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Joseph came from Nazareth with Mary, that sweet maid;
Weary were they nigh to death, and for a lodging prayed.

In the inn they found no room; a scanty bed they made;
Soon a babe, an angel pure, was in the manger laid.
Forth He came, as light through glass, He came to save us all.
In the stable, ox and ass before their Maker fall.

Shepherd’s lay afield that night to keep the silly sheep,
Hosts of angels in their sight came down from Heaven's high steep:—
Tidings! tidings unto you! to you a child is born,
Purer than the drops of dew, and brighter than the morn!

Onward then the angels sped, the shepherds onwards went,—
God was in His manger bed; in worship low they bent.
In the morning see ye mind, my masters one and all,
At the altar Him to find, who lay within the stall.