Christmas
Once In Royal David's City
- Words:
- Cecil F. Alexander
- Music:
- Henry J. Gauntlett
Sheet music
- 1Once in royal David’s cityStood a lowly cattle shed,Where a mother laid her BabyIn a manger for His bed;Mary was that mother mild,Jesus Christ her little Child.
- 2He came down to earth from heaven,Who is God and Lord of all,And His shelter was a stableAnd His cradle was a stall;With the poor, and mean, and lowly,Lived on earth our Savior holy.
- 3And, thru all His wondrous childhood,He would honor, and obey,Love, and watch the lowly maidenIn whose gentle arms He lay;Christian children all must beMild, obedient, good as He.
- 4For He is our childhood’s pattern,Day by day like us He grew;He was little, weak, and helpless,Tears and smiles like us He knew;And He feeleth for our sadness,And He shareth in our gladness.
- 5And our eyes at last shall see Him,Thru His own redeeming love;For that Child so dear and gentleIs our Lord in heav’n above;And He leads His children onTo the place where He is gone.
- 6Not in that poor lowly stable,With the oxen standing by,We shall see Him, but in heaven,Set at God’s right hand on high;When like stars His children crowned,All in white shall wait around.Amen.
In the hymnals
- Written in 1848, the words are in 452 hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org. Their history →
Words, music and setting are in the public domain. The sheet music and words are from PDHymns.com. The piano is the FluidR3 General MIDI sound font (MIT licence). How many hymnals print a hymn, and when it was written, is from Hymnary.org.