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 savior holy
But our eyes at last shall see him through his own redeeming love,
For that child, so dear and gentle, is our lord in heav'n above,
As he leads his children on to the place where he is gone
Not in that poor, lowly stable with the oxen standing by
Shall we see him, but in heaven, set at God's right hand on high.
Then like stars his children crowned, all in white, his praise will sound