ONCE IN ROYAL DAVID'S CITY

A HYMN FOR THE 4TH SUNDAY IN ADVENT

1 Once in royal David’s city
stood a lowly cattle shed,
where a mother laid her baby
in a manger for His bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ, her little child.

2 He came down to earth from heaven
who is God and Lord of all,
and His shelter was a stable,
and His cradle was a stall:
with the poor, and meek, and lowly
lived on earth our Savior holy.

3 And our eyes at last shall see Him,
through His own redeeming love;
for that child so dear and gentle,
is our Lord in heav'n above,
and He leads His children on
to the place where He is gone.

4 Not 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.

By Cecil Frances Alexander, 1848