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.

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.

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.

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)

Cecil Frances Alexander was a prolific poet and hymn writer, whose works include “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and “There is a Green Hill Far Away”.  As well as Hymns for Little Children she also penned the allegorical tale The Lord of the Forest and His Vassals in 1847.