In the field with their flocks abiding,
They lay on the dewy ground;
And glimmering under the starlight,
The sheep lay white around;
When the light of the Lord streamed o’er them,
And lo! from heaven above,
An angel leaned from the glory,
And sang his song of love.
He sang, that first sweet Christmas,
The song that shall never cease.
Refrain
“Glory to God in the highest,
On earth good will and peace.”
“To you in the city of David
A Savior is born today!”
And sudden a host of the heavenly ones
Flashed forth to join the lay.
O never hath sweeter message
Thrilled home to the souls of men
And the heavens themselves had never heard
A gladder choir till then.
For they sang that Christmas carol
That never on earth shall cease. Refrain
And the shepherds came to the manger,
And gazed on the Holy Child;
And calmly o’er that rude cradle
The virgin mother smiled;
And the sky in the starlit silence,
Seemed full of the angel lay:
“To you in the City of David
A Savior is born today!”
O they sang, and we pray that never
The carol on earth shall cease. Refrain
About the writer: Frederick W. Farrar, a cleric in the Church of England, was the son of C. P. Farrar, a missionary to India. He was born in Bombay, India in 1831 and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge with high honors in 1854. In 1876 he was made a Canon of Westminster Abbey and rector of St. Margaret’s Church. Dr. Farrar became Dean of Canterbury in 1895 and died there in 1903. He was the author of many books including the best-seller Life and Work of St. Paul.
Key Verses: That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened. –Luke 2:8, 9