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 mean and lowly
lived on earth our Saviour holy.

3 And through all his wondrous childhood
he would honour and obey,
love and watch the gentle mother
in whose tender arms he lay:
Christian children all should be
kind, obedient, good as he.

4 For he is our childhood's pattern:
day by day like us he grew,
he was little, weak and helpless,
tears and smiles like us he knew;
and he feels for all our sadness,
and he shares in all our gladness.

5 And our eyes at last shall see him,
through his own redeeming love,
for that child so dear and gentle
is our Lord in heaven above;
and he leads his children on
to the place where he is gone.

6 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;
there his children gather round
bright like stars, with glory crowned.

C F Alexander (1818-1895)