God Hath Sent His Angels

god hath sent his angels to the earth again,
bringing joyful tidings to the sons of men;
they who first at christmas thronged the heavenly way,
now beside the tomb door sit on easter day.

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angels, sing his triumph as you sang his birth,
“christ the lord is risen, peace, goodwill on earth!”

in the dreadful desert, where the lord was tried,
there the faithful angels gathered at his side;
and when, in the garden, grief and pain and care
bowed him down with anguish, they were with him there.

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yet the christ they honor is the same christ still
who, in light and darkness, did his father’s will;
and the tomb, deserted, shineth like the sky,
since he passed from out it, into victory.

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god has still his angels, helping at his word,
all his faithful children, like their faithful lord;
soothing them in sorrow, arming them in strife,
opening wide the tomb doors, leading into life.

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