Earth has many a noble city

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(one verse introduction)

Earth has many a noble city;
Bethlehem, does all excel;
out of you the Lord from heaven
came to rule his Israel.

Fairer than the sun at morning
was the star that told his birth,
to the world its God announcing
seen in fleshly form on earth.

Eastern sages at his cradle
make oblations rich and rare;
see them give, in deep devotion,
gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Sacred gifts of mystic meaning:
incense does their God disclose,
gold the King of kings proclaiming,
myrrh his sepulcher foreshows.

Jesus, whom the Gentiles worshiped
at your glad epiphany,
unto you, with God the Father
and the Spirit, glory be.

Music: Stuttgart adapt. William Henry Havergal (19th C)
Words: Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (4th C)
Sequence: Dall Forsythe, Church of St. John the Evangelist