Holy child, how still you lie

Holy child, how still you lie!
safe the manger, soft the hay;
faint upon the eastern sky
breaks the dawn of Christmas Day.

   Holy child, whose birthday brings
   shepherds from their field and fold,
   angel choirs and eastern kings,
   myrrh and frankincense and gold.

Holy child, what gift of grace
from the Father freely willed!
In your infant form we trace
all God's promises fulfilled.

   Holy child, whose human years
   span like ours delight and pain;
   one in human joys and tears,
   one in all but sin and stain.

Holy child, so far from home,
all the lost to seek and save;
to what dreadful death You come
to what dark and silent grave!

   Holy child, before whose name
   powers of darkness faint and fall;
   conquered death and sin and shame -
   Jesus Christ is Lord of all.

Holy child, how still you lie!
safe the manger, soft the hay;
clear upon the eastern sky
breaks the dawn of Christmas Day.

'Holy child, how still you lie' by Timothy Dudley-Smith (b. 1926) © Timothy Dudley-Smith in
Europe and Africa. © Hope Publishing Company in the United States of America and the rest of the world. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
For further use of this hymn text, the end-user should have a valid CCLI licence in place (CCLI Song ID 2522038). Alternatively, permission can be obtained from Oxford University Press (music.permissions.uk@oup.com).