O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
It fills the heart with ecstasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortals' sake!

He sent no angel to our race
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame
Himself, and to this lost world came.

For us baptized, for us He bore
His holy fast and hungered sore,
For us temptation sharp He knew;
For us the tempter overthrew.

For us He prayed; for us He taught;
For us His daily works He wrought;
By words and signs and actions thus
Still seeking not Himself, but us.

For us to wicked men betrayed,
Scourged, mocked, in purple robe arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death,
For us gave up His dying breath.

For us He rose from death again;
For us He went on high to reign;
For us He sent His Spirit here,
To guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.

To Him Whose boundless love has won
Salvation for us through His Son,
To God the Father, glory be
Both now and through eternity.

What thanks and praise to Thee we owe,
O priest and sacrifice divine,
For Thy dear saint through whom we know
So many a gracious word of Thine;

Whom Thou didst choose to tell the tale
Of all Thy manhood's toils and tears,
And for a moment lift the veil
That hides Thy boyhood's spotless years.

How many a soul with guilt oppressed
Has learned to hear the joyful sound
In that sweet tale of sin confessed
The Father's love, the lost and found?

How many a child of sin and shame
Has refuge found from guilty fears
Through her, who to the Savior came
With costly ointments and with tears!

What countless worshippers have sung,
In lowly fane or lofty choir,
The song that loosed the silent tongue
Of him who was the Baptist's sire!

And still the Church through all her days
Uplifts the strains that never cease,
The blessèd virgin's hymn of praise,
The agèd Simeon's words of peace.

O happy saint! whose sacred page,
So rich in words of truth and love,
Pours on the Church from age to age
This healing unction from above;

The witness of the Savior's life,
The great apostle's chosen friend
Through weary years of toil and strife
And still found faithful to the end.

So grant us, Lord, like him to live,
Beloved by man, approved by Thee,
Till Thou at last the summons give,
And we, with him, Thy face shall see.