Bethlehem, of noblest cities

(one verse introduction)

Bethlehem, of noblest cities
none can once with you compare;
you alone our God from heaven
did 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 sages now appear;
see them bend, their gifts to offer,
gifts of incense, gold, and myrrh.

Solemn things of mystic meaning:
incense does the God disclose;
gold a royal Child proclaims now;
myrrh a future tomb foreshows.

Holy, Jesu, in your brightness
to the Gentile world displayed,
with Creator, with the Spirit,
endless praise to your be paid.

Words: Prudentius (c. 348)
Music: Stuttgart (87.87.)
Sequence: Cathouse Pandemonium, Ltd