A new old Christmas hymn

Posted by Ros Clarke, 25 Dec 2019

Ros Clarke shares a contemporary version of a little-sung classic by Charles Wesley.

It’s perhaps not surprising that among Charles Wesley’s six thousand or so hymns, many have faded into obscurity. Let Earth And Heaven Combine is one that I came across earlier this year, and think it needs a revival in our Christmas carolling!

1. Let earth and Heaven combine,
Angels and men agree,
To praise in songs divine
The incarnate Deity,
Our God contracted to a span,
Incomprehensibly made man.

2. He laid His glory by,
He wrapped Him in our clay;
Unmarked by human eye,
The latent Godhead lay;
Infant of days He here became,
And bore the mild Immanuel’s name.

3. See in that infant’s face
The depths of deity,
And labor while ye gaze
To sound the mystery
In vain; ye angels gaze no more,
But fall, and silently adore.

4. Unsearchable the love
That hath the Savior brought;
The grace is far above
Of men or angels’ thought:
Suffice for us that God, we know,
Our God, is manifest below.

5. He deigns in flesh t’appear,
Widest extremes to join;
To bring our vileness near,
And make us all divine:
And we the life of God shall know,
For God is manifest below.

6. Made perfect first in love,
And sanctified by grace,
We shall from earth remove,
And see His glorious face:
His love shall then be fully showed,
And man shall all be lost in God.

You might like to listen to this contemporary version, or perhaps this more traditional one, as you reflect on the extraordinary miracle of the incarnation this Christmas Day.

Ros Clarke is Acting Director of Church Society and Course Leader of the Priscilla Programme

Photo by Photo by David Beale on Unsplash

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