210. Flowers for the Altar

TELL us, tell us, holy shepherds,

What at Bethlehem you saw.—

‘Very God of Very God

Asleep amid the straw.’

Tell us, tell us, all ye faithful,

What this morning came to pass

At the awful elevation

In the Canon of the Mass.—

‘Very God of Very God,

By whom the worlds were made,

In silence and in helplessness

Upon the altar laid.’

Tell us, tell us, wondrous Jesu,

What has drawn Thee from above

To the manger and the altar.—

All the silence answers—Love.

Through the roaring streets of London

Thou art passing, hidden Lord,

Uncreated, Consubstantial,

In the seventh heaven adored.

As of old the ever-Virgin

Through unconscious Bethlehem

Bore Thee, not in glad procession,

Jewelled robe and diadem;

Not in pomp and not in power,

Onward to Nativity,

Shrined but in the tabernacle

Of her sweet Virginity.

Still Thou goest by in silence,

Still the world cannot receive,

Still the poor and weak and weary

Only, worship and believe.