Bethlehem of noblest cities

fairer than the sun at morning

was the star that told his birth

to the lands their god announcing,

hid beneath a form of earth.

by its lambent beauty guided,

see, the eastern kings appear

see them bend, their gifts to offer—

gifts of incense, gold and myrrh.

solemn things of mystick meaning—

incense doth the god disclose:

gold a royal child proclaimeth:

myrrh a future tomb foreshows,

holy jesu, in thy brightness

to the gentile world display’d,

with the father and the spirit

praise eterne to thee be paid. amen.