Heavenly Host

Hymn lyrics and Music by William Billings
(1786 edition)

Verse 1

• Methinks I see an Heav’nly host
• Of angels on the wing;
• Methinks I hear their cheerful notes,
• So merrily they sing:
• Let all your fears be banish’d hence,
• Glad tidings I proclaim,
• For there’s a Saviour born today,
• And Jesus is his name.

Verse 2

• Lay down your crooks, and quit your flocks,
• To Bethlehem repair;
• And let your wand’ring steps be squared
• By yonder shining star.
• Seek not in courts or palaces,
• Nor royal curtains draw;
• But search the stable, see your God
• Extended on the straw.

Verse 3

• Then learn from hence, ye rural swains,
• The meekness of your God,
• Who left the boundless realms of joy,
• To ransom you with blood.
• The master of the inn refus’d
• A more commodious place;
• Ungenerous soul of savage mold,
• And destitute of grace.

Verse 4

• Exult ye oxen, low for joy,
• Ye tenants of the stall,
• Pay your obeisance; on your knees
• Unanimously fall.
• The royal guest you entertain
• Is not of common birth,
• But second in the Great I am;
• The God of Heav’n and Earth.

Verse 5

• Then suddenly an Heav’nly host
• Around the shepherds throng,
• Exulting in the threefold God
• And thus address their song:
• To God the Father, Christ the Son,
• And Holy Ghost ador’d;
• The First and Last, the Last and First,
• Eternal praise afford.