We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we travel afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

Oh, star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy perfect light

Frankincense to offer have I;
Incense owns a Deity nigh;
Prayer and praising, voices raising,
Worshiping God most high.

Oh, star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy perfect light

Glorious now behold Him arise;
King and God and sacrifice;
Alleluia!, Alleluia!,
Rings through the earth and skies.

Oh, star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy perfect light

John Henry Hopkins Jr. wrote the words and music to “We Three Kings” in 1857, as part of a Christmas pageant at the General Theological Seminary in New York, that included his nieces and nephews. It featured in ‘Christmas Carols Old and New’ and later in the 1928 Oxford Book of Carols, which praised it as “one of the most successful of modern composed carols.”