
Bethlehem, of noblest cities Performed by The Gesualdo Six
Tune: Stuttgart Adapted from a melody in C.F. Witt’s Harmonia Sacra Gotha, 1715
Arranged by Owain Park