Christ — First Advent

As with gladness men of old

No. 299
Metre 7s 6l.
Tune DIX.
Words William C. Dix.
Music Arr. by William H. Monk.
Key A major
Singing key G major
Time 4/4
4 stanzas

Words

As with gladness men of oldDid the guiding star behold;As with joy they hailed its light,Leading onward, beaming bright;So, most gracious Lord, may weEvermore be led to thee.

As with joyful steps they spedTo that lowly manger-bed,There to bend the knee beforeHim whom heaven and earth adore;So may we with willing feetEver seek the mercy-seat.

As they offered gifts most rareAt that manger rude and bare;So may we with holy joy,Pure, and free from sin's alloy,All our costliest treasures bring,Christ, to thee, our heavenly King.

Blessed Saviour, every dayKeep us in the narrow way;And, when earthly things are past,Bring our ransomed souls at lastWhere they need no star to guide,Where no clouds thy glory hide.

About this hymn

As printed As printed: hymn number «299» (large), tune name «DIX. 7s 6l.» centred over the music (condensed capitals and small capitals), «ARR. BY WILLIAM H. MONK.» at the right (capitals and small capitals). The tune is one system of 8 bars with a repeat sign after bar 4: each six-line stanza sings bars 1–4 twice (verses 1–2, then 3–4) and bars 5–8 once (verses 5–6). Stanza 1 is interlinear, between the staves: «1.», then verses 1–2 and 3–4 stacked in a brace under bars 1–4 («As with glad-ness men of old Did the guiding star behold;» / «As with joy they hailed its light, Leading onward, beaming bright;»), then a closing brace and verses 5–6 under bars 5–8 («So, most gracious Lord, may we Evermore be led to thee.»). Under the music, the italic reference line «1114, 685, 244,» (= may also be sung to the tunes of hymns 1114, 685 or 244; it ends with a comma in the print). Stanzas 2–4 are printed as text in two columns (stanza 2 and the first three verses of stanza 3 in the left column, the rest of stanza 3 and stanza 4 in the right), with the stanza numbers «2», «3», «4» without a period. «William C. Dix.» in italics after stanza 4. The print sets a thin space before «;» («behold ;», «adore ;», «bare ;», «way ;»); it is closed up here. The apostrophe of «sin's» is written straight. Spelling («Saviour», «manger-bed», «mercy-seat»), punctuation and capitals are the print's.