1 There's a song in the air!
There's a star in the sky!
There's a mother's deep prayer
and a baby's low cry!
And the star rains its fire
while the beautiful sing,
for the manger of Bethlehem
cradles a King!
2 There's a tumult of joy
o'er the wonderful birth,
for the virgin's sweet boy
is the Lord of the earth.
Ay! the star rains its fire
while the beautiful sing,
for the manger of Bethlehem
cradles a King!
3 In the light of that star
lie the ages impearled;
and that song from afar
has swept over the world.
Every hearth is aflame,
and the beautiful sing
in the homes of the nations
that Jesus is King!
4 We rejoice in the light,
and we echo the song
that comes down through the night
from the heavenly throng.
Ay! we shout to the lovely
evangel they bring,
and we greet in his cradle
our Savior and King!
Josiah G. Holland
The Methodist Hymnal 1939 edition
<idle musing>
My first memory of this song is in about 4th grade. It was the Christmas pageant and the youth choir (4th–6th grades) was to sing a bunch of Christmas carols. This one stands out in my mind because the older sister (a sixth grader) of one of my friends, whom I thought was very pretty, was to sing the first verse as a solo. For years, I thought that "the beautiful" was girls like her. It wasn't until high school that I realized that the beautiful was a way of referring to the angelic host!
Looking at the author's biography, I find it interesting that they specifically mention that this hymn is included in the Methodist hymnal—and it does appear to be mainly used in the Methodist tradition when you look at the list of hymnals that hymnary.org cites.
</idle musing>
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